I don't know where you're from Frogman, but I'm from the city. Modern American jazz is from the cities of this country. From the late fifties on, through the 60's, I was in St. Louis, Chicago, Atlanta, San Antonio, Detroit, and LA. There was one thing all those cities had in common, and that was jazz. No, the jazz was not different from this city to that city, during that time, whatever lounge I was in, the jukeboxes were quite similar; they contained the same tunes we have reviewed on this thread many times.
The only city where the music was a little different was LA; they had the same jazz plus what they called "West Coast Jazz". When musicians from New York, went to LA, they didn't change their style one iota, they played the same jazz they played in New York.
West Coast jazz could be heard in spots that are now famous for West Coast Jazz. LA was so hip, that all you needed was a boss tuner, they had more radio stations that played jazz than anyplace. When it came to musicians and live jazz, LA rivaled New York, but the musicians weren't famous. As good as they were, I wondered why that was so. It seems that good musicians didn't need to leave LA to make a living; they could do movies, or play clubs all up and down the coast. In regard to West Coast jazz or East Coast jazz, they played whatever the patrons of the nightspot they were appearing in demanded. (Good musicians can play more than one style).
When I say modern jazz, I'm speaking of the music that originated with all the musicians who surrounded and worshiped "Charles 'Yard Bird' Parker". That would include "Miles Davis"; Miles wore out a pair of shoes and the sidewalks of New York looking for Bird. Don't take my word for it, read Miles Autobiography.
That jazz is music that expresses uncommon and complex emotions; some can hear it, some can not. Many people who like the music can not hear everything in it, but so what. In regard to the people who are primarily responsible for modern jazz, for Gods sake let us not go back to Africa. Their history begins in the city in which they were born; Bird was born in Kansas City, there is a contradiction in regard to where Miles was born, and where he was raised, that's because he doesn't know anything about where he born (Alton Ill) but he knows a lot about where he was raised, E. St. Louis, Ill.
All of the cities I mentioned were wonderful places to live and have a good time in; I know, I lived in a few, and had a good time in all of them. Oh, I forgot Indianapolis, that was where Wes Montgomery began. Just about all the jazz musicians we reviewed on this thread began in local clubs in their hometown city before they made the big time, but Miles began in New York, so I guess that's where we'll have to make his hometown city.
The beginning for modern jazz musicians is the city in which they were born.
