Everybody has Jam session stories,.me being no exception.Some times good things go down,sometimes bad,.sometimes necessary,.and sometimes,..unnecessary..I've Haunted a few,.and one particular one really stands out as above and beyond what can go down in these random attempts of people who may not know each other at all try to make music together in front of other musicians,tourists,and maybe some really tired,but hardcore,.listeners of Jazz..

Yes,..SMALLS,.in NYC was the spot in the early 90's for early 20-something musicians from anywhere on Earth to come and test themselves playing Jazz in the Jazz capitol of the world.I have not been there since the mid 90's,.so I cant say what it's like now.When I was going,.It was to the all night jam session,.held every night.Maybe it's still going down.

I was living at a YMCA in Jersey city and used to crash Smalls as often as I could,.or as Long as I could stay awake.I had a 40 hour day gig at Tower records that started at 9am.I used to go to play at Smalls and sometimes sleep there from like 6:30-8am,.and then go to work.(hey,.when your like 23 you can pull off shit like this)..Smalls was not far from the Village Vangaurd.

The protocol was pretty whack.Wait until whatever band is playing finishes up around 2am,.and then get on the List,.or just try and get to know who's running the session and wait for the call.This means it might be 4am when you get 2 choruses on All the Things You are,.or that you might be able to get down and pick the tune,.or maybe,.you wont even play it all.Yes,.who you knew that was present was a major factor,.and the guys running the session had their crew up-front.If a celebrity cat showed up,.everything was out the window and they took over the session so everybody could experience how great they where.Do I sound bitter? Well,.here's where I'm going..

There's a Drummer that is fairly well known that is revered as part of what made Smalls great to those who really made this scene part of their lives long term,.his name? Jimmy Lovelace.Google him to find some Loving tributes about he's recent departure to the great Jam session in the sky.
Mr.Lovelace was an original,.and had some cred,.recording with Wes and was with Benson for over a decade.

However this is also the man that tried to get me to Quit Music outright.

During this time,.I was a so-so straight ahead trumpet player with a small list of tunes I had ready to go for Jam sessions.I'm not sure I had much of my sound.As I recall I had a big question at the time for myself,..which was,.what if I stepped outside the changes? Everybody there was on some tight-rope play by the rules type shit.Play IN and don't start no shit.My changes playing then was I said,.so-so.I had to play free for years to get good at playing changes I would learn later.I heard they asked Daniel Carter to leave Smalls once,.which he confirmed.."That's not what we do here",.
he was told.(I didn't meet DC until years later.)

So one night I decided to find out what would go down,.more for my own quest of what music was than anything else,.and I went as OUT as I could.Just Played WILD and shit,.Think it was "There will never be another you",.which I actually was quite good at swinging on..But Not Tonight,..I just went for outer space,.My free Jazz peeps now would be proud of what I tried to do..

Jimmy Lovelace,...was not impressed...

"Come here man,.I want to talk to you",..

I had no idea who Jimmy was at the time,.except for the White suit he had on all the time.He was an older cat,.which to me meant Respect.He asked me to sit down so he could explain some things,.which I did..Jimmy then told me he was going to do me the biggest favor of my Life,.and tell me what I needed to hear

"Music is not for you...You don't have it...the best thing you can do for your life right now is quit the trumpet and quit Music.I'm doing this for your own good"..

I listened and didn't know what to think.I didn't see that coming.I told Jimmy I appreciate that he would step to me like this,.that he was looking to help me.I tried to explain to him that I was trying to play outside of what the "rules" where,.that I liked to play IN sometimes to.He said he heard me play like that and still felt the way he did,..and that HE HAD THE RIGHT  to tell me to walk away from Music forever..Hard not to think of AMERICAN IDOL,.JAZZ style..I went home.

That night I thought about what He asked me to do....QUIT MUSIC...Was he trying to get me to just get serious? Teachers sometimes brutalize students like boot camp to challenge or force them to get to their core.This violent method of teaching sometimes kills people's music.I've seen that happen in students from Berklee and the New School.Arnie Lawrence,.the first Live Jazz Musician I ever saw play in person,.came into Smalls once and was cool,.telling me to study with Art Blakey trumpet man Valery Ponomerev,.but then Valery would decide to get Brutal as well,.saying that I should also "go to the new school or quit",.because my trumpet warm-up wasn't up to speed.(I've had an obsessive compulsive thing with warming up ever since)..I never asked Jimmy Lovelace for a lesson,.this was his "Gift" to me..

the next night,.what could only be my spiritual power,.still dormant,.sent me a message: "To take somebody away from their own music can cause Profound damage if that person's music is attached to their core development in a spiritual sense.Art or music can be part of a transformational process which has a direct hand in the evolution of someones soul.Don't walk away from your Music unless your SOUL asks you to change direction,.and decisions like that are usually made between Lives"

So the next night after that,.I went back to Smalls and Jimmy was there.I played a few choruses on "There is no greater Love",.and then Jimmy started walking over with that,."I thought I told you you couldn't play vibe"..

I told him with my horn in my hand,.."Step the Fuck away from me man,.or were going to Fight." I was dead serious,.and felt that I was protecting my music,.protecting my soul.Jimmy backed off,.but as he did he said again,.."I was trying to help you"..He was frustrated..

Needless to say,..my time at Smalls was coming to an end..Another trumpet player wanted to fight me outside,.and I don't remember why,.all I remember is he had a big trumpet medallion hanging around his neck,.and he was actually a free cat. Before it was time to go however,. it was time for my Bright Moments,..kind of.....here they are in quick succession,..a top 10 list like no other..

1) Frank Hewitt,.a great Piano player,.stopping the session and telling everyone,.."Clifford brown needed 3 choruses tops to say what he had to say,..If you need more than 3,.You don't have anything to say".

2) Tommy Turrentine,.a great trumpet player cursing out the whole place,."Nobody hear is playing shit!!",.,(Tommy may have Lived there for a minute)

3) Nicholas Payton playing GIANT STEPS at 4am with no piano,.then playing Bass,.and then drums! I was half asleep and didn't know Giant Steps anyway..

5) the great bassist Victor Gaskin playing longer than anybody and refusing to give up..He was yelling at me on "moments Notice",.COME ON MAN!,.(i got Lost on the bridge),.around 5am. We had no Piano on that one.

6) playing a blues with Andy Bey on Piano...Andy was really listening and working with me.I left some space and then dropped the flat six and held it out,..Andy waited and then played the PERFECT CHORD AT THE PERFECT TIME,..I'll never forget it..

7) on a long train of Horn players on Bb rhythm,.having the 3rd bass player already,.I just FORCED a whole tone improv on everybody and got away with it! the rhythm section hooked up with me and afterwords Roy Hargrove was like,..Yeah man!"..Roy had forgotten that he DESTROYED me on Confirmation across town at Yarbird Suite,.and also on Mr.P.C. at the Blue note.Roy was cool.

8) arguing about what tune to play when some kid wanted to play wayne Shorter's "Miako",.ending up on "What is this thing called Love",..and then the Piano player playing like Cecil Taylor to fuck with all the horn players on purpose

9) calling Four in a key I didnt know it in,.and then being forced to play chromatic like crazy,.and then some tourists thinking I was playing my ass off..(maybe this happened at Mo' betters on the upper west side,.not sure)

10) Cherokee battles,.of course.Tempo and Key unknown till the downbeat..B sucks.

the Last time I Played at Smalls was with a Guitar player on Have You Met Miss Jones,.and I remember I got alot of people to Listen,.and the owner,.a cool cat named Mitch,.said,."yeah Matt",.as I worked my way through the bridge.It was around 5am and the session ended after I stopped playing.I knew It was time to go.

after that I ran my own Jam session in Chelsea at a place called the Rainy Daze for about a year and half,.and started writing my own tunes and exploring 60's Miles.I met Francois Grillot,.who I still play with to this day on the free Jazz tip.My music found a way through that maze,.but It wasn't until I studied with Ornette and played with Sabir Mateen that it CRYSTALLIZED.Years,.and a Bass Clarinet Later..Oh yeah,..with a few Free Jazz Jam sessions to along the way,.(very dangerous)

The best Jam session I ever went to was run by Roy Campbell at the Lenox Lounge in Harlem.After a scorching set of Woody Shaw tunes with his great band TAZZ,.the session started and EVERYBODY WAS COOL...

Can somebody in please Boston Write about WALLY's?

Anyway,..thanks Mr.Lovelace,..for trying to show me the light,.and that..

thou,...shalt,...

PLAY.

   

1978 Baseball and Jazz Both have an American History,.and Both have legends,..but along the way they really went in different directions.Didn't Baseball get the memo from MILES? Maybe it's Jazz that was Born under a Bad time.Course,.if it didn't happen then,.It never would have happened.Jazz and Baseball are supposed to be the greatest things America has achieved,.(This guy Ken Burns told me)...Funny though,.How we treat Baseball like its Apple Pie,.and Jazz like its a happy meal small Fry.
and BASEBALL,...

was in a galaxy..

far,

far,

away..



*for William Hooker


coming soon:DRUMS UNLIMITED,.and later,."the Free Jazz awards show"..(We need a Host,.If anyone has a suggestion..)

Say,..Do you know what tone of day it is?

I'm sure this has been explored before.I saw this last night in a dream.

everyone would need perfect pitch,.and a really,really good ear,.then we could change clocks forever..

I wrote this down halfway between G# and A (8:30 pm)

on the Piano...

12am C *below middle C* (Midnight)  
  1am C#
  2am D
  3am D#
  4am E
  5am F
  6am F#
  7am G
  8am G#
  9am A
10am A#
11am B
12pm C *middle C* (noon)
  1pm C#
  2pm D
  3pm D#
  4pm E
  5pm F
  6pm F#
  7pm G
  8pm G#
  9pm A
10pm A#
11pm B
12am C *above middle C 

Course this means that each time of day is actually a Color as well,.

Hmm,..what color of day is it right now?

Must be Dark Blue..

C     red
C#   red orange
D     orange
D#  orange-yellow
E     yellow
F     yellow green
F#   green yellow
G     green
G#  green blue
A     blue
A#   blue-purple
B     purple

at Night all the Colors are Dark
Daytime,.they are all Light

Think I'll take my Purple Trumpet and sing a song around 11 o'clock in B concert

Tomorrow I'll Paint the Sky....

I Like the Sun Blue rather than Orange,.I like my clouds Green,.and a nice Magenta
sky,..otherwise..Mountains always felt red-orange to me.


Ahhh,..the Sound of the Sun as played by the Wind...



*dedicated to every Pocket-trumpet on Earth,.and every Poet that likes to
read when we go from Purple to Red,..Round about Midnight..

the Crossroads...

where blues guitar players discuss payment plans with the devil..

Times Square in new york USED to be the crossroads of the world,.now its just some tourist Vegas wanna-be bullshit.People from every corner of the globe come by the millions to get in double Decker buses and drive around looking at everything Like it's some really important shit,.and spend alot of money just to prove they were there.(New Years Eve is the sickest  time of year,.since thousands and thousands of people jam it up who aren't even from the United States.) Jazz is represented by the IRIDIUM jazz club,.which is actually adventurous,.(booking the Cecil Taylor Big Band!),.and also now,.the Hawaiian Tropic has Jazz.(yes,.the restaurant where the waitresses must wear Bikini's).Besides the statues of jazz musicians in all the gift shops,.and maybe an occasional sax player making change on the street,.that's it,..unless you head to what was once called "Music Row",..48th st,.the Music store block.Since the 70's,.its been the spot,.and has a history,.inside the history.(Kenny Dorham worked at Mannys!)

the latest incarnation of my in order to survive drama landed me right there,.at one of the main joints,..Sam Ash,.for about a year.(I left a few months ago before I lost my mind completely).Sam Ash may indeed be,.. the Jazz Crossroads of the world,..and in 2009,.Things Ain't what they used to be.(people have been saying that phrase all the way back to bebop I've been told)..((shit,.after 10 years at tower records,.maybe I can put Retail Jail behind me))

Sam Ash is the equalizer.(I heard the NYC bike path called that once to).All sax players need REEDS,.violin players,.STRINGS,.and brass heads,.we need OIL,.(or Hot sauce,.used by Clark Terry)..Rich and famous or street Musician on the edge,.You might have to come on down and get what you need.Standing there trying to sell shit,.(sometimes really expensive horns),.I was able to stand right at these crossroads and observe NYC jazz today from a unique perspective.The free paper ALL ABOUT JAZZ that comes out every month does this to,.but not IN PERSON...

With my SUN in the 3rd house,.I can communicate with just about anyone,.even people that don't speak English,.and I rolled with the street cats up to the Big Dogs,.Except for a few people that I just didn't want to talk to,.((after what they did to a Love Supreme...I'll never forget the feeling in my stomach when I heard what JALC did to Trane's masterpiece.My SOUL told me,..that it was just WRONG...REALLY WRONG..Did these guys make a deal with the devil at the Jazz crossroads I wondered?))

At Sam Aah,.It was harder to relate to the real successful guys,Myself trying to Live a Career of Music since Jumpstreet.Part of me wanted to see if they were still down,.as people,.or if they placed themselves above everyone.Some people were still people,.and cool.Some others,..were straight up arrogant,.and yeah,.ignorant to.((I'll never forget when James Carter Dressed down a European guy trying to look big in front of his girlfriend by dressing down a Mark 6 alto I was showing him because of key extensions..."Melt this down,.It is not worth my time",.he told me.James was standing nearby,.and really went off on him for insulting the horn,.and the guy ran out of there with his tail between his legs!!)).There was this somewhat famous guitar player who dismissed Giuseppe Logan as an irrelevant street cat,.(man,.that got me tight.) I asked Giuseppe if he wanted to go see Ornette one time and he said,.."Rich man,.Poor Man,.what would I be supposed to say to him?",.That messed me up,.and I dropped the subject,.and had to reflect.There are people who have Lost everything chasing music.Some people wouldn't make a deal with the devil.Some People did,.and then paid the price.

Have some people figured out how to make a deal at the crossroads and come out ahead? There's a tenor player I know working a major NYC Jazz club damn near EVERY night,.for years,.when scores of guys are out there LOST in DOOR GIG land.(I found one of the Devil's cards there once)

Can trying to play creative music and survive drive you insane? I cant count the amount of people that came into Sam Ash that were actually MENTALLY ILL.I noticed that for some people like this,.music is all they have left to hold on to before they really just Lose their mind completely,.so they come by every day and Look at Music,.but they don't engage it.It's freaky,.but not deaky.Many people love to go right up to the point of getting an instrument and starting to play,.and then stopping,.where they just look at Music and talk about it for years.

jazz has been called,.."cRaZy people music,..and trying to be a jazz musician today is enough to push anybody towards the edge.want to be a new york jazz musician on HEROIN and LIVE THE DREAM? Try to do that shit in new york TODAY.the way new york is going,..any musician without some form of the hustle is going to find it harder and harder to get by at all,..and the truth is that the money people behind it all couldn't give a F***.its culture-destruction,..as the media and money people create the music AND musicians and then tell the people who to listen to with a media campaign.The same way that Mike DOOMberg just purchased a third term as mayor,.when there's only supposed to be 2 terms..The retail record business is now an abyss..(I saw TOWER go down in person).watch out barnes and noble,..BOOKS are next in line to get burned next to the GIANT CD PILE.like Mat Maneri said one time,.."there gonna call in an air strike on the knitting factory".(which kind of did happen to the knit,.jazz wise)..Here's thought,..IMAGINE all the money spent on YANKEE HATS went to Jazz? We might be able to turn this around,.or at least give Jazz a bath,.since somebody said recently,."Jazz ain't dead,.but it sure smells funny.."

What are you to do when you find yourself at the crossroads anyway?  ((Like Sabir Mateen sings in TEST,."Are you gonna be ready?!,.when the moment comes?!,.are you gonna be there?!" ))  Albert Ayler spoke of having to defeat demons that were after him,his Mother,and his brother.(DO find Albert Aylers record GOIN' HOME,.where he and Henry Grimes played in the DEVILS FACE.)

(((ill NEVER forget this FLAMENCO DANCE BATTLE i saw,..where a woman with breast cancer first DEFEATED the surgeons who wanted her breast,.only to have to then OUT-DANCE DEATH.a bottle was placed on a stool,..with the objective of DANCING closer and closer to the bottle.the bottle stays you live,...the bottle falls,.you DIE.When you step to the crossroads,.Death is watching,.believe it.)))

As for me,..I've spent almost 20 years working in jobs where I meet and see people that actually live quite well of off their own music.How does this go down? Is it meant to be? Are the people and the people with power,."just not into me?",.or just not ready for me? I'm cool,.Like Nelson Mandela said,."I'm not bitter.".(That eats you alive anyway).Still,.When I ask these questions,.all I get are instructions to head over to the crossroads..

"Hey Matt,..when your ready,.meet me at the crossroads.
come ALONE,.bring your TRUMPET.",..he whispers..(the address wasn't that far from where Bird used to live near the park).

ONE time he started talking right off the DEVIL TAROT card.

"Matt,...i know you can hear me..Stop talking all this shit
and come see me when you want to get SERIOUS".

"but i AM SIRIUS,"....i replied.

"you're are a clever moth*rfu**r* arent you? keep talkin SHIT."
(he felt like the emperor from star wars).

Me: "Tell you what man,.Let me get your cell phone number,.and maybe I'll send you a text..

"Tell me one more time,..about that BLUE NOTE CONTRACT."

 


**dedicated to CUICA master CAFE'.

**for Music to Listen to while you read this,.I might suggest,."Psychic Blues",.from my myspace player..Peace..

Matt

   

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Keeping it Real 2. Matt Lavelle.

Posted by Chris Rich at 5:53 PM 0 comments

This week I'll tip my hat to Chris Rich in the way he's not afraid to bring shit up.Let's take a moment for some Clarity and Honesty about what's really going on in "Jazz" today,.2009.Who am I to bring this stuff up?,.well Like Jim Carrey told the Judge in LIAR LIAR,."I hold Myself in Contempt." This is like some Jerry Maguire shit where he writes the letter that gets his ass fired.

1) WE MAKE TO MANY RECORDS
When Tower Records Fell,.(I watched it fall as the Jazz buyer at Tower Lincoln center in NYC),It was symbolic,.a near Lethal Blow to the Record Industry,.of which Jazz was a VERY small Part.The only time I saw Jazz CD's really moving off the shelves at Tower was never with anything new,.but when 2 old concerts were "discovered",.for release,.Coltrane and Monk at Carnegie hall,..and Bird and Diz at Town hall.I could Not,..keep those cd's in the store! (granted,.2 Live documents that are really good,.and Dizzy was on FIRE for that show).The media made a big deal about these releases which was the main reason people copped,.and alot of non-jazz fans were picking them up believe it or not,demonstrating the media's power once again.At least 65% of the stuff I sold otherwise was reissues of Musicians Long gone.The brutal reality is that the money from those cds,.and yes KENNY G AND SMOOTH JAZZ is what actually was keeping that business afloat! (maddening but true).Nobody today has been able to create a "classic".No Kind of Blue,.No Love supreme today.No Miles and no Trane,.just scores of us trying to create music in their wake.Try,and try,and try we do as everybody turns out one record after another seemingly ignoring losses,and amassing insane amounts of records coming out every month that Almost No-one is Listening to!! the Improv guys are particularly guilty of this,.churning out record after record of total improv.Just how many bright moments did they capture on all these records? Many of us have ALOT of records out,..but how many of us have produced a classic or made a genuine musical statement worthy of the test of time? How many of us have made a record that people will sell and need to hear many years later? Do we do it just to serve our own ego's? I myself have been compelled to make records for one main reason,..to prove that I exist,.and that Ive chosen to make music the focus of my life.I try to create real,whole statements.A record represents that work,..but,.do I need over 10 records out before I turn 40 next year? Is my work so great that 100's of hours of my craft needs to be represented and sold to the public? Is a Matt Lavelle BOX SET necessary? The reason were making all these records today cant be the money,.unless your part of the media-created vision of who the real cats are as informed to us in downbeat.Newsflash,.those guys are NOT the real shit.(maybe Chris can take over here)..The SICK and RIDICULOUS young Lions MEDIA created Bullshit has done alot of damage to jazz and all jazz musicians by misleading the public into thinking that they represented who and what was going on at the time."Jazz radio" got behind it big time.A small select group of people were given careers and alot of money was made in a trade off for "show and tell",.where the public was taught what to Listen to,.and they of course bought it,.like they do anything these days.We always believe what the media tells us to right? that's why the KEN BURNS thing was also TWISTED.He didn't know what Jazz was so he asked Wynton to tell him,.so that he could then tell Wynton's story of what jazz was to the world via PBS and a documentary that SOLD like CRAZY at tower.Trading off the Worship of Louis and Duke for time showing the people that are ALIVE NOW TRYING TO PLAY helps the dead,.not the LIVING.Crypt keeping is a sickness in jazz.
 
Many of us still subscribe to a Label's view in order to get records out.Let's be honest,.How many of us REALLY care about the Label's vision? We Just want to get a record out! When you make a record shouldn't it be YOUR vision? If you want to record for somebody you can enter a frustrating path,where you have to submit your music to most of the time non-musicians where they will deem if your work is worthy of their name,.and if there going to pay you almost nothing anyway.So many of us are willing to work for nothing that many Labels pay nothing,(and also claim to make nothing).we take it because that's all we got.Ive been turned down by Labels time and time again because they just aren't feeling my music,.and hey,.It's there Label so they can do what they want.To be Big time Honest I'll come out and say that many of these non-musician guys (and alot of writers!) have sad ears,.and they put out stuff that mos def is NOT a classic,..and even more Honest,.some Label guys are just serving their own Ego's with the stuff they put out to.Musician run Labels are out there and trying to keep it real some-what,.and sometimes we have to just do Everything our selves.I have 4 records out myself in playing in NYC since the early 90's,.and Ive Lost alot of money to make those records happen,.but I knew what I was doing,and Like i said earlier,.I NEED to exist,.at least my EGO does.Some people don't care if they have records out or not,.props to them.

2) NOBODY IS LISTENING
Just How Relevant are we? REALLY? The state of mind of most people these days is that they ARE NOT HEARING US.Just How much impact are we having trying to keep the music alive and going forward? If we work really hard,make an email list,myspace and facebook our show,take out an add,we might fill a house for a show,.Maybe.In NYC every night there's ALOT of Music going down from the Mainstream crowd on down to downtown and out to Brooklyn,.there's still music going down EVERY night,.(i cant speak on Chicago and Boston but Id like to know how there doing)..somehow we keep it going,.but who comes to these shows? At the Tourist attraction clubs where you have to plan on having at least $25-$35 to sit down,.you ll be sitting down with for the most part,..with tourists.(ain't it something how NYC promotes the image of the jazz musician? All over Times square you can buy "Jazz figures",.like were some noble create at all costs type of people,but NYC could give a shit),Back to who's listening,.The rest of the audience is mixed,.and yes,alot of the audience,.(and players) are white.(a blog for somebody else to write)((cue:the endless JALC debate,.all I can say is how about term Limits? even a 10 year term Limit would balance out the whole thing right?)).Back to the discussion of who's Listening,.African Americans were big supporters of Smooth Jazz,.but even Smooth Jazz,(another media creation?) took a hit when CD101.9 went down in Flames.I used to tell customers at Tower that Smooth Jazz would eat itself,.and some people got pissed.)) Let's not even go there with the cruise ship jazz world,.a place where they actually still have the HEROIN DRAMA going on.So many gigs today are door gigs,.and if you don't play door gigs,.well then you aren't going to play alot of gigs this year.(Hey,.if your a regular at the big clubs like Charlie Haden or something,.you can ditch the door gigs,.).If your lucky You may have built a small audience of people who feel that you have something to say,.and will come out to hear you say it.Here's to you folks,.who mos def can help a musician from losing his cool these days.Any Musician who is making a Living off of their Music alone,.I truly hope they appreciate what a wonderful gift that is! (a dream Ive chased for 20 years) It's no accident that a Major,.or former Major Label Jazz person has a new record out,a week at the vanguard,.and a story in JAZZ TIMES,.all at the same time,and yes,.Money is behind it all.If you have enough money you can buy a media campaign and try to convince the public that your what's up,.and sometimes it works.I even know a singer that PAID THE AUDIENCE to fill the Iridium once!!


3) CRITICS HAVE TO MUCH POWER
Some people want or need to do record reviews.Ive learned about my own music from good writers,.but a great deal of them Don't do the work they should,have bad ears,.or are serving their own ego's and just get off on their opinion being put down in print.Ive confronted Critics about that,.asking them if their opinion is really that important.If there's even a small chance at any of us doing well with a record,.a bad review can destroy it because many people will dismiss giving a record a try based on what the critic said,.rather then spend the time,money,and energy,to give it a try.Critics don't seem to know or care about the power of their words these days.Some just describe the music track to track,.almost taking away the experience of the Listener before they even give it a shot.Most try and reference what they THINK is happening.I still say to this day,.that all critics should TALK TO THE ARTIST,.and ask them what they were going for with the record.That would take humility and Courage,.Lacking in many critics today who think they have it all figured out,.and May also just be plain Lazy about what their doing,.disrespecting something a musician may have worked on for years.

4) JAZZ EDUCATION IS SOME OUT SHIT
Anybody that takes out a huge ass Loan or lets their parents take out a second mortgage on their home so that they can get a degree in JAZZ,(as I know someone did at Berklee once) is making a HUGE MISTAKE,.JAZZ EDUCATION IS A BUSINESS.People have built career's off they idea that by teaching someone how to "handle a professional musical situation",.they can bestow somebody with the ability to move to a major city and make a Living playing Jazz.Just because you read about people in Downbeat doing it,.doesn't mean It's going to happen to you.I know there are teachers out there who do keep it real,.and props to them,.If someone is so in Love with the music that they ARE willing to go to a college jazz program,.then hopefully they will meet a teacher willing to tell them the truth about what's really happening in Jazz today."Go transcribe Clifford Brown",.might be good for chops,.but do you need to pay somebody to tell you to do that? I still say that Being a sideman with a great player is the way to go and the real tradition,.but there are SO MANY people playing today that have gone around that,felt they didn't need it,.or went to a jazz Program instead.There's a division between the generations in that way,.which doesn't bode well when the new jack gets a full page add pushing his latest stellar creation,.while the veteran is down at the Jazz Foundation trying to get some money for RENT.

The saddest thing is that it would seem our standards have just really gone down.If you don't even need your own sound and ideas to play these days,.but you can be pushed as someone important to listen to,.then who are we fooling? How many people sit down with a 60 minute recording nowadays anyway? Has the thing to do something different gotten so important that we are willing to walk away from "jazz",.(Jason Crane has a good take on the word Jazz).Ill ask a question I didn't see until I had to write all this...


Has the intellect become more important than emotional expression in jazz today?


If that's the case,.then I do fear for us all...


Heading off to the Mountains and Playing for the clouds sounds pretty good these days,.There great Listeners,.but despite all the negative shit (that Ive just tried to Purge,).Ill still be playing down in NYC and just keeping HITTING IT.

Its What we DO...

The search for myself really took off when I realized that total straight ahead trumpet is fun,.but that I can go deeper.Straight ahead jazz is like something you find on the way of your journey.Why stop there and NEVER move on? If my sound was as fascinating as Booker little's or i could open up the heavens like Miles I might be tempted to stick around,.But I found what I could use from the trumpet and flugelhorn in that context,and kept going as my own curse,.you know how Miles had to keep going to,.(except he had to go and change music itself).Ill never leave my first wife,.(the trumpet),or my first mistress,.(the flugel)..but you know,.. A LOT of people stay married and have other relationships going on these days.Multi-intrumentalism is akin to Polygamy...

The other thing is that straight ahead jazz is just too safe and routine for me.Above all,.I require my music to go way deeper Spiritually,.and Trane,Albert,Pharoah,and Don Cherry opened those doors for everyone in the 60's.Ive been reading up on Dizzy's chosen faith of BAHA'I,.and who can have a problem with there quest to end all racism on earth? Still,.I like immersing my music in my own spiritual quest and playing a hip arrangement of Stella by Starlight from a million years ago just cant cut it for me.

In a time where I lose Money almost every time I play,.and have had to lose a lot of money to record the records I have out now,.Its not hard to make a spiritual connection to my practice of music almost as a religion.Duke himself,.in regards to his sacred concerts said It had nothing to do with career,.that his sacred music was about his own personal relationship with God.

It's taboo to talk about spirituality these days and some people get pissed when I do,or when I write about it,.but I was doing that long before I knew it made anyone feel uncomfortable.the connection between music and that side of Life is my arena,.so from my perspective I really don't have a choice either way.Just Like Albert or Coltrane,and for many Jazz musicians feeling post 65 Coltrane,.It's a door we MUST go through,.we have NO choice.

When I was honest enough with myself about my trumpet music in 1999,.(I had played only straight ahead jazz up to that point) I started having dreams of Bass Clarinets,..and Eric Dolphy's intro to Epistrophy on "last date" was haunting me,.Just like bass clarinets can do when you play them at a whisper level.They can get SPOOKY.(I once took my bass clarinet to a sweat Lodge ceremony with a medicine man and after everyone left I went back there at 4am and played on the sacred ground.It was so dark I couldn't see 12 inches in front of me,.so ALL that existed was SOUND.DARK Sound.)

After I had a dream where I was floating up inside the chamber of a GIANT bass clarinet,.I walked into a music store in Kingston NY and asked,."do you guys have any used bass clarinets for like $100?"..Out from the back came a plastic straight neck one that had been sitting around waiting for me for quite some time.Ill never forget the store owners dog,..GUS,..who was really old and came out the back to say hello while I waiting to take a look at the horn.Gus needed a shower,.and the store owner was berating him like he had some control over that shit.

I took it home and with no lesson and having never tried a reed was able to get a d minor thing happening.The Light was turned on,.and I had a new course in my search for sound.It was right after that I found out about the Vision Festival in NYC,.and I found a community of musicians on a similar vibe.


I have a unique perspective of the Clarinet,.that of a trumpet player.I'm still Mountain climbing in search of a sound and was recently led to a mountain path where at the bottom a sign read,."Alto-Clarinet",.with an arrow.(My friend JD Parran tipped me off) I'm searching for a Sound color,.One I believe may only exist when an Alto Clarinet and Viola play together in their bottom octave.

As far as I know,.it remains undiscovered.I'm going to ask my friend Jason Hao Kwang to help me find it.I even got a Viola,.but Viola just feels too different,.I need that mouth to hand air thing,.which I was unaware of until Ornette told me,."I can see you have a sexual relationship with your horn".

Ive messed around with Alto and Tenor sax,.and was scared off since almost at the first sound,.I sound Like Paul Desmond on alto,.and Wayne on Tenor,..2 big signposts that say NO..Once I find that sound I'm looking for you can bet I'm planting a big ass flag there with a picture of my face,.(hope that's Jazz elitist enough for everybody).I'm going to try and even ask New York State to fund my sound expedition.The bonus in all of this is that Ive found how the trumpet can be applied to this entire drama.

Ornette has a deep thing about trumpet being superior to the saxophone because with the 3 valves you have a hard time going "scales and theory",.where as a saxophone is BUILT like a scale! still,.he says that Eb is,. the "greatest key for emotional expression".But the trumpet by its very nature almost says Melody and Lyricism.Bass and Alto Clarinets are something else all together and still have room on them to explore with shorter or almost no histories,.which attracts me further.There's alto flugelhorns out there,.but hard to find.

People that have climbed sound mountains have definitive ways of how and why to climb where there at,.but I'm not trying to plant a flag NEXT to another cats.Clarinet masters are beyond a doubt right in that you should play a clarinet before a BASS clarinet,.but that's part of the RISK in climbing my mountains,.and isn't jazz really all about RISK,.taking a musical chance and pulling it off? In this way free jazz musicians are really the most hardcore jazz musicians of all! (bring yo chops is all I ask).when you break the rules,.you have to be careful not to just be stupid,.and just breaking the rule is not enough unless you find and work something out.

What if you have your own rule book? Once you write your own Sound Language and flow with your own natural time,.the process you go through should take you through those own moments you meet your own walls,.and then either climb over them or destroy them.

To the Journey!...




**I Post a new blog every Wednesday at Chris Rich's Blog Brillant Coners,..my own website/blog is under construction,...peasy,..Mattack..

MOONRISE!

Step only 40 minutes away from the MADNESS that is NYC,.and along that same River
I used to play at all the time on the west side Bike Path,.and up in Nyack NY,.the RIVER and SKY just OPEN UP,.and suddenly You can see everything in a way that makes NYC seem un-natural.Same sky,.same river,.but NOW we can see each other.It's like seeing somebody naked and alone for the first time,.the level known as NEXT.

I thought I knew INTIMACY with the EARTH through MUSIC from my experiences in NYC playing with a Thunderstorm,.and while that was very REAL,.When you join in and become a part of a MOONRISE,.you can really feel that the Human Being is a Cosmic creature,.we just are not allowed to meet anyone yet as we troop through our tantrum filled ADOLESCENCE.

I was playing Flugelhorn today at a place called Hook Mountain,.and the mountain and the HAWKS that Live there had my back as I communed with a Giant Cloud and sent it into the Horizon with my Sound.It was Dusk and I was really into the natural rhythm of the waves coming in when I noticed a RED DISK appear just over the trees on the other side of the River.She was DIM,.but It was HER.The Sun Told me she was coming..

She didnt speak to me like the SUN,.but I could FEEL her,...

"JOIN me!!,.

Help me RISE!!

Let's BECOME the NIGHT,..

Help me TURN ON MY LIGHT AND OWN THE SKY!!.

The Flugel is perfect for MOON MUSIC,.and I had to JOIN with HER.I dont Think Ive ever played so warmly as she climbed into the clear sky.As the world grew DARK,.her LIGHT became so BRIGHT.(this is the night of October 4th,..FULL Moon).She reflected off the silver brass so perfectly,.looking at me like a Lover.My SOUND was with her.She reflected off of the surface of the River as well,.illuminating a path of Light leading Right to me.

WE WERE ONE.


It sure is something to FEEL yourself in tune with a NATURAL EVENT.

SHINE ON ME.
SHINE ON ME.
SHINE ON ME.




*For the one Duke Ellington knew as,.the Moon Maiden,.in a Poem he recited
on the record,."the Intimate Ellington",.as he plays electric Piano.