Creed #1

[Finally, Eric Reed's (ericreed.net) first entry in his column. As I said, the idea's stated in this article are Eric's, not mine. If you care to comment about anything that he has written, do so in the comments, do not send an e-mail directly to me.

And, From November 14th -- 19th, Tuesday thru Sunday, Eric will be blowing into the Midwest to play at Chicago's legendary Jazz Showcase(http://www.jazzshowcase.com/). Actually, it's Chicago - so she might just blow back!]

Since I first started learning this music back in the ‘70s, I’ve noticed a general attitude that has surfaced that seems to permeate the contemporary Jazz scene today which concerns the idea of the existence of a curriculum: “Why should I know Charlie Parker’s solo on Ko-Ko? Nobody plays that way anymore; nobody even plays Cherokee anymore. Hell, cats aren’t even swinging anymore!”

Though I am loathe to make this hackneyed comparison for the sake of legitimacy, I am once again compelled to do just that: in the field of centuries-old European Art music, it is simply accepted that there are great composers and works, from Bach forward, that are to be revered by anybody entering into the field, be they performers, conductors, composers, teachers or what have you. Generally, this notion is considered unimpeachable.

A typical response would opine that Jazz is partly about freedom and “nobody should tell me that I can’t play it if I don’t know Duke Ellington’s music.” This point-of-view is extremely valid. Likewise, in European Art music, they won’t tell you that you can’t play because you don’t know Beethoven, but you WILL learn Beethoven if you expect any kind of validation.

Why shouldn’t Jazz, just like any other music, have a universally accepted repertoire of works that is globally appreciated and more importantly, respected? It’s an art form worthy of being passed on from one generation to the next, securing the eternal awareness of its earliest and greatest pioneers such as Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke and the like. If Coleman Hawkins was good enough for Sonny Rollins and Wayne Shorter, it should certainly benefit the rest of us, but currently, we seemed to have embarked upon an artistic impasse at which this has ceased to be the tenor – if you’ll excuse the pun.

Yielding to a generalized curriculum legitimizes masters and their works as significant, not just to musicians, but to anybody who ever asks, “What is Jazz?” Those of us who love and respect the music and its practitioners should rally together to preserve as much of the greatness about Jazz in whatever way possible. Thelonious Monk’s piano playing was never my favorite, but don’t think for a second that I don’t recognize the genius of his work on the recently released 1957 Carnegie Hall concert. I made a choice, based on everything that I’ve listened to, that Monk is part of the barometer by which Jazz piano should be measured and he, like many others are to be acknowledged and honored for their contributions.