At 12:49 PM -0500 5/23/02, Jamin Hoffman wrote:
The "History of Jazz" course should be a little easier. It's based on the
Ken Burns video series, and uses the video a lot throughout the curriculum
(which has already established).
Careful, there, as the Ken Burns series is great until about
1960, where Stanley Crouch and his ilk take over, basically ignoring
everything except some lame commercial stuff, and using that as the
basis of saying that everything after 1960 sucked. You need to cover a
bunch of stuff that Burns simply left out. I append the pertinent
section of a review of the series, I will forward the entire text to
you if you want, (but you probably don't!)
(from Mike Zilber's review of the series):
Just what did Ken
and Wynton leave out? Lets start with the 60s, the decade in which,
according to Burns/Marsalis, jazz lost its way. From Bossa Nova to
Albert Ayler, an almost inconceivable range of Jazz was created in
that landmark decade. Let's focus in on just three of the groups from
the decade when jazz "lost its way". Most working jazz musicians
consider that the hardest chunk of music to master is the music which
began in about 1959 with Coltrane, Bill Evans and Miles Davis. They
recognize that the extraordinary level of freedom AND control of
materials exhibited by the Davis quintet, the Coltrane quartet and the
Evans trio is unsurpassed and a rich lode of material for further
development. The exceptional level of interplay and rich harmonic
development by the Evans trio has informed everyone from Hancock to
Corea to Jarrett to current star Brad Mehldau. The amazing
conversations, break neck tempos, superimposed rhythms and densely
free chromaticism of the Davis quintet has shaped every band from
Woody Shaw to Dave Douglas to Wallace Roney to Tim Hagans. The
powerful cantorial tenor of Coltrane the volcanic dialogues with Elvin
Jones, the stretched harmonies of Tyner's insistent fourths have
marked every tenor player since Coltrane, including Wayne Shorter,
Liebman, Mike Brecker, Kenny Garrett and Wynton's brother.
Then we get to the 70s. I know it is not PC to say it, but the 1970s had a wealth of phenomenal music. Like the 30s, and the 50s, it was a time when the music became widely popular, with records such as Herbie Hancock's Headhunters and Weather Report's Heavy Weather selling a million copies each. Like the 30s and the 50s, one has to separate the wheat from the chaff - so just as one makes a qualitative distinction between Count Basie and Glenn Miller, one needs to make a qualitative distinction between Grover Washington'' "Mr. Magic" and Weather Report's "The Juggler".
Incredibly, Burns, in his penurious allotment of post 1965 music (7 tunes), picks "Mr. Magic", Hancock's "Rockit" and Weather Report's "Birdland" as three of the seven tunes. That would be like picking Paul McCartney doing "Till there was you" as representative of the music of the Beatles. Meanwhile a whole wealth of brilliant material from the decade is omitted, including far more stellar representations by Hancock and Weather Report. It may seem hard to believe, but on Burns' companion CD the following artists don't make the cut in this Pravdaesque retelling of jazz's last 40 years: Chick Corea, John Mclaughlin, Keith Jarrett, Oregon, Jaco Pastorius, Joe Henderson, Pat Metheney, Anthony Braxton, Steps Ahead, John Abercrombie, John Scofield, Dave Holland, Jan Garbarek, Lifetime, Dave Liebman, Mike Brecker, Joe Lovano ... aww shit, it's too depressing to go on. And yet, Burns finds time to include Wynton's vanity project, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra doing a cover of Take The A Train. Paging George Orwell; Mr. Orwell, there's a package from Mr. Burns and Mr. Marsalis for you at the front desk. George Orwell to the front counter, please.
Then we get to the 70s. I know it is not PC to say it, but the 1970s had a wealth of phenomenal music. Like the 30s, and the 50s, it was a time when the music became widely popular, with records such as Herbie Hancock's Headhunters and Weather Report's Heavy Weather selling a million copies each. Like the 30s and the 50s, one has to separate the wheat from the chaff - so just as one makes a qualitative distinction between Count Basie and Glenn Miller, one needs to make a qualitative distinction between Grover Washington'' "Mr. Magic" and Weather Report's "The Juggler".
Incredibly, Burns, in his penurious allotment of post 1965 music (7 tunes), picks "Mr. Magic", Hancock's "Rockit" and Weather Report's "Birdland" as three of the seven tunes. That would be like picking Paul McCartney doing "Till there was you" as representative of the music of the Beatles. Meanwhile a whole wealth of brilliant material from the decade is omitted, including far more stellar representations by Hancock and Weather Report. It may seem hard to believe, but on Burns' companion CD the following artists don't make the cut in this Pravdaesque retelling of jazz's last 40 years: Chick Corea, John Mclaughlin, Keith Jarrett, Oregon, Jaco Pastorius, Joe Henderson, Pat Metheney, Anthony Braxton, Steps Ahead, John Abercrombie, John Scofield, Dave Holland, Jan Garbarek, Lifetime, Dave Liebman, Mike Brecker, Joe Lovano ... aww shit, it's too depressing to go on. And yet, Burns finds time to include Wynton's vanity project, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra doing a cover of Take The A Train. Paging George Orwell; Mr. Orwell, there's a package from Mr. Burns and Mr. Marsalis for you at the front desk. George Orwell to the front counter, please.
