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 asides 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 who have been to a masterclass 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 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. 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 a certain 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