On the passing of Sonny Rollins…
There have been a number of moving tributes written in recent weeks and I’m still experiencing a range of feelings given the depth of musical expression he made of his life. It’s an enormous loss of course, and yet...the inspiration he gave us is even larger. It has to live on and it has to live on through us, in whatever form that may be. That may seem insurmountable but I don’t think we have any choice. Rather than be hung up by virtue of comparison we must simply keep going. There’s no time for anything else…
The tradition has taken many forms and there have been many great contributors. Perhaps the single most revered figure would be Louis Armstrong given the enormity of his impact on music and culture worldwide. Last week I visited the Louis Armstrong House and Museum in Queens. I’d been meaning to do so for years. It’s easy to postpone things like this and my advice would be, don’t. Having seen photos and read about the archive I kind of felt as if I already knew what I needed to know. Wrong. All I will say is that I could not have been prepared for the feeling of standing in the man’s living room, kept just as it was when he lived there. Just go.
I bought my first Louis Armstrong record just around the time he passed in 1971. It was on a budget compilation LP on UpFront Records and I bought it at, of all places, a 7-Eleven store.
Also, it can sometimes be easy to postpone going out to hear someone play, perhaps someone you’ve been meaning to catch for some time. Like, perhaps decades. A couple of weeks back saxophonist Bill Saxton performed with a group as part of a Jazz Foundation of America presentation at Hudson River Park, just down the street from where I live. This free concert took place outdoors in the early part of the evening, so no excuses for not making it. Mr Saxton (age 80) simply blew the roof off the joint, and there was no roof to begin with. It was all about spirit, and it’s one that we don’t get to hear very much any longer. It took me back to the ‘70s, an exciting time for the kind of no-nonsense, hard bop/modal approach to playing that so inspired me. The set was well constructed and his announcements to the crowd reflected a relaxed authority, a kind of gravitas that feels very welcome these days. But it was what he was saying on the horn that was so compelling. His note choices were absolutely on-point, speaking that language in a way that made you feel his life experience, you were a part of it at that moment. Afterwards I went over to shake his hand and say thanks and that while I’d been aware of him for years this was the first time hearing him live, to which he was appreciative. As I was walking away I couldn't help but think that he would have been completely justified had he said something like, “well, I’ve been here all all this time, where have you YOU been?”
The following week on the series was trombonist Dick Griffin and his big band. Dick Griffin (age 86) is one of our neighbors and has played with Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Sun Ra among others. Again, that spirit in sound, this time orchestrated for a slew of horns. Everyone got space to solo and occasionally everyone did so at the same time. The only issue I will speak to would be the use of the P.A. system which was overly bass-heavy for both of these concerts, something that current-day sound engineers do not understand about jazz music. Besides being inappropriate musically it messes with the rhythmic feel of the band. Musicians do not often have control over this but I feel it important to continue speaking about it.
Also reminiscent (quite literally) of the tradition is a recent memoire written by bassist Ron McClure. To say that Ron McClure (age 84) has played with just about everyone would be no exaggeration. The Wynton Kelly Trio, The Charles Lloyd Quartet, Joe Henderson and even Blood Sweat and Tears are just some of the names involved. Ron is also one of the first musicians I met upon moving to NYC and I later got to play with him at a now defunct club called Sweet Basil on a gig led by trumpeter Terumasa Hino along with Larry Willis on piano and Billy Hart on drums. It’s a rewarding (if lengthy) manuscript and could really use a serious editing but at least the important aspects are documented. Here is an excerpt.
In my other realm of listening, just some weeks ago the Gotham Early Music Scene presented a thought provoking performance by the ensemble Theotokos, led by Doug Balliett. I wrote about this ensemble last year, albeit a different configuration and program.
I’ve come to learn a bit more about composer and bassist Doug Balliett. He’s involved in an impressive amount of musical projects within the early music scene yet his interests clearly extend beyond any such confines. This ensemble has an ongoing residence at St. Mary’s Church on the lower east side and Doug composes a new cantata for the ensemble each week.
This particular concert was called “Music in the Time of Charlemagne”, which means music from around the year 800. That’s 1200 years ago and coincides with the first notated western music. I was excited to attend hoping to satisfy my curiosity around how this music would have been performed that long ago. Some of it was quite simply presented as monophonic chant and yet the music seemed to grow subtly into some unexpected and exquisite harmonies. There was one moment in which I would have loved improvising on what I was hearing. As for satisfying any curiosity, I came away still wondering, so much so that I contacted Doug to ask some questions. Turns out that while there are several schools of thought concerning rhythmic interpretation of that music, there may not be any real consensus. The issue of harmony seems equally uncertain. Beyond the monophonic notation there are sources from that time period that refer to “sweet harmonies” so it’s possible that the monks from that period were actually harmonizing in performance while the notation did not reflect this until centuries later. Doug admitted that the gorgeous 9th and 11th chords he was playing on the organ (the ones that so much made me want to play) were not historic but given the fact that various kinds of choices were likely made over the course of time it’s not at all unreasonable. A case might be made that it is more in keeping with a dynamic tradition as opposed to a static one. I’m still very curious however in as much as while there is an ideological approach to defining early music there is also a physiological aspect in how music can make us feel. As much as I love those 9th and 11th chords part of me craves a connection with historic practice, however imperfectly we can discern what that may have been.
As for Doug’s predilection for expanding the possibilities that early music offers, there was a collaboration between another of his ensembles, called Ruckus, and the great Roscoe Mitchell that took place last year as part of the Vision Festival. I asked Doug about this, apparently the group's flutist Emi Ferguson was aware of Roscoe’s Mitchell’s use of baroque flutes and so she made contact with him, instigating this project. Also involved was saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, who has impressed me with his rootedness as well as his forward looking musical nature. Doug mentioned that this project will be recorded for upcoming release, which is good to know being that I was not able to attend their festival gig.
I’ve written before about the affinities between early music and improvisation as we know it today. Not so much in an explicit way, just that from a personal vantage point over time the differences seem less and the similarities greater. Rather than try and unite these traditions in a conscious way I’ve been patient, allowing things to take form on my instrument in my daily practice without the need for nomenclature. It may be that some of this has informed the recent solo concert I did last month. I think there was a balance of elements achieved, musically and acoustically due to the excellent listening conditions afforded by the Zen Center where this took place. As it happens, the concert was recorded and will be released on Hat Hut Records in the next months. More news on that to come…
