[Dixielandjazz] Another view of "Tribute" Bands

[Mike Durham]

>From: Stephen Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
>Reply-To: barbonestreet at earthlink.net
Steve, I have just read three similar reviews in the U.K. based "Jazz 
Review" magazine, all with critics scolding musicians or singers for 
performing/recording older material. My reaction? Where do these people get 
off, telling artists what to play or how to play it? If the musicians in 
question are genuinely drawn to the older, classic material, that's their 
prerogative. And if they are cynically playing it (maybe at the behest of 
their record companies) to make big bucks, then doesn't this suggest that 
they are merely supplying what the record-buying public wants? If these 
tributes and recreations didn't sell, I doubt we'd be seeing so many of 
them. Pro musicians need to make a living, and record companies need to sell 
records. The wonder is that either of them bother at all with a minority 
music like jazz. Shouldn't reviewers stick to telling us whether a record is 
good at achieving at what it sets out to do, musically, rather than blasting 
its producers for not setting out to do something else entirely in the first 
place? This all smacks of the craze for "progress" at all costs: as another 
critic pointed out, progress ain't always good: a hot bath progresses to 
grow cold, and the delicious meal you just ate is busily progressing its way 
to becoming........well, I think that makes a point.

Off now to record a tribute album to Ted Lewis!

MikeD


>To: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Another view of "Tribute" Bands
>Date: Sun, 02 Nov 2003 09:45:06 -0500
>
>Here is an interesting article about "Tribute Bands" and the "health" of
>Jazz. It is a review of saxophonist James Carter and his "tribute" to
>Billie Holiday. The article is long, not specifically OKOM. That being
>said, it offers one man's view of one of the things he thinks is wrong
>with jazz these days and parallels can easily be drawn about OKOM. IMO,
>worth the read whether you agree with it or not.
>
>Cheers,
>Steve Barbone
>
>
>Sun, Nov. 02, 2003 - Philadelphia Inquirer
>
>Jazz's tribute-itis: What about present, future?
>
>The strings and horns are tangled in a heap. They wail like wounded
>animals, afraid and brutalized, in an outburst designed to decisively
>punctuate James Carter's version of "Strange Fruit," the Billie Holiday
>classic about racial lynching.
>
>The sonic punishment lasts more than a minute, and as you listen, one
>thought is inescapable: This is, without a doubt, the 2003 edition of
>"Strange Fruit." Loud and outsized. Raw. Extravagant in tone and
>temperament, it's a sharp contrast to the desolate, sorrow-filled
>silences Holiday used more than 50 years ago to tell the tale.
>
>The trouble begins when the flash of daring noise dies down. For
>surrounding "Strange Fruit" on Carter's first effort in three years,
>Gardenias for Lady Day (Columbia **), are well-meaning and overly polite
>period pieces, stately ballads, and gentle swing tunes that try to
>wrestle with the late jazz singer's lingering influence.
>
>That's right, it's another breathlessly reverent jazz tribute. Another
>chance for a fully credentialed and well-regarded rising star to show he
>knows the history, respects the classics, understands where his
>inspiration came from.
>
>Blah, blah, blah. Cue up "Thanks for the Memory" here.
>
>It's easy to be impressed by Carter's relaxed, Lester Young-like
>virtuosity and sheer saxophonistic prowess. The Detroit-born musician,
>who is 34, plays a range of instruments, and brings a unique, sometimes
>impish character to each one. But after hearing him interpret four songs
>recorded by Holiday and others of the era he thinks she would have liked
>(among them the Billy Strayhorn ballad "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing"),
>one problem with current jazz becomes clear:
>
>This guy and a bunch of his peers are so busy tipping the hat to those
>cherished icons, they've almost completely abandoned music that reflects
>and embodies the present. They're pursuing a long-lost, gentle-age
>ideal, and stubbornly refusing to engage what's happening around them.
>
>Maybe the tribute disease is a lingering side-effect of jazz's
>transition from club to concert hall, where the all-star
>honor-the-greats show is a sure draw. Or perhaps it's another symptom of
>the fear that defines the record business: Today's executives will talk
>earnestly all day long about the important legacy of John Coltrane, but
>seem disinclined to subsidize the work and development of the next
>influential thinker.
>
>  Add them up, and these tributes begin to look like a threat to the very
>health of the form.
>
>Weighed down with the baggage of history, obligated to it in ways those
>who made the history never were, the jazz musician is now stuck
>rehashing (or, in some cases, regurgitating) the old glories, hoping
>that the mere association with a legend will generate sufficient luster
>- or lucre.
>
>Those who have followed Carter's career, which began in the early '90s
>with several records that mixed standards and thoughtful original
>compositions, cannot be cheered by Gardenias.
>
>After all, his previous release, in 2000, consisted of two discs, one an
>intermittently interesting electric jam, the other a skillfully
>understated homage to guitarist Django Reinhardt titled Chasin' the
>Gypsy. Though he's been touted as a major talent, Carter hasn't put
>together a collection that displays his vision of a jazz future. If you
>believe the hype, he's a promising firebrand. If you listen to the
>music, you hear him pouring that promise into routine evocations of
>stuff that's been done, and done better, before.
>
>To be fair, the decision might not be all Carter's. The jazz-record
>business is one of slim margins in the best of times, and lately the
>major labels haven't been eager to subsidize new composition-based
>projects. His new label, Columbia, might not have pressured Carter to do
>something "classic." But surely the Gardenias concept - like that of
>similarly themed "celebrations" cluttering the new-release rack this
>year, from Bette Midler (!) singing Rosemary Clooney to trombonist Steve
>Turre pondering the influence of slideman J.J. Johnson - was easy for
>those who sign the checks to fathom. Hardly a recipe for art.
>
>Carter would do well to study Pat Martino's screaming new Think Tank
>(Blue Note ***1/2). The Philadelphia-based guitarist has said that
>Coltrane was an inspiration for the music, which contains knotty chord
>sequences that distantly suggest the master's "sheets of sound" period,
>as well as freer explorations built on the simple modes the saxophonist
>used later in his development.
>
>But there's never the sense that Martino and his all-star crew -
>Philly-native bassist Christian McBride, saxophonist Joe Lovano (whose
>discography includes canny tributes to Sinatra and Enrico Caruso, among
>others), pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and drummer Louis Nash - are out to
>redo anything the legend did. Instead, they cultivate an atmosphere of
>daring, and brighten each of Martino's compositions with a hint of
>irreverence.
>
>Extended impromptu flights come tumbling out of simple melodic motifs,
>and the written road maps give rise to spirited, multilayered
>conversations. The music crackles with the vitality and contentiousness
>of city life - it might have been born after a hectic rush-hour commute
>through midtown on the New York subway. But it's never some throwback.
>Martino and his crew are riding the current trains, sleek and purposeful
>and totally on time in the present, and, thankfully, the players never
>seem to long for the rattletraps those beboppers of the '50s used to
>ride.
>
>
>
>
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