- “Paper Tiger Blues”, Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls, live performance, 2017
- “Ja”, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Nice Guys, ECM, 1979, recorded 1978
- “Potato Head Blues”, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven, Okeh Records, recorded May 1927
- “Wilbur’s Red Cross”, Wilbur Ware, Super Bass, Wilbur Ware Institute, 2012, recorded January 1968
- “Close to Me”, John Young Trio, Young John Young, Argo, 1957, recorded 1956
- “So in Love”, Paula Greer, Introducing Paula Greer, Workshop Jazz, 1963
- “All the Things You Are”, Jodie Christian, Experience, Delmark, 1992, recorded 1991 and 1992
- “Hours After”, Sun Ra and his Arkestra, Jazz in Silhouette, El Saturn, 1959
- “Bermuda Blues”, Henry Threadgill Sextett, You Know the Number, RCA, 1986
- “Maghostut” Ernest Dawkins New Horizons Ensemble, South Side Street Songs, Silkheart, 1993
Of the many throughlines I found when compiling my playlist, the issue of tradition vs. innovation I found to be especially apparent. Each of these artists dealt with balancing the aesthetics of the old and the new while forging their artistic path and crafting their legacy. Each artist dealt with these things differently as well. Some were more focused on commercialism and marketability and some felt that these things were antithetical to their music. Regardless, each artist fell onto a spectrum of profitability. Things such as how original, beautiful, influential, or avant-garde a piece of art is are not quantifiable like profits are, but these values are subjective.
Being a jazz musician inherently involves a certain amount of sacrifice. No one has ever become a jazz musician with the vision of becoming financially wealthy. As such, all of these artists understood that pursuing their artistic vision was a risk in itself. This is why I believe that the interplay of tradition vs. innovation coexists with the economic theory of risk vs. reward that everyone faces working within a capitalist system. Every artistic innovation began as a risk and became a reward for the artist. However, the more risk an artist takes does not always result in a reward financially or artistically.
First, I would like to expand upon what both tradition and innovation generally mean in an artistic sense. These terms are not at odds with each other. The opposite is actually true; they rely on each other to remain intact. Tradition does not necessarily refer to artistic stagnation but rather foundation and dialogue. Tradition often involves re-engagement with the past and reinterpretation to fit with the present world. In the case of jazz, innovation is a tradition in itself. Tradition can be viewed as an act of nostalgia, but also a questioning and/or expanding upon what has been done in the past. Innovation is not merely about newness for its own sake but about pushing the boundaries about what art and music can be and/or do. Ideals of innovation include challenging the status quo, exploring uncharted territory and using technology to change how art and music are created. Tradition and innovation have a symbiotic relationship, and in order for innovation to take place, there must be a response or reaction to a set of traditional norms.
One of my mentors, saxophonist Ernest ‘Khabeer’ Dawkins, often discusses innovation and tradition on the bandstand when he has hired me to play in his band. The way he discusses it however, are in terms that are often difficult to understand and seemingly contradictory, but it is clear that there are no contradictions in his mind. He will maintain that his musicians have to understand the past. He talks about the value of knowing what has been played on records such as specific parts, arrangements, tunes, etc. Yet, in the same breath, he will emphasize in strong terms the importance of being creative and not using “recycled” material. He will say things like “Ain’t nobody want to hear it played the way Miles (Davis) played it. He played it already.” One thing that Dawkins often says is that “this ain’t no by rote music”, meaning that you cannot learn it by merely repeating what has already been done. I have understood this to mean that you must have a deep connection to and understanding of the tradition, but that in itself is not enough. Rather, you have to use that knowledge and connection to the tradition to inform your own innovations.
In the music of all of these artists, it is clear that each of them had an understanding of the tradition and has dealt with it and thought about it on a deep level. Perhaps some of them chose paths more informed by the desire to innovate than others, but each of them manifested their connection to the tradition clearly. The interplay of tradition and innovation can be heard by Chicago jazz musicians in the sound of their music, their influences, and both their socioeconomic and musical backgrounds.
My first choice for this playlist is a live performance from Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls of Sirota’s tune “Paper Tiger Blues.” This performance represents a lineage of Chicago musicians that came up under the mentorship of several Chicago legends such as Von Freeman and Lin Halliday. Ted Sirota and his band explore free playing at a fast tempo in the tradition of Ornette Coleman, where there is a constant tempo but no pre-set form or chord changes. Since this style of playing was pioneered by Ornette’s band in the late ‘50s, there have been numerous discourses about the validity and necessity of free playing in jazz. Moreover, Sirota’s band is characterized by a rebellious nature, both in the band’s name and their playing. This is manifested by the highly energetic fast and bold playing. Sirota explores the dichotomy of tradition and innovation by purporting a rebellious ethos, while also adhering to a tradition in jazz of rebelling against norms. I find the band’s use of extended techniques such as effects and whatnot to be an especially compelling means of communicating their attitude of dissent. This recorded live performance features Geof Bradfield on tenor saxophone, Greg Ward on alto saxophone, Mike Allemana on guitar, John Sims on bass, and Ted Sirota on drums
My next recording is entitled “Ja” by the Art Ensemble of Chicago from their seminal 1979 record Nice Guys. This recording represents a progressive attitude towards music-making and an openness to incorporating aspects of other genres. The band doesn’t manifest a disregard or a resistance to the tradition of jazz, but rather considers it only an aspect of their influence among other musical traditions. Since their inception in the mid-sixties on the South Side of Chicago, the Art Ensemble has engaged what they simply refer to as “creative music.” This resistance to categorization is reminiscent of many earlier artists who refused to use the label “jazz” to describe their music such as Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. The album Nice Guys came after a five-year recording hiatus during which the band traveled throughout Europe and explored different musical practices. On this track, they embrace a reggae groove and mix it with improvisation in more of a jazz style. This track and the Art Ensemble of Chicago represents a part of a lineage of Black Chicago musicians who refused to pledge allegiance to jazz or any genre and a desire to transcend creative restriction. This recording features Lester Bowie on trumpet, celeste, and bass drum; Joseph Jarman on saxophones, clarinets, percussion, and vocals; Roscoe Mitchell on saxophones, clarinets, flute, and percussion; Malachi Favors Maghostut on bass, percussion, and melodica; and Famoudou Don Moye on drums, percussion, and vocals.
Next I chose “Potato Head Blues”, which was one of Louis Armstrong’s Hot Seven recordings. This recording is interesting to me because I think it shows how ahead-of-the-time Louis Armstrong’s rhythmic and melodic phrasing was. The clarinetist on the track, Johnny Dodds, plays very consistently on top of the beat and with the tuba and drums (played by Pete Briggs and Baby Dodds respectively.) In contrast, Armstrong phrases all around the beat, but many times he plays behind the beat. This would inform how practically every jazz musician after him would play. Moreover, Armstrong often starts his phrases on upbeats, which would become characteristic of the playing of Charlie Parker. This track also features several moments of stop-time where the band would stop and either Armstrong or Johnny Dodds would play by themself. Stop-time sections also became very common in later jazz. Additional personnel for this track included Lil Hardin Armstrong (piano), and Johnny St. Cyr (banjo and guitar).
Wilbur Ware has been my favorite bassists in jazz ever since I spent several hours comping along with his lines on Sonny Rollins’ Village Vanguard recordings. I soon found he played on some of my favorite records from Rollins, Sonny Clark, Thelonious Monk, and Johnny Griffin. His playing was highly melodic and completely inventive and would go on to be a major influence on bass players such as Charlie Haden and Richard Davis. Super Bass was recorded in New York in 1968 but wasn’t released until 2012. It featured Ed Blackwell, Don Cherry, and fellow Chicago native Clifford Jordan. This track, Ware’s “Red Cross,” is the same as Charlie Parker’s “Red Cross” with a few note changes. It is a mid-tempo Rhythm Changes in C and everyone in the band is extremely swinging, free, and melodic. One thing I find interesting is how the Chicago school of avant-garde playing is different from New York’s, or in Ed Blackwell’s case, New Orleans. Musicians like Ware and Jordan brought an unapologetic Chicago sound to New York and both were undoubtedly influenced by Walter Dyett. In Arthur Cromwell’s dissertation (1998), Jimmy Ellis discusses how Dyatt had a philosophical side and how he was concerned with the mental aspect of playing music. Perhaps this metaphysical thinking rubbed off on the playing of some of his former students.
Next I chose John Young’s original ballad “Close to Me” from his trio album Young John Young (1957), which features Young on piano, Herbert Brown on bass, and Larry Jackson on drums. By the time this album was recorded, Young was in his mid-thirties and had reached a maturity in his playing after working as a sideman around Chicago and leading a group at the Kitty Kat club on Sixty-Third street for two years and at the Beehive club before that. Young was one of many Chicago jazz stars who came up under the tutelage of Captain Walter Dyett at DuSable High School. Prior to taking this class, I was unfamiliar with the playing of John Young and after checking out this record, I have found his playing to be extremely swinging, dynamic, and lyrical. He has a “happy” swing feel resembling that of Wynton Kelly or Erroll Garner. Throughout the record the trio plays involved arrangements in the style of Garner and Ahmad Jamal with more hard-bop style blowing. Joe Segal, who was a jazz columnist at the time, wrote the liner notes for Young John Youngand described “Close to Me” as a “relaxed groove; the kind of groove that in a relaxed intimate spot leads to the happy ringing of the cash register.” This is interesting because Segal, who would soon own a jazz club of his own, implies that John Young made music that was profitable, or more specifically, music that would encourage people to buy drinks.
Next I chose a recording from vocalist Paula Greer, who spent her forty-year career performing around Chicago but was rarely recorded. When Motown president Barry Gordy tried to start a jazz label, he made Greer his flagship artist. She recorded only once in her career with the short-lived label with Introducing Paula Greer from 1963. This recording of Cole Porter’s “So in Love” was featured on this LP. I chose this recording because I found it to be profoundly strange. Greer’s vocal choices are extremely over-the-top with her liberal use of vibrato and melisma and dramatic phrasing of the lyrics. Considering Barry Gordy’s hands-on approach to production, it can be inferred that he had influenced how Greer made her voice sound on this recording. It was only on my third listen that I noticed the guitar, which is very low in the mix; probably because of the incessant soloing under Greer throughout the track. It also took me a few listens to notice that it sounds like the bass player goes into walking swing halfway through the first A while the drummer asserts that it is still the latin section. These things in combination with Greer’s animated singing style make for an odd recording in my opinion. Perhaps her performance style was more well-suited to the stage than the studio, and perhaps Gordy’s approach was better suited to mainstream R&B.
I picked the next track from Jodie Christian’s 1992 debut album on Delmark records mostly because I love drummer Vincent Davis’s playing on this album. I have met Davis a couple of times and many of my friends go to his house and play with and learn from him relatively often. His playing is so fluid, swinging and unique on this recording. Davis, bassist Larry Gray, and Jodie Christian have an extremely strong rhythmic connection on this, which I think make it so compelling at such a slow tempo. You can feel a constant three-over-four polyrhythm and heavy use of triplets in all of their playing which makes it sound somewhat Afro-Cuban. Jodie Christian has a very smooth and relaxed eighth-note feel at this tempo as well. I believe this recording relates to our discussions about tradition vs. innovation. Christian surely must have considered this when deciding to make an album of mostly standards in a post-bop style, even after helping to build the AACM, which was more about breaking tradition. Christian was definitely one of those musicians who was well-versed in many musical traditions and was able to fit into a wide range of the jazz spectrum. On this recording he plays the tune relatively straight-ahead with no flashy arrangement, but makes enough small changes to the tune with his rhythmic phrasing, tempo and harmonic substitutions to make it sound new and not played-out.
After listening to Sun Ra’s Jazz in Silhouette from 1959, I decided to choose the opening track, “Hours After.” Having been exposed to mostly Sun Ra’s later albums that were more on the avant-garde side, it was interesting to hear the Arkestra play in a style that was much more straight-ahead. The sound is extremely reminiscent and in the tradition of the hard swinging big bands like those of Ellington and Basie. This track and the entire album are still very forward thinking, but I think Sun Ra had a very distinctive way of considering the past, present and future in his music. This track is a manifestation of how Sun Ra was not only firmly planted in the tradition of jazz, but on the leading edge of it. The main thing that caught my interest with this album was how the packaging was seemingly at odds with the music. The album cover and song titles are suggestive of something much more out-there than what the music on its own is. “After Hours” is patently straight-ahead swing. Perhaps Sun Ra wanted to use this album to both develop an audience of straight-ahead jazz fans while also foreshadowing his endeavors into the spacier avant-garde he’d come to be known for when he moved the Arkestra to New York. It is definitely difficult to describe most of the tracks on this album as sounding otherworldly. If anything, it sounds Earthy. This album features Hobart Dotson on trumpet; Pat Patrick on baritone sax, flute, and percussion; Charles Davis on baritone sax and percussion; John Gilmore on tenor sax and percussion; William Cochran on drums; Marshall Allen on alto sax and flute; James Spaulding on alto sax, flute, percussion; Ronnie Boykins on bass; and Bo Bailey on trombone.
Henry Threadgill’s “Bermuda Blues” from his Sextett’s 1986 record You Know the Number on RCA Novus was recorded at Uptown Chelsea Sound, New York City on October 12 & 13, 1986. The album features Threadgill on woodwinds, Frank Lacy on trombone, Rasul Saddik on trumpet, Deirdre Murray on cello, Fred Hopkins on bass, and Reggie Nicholson and Pheeroan akLaff on percussion. “Bermuda Blues” is the opening and makes a great one for its heavy groove, loose energy and intensity. I love how it follows the AACM tradition of fusing different styles. It is a Caribbean style groove and vibe but is still very swinging and bluesy. I also like how Threadgill orchestrates the melody. It begins in unison and then branches out into three part harmony. I also find the bass playing by Fred Hopkins to be especially compelling. He leaves a lot of space and plays some rhythmically interesting fills and responses to the melody. He also takes a great solo towards the middle of the recording.
My final selection is from a recording from my mentor Ernest Dawkins and his New Horizons Ensemble’s 1994 album “South Side Street Songs.” The title of the album is a clear homage to the music of the South Side of Chicago and its role in the South Side community. This music wasn’t necessarily being performed on the street, but I can imagine it is a reference to the fact that the music was composed for the close-knit South Side community. The tune I chose from this record was Dawkins’ composition “Maghostut,” dedicated to bassist Malachi Favors and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The tune is clearly inspired by the sound of the Art Ensemble in its combination of straight-ahead jazz aesthetics and its more progressive aspects. For instance, it is very swinging and bluesy and sounds somewhat like something from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Then there is some experimentation with shifting tempo and use of extended instrumental techniques which suggests an approach of innovation. This recording features Ernest Dawkins on alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, and flute; Steve Berry on trombone; Ameen Muhammad on trumpet, Jeff Parker on electric guitar, Yosef Ben Israel on bass, and Avreeayl Ra on drums.
Solomon Lindenberg is a fourth-year pianist at the University of Illinois-Chicago in the Jazz Studies program. When not playing gigs, teaching piano lessons or listening to music, Solomon enjoys spending time outside in nature and taking photographs.
Sources
Cromwell, Arthur Carrall. 1998. “Jazz Mecca: An Ethnographic Study of Chicago’s South Side Jazz Community.” Ph.D. Diss., Ohio University.