© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
“ … His solos
display the spontaneity of an ear player, but behind them is the urbane
sophistication of a conservatory-trained musician with twenty years experience
interpreting difficult charts in big bands ranging from Woody Herman to Carla
Bley. Fully conversant with the harmonic vocabulary of Coltrane, Shorter and
beyond, he is able to navigate complex structures with an uncannily relaxed
rhythmic facility and big furry sound at the most intense outer partials. …” –
Ted Panken, WKCR, NYC
There is nothing
quite like Jazz that’s made in-performance.
You can get an
idea of what’s involved in the process of Jazz creation and how monumentally
complex it is to pull off well with a reading of the following observations by Ted Gioia [the paragraphing has been modified for
added emphasis]:
"If
improvisation is the essential element in Jazz, it may also be the most
problematic. Perhaps the only way of appreciating its peculiarity is by
imagining what 20th century art would be like if other art forms placed an
equal emphasis on improvisation.
Imagine T.S. Eliot
giving nightly poetry readings at which, rather than reciting set pieces, he
was expected to create impromptu poems - different ones each night, sometimes
recited at a fast clip; imagine giving Hitchcock or Fellini a handheld camera
and asking them to film something - anything - at that very moment, without the
benefits of script, crew, editing, or scoring; imagine Matisse or Dali giving
nightly exhibitions of their skills - exhibitions at which paying audiences
would watch them fill up canvas after canvas with paint, often with only two or
three minutes devoted to each 'masterpiece.'
These examples
strike us as odd, perhaps even ridiculous, yet conditions such as these are
precisely those under which the Jazz musician operates night after night, year after year."
Is it any wonder,
then, that Ted has entitled the book from which this excerpt is taken - The
Imperfect Art: Reflections of Jazz and Modern Culture.
It’s even more remarkable
to consider these factors while listening to tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano’s
double CD Quartets: Live at The Village Vanguard.
Recorded over
about a one-year interval from 1994-1995 and involving two, different groups,
the consistently high level of improvisation that Joe and his cohorts establish
on these in-performance recordings is astounding.
See what you think
with a viewing of the following video tribute to Joe.
The audio track is
Little Willie Leaps In by Miles Davis
and features Joe on tenor with Mulgrew Miller on piano, Christian McBride
on bass and Lewis Nash on drums. It was recorded at the Village Vanguard in NYC
on Sunday, January 22, 1995 .
