Jazz for aficionados

On an Absolute Sound review, Tom mentioned an album he liked.  AirHodouk, by the Hadouk Trio.  (2009)

It’s not what I’d call traditional jazz, more Mediterranean.  If you’re looking for something different, check it out.

curiousjim, thanks. I'm always looking for something different. Mediterranean sounds good. I often go to the Absolute Sound music reviews. That's where I found out about Lizz Wright's new recording "Holding Space." You can only stream it, though. 

I have been listening to a Keith Jarrett album with Charlie Haden. Just the two of them. They do standards. It's very mellow, if you're in that kind of mood.

stuartk, let me elaborate just a bit on the feminine angle. On Melissa Aldana's last album "12 Stars," the Chilean sax player has a song she wrote called "Emilia." Aldana is 36, a woman of childbearing age. When she played the song, she explained that "Emilia" was to the child she had never had. Not a subject a man would write a song about.

I find the melody haunting and played in a way that I could not imagine a man playing. She rarely blasts the sax, and when she does it is not nearly as strong as Trane or any other male sax player I've heard. Her notes are gentle and wavering, and I find them to be haunting. There is an innate difference between her jazz and male jazz.

This, I think, was not so true in the past. I would not have said that Carla Bley's sound was obviously feminine. Women in all the arts, however, are beginning to express a sentiment that they would not have in the past, because they wanted to be accepted in the man's world of jazz. Singers, aside, of course. We have always wanted our female singers to sound feminine and express the entire panoply of the feminine experience. Even in a deeply religious part of 1968 Iran.

Why do I care? Because like curiousjim, I am curious about what is happening now. I like new things and experiences. And we live in an extremely important time when women are expressing their entire selves and men, as usual, are trying to slap them back. We see this in many, many goverrnments around the world, often expressed with the backing of religion.

“Swagger” IN MUSIC is just another way of saying that the music “swings”, “rolls”, or, “has good pocket”.  It is a feeling of great rhythmic integrity in the service of that particular music’s style.  All are terms that are applicable to music of any genre including Classical.  Yes, Classical music can swing…..in its own way.  I don’t believe that the presence of swagger in music is dependent on the gender of the artist.  Some might argue that there is some unique quality to the MUSICAL  “swagger” of a female musician as compared to a male musician.  I don’t buy it. Perhaps in their respective bodily “attitude” there is, but there are so many examples of artists of one gender whose work possess qualities that some might attribute to the other gender that makes the notion moot.  Has there been a more “feminine” (in the stereotypical sense) Jazz pianist than Bill Evans?  Or, conversely, a more “masculine” (in the stereotypical sense) Jazz pianist than, say, Hiromi?  I think there is a preoccupation with “classification” or categorization of traits of performers.  Not necessarily a bad thing, but the problem is that it is often done at the expense of a deeper analysis/understanding of fundamental musical attributes which are universal and cross gender barriers.

@audio-b-dog , I appreciate your passion for music, but I must say and with all due respect that I don’t agree with some of what you write about it.  Moreover, it seems you contradict yourself at times:

**** I don’t think their art/music has to do with their personalities. ****

**** Wynton Marsalis said that jazz was about the musician showing their "personality."  ****

Which is it?

Herbie Hancock eschewed on this thread?!  Hardly.

**** Although some jazz players, most of whom I think would be eschewed in this thread, like Herbie Hancock ****

On the subject of “soul” in music:

**** John Klemmer who was influenced by Trane was just copying the man, but had no soul.**** 

There is hardly a tenor player active from the late ‘50’s and beyond who was not influenced by Coltrane.  But to say that John Klemmer “was just copying”  Trane and “had no soul” is a pretty bold and, frankly, unfair statement.  I am not particularly fond of Klemmer’s music, but I simply can’t agree with that.  Moreover, to suggest that the perceived absence of “soul” is why his music is considered “commercial” is mystifying to me.  “Commercial” music can indeed be very soulful.

From my perspective the above is why fixation on categorization of music in terms of strict genre (and gender) definitions and personal ideas of what constitutes soulfulness (and other attributes) can be a dangerous thing.  Dangerous in the sense that it locks the listener into very narrow notions about the intrinsic value of the art.  Never a good thing.

**** I think we should separate music with a spiritual impulse from "chamber" music. To me, some jazz resembles chamber music in that it does not have that spiritual component informing its musical gestures. ****

Huh?!  Are you suggesting that chamber music, as a whole, does not have a “spiritual component”?

If you haven’t yet, please familiarize yourself with Beethoven’s string quartets.  Some of the most gloriously soulful and spiritual (chamber) music ever composed.  That is, unless one has the mistaken view that to be “soulful” music has to be imbued with obvious references to the blues.

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What is a “gesture” in music?

It is helpful to think of music, whether a Classical chamber work, or a Jazz performance as story telling with music.  Jazz musicians often judge an improvised solo in terms of whether the musician is “telling a story” and not simply playing “licks” that while potentially “impressive” don’t add up to much as far as having musical coherence and a certain logic from beginning to end.  Just like a good spoken word story teller tells a story.  In music, a gesture is a motif or musical statement that while discreet is a logical piece of the whole.  I wish I could claim to have written the following definition of “musical gesture”, but I saved it a while back after coming across it in a periodical:

++++ Gesture is often more or less synonymous with motive, meaning a germ-like idea or device that participates in musical rhetoric.

But the word gesture draws a specific and obvious association with movement: a musical gesture is something whose communicative intent and power are analogous to those of a physical gesture, like a strong cadence or an especially compelling rhythmic figure.

Consider the well-known opening of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40:

A and b are closely related but opposing gestures; a unfolds and extends the arm, so to speak, while b draws it back in.

Really this sense of gesture is entirely metaphorical, but it points to a kinesthetic conception and perception of sound that can be very useful in crafting compelling music, and in analyzing the impact of musical rhetoric on the listener. +++

Audio example of above:

https://youtu.be/0sGqkMU-mGQ?si=_PGzvo3w6tL7oCJ

Another example which is closer to home for this thread, the ground breaking “Giant Steps” by Coltrane.  The first five notes of the tune is a “musical gesture”, followed by a seven note gesture which can be considered, as in the Mozart example, an opposing gesture.

https://youtu.be/KwIC6B_dvW4?si=49WEFsDNaCA3NMUt

Anyway, apology for the length of this post.  I’m glad to see spirited discussion of music.  There will always be disagreement at least to some extent. This is the result of how music (art) can move us all in different and personal ways.  Disagreement should not be taken personally or as an affront, but as a way to grow as listeners by considering different perspectives.  A music lover loves music much more than being a music lover.  

Randy Weston - African Rhythm Orchestra Live at The Montreux Jazz Festival (1985) - African Cookbook Some Sunday morning, listening music.