Jazz bounces back

Press, 30 April 1981, Page 14

Jazz bounces back

By ALAN HILL What do Mike Nock, Dave Brubeck, Eberhard Weber’s Colours, Old and New Dreams, and the Rodger Fox Big Band have in common? All are jazz musicians, and all have appeared in Christchurch this year. Milt Jackson, the New York Jazz Giants, and Dizzy Gillespie have all appeared recently in the North Island, and Art Pepper, the “V.5.0.P.” band of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, and Gillespie (again) are booked for tours that may include appearances in New Zealand’s remote colony, the South Island.

1981 has already been, by any standards, a great year for jazz enthusiasts, and the momentum shows no signs of slackening. The much-touted “jazz; revival” in the United Stated during the 1970 s has spread its net to take in Australia and New Zealand, a point not lost on promoters andmusicians.

Fusion jazz probably deserves most of the credit for the healthy state of the art.

Miles Davis, from his tentative beginnings with the Charlie Parker band in 1945, managed to stay at the forefront of succeeding trends, and his albums “In A Silent Way” (1969) and “Bitches Brew” (1970) had a huge influence on jazz musicians, established and developing. The Davis band of this era spawned Return To Forever, Weather Report, Keith Jarrett, and a host of other musicians who brought their brand of jazz to increasingly wider audiences, and arguably created a climate for the acceptance of other, neglected, styles. Undoubtedly one of the landmarks of the revival was the return of the great bebop tenor saxophonist, Dexter Gordon, to the United States in 1976. Gordon had been in voluntary exile in Europe since the early 19605, his style no longer “fashionable” in his own country. Periodic trips home to test the water had brought no joy, but in 1976 he suddenly found himself hailed as a returning hero, playing to packed houses comprised of a new

generation of jazz fans. He also landed a recording contract with the big Columbia label, a company which had previously concentrated its jazz activities on fusion.

The revival continued apace during the second half of the 19705. Neglected veterans of the bop and swing eras found new audiences, the avant-garde sounds of such musicians as Cecil Taylor and Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Coloured Musicians finally began to emerge into the wider public arena, and for the first time the diverse jazz styles seemed able to coexist.

Other healthy trends were the explosion of jazz recording activity, both new albums and reissues, and the growth of jazz education throughout the world, with more and more young musicians studying the art formally.

Fusion’s role has already been mentioned, but many theories exist as to why the revival should have occurred; Jazz has evolved at a furious pace in its brief history, and

has been as subject to fad and fashion as any other art, but where previously there was a readiness to dismiss older styles as only stages leading to whatever was new and fashionable, there now seems more willingness to accept the music of each era as a classical style, worthy in itself. After all, how can such master musicians as Earl Hines and Benny Carter, now in their 70s and still playing superbly, ever be “dated”? Whatever the causes, the jazz revival is happening now, but how long it will last is another matter. Some view with concern the absence of influential leaders, such as Charlie Parker or John Coltrane, and feel that jazz has lost its vitality in a deluge of nostalgia. Jazz is still in a cultural limbo between art and showbiz, and may yet slide back into the shadowy cult status it endured during the late 19605.

Gloomy prophecies apart, this unique American art form is alive, well, and there to be enjoyed.