'Last night I was listening to Low Ways Quartet at the Red Room when I had an epiphany. I am listening to Jazz. Not only listening to it, but loving it. When did this happen?
Back in the late 70's I was working in a record store and deeply immersed in the Punk and Post-Punk scenes. But like lots of punkers I was always open to a new kick. That was the great thing about Punk and why the Punk ethos remains so undefinable, because its mostly about breaking down previous well worn thought on what is valid. That's why there was Punk music and Punk theater and Punk art and literature. It was about breaking structure. So I gave Jazz a try. Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Albert Ayler and the like. The punks of the Jazz world. And I took a deep dive, trying to educate myself and incorporate their sound into my musical world. But in the end I couldn't quite get it. I dug it, but it never got under my skin, never became part of my language and culture. There were structures in the music I couldn't understand. So I set Jazz aside and thought, I'll get back to you later. Be patient with me, I'll come around. But I never did. Or maybe I never admitted I did. I could hear Jazz in the music of Tortoise and in lots of the Math Rock of the 90's but it had been filtered through punk and was therefor clean of the onus of history. This was not Jazz, just Post-Punk informed by Jazz, so OK, I can dig this. But my wife Bunny, who is notably not a Jazz person, reacted to the music with disdain. I should have known this was a harbinger of future Jazz but I failed to recognize the signs. I was changing, quietly moving out of the familiar and into the unknown. That's a place I normally want to be. But it's like I took an aimless walk and ended up Saskatchewan. For certain there were signs telling me where I was headed but I guess I was looking the other way. Because one day you're in Punkville and the next thing you know your standing in Jazztown, wondering, like David Byrne said, how did I get here? But it was one step at a time. And maybe there is no Jazztown anyway. No borders, no genres, no absolutes. Just music. I love music. And maybe, just maybe, I'm finally ready for this type.
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October 2020
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