Free Jazz and the Post-Punk Scene...
by Ellery Eskelin
This article was originally published in Signal to Noise, spring 1998
I've been noticing quite a bit of renewed interest in jazz and improvised music stateside
lately, much of it originating from the punk scene and it's various offshoots. A
connection has been made between punk and the free thing which has introduced a whole new audience to this music. Some promising trends have developed including increased
airplay for new music at college radio stations and more opportunities for bands
to tour in the US. At least at the grassroots level things are a little better than
they've been in some time.
I've also noticed that much of this new interest has been focused on the
music and philosophies associated with free jazz of the 1960's. Part of
the appeal has to do with the fact that free jazz is regarded as a non-mainstream
music that has successfully resisted being coopted by the
music business at large. What's being missed however is that within the
jazz world a very strong case could be made that the free thing has in fact become
mainstream. After all, it's a music that has been around for at least thirty five
years. Most of us are well aware of the debate between the so called neo-conservative
and avant-guard camps as to who is playing "real jazz" and who is merely copying established
styles. That debate is built around the concept that traditional jazz and 60s free
jazz represent polar opposites, mutually exclusive of each other. This mode of thought really ceased to be relevant after the late 60s but for some reason still persists.
It's an outdated paradigm that has little resemblance to the reality of the scene
today. Why should one group of musicians be criticized for playing in forty five
year old styles by another group playing in thirty five year old styles?
We first need to realize that free jazz was in fact part of the continuum of jazz
as a whole and secondly that it has become codified as a style. There are many musicians
who continue to work with the language in an effort to move that music forward. They
generally posses an attitude of open mindedness that is often at odds with the attitudes
associated with the current neo-conservative movement. On the other hand I'm already
hearing talk about the "correct" way to play free jazz and I've also noticed some grumbling from free players about other types of new music. I recall jamming with
a drummer once who complained that my ideas were creating "ruptures" in the music.
Not considering myself a true practitioner of free jazz I was not personally offended.
Not too long ago a critic wrote that my duo performance with drummer Han Bennink at one
point moved into the arena of free jazz "but with humor and without religion". That's
an intriguing statement . It seems to point to an awareness that we were doing something a little different. To my surprise several musicians who read that review tried
to console me, thinking that it was a slight on the part of the writer. In as much
as free jazz has become an idiom we seem to have arrived at an idiomatic way to play.
Exacerbating this situation is the fact that the false dichotomy of "tradition versus the avant guard" is still being furiously manipulated by the jazz
media in an attempt to keep selling magazines while waiting
for the next jazz messiah to come along. In reality, the scene has become so fragmented
since the late 60s that no one person could possibly command the attention of the
public or the community of musicians long enough to be that influential. That however
is one of the most appealing things about today's music. It does not exist within
the polar opposites portrayed by the media but is instead going in myriad directions
at once with many individual musicians charting personal courses based on their own
views of history and their influences from outside the jazz tradition. If there's any unifying
principle in today's music the word multifarious comes to mind.
We've progressed to the point where discussions about development in music must begin
to reassess the implications raised by free jazz in terms of what it means to create
a new sound and even what it means to be original. Free jazz offered us a new musical vocabulary but it's meaning is not fixed in time. One of the concerns of the so called
avant guard of today is the recontextualization of existing ideas. One could argue
that all the new sounds have already been created and the idea now is to put them
together in ways that have not yet been heard. Personally I am attracted to both philosophies,
constantly searching for new language but equally interested in combining that language
with known elements. There's currently a feeling among many musicians, myself included, that all of the elements are finally "on the table" and we can now get
on with the business of making music out of everything at our disposal.
Many fans are just now discovering free jazz while many writers are still referring
to it as "today's music" but the reality is that free jazz has become just as much
of an historical entity as bebop has. Musicians are either breaking away it from
or they are utilizing it's language in new ways. The neo-conservatives took the stance of
rejecting free jazz completely. Fortunately, many other musicians have realized that
going forward means employing more options and choices, not less. I'm glad that a
new generation of listeners are embracing this great music but I don't want to see them buy
into the old "us against them" mentality. It's all part of one dynamic musical history.
I was only a kid in the 1960's but I was keenly aware of the dynamic of that time.
I had a slightly different take on things than the nation at large however. To me
jazz musicians represented the true counter-culture. They embodied the spirit of
freedom and invention. Their music made sense to me in a world that often did not. We must realize
that these ideals will not survive in a music that becomes codified to the point
where continued growth is no longer possible. Keep in mind that my criticisms are
not directed towards anyone's work but are meant to expose the fallacies associated with
an outdated way of thinking that can lead only to stagnation. So be very wary of
the idea that free jazz is at one end of an equation with more conservative jazz
at the other. It's a dangerous trap.
Ellery Eskelin
NYC January, 1998
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