Robert Mitchell is Soweto's guest

[Serial_Apologist]

Sun 28 April

http://www.alynshipton.co.uk/blog

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ygt0

Monday 29 April

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ygvf

[Serial_Apologist]

I had a feeling this week that, as I suspected at the start of the week, Robert Mitchell's standard-bearing input would raise the bar for 'Round Midnight after its (for me) rather disappointing beginnings. Though I wish he hadn't chosen that 1979 Herbie Hancock/Chick Corea track from a double LP I soon tired of and gave away, with its compromised resort to modal funk note-spinning following a promisingly explorative start. That said, I myself am beginning to get an impression that very different criteria are now coming to the fore in assessing what is seen as the best in the music, times having a-changed since we identified what jazz meant for our generation raised on ideals of political change, and the trouble is I am finding difficulties in identifying what these new criteria actually are, let alone adducing their relevance to present-day circumstances.

[Quarky]

The impression I have is Soweto is mixing it up, changing the overall grade of the jazz from day to day, as well as playing little tricks on his listeners.

Yesterday Thursday there was Tom Skinner and Oasis, Angelique Kidjo and others, which IMHV was pretty high grade. The tribute for Blossom Dearie was a bit unusual, sounding like the Pied Pipers of the '40's.
However some days the overall grade is pretty dire.
There was something a couple of weeks back from Fergus McReadie, which I felt was Blue Peter-esque, but it turns out from the Concert Tuesday evening that he's quite a serious artist..
I'm quite happy with the current situation. Soweto doesn't disturb me if I fall asleep with the radio on, and I can catch up over breakfast, skipping over the tracks not of interest..

[Tenor Freak]

I had a feeling this week that, as I suspected at the start of the week, Robert Mitchell's standard-bearing input would raise the bar for 'Round Midnight after its (for me) rather disappointing beginnings. Though I wish he hadn't chosen that 1979 Herbie Hancock/Chick Corea track from a double LP I soon tired of and gave away, with its compromised resort to modal funk note-spinning following a promisingly explorative start. That said, I myself am beginning to get an impression that very different criteria are now coming to the fore in assessing what is seen as the best in the music, times having a-changed since we identified what jazz meant for our generation raised on ideals of political change, and the trouble is I am finding difficulties in identifying what these new criteria actually are, let alone adducing their relevance to present-day circumstances.

I am no expert on this but my observations as a casual listener are that younger musicians, at least here in the UK, are focusing more on rhythms, rather than on new harmonic material. A lot of the newer stuff played seems to be either modal or tonal and fairly consonant but with rhythmic influences from hip hop and African sources. This should not surprise anyone given that hip hop is now 50 years old, drum 'n' bass is 30 years old, and grime must be around 20 years old: long enough for those rhythms to have infused improvised music even if only as the backdrop for these people growing up. I haven't even included ska, reggae, House/Acid etc which should also be in there somewhere. Another trend which I think is going on is the gradual eclipsing of John Coltrane by Alice Coltrane. It's almost as though the John mine has been worked-out, but the Alice mine still has more to explore; her gentler methods seem to have more legs nowadays. I recall an interview with Paul Dunmall in The Wire where he recalled a stay at Alice's ashram. To paraphrase: he assumed that the point was to have a freak-out on the horn but she would tell her bands to lay back and consider what they were trying to express. (Sorry - got rid of the mag years ago, don't have an exact quote.)

Although I'm not convinced by a lot of the music the UK scene is producing now, it can't be denied that the younger musicians are trying their best to break away from any kind of cultural cringe under the US model and they are putting forward their own takes on politics and culture, whether they are English, Scots, Nigerian, Jamaican etc. It feels as though there will be a monumental breakthrough at some point from this scene, never mind the current success of Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia and others.

I was very impressed with the show on 25 April, especially the opening track by Chip Whickham and that by the Black Gold Orchestra (not to mention Tea For Two and Ella and Pops at the end).

[Serial_Apologist]

I am no expert on this but my observations as a casual listener are that younger musicians, at least here in the UK, are focusing more on rhythms, rather than on new harmonic material. A lot of the newer stuff played seems to be either modal or tonal and fairly consonant but with rhythmic influences from hip hop and African sources. This should not surprise anyone given that hip hop is now 50 years old, drum 'n' bass is 30 years old, and grime must be around 20 years old: long enough for those rhythms to have infused improvised music even if only as the backdrop for these people growing up. I haven't even included ska, reggae, House/Acid etc which should also be in there somewhere. Another trend which I think is going on is the gradual eclipsing of John Coltrane by Alice Coltrane. It's almost as though the John mine has been worked-out, but the Alice mine still has more to explore; her gentler methods seem to have more legs nowadays. I recall an interview with Paul Dunmall in The Wire where he recalled a stay at Alice's ashram. To paraphrase: he assumed that the point was to have a freak-out on the horn but she would tell her bands to lay back and consider what they were trying to express. (Sorry - got rid of the mag years ago, don't have an exact quote.)

Although I'm not convinced by a lot of the music the UK scene is producing now, it can't be denied that the younger musicians are trying their best to break away from any kind of cultural cringe under the US model and they are putting forward their own takes on politics and culture, whether they are English, Scots, Nigerian, Jamaican etc. It feels as though there will be a monumental breakthrough at some point from this scene, never mind the current success of Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia and others.

I was very impressed with the show on 25 April, especially the opening track by Chip Whickham and that by the Black Gold Orchestra (not to mention Tea For Two and Ella and Pops at the end).

Yes, thanks very much indeed for that assessment, which elaborates most usefully on my own too general impressions of what is going on in the music these days: good potentially promising leads among more the more tentative or superficial. Thanks too to Quarky.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

That's an interesting point about the influencial reversal of the Coltranes, one I've never thought of before. And the drum & bass etc etc..All of which suggests why I have so little empathy with the kind of material and movements Round Midnight exemplifies. And my age, a not inconsiderable ideological factor, that applies to quite a few other things. Kids today eh.

But I have much more positively rediscovered/re listened to Yusef Lateef's entire career and output from the Savoy, Prestige and Impulse etc days, right up to his own label. There is some magnificent stuff here. Is Yusef A future? "Is anything"?

[Jazzrook]

I am no expert on this but my observations as a casual listener are that younger musicians, at least here in the UK, are focusing more on rhythms, rather than on new harmonic material. A lot of the newer stuff played seems to be either modal or tonal and fairly consonant but with rhythmic influences from hip hop and African sources. This should not surprise anyone given that hip hop is now 50 years old, drum 'n' bass is 30 years old, and grime must be around 20 years old: long enough for those rhythms to have infused improvised music even if only as the backdrop for these people growing up. I haven't even included ska, reggae, House/Acid etc which should also be in there somewhere. Another trend which I think is going on is the gradual eclipsing of John Coltrane by Alice Coltrane. It's almost as though the John mine has been worked-out, but the Alice mine still has more to explore; her gentler methods seem to have more legs nowadays. I recall an interview with Paul Dunmall in The Wire where he recalled a stay at Alice's ashram. To paraphrase: he assumed that the point was to have a freak-out on the horn but she would tell her bands to lay back and consider what they were trying to express. (Sorry - got rid of the mag years ago, don't have an exact quote.)

Although I'm not convinced by a lot of the music the UK scene is producing now, it can't be denied that the younger musicians are trying their best to break away from any kind of cultural cringe under the US model and they are putting forward their own takes on politics and culture, whether they are English, Scots, Nigerian, Jamaican etc. It feels as though there will be a monumental breakthrough at some point from this scene, never mind the current success of Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia and others.

I was very impressed with the show on 25 April, especially the opening track by Chip Whickham and that by the Black Gold Orchestra (not to mention Tea For Two and Ella and Pops at the end).

I dug out my copy of The Wire(May 2023) with the Paul Dunmall interview and here’s the relevant passage:

”We we’re living on Hollywood Boulevard, in a hotel next to the Chinese Theatre”, Dunmall recounted.
”We could walk down to the rehearsal place. Alice had a real frown on; she didn’t play anything, she listened. She came out regularly for maybe three months. We played all her music, and there was a solo for me. So I stand up and I do my scream-up bit - Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, Coltrane. The difference being, as she then said - and it was wonderful - when John and Pharoah played in that way they were calm inside. It absolutely rings true, and I say the same thing to younger players now; be centred in your music. It’s not just ‘go mad’, which is what I did. I just wanted to go berserk and tear the walls down. But in fact it’s much stronger if you do it from a centred position. It actually becomes bigger. You’re not just blowing nonsense, it comes from somewhere, and I’ve learned that in my life. But she was the first one to tell me that.”

One of my favourite Alice Coltrane albums is ‘Translinear Light’.
Here’s her version of ‘Crescent’ with Ravi Coltrane, Charlie Haden & Jack DeJohnette:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=zL3l83zJSYA

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

I dug out my copy of The Wire(May 2023) with the Paul Dunmall interview and here’s the relevant passage:

”We we’re living on Hollywood Boulevard, in a hotel next to the Chinese Theatre”, Dunmall recounted.
”We could walk down to the rehearsal place. Alice had a real frown on; she didn’t play anything, she listened. She came out regularly for maybe three months. We played all her music, and there was a solo for me. So I stand up and I do my scream-up bit - Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, Coltrane. The difference being, as she then said - and it was wonderful - when John and Pharoah played in that way they were calm inside. It absolutely rings true, and I say the same thing to younger players now; be centred in your music. It’s not just ‘go mad’, which is what I did. I just wanted to go berserk and tear the walls down. But in fact it’s much stronger if you do it from a centred position. It actually becomes bigger. You’re not just blowing nonsense, it comes from somewhere, and I’ve learned that in my life. But she was the first one to tell me that.”

One of my favourite Alice Coltrane albums is ‘Translinear Light’.
Here’s her version of ‘Crescent’ with Ravi Coltrane, Charlie Haden & Jack DeJohnette:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=zL3l83zJSYA

JR

Wish I had that edition of The Wire, although I do have Paul saying something very similar taped from a broadcast, maybe on Mixing It. I'm reminded of a time when Keith Tippett spoke of seeing close-up footage of him at the piano, and saying "My fingers were moving so fast it was just a blur". Someone asked, "Your brain must have been on speed", to which Keith replied, "You say that, but actually my mind was extremely calm at that point". Innumerable accounts exist in Zen Buddhism telling similar. The irony seems to be that the gift either comes naturally - Ornette Coleman - or by dint of long practice and commitment - Bird, Trane & co. "Beginner's luck" - that first arrow hitting the bullseye that cannot be repeated. It seems to consist in a capacity not to "block" or be inhibited by second thoughts, thus allowing "natural endowment" to shine through - which more of us probably have than we realise because of culturally instilled self-doubt combined with over-expectation - the classic double-bind RD Laing and others have spoken and written about.