Earlier quoted context omitted.
Che Guevara gets new followers regularly too.
Che Guevara written a lot of books lately?
Still sells a lot of t shirts.
John Coltrane and the End of Jazz
41–50 of 60 posts
Re: John Coltrane and the End of Jazz
#42> The fact that this 55-year-old recording is the year’s most significant jazz release tells you all you need to know about the health of jazz in 2018. Writer has a point. As much as I like jazz, it's ossified badly as a genre. Love to see some forward motion that isn't free jazz or other noise.
How much contemporary jazz do you know? The perspective of the article seems very American to me.
Consider European jazz masters such as Tomasz Stanko [1], Enrico Rava, Marcin Wasilewski, Tord Gustavsen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Bobo Stenson, Enrico Pieranunzi, Helge Lien, John Surman, Iiro Rantala, Esbjörn Svensson, Stefano Bollani, Arve Henriksen, Myriam Alter... These represent a considerable evolution of jazz, in my opinion, that seems rarely included/considered stateside, the stature of labels like ECM and ACT notwithstanding.
Not that the US doesn't have its share of great contemporary artists; Aaron Parks, Anat Fort, Brad Mehldau and Keith Jarrett come to mind.
[1] One of my favourite albums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhayp1vE8EE&list=PL8ti15zu4v...
Re: John Coltrane and the End of Jazz
#43> The fact that this 55-year-old recording is the year’s most significant jazz release tells you all you need to know about the health of jazz in 2018. Writer has a point. As much as I like jazz, it's ossified badly as a genre. Love to see some forward motion that isn't free jazz or other noise.
The writer is misinformed. There are plenty of musicians like Miguel Zenon, Ambrose Akinmusire, Terence Blanchard, Vijay Iyer, Wayne Shorter, etc putting out beautiful, relevant music today.
I have a deep love for Coltrane, but I'm not willing to agree that Both Directions is more significant than all the great music folks are still creating today.
Re: John Coltrane and the End of Jazz
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's no longer very commercially popular -- there is no jazz radio station in the US that isn't smooth jazz and jazz albums represent like 1% of sales. In that sense you could call it "dead," but I'm not sure commercial success is the right metric for art music.
Did you mean no commercial stations? Because I can think of lots of listener-supported jazz stations that are mainstream, definitely not smooth. KCSM in my local area, for instance.
KJAZZ, in my area. Although, KSPC's jazz block plays better stuff.
Re: John Coltrane and the End of Jazz
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, he sure doesn't know a d n thing about jazz... Alice and Joe Henderson were doing great stuff in the 70's together too. Beyond the chaos of the late 60's era in jazz, there are a lot of new directions jazz has taken since then. Jazz doesn't stand still, and I think that is core to it's nature. If this guy was looking to continue second wave bop for all eternity, he should just throw on some Branford/Wynton Marsa…
I think the thing you could say about Coltrane was the he was the last musician who could change the shape of the whole genre, the way Armstrong and Parker did. After Coltrane it was fractured, and it was Coltrane who did the fracturing.
That's crazy. People weren't exclusively playing bebop before Trane and he certainly wasn't the only person who influenced the growth of free and free-ish jazz. Likely not even the most influential.
We also wouldn't expect any genre to stay in stasis forever. Fracturing isn't even a bad thing.
Re: John Coltrane and the End of Jazz
#46The fact that this 55-year-old recording is the year’s most significant jazz release Is it the year's most significant jazz release this year though? Kamasi Washington charted in the main Billboard 200, and thanks to the strength of Heaven and Earth, Washington's year old Harmony of Difference is climbing back up the ranks as well. He's selling out ~3k size venues across the country on the strength of that album, too…
And even if it were the most important thing, so what? If we found a lost Beatles record in 2018 it would be one of the biggest releases of the year. That wouldn't mean that rock and pop was dead.
Re: John Coltrane and the End of Jazz
#47I think the most interesting aspects of this piece aren't about Coltrane, or even about jazz. It's an interesting essay on modernism and it's troubled relationship with it's audience. Whilst it's beyond question that the emperor sometimes is without clothes, everyone seems to disagree on when precisely he disrobed. Sometimes music is only "difficult" until something clicks with you. (But some music seems eternally ou…
That's a more interesting question. In general I love avant-garde art but, like, after the first time someone did it I'm not sure what's increasing about a single-color canvas.
> That's a more interesting question. In general I love avant-garde art but, like, after the first time someone did it I'm not sure what's increasing about a single-color canvas.
But it wasn't impressive the first time someone did that either. It was more about the process than the piece itself and that's the very line of thought that "killed" painting and art in general. Fortunately, artists are ditching the whole "abstract pomo" thing and coming back to simple and direct ways of expression.
Re: John Coltrane and the End of Jazz
#48> The fact that this 55-year-old recording is the year’s most significant jazz release tells you all you need to know about the health of jazz in 2018. Writer has a point. As much as I like jazz, it's ossified badly as a genre. Love to see some forward motion that isn't free jazz or other noise.
Huh? How about the huge crossover work of the last decade? Jazz is influencing hip hop left and right and there are huge crossover records like Black Radio that combine elements of both. Snarky Puppy has taken the indie genre of "giant band with 30 people" into jazz and is writing groove based music that is totally accessible to average consumers. We've got collaborations between Brad Mehldau and electronic musicians like Mark Guiliana as well as bluegrass musicians like Chris Thile. Electronic albums are including collaborations with people like Herbie Hancock. Thundercat is a big crossover hit. Jazz is more productive in this decade than most.
Jazz instrumentation is also breaking through with bands like Moon Hooch, Trombone Shorty, and Too Many Zoos.
Re: John Coltrane and the End of Jazz
#49Re: John Coltrane and the End of Jazz
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a more interesting question. In general I love avant-garde art but, like, after the first time someone did it I'm not sure what's increasing about a single-color canvas.
> That's a more interesting question. In general I love avant-garde art but, like, after the first time someone did it I'm not sure what's increasing about a single-color canvas. But it wasn't impressive the first time someone did that either. It was more about the process than the piece itself and that's the very line of thought that "killed" painting and art in general. Fortunately, artists are ditching the whole "…
It's not "impressive," but subverting audience expectations can be interesting. But the fiftieth guy "subverting" expectations in exactly the same way has kind of missed the boat.