If you got the time… I got the ride

(Prince, from The Ride, Crystal Ball 1989)

Jazz has always been based in the popular styles of the times. We must acknowledge the most memorable artists in music are those who compose their own music. However, many Jazz performers in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, relied on compositions that were already popular through performances on radio and on stages across the country. Songs that had gained popularity through stageplays, musicals on Broadway, and the growing catalogues of recording studios were inspirational to the many Jazz players that were searching for exciting material to play.

Many recording executives seized the opportunity to document the rise of a newly discovered, truly American folk music called the Blues. As the Blues spread throughout the States, new genres quickly emerged and were shared with the whole country through the transformative technology of Radio. Even then, as it is now, musical styles that seemed worlds apart, different in every way, were mashed together to create new forms of music. Country and Bluegrass music played by white artists married Blues and Gospel music from the black churches of a segregated nation. These unlikely collaborations gave rise to Rock n Roll, Rhythm and Blues, Dixieland, and Big Band Jazz. These early forms of American music were born of story-tellers with banjos and guitars, horns and fiddles.

Recorded music had also become the means of preserving a huge backlog of classic compositions of several genres of Europe, Africa, and Asia. The diverse forms of regional Folk music and the strict preservation of religious styles like Gregorian Chant in Christian Churches and Cantors in Jewish Synagogues had a vital influence on the orchestral and choral music of Europe and Asia. The earthy, innately human sound of these story-tellers contributed a vast spectrum of emotion and universal truth to Baroque, Romantic, Impressionistic, Lyric Pieces, Opera, and Modern Classical music.

From Africa, the roots of human experience; joy and pain, are so richly communicated through Blues, and passed on in Rockabilly, Country, Tin Pan Alley, Soul, Metal, R&B, Protest Songs, HipHop, Reggae, by Crooners and Screamers alike. The traditional sounds of celebration and worship from Europe, Africa, and Asia inspired centuries of “High Art” in cultural regions around the world. Today, a plethora of inspired journeys into chaotic creativity somehow are gathered into organized notes and rhythms with endless variety! Magically, it all retains everything human, cultural and divine. As music styles change, we still see ourselves in the abstract sound of song. When a song ends, we are left with indelible memories so concrete that we can even believe the impossible.

There is nothing surprising about the songs that Jazz artists choose to cover nowadays. Jazz is not defined by the historic elements of any one musical genre, or as Jazz was played 80 years ago. Music has changed so much since the early incarnations of Jazz, that I hesitate to use the word “Jazz” nowadays. The essence of Jazz is not the brick and mortar elements of music, but it is the approach that artists take in the free, emotional, chaotic interpretation of what the artist experiences. Jazz is at the very core of exploration and creation. When the popular Rap group NWA was inducted in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Ice Cube made an important point of describing their music in much the same way in his acceptance speech. In 2016, the question was, “Can a HipHop group be inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame?” Cube’s reply was historic. “Rock n Roll is a spirit! …that’s what connects us all – that spirit. …bebop, soul, R&B, metal, punk rock, and yes, HipHop. Rock n Roll is not conforming to the people that came before you, but creating your own path in music and in life.”

In my own words, “Allow everything to influence your art. You don’t have to make everything a part of your life; but let it in for a moment. Laugh along or cry out in pain. When you laugh or cry, when you whisper or scream; let it carry the weight of the world.”

The approach to playing starts with what we, as artists, know best; the sound of the times. We live it. It is the soundtrack of our generation. It is a soundbath that we have been soaking in since before we were born. We also have generations of musicians, sculptures, painters, novelists, film-makers, politics, civil growth and unrest, gender evolution, popular trends, business, leisure, struggles, heartaches, friends and family, ideas and beliefs! It’s in there.

It is our back yard, our city streets, and the glorious nature of our surroundings, from whence we launch our departure into unknown territory. It is a sign of our times, and yet it becomes what we aspire to be! It is not a-changin’ but it is Evolutionary. We dream, we stretch, we bridge the human experience to a place closer to the sublime. Bred of desperation, we pack our bags with imagination. From recognition and security, we depart. Our transportation is little more than the feathery fabric that holds us together. We risk tearing our raiments and crushing our ideas only to see what will become of them if we reach for the impossible.

There are, of course, the artists that compose their own music. Whether we compose music or recreate our favorite songs, we hold these truths to be self-evident. Enjoy all that comes before you and use that to build your launch pad or diving board. Once you are airborne, carve your own path through the atmosphere, through the land and sea if you must. Break the chains and leave nothing behind. Don’t stare at what lies before you, but look through the trees and stars for the open space, dark or light, fearless and persistent,

Enjoy the Ride!