[Dixielandjazz] FREE JAZZ CF. Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 214, Issue 5

[ROBERT Calder]

Do you ken FREE JAZZ with its key that strays
and notes that wander in peculiar ways
too liable  listeners to faze
and leave them staggering lost in a haze

Do you ken FREE JAZZ with its phrases that reel
like the player was walking on banana peel
and strike paying customers as a very poor deal ...
not appreciating but scorning

for the sound of some horns is like slack balloons played
with a rasp and fart which have often dismayed
so customers have asked why nobody displayed
at the venue door a warning ????

I am sure some English trad bands have recorded versions of
"D'ye ken John Peel?"  (the verses are for fun, I'm not condemning any 
musicians).

The balloon reference I remembered from a review of Albert Ayler.
I also remember a dreadful young lady introducing jazz films on British 
TV (Channel 4, when it was new)
and saying what a shame it was there had been no film of poor Ayler, who 
had not long before departed this life.
She was saying that because of the omission they were stuck with a film 
of a player she insisted was "minor",
something she repeated.  "Minor".

Maybe some of us have heard of this "minor" performer?
His name was WILD BILL DAVISON . . .
but his rasp was deliberate and precisely expressive!

Robert R. Calder



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