Profound Words and Works About Jazz Musicians
The words of Willis Conover, taken from the liner notes to “Herbie Mann
at the Village Gate,” Atlantic 1380-2, resonate deeply for myself.
The Mann recording was a favorite of mine when I was a teenager, and it is sheer joy to be reunited with this inspired live session, and the superb liner notes, which I do not recall reading before.
The following
paragraph deserves to be posted on the wall of every musician; jazz, or any
other kind. The rest of Conover’s notes are equally asorbing.
“Jazz musicians can feel a draft with all the windows shut. The wet finger held aloft is symbol and symptom of their calling; the emotional winds they tap from within can invite tempests. They're misunderstood; but musicians know the path to artistry wends through thickets of misunderstanding and they walk the path defensively.”
- Willis Conover, conductor of "The House of Sounds," WCBS, New York, and of "Music USA," Voice of America, worldwide
Recently, I engaged in some expansion, and restocking of my jazz collection.
While listening to both new, and familiar CDs, I was reminded how my basic music vocabulary comes from modern jazz.
Some of the names that pop-out are Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Jackie McLean, Lee Konitz, Bill Evans, Paul Desmond, Phil Woods, Elvin Jones, Alan Dawson, and Richard Davis.
Listening again to these giants, I came to the realization that John Coltrane was, and is, a core spiritual musical guide, and Charlie Parker is a core intellectual, and expressive musical guide. They both cross-blend, of course.
More recently, I was fortunate to acquire Indian classical music guides in the form of Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha, Pandit Jasraj, Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Zakir Hussain, and other supreme Indian musicians, including my teachers, Harihar Rao, Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy, Kala Ramnath, and Pandit Jasraj.
It was Barney Bragin, and Rollan Masciarelli, both brilliant, and inspired teachers, who introduced me to jazz, and I cannot thank them enough.
Among the CDs I acquired, were box-sets featuring music by Lester Young, and Artie Shaw, two musicians I never had the opportunity to truly appreciate before.
These collections, and others, assembled, and written about by Joop Visser, the renowned Dutch jazz expert, are astounding accomplishments; works of genius befitting the subjects of his attention.
As I write this, I am listening to Charlie Parker: Chasing The Bird, and it is also an astonishing Proper Records production, assembled, and written about by Brian Priestley, Co-author, Rough Guide to Jazz, Third edition, Penguin, 2004.
Wow! Thank god for these two men – there may be others I have not come across yet - and congratulations to Proper Records for releasing these monumental tributes to our greatest jazz artists, some of whom have yet to receive proper recognition.
Let’s hope they are smiling down on Visser, Priestley, and Proper Records from above.
I look forward to devouring other Proper Records collections!
- Michael Robinson, November 2006, Los Angeles