Jazz: Made In America (A tribute to growing up with a legend...my Dad)
It's hard not to get teary eyed and full in the throat thinking about my Dad (God bless you). He's still living and in better shape than me. The older I get the smarter he is (I'm sure I'll be saying that again). I remember growing up and hearing my Dad play 'A Night in Tunisia', on the Steinway piano he had bought me for my birthday (was that gift really for me Dad?). Dizzy Gillespie wrote that classic atop a garbage can in 1942. Dad has many bailiwicks, but one is as a professional piano tuner a dying art. I learned my love of music in this environment. Eventually I got into fusion jazz artists like Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays and the Yellow Jackets etc. Only to peak my curiosity and delve into be-bop and hard-bop. "My era" the era I love most is 1956-1965 the music there was phenomenal Art Blakey (one of my favorite artists),Bud Powell, Lee Morgan, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and on and on that was to me and is jazz at its pinnacle. This page links to some of the greatest performances the world ever has seen .
Jazz was made in America. It is one of the few things that came from an expression of African American's pain and pleasure during the "roaring twenties". If you want to know ' what jazz is' you have to feel it..hear it; it takes you into its' analogous world of tonal expression, colour and dexterity. It has evolved and progressed only to be infused into R&B, Pop and the Hip-Hop culture. I was recently (this summer) at the Atlanta Jazz Festival with 10,000 other jazz lovers. Me, Big Brother and Cousin Neda, we got to see Billy Harper (another favorite), Patrice Rushen and the great Herbie Hancock. I called my Dad from the greens while Herbie was playing, he said "I've been watching Herbie on YouTube!" (the internet is great). Once my Dad and I went to see McCoy Tyner perform, I had a great time Dad (a precious memory). Jazz is truly an American art form and I really love my Dad, thank you for a life that has been so much richer with music as apart of it.
Your toe-tapping son,
Bycha Buxton
buxtonbycha@aol.com
Comments
My father is a jazz fanatic to the point that I am not allowed nor is my mother to touch his vinyl jazz collection he has in their house. He is a collector of great music and he cherishes all the musicians he has met during his time. His childhood friend is Bob Cranshaw who is a bass player who used to play with Sesame Street. Bob tours with Sonny Rollins till this day. Jazz oozes from them in everything they do.
Growing up in a household of jazz in the beginning I rebelled from listening to it because that was all my father played while my mother played classical, opera and gospel. Listening to these different genres of music always allowed me to keep an open mind.
Unfortunately though I was informed that many jazz musicians feel as though jazz is dying in America. Do you think this is so?! I thought many of these hip hop artists were trying to fuse the two genres to introduce the kiddies back int he 80s to jazz?! This is why I adore A Tribe Called Quest. Thanks for sharing an informative post as always!!
Through the 90's labels like MoWax run by James Lavelle and Coldcuts Ninja Tunes label continued the jazz and funk break inspired music but mixed it with more experimental electronica. Giles Peterson then launched the Brownswood label which he used to promote jazz funk fusions by artists from all over the planet, breaking new artists material by putting out compilation albums to give exposure to many at once. Ashley and Kevin Beadle had great success with Soul Jazz records and Mr Bongo records in London's Soho which catered for Latin Jazz lovers and Brazilian Beat fanatics as well as selling albums by artsists like Fela Kuti and Terry Callier, often for prices in the region of £100.00 - it it was old and rare - it was expensive.......
Since the turn of the millennium, the UK is still really into jazz funk soul in all its fused guises, those styles are not going to die out in Little England, not for a very very very long time. I hope the states don't lose it either, it's too good to let go. These styles never make the Top 40 charts in the UK but up and down the country, the music is being heard by the masses in clubs, pubs and bars and it always will i am sure of that.
The UK also have a passion for french acts like mc solar, la funk mob and daft punk - and lets face it, where would those 3 acts be without the jazz breaks and funk stabs that they tore out of american jazz recordings?
The UK also adore the US scene and many US acts in the heyday of Motown said they got more support from the population of the UK than they did in the US. Public Enemy, NWA, Tribe Called Quest, Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation were huge in the UK and again, if you played 'Lesson 1, 2 or 3 in a UK club the place would erupt and smiles would adorn many faces. Play 'Can you Feel it' or 'I need you love' by the chicago masters of soulful house and a similar response will ensue. The UK scene is essentially the global scene, we love it all and we don't care who made it or where they are from, we just appreciate the art.
The rhythm, the bass lines, the mood and the love of jazz music will never die.