Let's keep it Real,..Part 2(of 2) - matt Lavelle's MySpace Blog |

I usually write to find the Gold in everything we do,..but when I examine the stuff that's uncomfortable for people to talk about,read,or think about,.of course the reads and comments go up.Controversy and Confrontation just to do it ain't my bag,.but I've found something here to explore. Unfortunately,.I've found something that could be considered negative.

I'm going to try and write my way through it to the gold on the other side. Just Like how G Cox came up with solutions and perspectives to the darker realities of the jazz world I exposed somewhat Last week....

That being said,.Lets examine the 3 biggest complaints about jazz that I've heard.Anybody reading that has heard others,.I'm sure there are many,.please post them so we explore what's behind them.

When somebody close to me that had zero experience with jazz asked me to show her what Jazz was about,.I played her music from one of my all time favorite cds,..Duke meets Trane,.planning on an instant convert,.How could anybody resist the greatest record of all time?,.I thought. She Listened and after 2 minutes into the second track she said,..IT SOUNDS LIKE A BUNCH OF MISTAKES...

I was shocked and even a little hurt by this reaction. How could something so important to me have a bad impact on another person? I turned the cd off,.Why continue to play it for her if she couldn't hear it... Since then I've heard that description of Jazz many times,.and I'm not even getting into Free Jazz.

A great deal of people are very simple:Just Give them a simple beat,and simple melody,.and lyrics that have something that they can relate to.Offer them no challenge and They're cool. These days,.that might be some really simple shit,.like,."finding numbers in your jeans,..now you know what that means",.(however,.catching somebody cheating on you IS some serious shit...lot of Drama addicts out there) Now then,..If you don't give people that melody,.and show them what it is that your music is about,.then right off you lose millions of people,.who can only hear what must be a bunch of mistakes,.because you didn't feed them,..or I daresay,.spoon feed them,.the deal.

One positive thing about people in general I will mention,.is that that they respond to good Ryhthm.Set up a good groove,.and you can get away with almost anything,.I tried it at Tower once Live.But,..getting back to the adversity in People feeling us,.Do we care? If you're going to play Jazz you probably don't care that much,.but some us do want to reach outside "the box".I care more about people hearing what I hear myself.I hear something in this music that goes deeper than most of what I hear on the radio. Who's Listening to the radio these days anyway? (props to the college radio stations trying to Keep it Real).

Anyway,..How do we fix those "mistakes",.and do we really want to? When I "go for myself",.I'm searching for ideas,.sometimes they come out more clear than other times,.but do I want people to listen to me "play"?,. Yes,.I myself,.do,.and Listening to Trane Go for himself for 30 minutes straight on a Live cut of One Down,.One Up,.makes perfect sense to me,..but unbelievably that would sound like 30 minutes of mistakes to a great many people.

I have written Music with straight melody and Lyrics myself to try and relate to the world more directly,.with simple melodies and Lyrics that mean something to me,.But not everybody wants to hear a song about the coming of the new age in 2012.Speaking of New Age,...nah,..another blog,..I'll ask one of my past Lives to write that one,..or maybe a FUTURE life..

The next complaint I hear also stings.I hear it at Jazz musicians within the Jazz world on each other. "that's just MUSICAL MASTURBATION man!.."..Ok,..I have to cop,..Jazz is a VERY selfish music,. It's all about us. I indeed just said that I'm asking people to listen to me go for myself,.no matter how long or difficult that might be. Sometimes I need to just HUUHHHH! AHHHHHH! vocalize and get down on some James Brown stuff on the top of a Bass Clarinet,.and Some People might not be feeling that,.but I'M feeling it,.so that's all that matters.

Even further,.the line between sex and Music can be really thin.In pop music,.its ALL about sex anyway,..for better or for worse.Accusing somebody of musical masturbation sometimes also means the person is "all chops and no soul",.(chops means technique),.and that's one way some of us separate the music of people we're into and people we're not. In jazz,.we always have a validation for who we like,..accuse Trane of Musical Masturbation.

Well that's not what I hear.What I hear is what I think everybody's afraid of these days,.(themselves). In jazz and free Jazz too,..We all have our Lists of who's music we resonate with,.and who's we don't. It almost always reveals almost everything about a musician.(I respect when people go away from the "Towers",.Miles,Bird,and Trane,and get into another persons message.PAUL GONSALVES)..

A quick dig on Fusion (Smooth Jazz got hit in part 1),.I'll say that a lot of fusion falls under the category of musical masturbation.Con-Fusion it has sometimes been called. But here I will cop to my hypocrisy and admit that Miles Live Evil is one of my all time favorite records. Free Jazz folks and Fusion Folks arguing about who's the real deal would be pretty funny,.especially if we got Wynton to be the judge,.maybe Ill write that as a blog.

Since Jazz seemingly needs to SLEEP with everybody,.When's the free jazz meets fusion movement going to start? How come Jazz meets Hip Hop never took off and got everybody paid except for Blue Note? A Miles Davis quote comes to mind,.. when asked about how he felt in regards to Jazz Meets Classical..Miles said "That's like looking at a woman you don't like naked"..

Lastly,..in a Hilarious You Tube thing I heard the old ..rock band.. Spinal Tap break down Jazz,.."They don't have the balls to play a Melody,.they need to MAN UP and play a f****** song!",.(they also took down SAX players by saying they're the Worst thing in jazz,..since they DONT play a melody WORSE than anyone else)....Ive actually heard these complaints from others. The question here is,.What exactly is a Melody today? How many musicians have thrown out Melody all together,.or are playing a version of it so that only they can see it as melody?

Herbie Hancock did an album not that long ago using today's melodies as his foundation,.and the album was a mixed success. Of course people are still calling the old standards,.we may never be able to grow out of that.For Many people,.reaching themselves is more important than reaching others,.or even reaching other musicians playing with them at the time!

If Melody needs to be discarded or gets in the way,.It's dismissed,.or Deleted (2009).Making a super complex melody is one way to go,.but more for the composer than the Listener,.right? A lot of us are is guilty of not Listening to each other,.and not Listening enough in general.,..Who sounds better than us anyway?

I myself Love Lyricism,.in a free Jazz context,.Its gold to me,.Free Melody for me,..and there are 100 different versions of what I'm talking about all over the world right now as musicians play they're version of what might be under the umbrella of Jazz.

Many European cats are dismissed because they don't swing like us,..but they do swing,.like them! I'll admit that I might not hear their swing,.and just as well,.they may not hear mine.

In the end,.I have to go to Albert Ayler as I always do,..Since Albert took everything I'm talking about to the extreme,.and with him into the next world,.from Spiritual Unity to New Grass.(Albert is getting more play now than he ever did in his Life.)

Albert Ayler: "If they Don't get it now,..they will.."

and finally,.a riddle by Ornette Coleman.(who said he could have saved Albert)

"What's the greatest music of all time?" ...he ask's.

the answer?

"Pop Music" **

This is Matt Lavelle,.signing off,..see you next week,.or in comments,.or at a gig,.Peace..and please check out Ornette Coleman on Saturday Night Live on You Tube for further exploration.This is the end of "lets keep it real"...One question though,..Whens the next MILES BOX SET coming out?

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Keeping it Real 2. Matt Lavelle.