Thoughts on “Tradition”

June 6, 2009 by Rafiq

I apologize again for the lack of updates recently, but am pleased to announce that I’ve got a lot in store for the summer. After a hiatus that spanned two tours, several recitals and examinations, and a successful defense of my honors thesis proposal, I’m ready to resume writing for myself (and others). Expect to see interviews with a variety of artists in the upcoming months, as well as a few musings from yours truly.

And now for an anecdote on tradition—

Not too long ago, a young musician brought his band to the Oberlin Conservatory to do a master class. The group was on tour promoting their latest release, which features renditions of works by composers, both living and deceased, from around the world. Their leader ran the workshop in a conversational style, speaking to the audience of (mostly) musicians in between plugs about his personal history and involvement with music, and answering questions on a variety of topics.

Figuring prominently in this musician’s discourse was an expressed desire that his interpretations be guided by the “history” or “tradition” of jazz. This is characteristic; how many of us haven’t been beaten into the ground with the “continuum of this music” baton at one point or another? I’m not here to argue about the importance of “coming from somewhere”, but I do hope that my quotation marks/italics emphasize the coarse granularity—What are the defining elements of “the tradition”? Specifically, what information is being passed down, and what can be left by the wayside? What work qualifies for inclusion in the continuum? For the sake of many a young musician/interested observer, can we leave the tautologies aside? You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t agree that jazz is “like a language”, so why is it that Stanley Crouch misunderstands Cecil Taylor?

This last question is somewhat rhetorical. Crouch has, in fact, written prolifically in attempts to answer it. Regardless of my personal feelings about the views expressed by Mr. Crouch, his perspective is one of many (albeit very persuasive, and therefore pervasive). The fact remains that most people’s conceptions as to what comprises the “tradition” are inescapably linked to their preferences.

Back to the master class—Wendell Logan, director of Jazz Studies at the Oberlin Conservatory and esteemed American composer of European and so-called “jazz” music alike, raised his hand and asked the band to play Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman”, one of the pieces featured on their latest release. It is worth noting that Coleman’s schooling in blues bands on the streets of Fort Worth, TX has made him a poster-child for setting the boundaries of what Crouch has dubbed “real jazz”. The young bandleader, when prompted for his reasoning behind selecting one of Coleman’s works, echoed these sentiments. Although my intention is not to summarily categorize this musician, it is true that he was schooled at Juilliard, given many of his first opportunities through Jazz at Lincoln Center (which was co-founded by Crouch and Wynton Marsalis), and has been heralded by Marsalis, who seems to relate to Crouch’s perspective on Coleman’s music, as one of the “most promising” young musicians in jazz.

In a 2007 interview with Ethan Iverson for Iverson’s mesmeric blog, Do The Math, Crouch made the following claim about Coleman’s work:

Technically, the most important thing about Coleman is that he proved how much jazz could do with its own tradition in order to “advance.” It did not have to use academic methods borrowed from the European avant-garde as the basic foundation with which to marginalize the jazz idiom and the distinctive emotion of the music. It also did not need the exotica of India or African music or the pretensions that too often attend the rhetoric of those devoted to something “Non-Western.” Jazz could build on its Negro-American roots while maintaining its universality.

What I have issue with more than anything else about this statement (and I have many issues with this statement) is the absence of emphasis on Coleman’s own contribution to the development of music. There is no questioning the fact that Coleman’s work is indebted to the innovations of those who came before him, but even if one argues that he used exclusivist tools, it is still the case that we remember him because of how he used those tools to “‘advance’” jazz. In general, I find that such illiberal pedagogy actually inhibits individuals from being able to understand the very body of work they seek to embody.

Case in point—back at Oberlin, the band performed their version of one of Coleman’s most quintessential compositions. Rather than hearing the carefully studied tribute I was expecting (given the rhetoric I had just heard), I was met by a hurried reading of the melody followed by blowing drenched in “classic quartet” Coltrane and Miles Davis “second quintet” clichés. It was generic beyond belief—I was amazed that it was possible to reduce such a singular piece of music into yet another vehicle for virile soloing. So why is it, then, that this group was unable to produce a compelling rendition of Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman”? They clearly exhibited some degree of command over what they dubbed the “tradition” of “this music”; they were demonstrably familiar, for example, with the vernacular of the groups previously mentioned. Nevertheless, I was left with the impression that these musicians had barely investigated Coleman’s own music, let alone provided sufficient reason for reinterpreting it.

Note: While I earlier drew attention to Marsalis’ sponsorship of this musician, I am not necessarily arguing that he would have enjoyed this interpretation. What I am noting is that this musician is considered to be an exemplary product of the educational and performance avenues that Crouch and Marsalis have created, and that this “stamp of approval”, at the very least, sends a certain message to young people like me.

After the band finished their interpretation, the leader proceeded to ask the audience about what we had been listening to recently. “Ornette Coleman”, I replied.

posted June 6, 2009 by Rafiq

Steve Lehman talks about his new octet record, Travail, Transformation and Flow

April 3, 2009 by Seth

Recently, I’ve been hearing a bunch from people asking to know more about the roll that spectral harmony plays in my forthcoming octet record, Travail, Transformation and Flow. And also curious to get a better sense of how the new octet record connects to my most recent quintet record, On Meaning, which came out on Pi in November of 2007. So I thought it might be nice to post some thoughts about the overlap between the quintet record and the octet record on the Pi Blog…

A few people have asked if On Meaning can be thought of as a type of predecessor to the music on Travail, Transformation and Flow, and I think that makes sense in a lot of ways.

The main difference, I think, is how much more fleshed out all the work with spectral harmony is on the octet record. On Travail, 4 of the 8 pieces really call for improvisers to interact with spectral harmony and some of the more important “spectral ideas” around music. And also to do stuff like solo over “spectral chord changes,” improvise with timbre and explore different kinds of wave forms and sonic envelopes as instrumentalists. For On Meaning, the only piece that is explicitly spectral is “Great Plains of Algiers” and part of the reason that that’s such a short piece (2’45”), is because there aren’t any solos. It’s kind of like a minature chamber piece. All of the harmonies on that piece are based off of subharmonic spectra, which is also the case for “Waves,” which appears on the octet record.

In addition to the more fully integrated use of spectral harmony, there’s all the more obvious stuff about how working with 8 voices, as opposed to 5, frees you up to write much richer harmonies, more elaborate counterpoint, and also to imagine a much more diverse collection of setting for solos/improvisations. Also, the idea of using orchestration as an expressive tool can be a little more fully realized in an octet setting. Using different size groups over the course of a piece — starting with just 2 players and gradually using all 8, or ending with an alto/trumpet duo like “Alloy” does on the octet record.

Goes without saying that all of these compositional ideas are informed by the musical legacy of people like Tristan Murail, Anthony Braxton, Jackie McLean, and Andrew Hill, to name a few. Not to mention all of my brilliant colleagues, 7 of whom appear on the forthcoming octet record…!

Steve

posted April 3, 2009 by Seth

Shameless Self-Promotion

March 16, 2009 by Rafiq

I’m writing to let you know that my quintet/sextet, the Rafiq Bhatia Collective, will be embarking on a two-leg tour in the next couple of weeks. The band features some of my closest friends and collaborators, and we will be performing (mostly) new original music.

featuring: Miller Tinkerhess: trumpet, flugelhorn; Noah Bernstein-Hanley: saxophones (April 12-15 only); Rafiq Bhatia: guitar, effects; Chris Pattishall: piano; Jackson A. Hill: bass; Alex Ritz: drums.

Here is our itinerary, for those of you who are interested:

Wednesday, March 25th: Cambridge, MA The Lily Pad 10pm

Thursday, March 26th: New York, NY Cornelia Street Cafe 8:30pm

Friday, March 27th: Princeton, NJ Terrace F. Club, Princeton University

Saturday, March 28th: Northampton, MA Smith College: Campus Center 7pm

Sunday, April 12th: Oberlin, OH The Feve 9:30pm

Monday, April 13th: Cleveland, OH Nighttown

Tuesday, April 14th: Ann Arbor, MI Kerrytown Concert House 8pm

Wednesday, April 15th: Oberlin, OH My Junior Recital at Oberlin Conservatory: Cat in the Cream 8:30pm

Please visit me on MySpace for more information. Thank you!

posted March 16, 2009 by Rafiq