Articles by Rick Condit

 

 

Index

The Heath Brothers - Giants of Jazz (Jazz Education Journal)

JAZZ IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
(Jazz 10th Edition by Tanner and Gerow.
Published January 2006 by McGraw-Hill Higher Education)

 

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The Heath Brothers - Giants of Jazz
Rick Condit  March 2003

"Man, Trane was a nut when it came to reeds. He used to change reeds in the middle of a solo. He played in my band in Philly, you know." This was one of many personal, delightful, and often humorous stories I heard one memorable night last summer. The most unexpected of circumstances had placed me in the close company of three of the most interesting raconteurs in jazz.

Our short century of jazz has produced a number of sibling success stories. Brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters have inspired one another to share in the love of a personal and intimate form of expression.

Perhaps most rare among jazz families are those with three or more players from the same generation. Of the short list of surnames that comes to mind (Montgomery, Jones, and more recently, Marsalis), none have had longer and more consistently distinguished careers than the Heath brothers. This fact was recently borne out at January's IAJE Conference when Jimmy Heath became the second of the brothers to receive an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship in as many years.

October 2001 witnessed the 75th birthday bash held at Lincoln Center for Jimmy Heath. The event, "He Walked With Giants," was no stroll down memory lane but instead a celebration of a vibrant career showing no sign of lost momentum - and the same can be said about his equally remarkable brothers.

After beginning successful careers in their native Philadelphia, Jimmy and elder brother Percy left for New York in 1947, where they played together in Howard McGhee's Band. During the decade of the 1950s, Jimmy would play in the bands of Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis (at two different times) before forming his own band and recording several successful albums for the Riverside label. His mid-1960s group would include trumpeter Art Farmer. Jimmy is also distinguished as a jazz educator, dating from his 1960s involvement in the Jazzmobile through his retirement as head of jazz studies at Queens College - and as the composer of over 125 jazz tunes and arrangements.

Eldest of the brothers, Percy served in World War II as a Tuskegee Airman. He also worked in Philadelphia and left for New York to play in the same band with Jimmy before becoming the anchor for the Modern Jazz Quartet, an affiliation that would last 43 years. Life after MJQ has included more touring and recording with the Heath Brothers (now totaling seven recordings together) as well as painting and fishing.

The Los Angeles-based Albert "Tootie" Heath, one of the most respected of hard-bop drummers, has been associated with a dazzling array of jazz greats beginning with the John Coltrane quartet of 1957. This was followed by a three-year stint with J.J. Johnson and two more years with Art Farmer and Benny Golson. He also served as an in-house drummer for Riverside before moving in the mid-'60s to Europe, where he played with such artists as Dexter Gordon and Kenny Drew. Upon his return to the U.S. he settled in Los Angeles, where he played with the pre-fusion Herbie Hancock bands and has remained a sought-after freelance player ever since.

The Heath brothers continue to be active (if selective) about gigs. 2002 saw performances at select festivals, jazz cruises, and a European tour including a quick jaunt to the Black Sea coast of Romania. It was there, at the inaugural year of a promising new festival, that I met them.

They had made the long trip to close the three-day event and were received enthusiastically as they played with seasoned elegance, giving no sign of being distracted by the open-air disco a mere 100 yards down the beach. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we would be on the same flight from Bucharest to Amsterdam at 6 a.m. the following morning. This sounded routine enough until we were reminded that it would be four hours by car on two-lane roads to get from the coast to the airport. My expectations were not high at the prospect of driving all night in the pitch-black countryside with three senior citizens. My humility factor rose exponentially as my traveling companions regaled each other with story after story (and no shortage of laughter) about friends and acquaintances from the past and present.

Since my tape recorder was far out of reach that night, I hoped to catch up with the trio again and bring to light some of their favorite tales. I finally did so in November during their five-night engagement at the Iridium in New York. The following interview took place in Percy's Manhattan hotel room. As had been the case before, the atmosphere was warm, cordial, and filled with love and respect for one another and a lifetime of shared experiences.

The Early Years
RICK CONDIT: What was your home environment like, and what were some of the elements that made music so important to you as children and young adults?

PERCY HEATH: My father was the home environment; and my mother, too. We had musical parents. There was always music around the house, my father being a clarinet player in the Elks band organization. My elder sister was supposed to be studying piano, and I had a violin when I was about seven or eight years old. I used to sing in a Baptist choir with my grandmother Miss Ella and my mother Arlethia. The household was full of music all the time, so the environment and influence were there from the beginning.

RICK CONDIT: So that influenced all of you similarly?

TOOTIE HEATH: Yeah.

PERCY HEATH: Yeah. Pop offered to get James an instrument at a young age, too, but he started playing later in high school.

JIMMY HEATH: Our mother and father knew a man that had a record store, and we had all the records as they would come out. This man, Eddie Hart, would always notify us when there was something new that my father and the family should hear: Erskine Hawkins, Benny Goodman, or Duke Ellington, or whoever it was. We were privileged to have all of the latest recordings.

PERCY HEATH: In the recording industry everything that was done by a black person was "race" music. And there were four categories under race music: gospel, blues, jazz, and pop. So you used to go to the record shop and pick the groove you were into at that time, you know. Because people like Louis Jordan were considered pop even though he was a hell of a...

JIMMY HEATH:...great jazz player.

PERCY HEATH: Right. Those categories weren't like the so-called "fusion" of now-days. Jimmy's right about us having access to all of the music that we were interested in at the time.

RICK CONDIT: Who were some of the influential people in your lives as young jazz musicians?

JIMMY HEATH: Each one of us had our own influences. My first ones when I decided to play the saxophone were Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter, because I played alto saxophone; they were the most predominant soloists that I heard on record. And I had the desire to be in a big band because the big bands were what were happening during the time.

PERCY HEATH: There are so many years between us brothers. When I was younger than eight years old, Momma used to take me to the Lincoln Theater on the "Chitlin' Circuit." The Theater was at Broad and Lombard, and the stage entrance was on South St., the main thoroughfare in South Philadelphia. I came by there with Momma one day when Louis Armstrong was leaving from the back stage in his fur coat and I said, "Look, there he is Momma!." He kind of growled in his voice and rubbed my head, and I never forgot that. We saw everybody on that circuit: Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, Willie Bryant, Fatha' Hines...about 10 different bands.

RICK CONDIT: So the "Chitlin'" circuit dates back to the 1930s?

PERCY HEATH: Yeah, they had theaters in all the cities: Chicago, Washington, the Regal in Baltimore...

JIMMY HEATH:Oh, yeah.

PERCY HEATH: ...New York had the Apollo.

JIMMY HEATH: I remember the Paradise in Detroit.

PERCY HEATH:We played there.

JIMMY HEATH:Yeah, we played there. It's now a symphony hall.

PERCY HEATH: It was Aretha Franklin's father's church a long time ago. Jimmy, we were there with McGhee's big band...and Sarah?

JIMMY HEATH: Right, Sarah Vaughan, yeah.

PERCY HEATH: When I was 11 or 12, I sang on a kiddie hour sponsored by the Lincoln Theater and a Jewish Parisian tailor...Sam Segal? Eddie Lambert and Joe Wyler and I used to go down Fridays to pick the key and the song we wanted to sing on the radio Sunday morning; and that's when we'd get the pass to go to the opening show at the Lincoln Theater every week. So I got to go back stage.

JIMMY HEATH: I don't remember that.

TOOTIE HEATH: Me either.

PERCY HEATH: This guy, Bobby, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, would suggest a key, and you'd try it out to be sure it wasn't too high. And I'm singing sepia Eddie Cantor, (that means Technicolor) -- "potatoes are cheaper, now's the time to fall in love." And Joe Wyler was playing his trumpet with the plunger then, at 13 years old, man! So that's why when we had the reunion with Joe Wyler on that record. Oh man, it touched me. I remember we were barely even in high school.

Philadelphia in the '40s
RICK CONDIT: You've been talking about your life in Philadelphia. Can you describe the Philadelphia scene of the 1940s and '50s and how different it was from New York? I know Dizzy came to Philadelphia before going to New York.

TOOTIE HEATH: And Coltrane ended up coming to Philadelphia.

RICK CONDIT:Why was it a place that musicians wanted to come to?

JIMMY HEATH: I just think that in the 1940s the second-string beboppers were there. We had heard the music from New York; and then, Philadelphia being only 90 miles from New York, all the groups would come to Philly and perform. So we were in on the ground floor of the bebop generation. I remember Charlie Parker and Dizzy came to Philly for the Jazz at the Philharmonic concert. I went to the Academy of Music to hear them the first time in person around 1946.

PERCY HEATH: Yeah, I had just gotten out there.

JIMMY HEATH: Percy had just gotten out of the Air Force. I remember going to see Charlie Parker and Dizzy with the quintet with Max Roach, Al Haig, and I think Curly Russell. And I was really taken aback by Don Byas. That's when I said, "Oh!" I'd heard Charlie Parker on record, but Don Byas knocked me out playing a ballad. He had things on the jukebox like Laura and Candy, and they were very appealing. So that was the beginning of my association with that music.

And then everybody would come to the clubs in Philly - the Showboat or the Downbeat and then later a little club called Pep's. Charlie Parker came to Philly to play at the Downbeat. There was a flourishing jazz scene in Philadelphia with the small groups taking over in the clubs, as opposed to the big bands in the Lincoln Theater.

PERCY HEATH: Tootie was into it by then.

TOOTIE HEATH: See, I came in way late, much later than Percy and Jimmy, but I was aware of a lot of stuff that they were talking about. I wasn't quite in it yet, but my interest was beginning.

RICK CONDIT: How long did you play professionally in Philadelphia before moving to New York?

TOOTIE HEATH: Well, define "professionalism"! [Laughing.] I defined it by getting paid.

PERCY HEATH: That's right! [Laughing.]

JIMMY HEATH: The amount didn't matter ... $7.00...

PERCY HEATH: ...whatever....

TOOTIE HEATH: ...yeah, I was professional. Then, when I got to New York, I found other guys who could do what I was getting paid for, but they could do it much better than I could. So then my professionalism kind of wavered a little bit. But I would say 1958 was when I first went out on the road with someone that paid me a salary: that was J.J. Johnson. Before that I played around Philadelphia with people like Coltrane, Bill Carney, Shirley Scott, and a group called the Hightones that played Allentown, Penn. and even got out as far as Harrisburg. But it was sporadic.

PERCY HEATH: One thing that Jimmy skipped over was the fact that he had the big band in Philadelphia with all those guys in it - Trane, Benny Golson, Johnny Cole, Sax Young...

JIMMY HEATH: ...Specks Wright, Nelson Boyd...

PERCY HEATH: ...they became big-time professionals after Jimmy's band and went to Dizzy. When Red Garland came out of Texas, he'd quit being a little boxer. He came through Philly playing the piano and influenced me a lot. Philadelphia was like a stopover because it was cheaper to be in Philly than to be in New York. So all these guys could develop their skills and then hit New York when they got straight.

JIMMY HEATH: Yeah, the Big Apple.

PERCY HEATH: I remember I had just bought a bass when Red Garland came and got me, "Hey, come on, Sugar." I was playing in a joint with sawdust on the floor. We weren't even getting paid![Jimmy Heath laughing.]

It was a real bar with a beat-up piano. I had just learned a scale on the bass, was just getting started, and Jimmy was teaching me on the piano the harmony of the new sounds. Even before I got in the music union there was a non-union place where this trumpet player, Jake, and Red Garland and I played; and about six months after starting the bass I was with a group called the Hollis Hoppers, a Nat Cole-type trio. I went to Wilmington, Del. to play, and that's when I met "Brownie" [Clifford Brown], a little high school boy.

JIMMY HEATH: Percy really learned the bass very quickly. When I had the big band, Percy couldn't read well enough to play in it, so I hired Nelson Boyd - for whom Miles wrote the song Half Nelson. Later, when Percy and I left Philly, Howard McGee took us on the road - took my big band out on the road under his name - and even to the first international jazz festival in Paris. Books say the first one was the one that Charlie Parker did in 1949. But we went in '48. Coleman Hawkins was the headliner. The Slam Stewart trio, with John Collins on guitar and Erroll Garner on piano, was also there. If that wasn't the first jazz festival, I don't know what was.

TOOTIE HEATH: You know, I'm sitting here listening to these guys talk about Percy and thinking I don't remember Percy practicing in the house at all. I don't remember ever seeing Percy with a bass until...

PERCY HEATH: ...every day [with mock surprise]...

TOOTIE HEATH: ...I don't remember that. I don't know where I was. I was in school.

PERCY HEATH: You were playing baseball or something.

TOOTIE HEATH: I don't remember seeing Percy play, and the next thing I know, Percy was on all the records! I thought, "What is this guy doing? How'd he do that?"

PERCY HEATH: [Laughing.] Jimmy and I used to be there until Momma said, "It's getting late."

TOOTIE HEATH: ...other than photographs and stuff...the next thing I know, he's there on all the records with all the guys I was liking.

PERCY HEATH: [Laughing.] I had just bought a bass when Ray Brown came down to the house and showed me how to hold my finger on the back. "Oh , no," he told me. "You gotta' get your spider together." I was just getting out of my lieutenant's uniform.

TOOTIE HEATH: I remember Nelson Boyd coming in the house with Jimmy's band, practicing. I remember Shrimpy Anderson.

PERCY HEATH: [Laughing.] Shrimpy!

RICK CONDIT: So you didn't start playing the bass until you got out of the Air Force?

PERCY HEATH: Right! In 1946 Ray Brown came down to the house with Bags [Milt Jackson] and John Lewis, and Jimmy got Momma to cook for them.

TOOTIE HEATH: Mother cooked for all the guys in the band...

PERCY HEATH: ...all the guys on the road. Momma did the home cookin'. But that's when I met those guys. Little did I realize that two years later we'd be playing together as Milt Jackson's Quartet - and a couple of years after that. Man, we were together for the next forty-some years [some being members of The Modern Jazz Quartet]. It was crazy, man.

Career Years
RICK CONDIT: Tootie, you didn't all play together until Jimmy's Riverside sessions in the late 1950s. What do you remember about the first time you all played together?

TOOTIE HEATH: The only way I can remember it is from the recordings, which bring it all back to me. I was scared to death. I was nervous as hell, because Jimmy was writing a lot of music in those days, which was overwhelming for me because I had learned to play basically by listening-by-ear. Jimmy had big bands...he was waving his arms...

PERCY HEATH: [Laughing.] ...I still feel that way!

TOOTIE HEATH: I'm intimidated by a whole lot of notes on paper. That makes me real nervous because I might have missed a few of them. But that particular set went OK because they could edit any mistakes I'd made.

RICK CONDIT: Jimmy and Percy, do you remember the first time that you all played together?

JIMMY HEATH: You know, I don't remember us playing together on a job.

PERCY HEATH: We did, but....

JIMMY HEATH: ...the first things we played together were after Percy was already in the Modern Jazz Quartet. So when Percy was home I would use him on my Riverside recordings...

PERCY HEATH: ...yeah.

JIMMY HEATH: And he wasn't around for the first one, The Thumper, with Tootie, Paul Chambers, and Wynton Kelly - chosen because I had just met Miles. But the next record I made for Riverside included the song Big P, dedicated to Percy. So I think that was our first recording together - I believe in 1960.

PERCY HEATH: Everything was later because in the beginning we were scattered around. But James is skipping over his composing and his writing...

JIMMY HEATH: Nah, I'm not skipping over.

PERCY HEATH: Yeah, you're glossing over what you wrote for your big band in Philly. You had it sounding like Billy Eckstine's band because you could take that off the record, see? Yeah, yeah...come on in, James. Jimmy Heath could take records and transcribe them for his band. He's being modest about that.

JIMMY HEATH: I was trying.

PERCY HEATH: He's being modest, but I ain't going to let him forget that. [Laughing.]

JIMMY HEATH: But then, if we're going to go over all the details, when you got out of the service, I was in a big band in Omaha, Neb. It was 1945, and I was right out of high school.

PERCY HEATH: That's right!

JIMMY HEATH: That's when I began to get interested in writing. And then when Percy came home and said, "I met Dizzy Gillespie," I said, "I'm going to quit this band and come back to Philly!" Because I heard the new music, bebop, and I wanted to get into it. Percy said he knew Dizzy!

PERCY HEATH: Well, I'd met him, you know.

JIMMY HEATH: Dizzy called Percy "Lieutenant."

RICK CONDIT: So at what point in your respective careers did you experience the most musical growth?

TOOTIE HEATH: Mmmmhmmm. [Agreeing.]

PERCY HEATH: You know, you hear something; you try it. And in jazz you're composing as you go, so to speak. What you hear at the moment from the other people you're playing with influences the ideas that come to you, and you try it. If you fall down, you say, "Oops! That wasn't what I meant." Next time you do it, you know not to go there. So your whole career is a learning experience.

TOOTIE HEATH: For instance, the other night we were playing, and I did something on the end of a song that I hadn't been doing. Jimmy turned around and said, "Huh! That's a new ending!"

JIMMY HEATH: Now it's my fault. [Laughing.]

TOOTIE HEATH: I took the responsibility for that. And as we were playing Percy said, "Oh! Where'd you all go?" Some of the structure was missing all of a sudden.

TOOTIE HEATH: Percy said, "Oh! You ran off without me there."

PERCY HEATH: And then last night our pianist, Jeb Patton, jumped to the bridge. Jimmy heard it and called out, "Bridge!" And I said, "Oh, he owes me another eight somewhere." [All laughing.]

JIMMY HEATH: He'll pay it back later.

Being Brothers
TOOTIE HEATH: Everybody that I've played with has been really kind to me, and I've learned a lot from each experience. Right now is probably the most rewarding time in my life because I can bring all of those things that people have passed on to me through the years to this particular group. I feel that I play better with my brothers than anyone else. I'm me. I don't have to be anybody else, not Elvin Jones, not Tony Williams...

PERCY HEATH: [Laughing]...and all those other people.

TOOTIE HEATH: There are a lot of demands on a drummer. Everybody wants drummers to do something - play louder, quieter, or more, or whatever. But if what I play with my brothers is not really what they're looking for, they kind of let it go, or they say, "Oh, hey man, on the next one, do so and so." And that's ok. I'm saying that this experience is probably the one that's the most rewarding.

JIMMY HEATH: You can be yourself.

TOOTIE HEATH: Yeah.

ALL: [Singing] "Thank you...for letting...me be myself."

TOOTIE HEATH: It feels wonderful. I mean, every night I'm looking forward to it. This is the greatest.

PERCY HEATH: This is a family thing we have. That upbringing you're talking about is there - the roots.

TOOTIE HEATH: It's universal. It's all through us.

PERCY HEATH: Yeah, so it ain't too hard to relate.

TOOTIE HEATH: No, it's not. Wynton paid us a wonderful compliment. I don't know that I've ever shared this with Percy and Jimmy, but when we played with him at Lincoln Center the last time for Jimmy's 75th birthday, he looked around at us, and we were having such a good time. When he finished performing, he came over to me and said, "Man, this brother stuff is something! I wish I could do this with my brothers." And I thought about it as we were playing, and when we finished our set I caught him in the back by himself. I said, "Wynton, when you all grow up to be old guys like us, you'll be able to do it."

PERCY HEATH: Yeah, when you're young it's hard to do because [Laughing]...

JIMMY HEATH: ...because everyone wants to do their own thing.

PERCY HEATH: Wynton started out with his brother.....

JIMMY HEATH: ...Branford wants to do his own thing; Wynton wants to do his; Delfeayo is doing his; and that's a wonderful, musical family.

PERCY HEATH: And Jason's gonna' grow up and do his.

JIMMY HEATH: Jason's doing his. Jason's on this new piece that Wynton did for All Rise, the symphonic piece.

PERCY HEATH: Yeah.

RICK CONDIT: You all have traveled around the world for several decades. To what extent do you view yourselves as cultural ambassadors?

JIMMY HEATH: [Laughing.] I think any place that'll have us play might consider us that, just by having the longevity. There's something to be said for that. I mean, it's an achievement to have performed in Paris in 1948 and still be able to go back and play now these many years later. We're very fortunate - even Tootie - to have been performing for such a long period of time. The other thing is that we've performed with just about all the most important people in jazz, excluding maybe two.

PERCY HEATH: Who are those, James?

JIMMY HEATH: Maybe Louis Armstrong and the "maestro" Basie...I didn't perform with Basie.

PERCY HEATH: No, me neither.

JIMMY HEATH: We had been on concert bills with them but did not perform within their particular groups. But I mean, when I think about whom Tootie performed with, I'm knocked to my knees! Tootie played with Lester Young, Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, J.J. Johnson, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Don Byas, and Ben Webster. Can you believe that? And Percy and I played with all the trumpet players from Howard McGee, excluding Pops [Armstrong]. I've played with Sweets [Edison], Kenny Dorham, Miles, Dizzy, Art Farmer, Clifford Brown, Red Rodney...

PERCY HEATH: ...Wynton Marsalis, and Jon Faddis.

RICK CONDIT: There was a 50-year period after World War II when jazz music was not officially welcome in certain parts of the world, such as Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Yet jazz musicians somehow managed to go there.

TOOTIE HEATH: We went on the U. S. Information Agency tour of South America when Jimmy Carter was President and were treated royally down there.

PERCY HEATH: And the Modern Jazz Quartet was able to pioneer some places where they didn't allow jazz because we were considered chamber music. We could play in a small hall and were accepted getting jazz in the door through playing some transcriptions of Bach and others. We played the first time jazz was allowed on the Festival of Leitmusik in Germany in Deutschland down in the Black Forest in 1957 or '58.

TOOTIE HEATH: One concert Percy came out and played solo Beethoven, and on the second half Ron Carter and I would join in, and the people would say, "Wait a minute!"

PERCY HEATH: But it wasn't as exclusive as you might think. The jazz hot club in Paris dated from the beginning of the war; and Dave Brubeck, Woody Herman, Dwight Mitchell, and Willy Roth went to Russia and even learned to speak some Russian - and went to China, too.

TOOTIE HEATH: ...mainland China, the Mitchell/Roth Duo...

PERCY HEATH: Right.

TOOTIE HEATH: They were vocal teachers at Yale.

PERCY HEATH: Yeah.

RICK CONDIT: So jazz musicians were some of the only people that were able to get into those countries.

JIMMY HEATH: We are respected around the world!

PERCY HEATH: ...more so than in America.

JIMMY HEATH: Jazz music is revered as a cultural achievement from America.

PERCY HEATH: Absolutely!

JIMMY HEATH: Western classical music comes from Europe, and we praise that here in America, as it should be. But we don't praise our own music that is from here.

TOOTIE HEATH: A brother down on the subway yesterday said one of the most profound things I've heard in a long time in a subway car. He got on, a born-again Christian, and said, "Good morning, everybody!" And nobody said anything. And he said, "Oh, y'all are going to be like that? Well, you know in this country we praise our dead more than we do our alive. I'm just here to let you all know that we are alive and need things." But he pointed out that you gotta' die in this country before you get any kind of respect. Think about it. We do. We go crazy over somebody that dies, but when they're here, you know, they're just here...

JIMMY HEATH: ...taken for granted....

TOOTIE HEATH: ...yeah.

JIMMY HEATH: I mean, Miles and Coltrane are deified now. But when they were here, they were catchin' hell getting gigs, too! And people were walking out of the club.

PERCY HEATH: That's right!

TOOTIE HEATH: We love a dead person! [Laughing.]

JIMMY HEATH: Yeah.

TOOTIE HEATH: We love to name a street after somebody when they're dead. [Laughing.] When they're here, we don't care.

JIMMY HEATH: It's a disrespect that we get and feel sometimes as Americans.

TOOTIE HEATH: I think if we call it Afro-American Classical Music, then everybody has a problem with it. But that's what it is...

PERCY HEATH: The roots...

TOOTIE HEATH: ...that's what it is....

PERCY HEATH: ...the basis of our music...

TOOTIE HEATH: ...that's the way it started.

PERCY HEATH: So if we're ambassadors, good! We've been playing it all over the world for all of my career.

JIMMY HEATH: We've made a lot of friends playing music.

Recognition
RICK CONDIT: Are the achievements of jazz masters such as yourselves being adequately recognized?

JIMMY HEATH: I don't think the achievements are adequately recognized because jazz was created by black people, and it's still not considered at the same level as western classical, European classical music. I find it ludicrous to give a person like Dizzy Gillespie, whom I admired as one of my mentors, $20,000 for a lifetime of excellence in music that is recognized by the rest of the world, whereas the symphony orchestras in this country get that kind of money from the government every year through the National Endowment. We talked about this at the Black Caucus of the IAJE Conference when they had Representative John Conyers there; he was trying to get this law passed that we would be respected at the same level.

PERCY HEATH: However, he did get a proclamation in Congress declaring the Modern Jazz Quartet and other people as...

JIMMY HEATH: ...National Treasures.

PERCY HEATH: I got a plaque saying National Treasure, but no money with that.

JIMMY HEATH: That's what I'm saying. This music we play is considered Afro-American classical music. Now we have the right to be subsidized the same as the western classical music is subsidized. Because if they depended on all these kids running around here with these big pants and these hats on backwards going to see the symphony they'd be in trouble. [Laughing.] So they have to be subsidized, and I believe that as a taxpayer my music should be subsidized also...

TOOTIE HEATH: ...as an artist.

JIMMY HEATH: Pop music sort of takes care of itself.

PERCY HEATH: But this art form is where subsidy is needed, and I think it ought to be taught in kindergarten. Actually, I've been trying to see that for years in kindergarten, trying to teach these kids about Louis Armstrong and the growth of this art form. If they were educated to the facts by the time they got to high school, we'd have millions of jazz fans.

IAJE and Jazz Education
RICK CONDIT: Do you think IAJE can have a role here in developing some new and necessary directions in advocacy for jazz and jazz musicians?

PERCY HEATH: Absolutely.

JIMMY HEATH: I think the IAJE is a wonderful organization perpetuating the music that we love!

TOOTIE HEATH: I agree with Percy that kids should start earlier. It's happening in colleges, and IAJE is involved in that. I think it's wonderful, and it is making more of a splash in the world of music. We have all these students coming out playing every year. The problem is they have to create jobs. They should go to their government and scream that they need to support us!

PERCY HEATH: Well, maybe so. But you know, most of those musicians playing in these jazz bands have to be lawyers or doctors or something else to make a living; they can't actually become employed as musicians.

TOOTIE HEATH: But even at that, Percy, that helps to grow an audience.

PERCY HEATH: .Right!

TOOTIE HEATH: Because they know how difficult it is. They know the inside, how to listen, and are discriminating because they studied music.

RICK CONDIT: Jimmy, you've been the most deeply involved in jazz education. Do you think that innovations in jazz can take place in an academic setting?

JIMMY HEATH: Individuals have innovations. If you've got a whole class full of people, everybody in there is not going to be a Charlie Parker. But you might have one. I taught for 10 years at Queens College; and I had about, say, 10 students over the 10 years that are very strong players and are making it in the world, recording and traveling, doing very well as professional musicians. But the rest of them still love it, too. They come around to see the ones who made it. "Oh, he was in my class when I was at Queens." So there's a ripple effect that happens, but everybody is not a genius.

TOOTIE HEATH: They become supporters.

JIMMY HEATH: Yeah. I think the overall idea is good! It's better than the alternative. It was very difficult during our youth to get to a lot of things. We had mentors. Tootie was studying with Cannonball Adderley's drummer, Specs Wright. Percy had Ray Brown and Charles Mingus to tell him things when he started playing the bass. I had Dizzy to show me stuff on the piano. With mentors, we made it. So it was the same education, it just wasn't in a formal setting.

RICK CONDIT: It was more personal.

JIMMY HEATH: It was a personal jazz education.

PERCY HEATH: Yeah, but you know, I used to bug all the players. I was running behind Oscar Pettiford like a little puppy dog, and I'd ask Al McKibbon, "Hey, what did you do on such and such a thing on the record?" Because we knew guys out there who recorded, and we also had the good fortune to get together and have private jam sessions. When I lived up on the Sugar Hill District of Harlem, Sonny Rollins, Kenny Drew, and all of us would get together in the daytime. We'd be getting ready for a $10 gig maybe a month away, but we'd be "wood-shedding." We had the luxury of doing that.

JIMMY HEATH: Yeah, that's schooling.

PERCY HEATH: Oh, yeah.

JIMMY HEATH: A jam session - that's education.

PERCY HEATH: Yeah, just get together. Jimmy and Coltrane used to get together and work things out. Tootie remembers a band in the living room, some section of Jimmy's band, practicing and rehearsing - my mother put up with all that. Momma was a wonderful person. We'd wake up in the morning, and she'd have Charlie Parker on and doing her housework by it.

JIMMY HEATH: She also said she liked Fats Navarro better than Miles.

PERCY HEATH: Yeah, and our father told Charlie Parker," Charlie" - Pop called him Charlie though everybody called him Bird - "I've heard a lot of alto players in my life, but you're the damnedest alto player I ever heard!"

TOOTIE HEATH: [Laughing.] Man, we had some hip parents.

PERCY HEATH: Pop was a clarinet player, you know, and he was through when Louis Jordan came by to rehearse with the Elks band. He said "Oh boy, Louis Jordan!"

JIMMY HEATH: He had all the music.

PERCY HEATH: He was just enthusiastic, but his day job was as an automobile mechanic, and he suffered all his life on a 10-to-6 faithful gig. He was something.

JIMMY HEATH: That's why we're here.

RICK CONDIT: Tootie, in light of our discussion about mentoring, do you think that jazz educators are meeting the needs of the next generation in the same way that your mentors were?

TOOTIE HEATH: Absolutely. There is some validity. What Jimmy just said about getting one or two out of a class that will dedicate themselves...

JIMMY HEATH: ...that's what it is...

TOOTIE HEATH: ...and be diligent about practicing and learning music and the scales and the chords. You get one, and you're doing well. It's like religion; if you can save one person, that's the reward. And in my little tenure as a teacher I've run across people every day out here that continued in the industry. Maybe they don't play, but they're engineers or producers. They have a lot to do with music. They're entrepreneurs in music and in jazz, so that does make a ripple effect, like Jimmy says. When you're in a classroom, you get two or three people that are really interested, that commit themselves to it and go on for it.

RICK CONDIT: So you all are agreeing then that jazz education is heading in the right direction?

JIMMY HEATH: Absolutely.

RICK CONDIT: Percy, do you think there are some things that young musicians are not being taught?

PERCY HEATH: Well, I'm not a professor as such. I've got 300 records out there. If they want to play some of the things that I played on those records that's OK. There's some of it they shouldn't play because I screwed up, actually. [Laughing.]

JIMMY HEATH: They do play those records.

PERCY HEATH: You know, the first time we went to Japan, a disc jockey took us to hear this group that patterned itself after the MJQ. We had this one little record out, and this group played every note that we played - all the mistakes, too - and they looked at us and smiled! They played it all from a record. So that's what I mean about taking stuff off a record. it might be something that I want to never hear again in my life!

JIMMY HEATH: Well, the academics transcribed your bass line off of Blue Haze with Miles Davis and thought that it was ingenious.

PERCY HEATH: Yeah, and you know what? It was an embellishment of all the favorite blues lines that I added a few other notes to. And this guy in Down Beat printed it.

JIMMY HEATH: Everything comes from somewhere.

PERCY HEATH: I reckon. Otherwise it ain't connected.

JIMMY HEATH: That is exactly right.

PERCY HEATH: It's gotta be connected for me. I mean the growth of this music from infancy, from the slave house in the fields, the gospel in the church, and the blues...all those ingredients gotta' be in jazz music. And then too, you can go to music school all you want. In time you learn what to leave out. You won't play everything you learn, all those scales and things. You gotta' learn to leave certain things out and indicate all that running around with one note like Lester Young did.

JIMMY HEATH: Everybody marvels over the four-bar break that Charlie Parker took on Night in Tunisia, but nobody remembers that other stuff.

PERCY HEATH: Right! [Laughing.]

JIMMY HEATH: The break! Because the break was in double time and was fast, and he did everything, then he slowed down the tempo - and it died! You've got to build! That's all a part of the emotion. With all the education you can get, you still have to be able to communicate with a logical sense of feeling...

PERCY HEATH: ...your life experience...

JIMMY HEATH: ...and that takes time.

TOOTIE HEATH: A guy asked me the other night in a club, "Didn't Jimmy play a little bit of some standard's melody in his solo?" "Yeah!" I said, " that's the way we improvise. We always play little melodies that you've heard from other songs. That's improvising." He said, "Oh!"

JIMMY HEATH: Lorraine [Dizzy Gillespie's widow] used to say, "Dizzy, why don't you put those songs in it like Charlie Parker does?"

TOOTIE HEATH: Yeah!

PERCY HEATH: Bird used to play [singing]: "Over these prison walls I would...if I had the ring...anything."

JIMMY HEATH: When he'd start playing [singing] "Let me go back to the Mississippi...," I said, "Naah!"

TOOTIE HEATH: When you talk about somebody quoting, Tommy Flanagan and Sonny Rollins knew all the songs, and they put them in there. If you know the "American song book," you're going to make references. And now it's second and third-generation references. For example, if somebody is copying Coltrane's playing of I Hear A Rhapsody, they'll play the melody like he played it and have no idea how the melody was originally written on the lead sheet.

PERCY HEATH: Right!

JIMMY HEATH: So the second and third-generation quotes come. I hear people quote something they say is Coltrane. But I tell them, "No, that's [sings] 'King Jesus is a-listening...'"

ALL: [Join in singing] "...all night long..."

PERCY HEATH: They don't realize that.

JIMMY HEATH: That comes from the spiritual, but somebody else played it, and somebody else played it, and somebody else played it...

PERCY HEATH: ...and it becomes theirs!

TOOTIE HEATH: Yeah!

PERCY HEATH: We sang that in 19th Street Baptist Church.

TOOTIE HEATH: Duke Ellington said that all the songs have been written down; it's just rearranging them. We have 12 tones in our music. When I hear a song it's got to be very, very different for me not to hear another song that I've heard before. Perhaps that's because we've been here so long.

PERCY HEATH: We've been around a lot. [Laughing.]

JIMMY HEATH: The song that Pops [Armstrong] sang, What a Wonderful World, this generation says "Oh, that's a great song!" What was that one based on?

TOOTIE HEATH: I don't know what that one is.

PERCY HEATH: It's one of the spirituals.

JIMMY HEATH: No, it's one of the nursery rhymes. [Sings.] "Twinkle..."

TOOTIE HEATH: That's right! [Singing.] "Twinkle, twinkle, little star..."

ALL: [Join in singing] "..how I wonder what you are."

JIMMY HEATH: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star sounds like What a Wonderful World.

RICK CONDIT: Do you have any other advice to offer young and aspiring jazz musicians?

TOOTIE HEATH: Practice. That's all I got.

JIMMY HEATH: I don't know. I think dedication. You have to be serious. You have to be dedicated to doing this, and the ones I know who are dedicated to it all came out good. They just really wanted it bad. You've gotta' want it, and you've gotta work hard on it.

PERCY HEATH: Right. And the third thing is, you must have the support of your family while you're trying to get a toehold in the business of music. You just can't starve through your dedication - which a lot of the early ones did. You see me talking about the art form and the business of music. The conflict is there because without the dedication that Jimmy mentioned and the practice and preparation of your skill, you won't make it. But then there's also the reality of living and supporting yourself. If you don't have that, you may stumble, too, and be playing out there in front of the library. There was a guy down there [pointing out of the window] who could play his butt off. Man, he'd been out there for years playing good saxophone for piddlings - whatever people would throw at him. Think about what that guy would be if he had been presented somewhere?

JIMMY HEATH: Street musicians.

PERCY HEATH: Yeah, they have street musicians and subway guys. Every time I pass those guys out there, man, I give them something. They're expressing themselves at the expense of maybe being other things in life.

TOOTIE HEATH: Yeah, they're dedicated to music, and if you're dedicated to music you may not get family support. But we were very fortunate.

PERCY HEATH: Right.

TOOTIE HEATH: That's the secret. If you got it, it helps immensely.

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Selected Discography
The Jazztet Jazztet at the Birdhouse, Universal (2002, remastered original from 1962 featuring Benny Golson, Art Farmer, Cedar Walton, Tootie Heath)

Modern Jazz Quartet Django, Original Jazz Classics (2002, originally recorded 1953)

Heath Brothers Expressions of Life in Motion, Collectables (2001)

Ronnie Matthews Ronnie Matthews, Prestige (2000, reissue from 1963 featuring Matthews, Freddie Hubbard, Roland Alexander, Tootie Heath)

Heath Brothers Jazz Family, Concord Jazz (1998)

Heath Brothers As We Were Saying, Concord Jazz (1997)

Jimmy Heath You or Me, Steeplechase (1995)

Jimmy Heath Really Big, Original Jazz Classics (1992, reissue of 1960 Riverside Session mentioned in interview, featuring Percy and Tootie Heath, Clark Terry, Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Cedar Walton, and Tommy Flanagan)

Modern Jazz Quartet The Best of The Modern Jazz Quartet, Pablo (1988)

Jimmy Heath Peer Pleasure, Landmark /Fantasy (1987)

Modern Jazz Quartet Paul Desmond & The Modern Jazz Quartet Live, Sony (1971)

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Rick Condit has been an active saxophonist and jazz educator for more than 25 years. He has taught and performed in 26 countries on 5 continents, including as a Selmer clinician. Most recently, he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Universitatea de Arte "George Enescu" in Romania while on leave from his post as Director of Jazz Studies and Associate Professor of Saxophone at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Condit spent more than 10 years there as a freelance professional, performing with such noted artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Louie Bellson, Ray Brown, Oliver Nelson, Bob Hope, and the San Francisco Symphony Pops Orchestra. During this period he also toured for over a year as tenor sax soloist with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, presenting concerts and clinics in 46 states, Canada, and Japan.

Condit received his master's degree in jazz studies from the University of North Texas, where he was a graduate teaching fellow and member of the One O'Clock Lab Band. His own group, the Louisiana Jazz 5, has toured France and Central America and performed at the IAJE Conference. In 1998 Condit and guitarist Tom Wolfe toured 5 countries in West Africa as Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassadors, and the following year he was awarded a Louisiana Artist's Fellowship.

Under Condit's direction, the McNeese Jazz Ensemble has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Festival Internationale (Nice, France), the IAJE Conference, and in residency at Disney World. He is a Past President of the Louisiana Unit of IAJE, served 10 years as Section Coordinator for Latin America, and currently serves as Region Coordinator for the South Central U.S.

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JAZZ IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Contributor:  Rick Condit

Index Introduction Western Europe Eastern Europe South America Asia Africa Australia

I. Guide to the Material

The purpose of this section of the Online Learning Center is to provide a survey of jazz music as it is recorded, performed, and taught around the world.  The focus will be upon indigenous jazz musicians and their use of their own ethnic and cultural traditions in creating jazz music.  It should be understood that the goal is to provide an introductory sampling of jazz around the world.  Many artists have remained in their own countries or regions while others have immigrated to the West or have become part of the international jazz scene.  

Rather than attempt to list every country where jazz is performed, the OLC presents a survey of the music of specific regions or continents.  When possible, discographies from highlighted countries will be provided as well as occasional artist spotlights.

 

II.  Introduction

Historians agree that the roots of organized jazz music can be traced to the southern United States in general, and to the area in and around New Orleans, Louisiana in particular.   By the mid 1920’s, during the period referred to as the “Jazz Age”, jazz music was heard in most major cities from the East Coast to the Mississippi River and beyond.  Recordings by such artists as the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Jelly Roll Morton, W.C. Handy and King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band were heard from coast to coast as network radio and the phonograph became standard household fare. 

The first recognized jazz musicians to perform outside of North America took their music to Europe where it was received enthusiastically almost from the beginning.  The Western (European) aspects of jazz music, namely the instruments and harmonic structures, made the music accessible to most listeners.

With transportation slow and expensive at this time, most musicians who performed abroad were faced with the choice of extended stays or of becoming permanent residents.   However, the level of respect given artists in Europe and the financial rewards were sufficient to assure the steady flow jazz music across the Atlantic.

Among notable early jazz musicians who performed regularly or immigrated to Europe were trumpeters Bill Coleman and Arthur Briggs and the soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet.  Others followed them, such as Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, who, while not becoming permanent residents, nevertheless were continental stars in the 1930’s.  European musicians eager to emulate the style and success of their American counterparts thrived under the tutelage and influence of their mentors.

Other factors influencing the export of jazz from the United States were World Wars I and II and the U.S. State Department.  During World War I, black U.S. Army regiment bands like Lieutenant Will Vodery's were stationed in Europe.  James Reese Europe's "Hellfighters" were called the "best damn brass band in the U.S. Army", and Lieutenant Tim Brymn's "Seventy Black Devils" played for the peace conference in Versailles.  While these bands were not playing jazz in the strictest sense, they did have the rhythmic and interpretive style that would later be associated with jazz.

As the United States entered the Second World War in Europe and in the Pacific, jazz was already a staple in many countries.  U.S. Military big bands were stationed at bases throughout the world.  G.I. and radio broadcasts featured regular jazz programming. 

This was followed by one of the most interesting periods in the history of international jazz.  With the beginning of the Cold War, the United States Government dedicated large sums of money to export American culture.  Because nothing was more “American” than jazz music, many of its most well known stars were sent around the world.  The U.S. State Department sponsored tours featuring such artists as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, The Modern Jazz Quartet and others who were often able to go to areas of the world where traditional forms of diplomacy were ineffective. 

Beginning in 1954, the well-known broadcasts of the legendary Willis Conover were heard over Voice of America on every continent.   Conover single-handedly introduced millions of listeners around the world to jazz through his nightly broadcasts.  In more than one Iron Curtain country, his was the most well known American name and the most recognized voice.

The excitement and spontaneity of live jazz music has always represented a freedom of expression to musicians around the globe, which may account for the growth in international jazz festivals throughout the world.

Today, jazz music has become what many describe as an international language that is spoken on every corner of the globe.  With Internet communication available worldwide, musicians, promoters, teachers, and fans of jazz music can exchange information and blend cultural ideas with jazz traditions.  Organizations such as the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) also actively promote exchanges of information and provide opportunities for jazz music to be heard and learned in any country.

 

Questions for Review

1. What factors influenced the export of Jazz into Europe.
2. Why was Jazz music accessible to the European audience?
3. How and why did Jazz flourish behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War?

 

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EUROPE – Eastern

 

Prior to the geographic partitioning that took place at the close of World War II, many countries in Eastern Europe had vibrant jazz scenes.  With a primarily western musical tradition being taught in the conservatories, jazz enjoyed a popularity equal to the west. 

However, with partitioning, all things pertaining to western culture became illegal in the east.  Jazz, in particular was thought to be decadent and therefore dangerous.  Whether jazz gained in popularity as a result of its new forbidden status, or because it had already been firmly established varied by country.  But during the approximately 45 year period of cultural repression, more than one new generation of jazz musicians and enthusiasts found creative, and sometimes covert ways to cultivate their art.   One example of this dedication is that of internationally known jazz pianist Mircea Tiberian, who tells the story of spending an hour per day during the early 70’s in the subway stations of Bucharest in the hopes of hearing an occasional Frank Sinatra recording on the PA system.  Other musicians would look for opportunities to perform at foreign embassies where they might also have the chance to speak with persons from outside their countries about jazz.

One of the biggest influences in the development and continuity of interest in jazz in Eastern Europe was the nightly Voice of America jazz program hosted by Willis Conover.  Conover (1920-1996), broadcasted from VOA studios in Washington D.C. from 1955 – 1995.  Although not well known in the U.S., at the height of the Cold War, Conover’s audience was estimated at 20 to 30 million listeners worldwide.

One of the major problems for Eastern European jazz musicians today is economics.  Jazz musicians in Eastern Europe can only earn a fraction of what their counterparts in the West do, and cannot work nearly as consistently. Although democracy has improved life for most, the disparity of income levels has made regular travel and immigration difficult.  Thus, many who have an opportunity to leave, whether for education, or a gig, do not return.  The net result is a cultural vacuum left by the departure of so many talented musicians.  The remaining exceptions are those who are older and who may have already achieved status prior to the fall of communism, or those who chose to stay and are able to support themselves in other ways.   An excellent example of each can be found in Romanian jazzmen Johnny Radacanu and Ion Baciu Jr.

Radacanu (b. 1929), was originally a bassist, but switched to piano in the 1960’s after some of his contemporaries died.  Seeking to emulate the stage persona and musical mannerisms of American jazz players who had toured the region via the State Department, Radacanu quickly became the toast of diplomatic circles and was able to achieve a status well above his colleagues.   Sustained by sponsors from the west to this day, Radacanu enjoys a legendary stature in his country.

Similarly, Ion Baciu Jr.,(b. 1960), is arguably one of Romania’s most talented jazz musicians.  The son of one of the country’s leading orchestra conductors, Baciu used his father’s influence in order to obtain a first class education in Sweden the early 1980’s.  After living and working for a time in London and even New York, he returned to his homeland as a world-class player.  His dual citizenship (Romania and Sweden), and an industrial import company he owns, allow him to live in relative comfort without having to depend on his playing to earn a living.   Baciu was the pianist for trumpeter Tim Hagan’s Norbotten big Band in Sweden, and performs regularly at jazz festivals throughout Europe.

Among the many other noteworthy Eastern European jazz musicians are Ukranian born saxophonist Anatoly Vapirov, and Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko.

Anatoly Vapirov  (b. 1949), has lived and worked in the Black Sea resort of Varna, Bulgaria since 1985.  In 1992 he became musical director of the Varna Jazz Festival, one of Eastern Europe’s most successful festivals.  Vapirov’s contemporary, aggressive style, with liberal amounts of free playing is extremely popular, and his numerous third-stream compositional projects have made an artist of importance throughout the region.

Tomasz Stanko  (b.1942), has similarly taken his Eastern European roots, philosophical eclecticism, and creative versatility to become a world renown innovator in jazz styles.  His career began in the early 60’s when he formed his first group and successfully emulated the style of Ornette Coleman.  His multiple collaborations with other well known artists have produced projects ranging from jazz-rock to straight-ahead and folk influenced.  He has also written numerous film scores and several projects for the ECM label.  At the top of his form, Stanko continues to tour internationally and garner critical acclaim.

One of the most successful jazz musicians to emerge in post communist Russia is saxophonist and band leader, Igor Butman.  Born in 1961, Butman became the most well known Russian jazz musician, winning numerous polls and critical praise before moving to New York where he lived from 1987 – 1993.   Upon returning to Moscow, he formed his own big band and combo, both of which have toured extensively.  He has also performed and toured with the likes of Lionel Hampton, Monty Alexander, John Abercrombe and Eddie Gomez. 

 

Artist Discographies.

• Anatoly Vapirov 
• Tomasz Stanko 
• Igor Butman. 

 

Eastern European Jazz Links: 

• Jazz Jamboree – Eastern Europe’s oldest jazz festival dating to 1958  
• Jazz in Russia -  Popular Russian jazz website (in English)
• Jazz Festival Survey Article by Cyril Moshkow reviewing several Eastern European jazz festivals 
• Jazzkaar – Estonian Jazz Festival
• Vilnius Jazz Festival – Lithuania 
• Polish Jazz Network  Maintained by Cezary Lerski, with artists, festivals, radio links, etc.

 

Questions for Review

1.      What was the primary reason that Jazz went underground in Eastern Europe?

2.      Google “Voice of America” and “Willis Conover.  Explore the influence of this program on the development of Jazz in Eastern Europe.

3.      What part does economics play in the development of Jazz in Eastern Europe.  Are these issues relevant today?

4.      What effect did the fall of the Iron Curtain have on Jazz in Eastern Europe?

5.      Explore the careers of two Eastern European Jazz musicians. Look for ways they overcame the repression of the Soviet regime in order to pursue their art form.

 

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SOUTH AMERICA

 

In discussing jazz in South America, it must be understood first of all, that the influence of Latin American culture has been present in some fashion from the earliest days of jazz and now is undeniably woven into the fabric of the music.  In addition to the slave trade that passed through Cuba and other Caribbean ports, there was a steady stream of commerce that flowed to New Orleans from around the Gulf of Mexico and down the Atlantic coast of South America.  Thus the linkage of North and South American musical styles has existed since the mid nineteenth century.

It is also noteworthy that owing to its sheer size, ethnic diversity, language, and colonial history, Brazil can be viewed as distinct in its contribution to the world of jazz music.  Thus, our section on South America will be divided into two separate sections: Brazil, and Spanish speaking South America.

Finally, while the Afro-Cuban history and tradition are at the heart of jazz music, it will not be discussed here because it has been dealt with sufficiently in the text itself.

 

BRAZIL

The nation of Brazil has a young, vibrant and eclectic culture owing in part to its diverse ethnic make-up.  The largest population group belongs to those of native Amazonian descent.  The other ethnic groups include Portuguese (who originally colonized the country and gave it their native language), Polish, Japanese, and smaller numbers from other countries.  Most inhabitants of non-native descent live in the coastal environs where the largest cities are located.

Brazil outlawed slavery in 1888 and was proclaimed a sovereign nation the following year.  The term “melting pot”, which has been used to describe the peoples of the U.S. could also aptly be applied to the Populace of Brazil.  The intermarrying of these diverse races has caused the birth of a new society with its own history and culture.

The musical developments that led to the incorporation of jazz concepts and later the importation of these ideas to the U.S., began early in the 20th century.  The Brazilian musical style that includes Bossa Nova, Samba, and other forms of Brazilian pop music is collectively referred to as MPB (Musica Populara Brasileira), or Brazilian Popular Music.

The man who was universally credited with being the “Father of MPB” is Alfredo da Rocha Vianna Filho (1897-1975), known popularly by the name “Pixinguinha” An innovative composer, conductor, and woodwind player, Pixinguinha founded “Os Oito Batutas,” (The Eight Batons) in 1919.  This was the first group of musicians to play outside of Brazil (spending six months in Paris in 1922); and it was with them that he helped popularize the traditional Brazilian style Choro. This style developed in Rio during the 1920s and ’30s and combined a number of musical influences to create an original and sensational genre that swept across the country and beyond. Author Maria José Carrasqueira states in the book One Hundred Years of Pixinguinha that “...he established the basis for the authentic Brazilian popular music composition through his innovative harmonies, counterpoints, and improvisations.”

Choros were performed mostly on stringed instruments, with perhaps a flute and pandeiro (Brazilian tambourine). As the style became more popular and moved to the salons, other instruments such as piano, trombone, and saxophone were added. The music itself resembles the American rag or early Dixieland style, having a fairly predictable rondo form, busy syncopated melody, and collectively improvised performance.

The parallel between Pixinguinha and Louis Armstrong is particularly interesting in that both had a tremendous impact on the direction of popular music in their countries at nearly the same point in time; and it is even rumored that the two met.

The infectious two-beat style known as samba was taking root at the same time.    The man acknowledged as the “King of the Samba” is José Barbosa da Silva, immortalised in the history of samba as Sinhô (1888 - 1930). A word from black slavery, Sinhô or Massa is a corruption of Senhor, or Mister. 

Although he would die prematurely, Sinhô would leave behind a legacy of important tunes and also a reputation as a shrewd businessman and consummate entertainer.  He might be considered on a par with Jelly Roll Morton or Fats Waller.

World War II affected Brazil’s tourism as other Western countries were preoccupied and did not have time to devote to cultural exchanges.  Brazilian composers were also sympathetic to the devastations of war and wrote many sad songs. 

The period following the war and particularly the 1950’s saw a great expansion in Brazilian music and marked the first true mixture of modern jazz with the traditional styles.  One of the earliest and most innovative artists during this period was pianist/singer Johnny Alf.  Born Jose Alfredo da Silva in 1929, Alf predated the Bossa Nova trend of the late 50’s but nevertheless had been influenced by American jazz harmonies and the singing style of Frank Sinatra.  Among the many well-known Brazilian composers that followed, most if not all acknowledged Alf’s influence.

Considered the most important composer in the history of MPB,Antonio Carlos Jobim (nicknamed Tom Jobim), not only composed hundreds of tunes, but also wrote the lyrics to some of the most well known Bossa Novas, often translating them to English.  Jobim’s music has been recorded and performed by more artists around the world than that of any other Brazilian, and rivals those of any composer of popular music in the second half of the 20th century.  The gentle rhythm and poetic lyrics of Jobim’s music epitomizes the Brazilian spirit.  In later years, Jobim was an amateur naturalist and avid environmentalist.

Although Jobim never studied in the U.S., many of his contemporaries did.  In particular a number of college age students in the early 1960’s went to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music, where they would learn how to apply jazz harmonic structures to their own popular tunes.  Among the musicians, composers and teachers to make the trip to Boston in the early 60’s were Nelson Ayres, Roberto Sion, and Wilson Curia.

With artists as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Sting, and Stan Getz recording Brazilian music, it was a natural step for Brazilians to come to the U.S. to record, perform and in many cases, take up residence.  Among the many great Brazilian artists who began to come to the states in the 1960’s were Milton Nascimento, Sergio Mendes, Airto Moreira, Eumir Deodato, and Ivan Lins.

Brazilian rhythms, tunes and artists have taken root in the jazz tradition during the last 40 years to an extent that no mainstream jazz musician can afford to be unfamiliar with them.

 

Brazilian Websites (many including discographies):

• MPB: History of a Century an excellent and concise history with photos.
• Pixinguinha the official website (in Portuguese)
• Pixinguinha bio in English with discography.    
• Clube do Tom  The official Tom Jobim fan club (English page).
• South American Way  Brazilian MPB imports
• Zimbo Trio One of Brazil’s great jazz trios – 40 albums in 40 years!

 

Links to short bios of some of Brazil’s other well-known MPB artists:

• Luis Bonfa
• Flora Purim
• Joao Gilberto
• Caetano Veloso
• Gilberto Gil
• Elis Regina
• Leny Andrade
• Claudio Roditi

 

SOUTH AMERICA – Spanish-speaking countries

This section will take us on brief stops to several South American countries where jazz music is played and enjoyed.  Many of these countries have annual festival, and jazz clubs in the major cities, and even jazz education programs.  In many countries, jazz musicians have attempted to combine jazz music with their own specific traditional music.

It should also be noted that in addition to the linguistic distinction between Brazilian MPB and the jazz and pop music in Spanish speaking countries, there is also an important musical difference.  Whereas Brazilian music is based on the characteristic two-beat rhythm indicative of the samba, most other Latin American musics are based on the 2-3 or 3-2 clave rhythmic pattern.

 

ARGENTINA.

Probably the most important tourist destination on Spanish-speaking South America, Argentina with its capital city of Buenos Aires, is a hub of jazz clubs.  Among Argentina’s most famous composer/musicians is Lalo Schifrin (b. 1932).  Truly a Renaissance man, Schifrin’s roots in Tango, the traditional music of Argentina, eventually brought him in contact with famous jazz musicians including the likes of Dizzy Gilespie during their post-war tours of South America.  Schifrin soon became an outstanding jazz pianist and turned his attention in the 60’s to film scoring and conducting.  Beginning with the now famous “Mission Impossible” theme, Schifrin has composed jazz infused music for dozens of films and television programs.

As was the case in so many other countries, American jazz schools, such as Berklee in Boston, played host to a number of Argentine jazz musicians beginning in the early 1960’s. 

 

COLUMBIA, PERU, BOLIVIA AND VENEZUELA

These counties all have relatively small but nonetheless vibrant jazz scenes.  In each case there are or have been international jazz festivals, jazz radio programming, and jazz education available.  Also, since jazz is understood to be international, clubs can usually be found that feature jazz music in the international level hotels.

Gabriel Alegria (b. 1970), is one of the most important contemporary figures in the jazz music scene in Latin America.  After receiving his Masters degree in the United States, Alegría combined his personal approach to the trumpet with a passionate interest in the music of the coast of Perú and founded La Asociación Internacional Jazz Perú (AIJP), Peru's premier jazz arts and education organization. He made a personal project of promoting school-aged jazz musicians and developed Afro-Peruvian jazz music by instituting a formal concert series in Lima.  Alegría is also the artistic director for Festival Jazz en Lima, Peru's largest annual jazz festival, and is designed to foster creative and cultural exchange between artists through a residency program.

An interesting composer and musician from Venezuela is Aldemaro Romero (b. 1928), who invented a new kind of music at the end of the 60's and the early 70's.  Called "Onda Nueva",  it was a fusion of jazz and Venezuelan folk music, with complicated tempos.  Romero has led many kinds of ensembles from Jazz trio (he is a virtuoso piano player), jazz fusion band (electric bands like Chick Corea's), Venezuelan folk ensembles (electric groups plus Venezuelan folk instruments), full orchestras (he is a conductor too), choral ensembles, etc. Romero is also a renown classic and modern composer, having also composed suites, symphonies, concertos, etc.

 

CHILE

Chile also has a unique jazz heritage with its own group of dedicated musicians. Having to live under the veil of dictatorships at various times in the 20th century, Chilean artists have remained connected to the outside world.  One of the most eclectic musicians in recent decades is percussionist, vibraphonist, composer and conductor Guillermo Rifo.  Although not a name known in North America, he is nonetheless a distinguished artist in his own country who like others, attempted to fuse the indigenous folk music of his country with other music styles including jazz.

 

South American Jazz Links

 

Questions for Review

1.      What is Latin America’s unique relationship with North American Jazz?

2.      What two Brazilian musical styles have been incorporated into Jazz?

3.      What part did the Berklee College of Music play in the development of Brazilian Popular Music?

4.      Consider the life of Antonio Carlos Jobim or Alfredo da Rocha Vianna Filho. What did they contribute musically to their countries music and the music of the world?

5.      What is an important distinction between Brazilian music and other Latin American music?

6.      Choose one non-Brazilian Latin American Jazz musician and outline his evolution as a player and the influence he has had on his countries Jazz scene.

 

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ASIA

 

When discussing jazz in Asia, one must acknowledge the vastness of the geography and diversity of cultures.  With countries as different as Israel and Japan, Turkey and Thailand, it is difficult if not impossible to draw conclusions that apply to all of the countries in the region.  Wars, political unrest, anti-western dictatorial regimes, and cultural repression have caused interest and acceptance of jazz to rise and fall at various times during the twentieth century.  Thus the only way to speak in generalities is by first linking jazz music in a given country with that country’s acceptance of Western culture in general.  For this section of the Online Supplement, our approach will be to give a very brief overview of some of the largest countries in this largest of the world’s continent.

 

JAPAN

We begin by looking at Japan, one of the smaller countries geographically, yet a country where jazz has flourished since the American occupation that followed World War II.  Indeed, Japan may be said to have the largest and most established jazz tradition of any country in Asia.  More American jazz artists perform in Japan and more jazz recordings are sold per capita in Japan than anywhere else in the world.

In the period from 1945 to 1952 thousands of American servicemen and support personnel lived in Japan resulting in an unprecedented cultural infusion.  It was also during this time that up and coming Japanese musicians such as Yosuke Yamashita, Sadao Watanabe, and Toshiko Akiyoshi, had opportunities to see, hear, and be heard by touring American jazz musicians.  Some of these same musicians chose to come to the U.S. to study at places such as the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where they would network with other musicians and begin there careers in earnest.

Among the younger generation of Japanese born jazz artists are saxophonist, Kenta Tsugani, pianists Hiroshi Minami and Hiromi.

With a population of 26 million and the distinction of being the world’s largest city, Tokyo alone boasts upwards of fifty clubs with a jazz music policy.  This is in addition to numerous jazz clubs in many other cities.

 

INDONESIA, MALAYSIA, SINGAPORE, THAILAND

Due to their former colonial status and current international stature and size, the largest cities in these countries also have jazz clubs and resident jazz musicians.  Jakarta, Bali, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and the city-state of Singapore also boast international jazz festivals.  The following links, while some are not in English, will provide a starting point for those interested.

Southeast Asia Links:

• Warta Jazz  An Ultimate Source for Indonesian Jazz Lovers.
• Horizon-line.Com  A wonderful portal into the Indonesian jazz scene
• Jamz Pub & Restaurant One of Jarkarta’s top jazz clubs (in English)
• Jazz@Southbridge  Live local and international jazz club in Singapore.
• Saxophone Pub One of several jazz clubs in Bangkok.
• Jazz @ Singapore Agood portal into the Singapore jazz scene (in English)

 

CHINA, HONG KONG, TAIWAN

As one would expect, the jazz scene in China is relatively young but growing as the country merges with the western economic ideals.  The assumption of sovereign control over Taiwan and the high profile international visibility of Hong Kong, has also helped to stimulate interest in jazz in Mainland China’s larger cities.  Prior to the onset of Communist rule in the mid twentieth century, Western China was frequented by jazz groups and big bands from Europe and elsewhere.

Two interesting people in the history of jazz in China are the Russian band leader Oleg Lundstrem, and saxophonist/club owner Liu Yuan.  Lundstrem, now in his mid-eighties, has the distinction of leading the world’s oldest continually functioning jazz band.  He is part of our story of jazz in China because he was born and reared in the city of Haierbin, which is situated in the northeast region of modern China.  This is where he led his first band.  In the mid thirties when political tensions rose, he took his band to Shanghai and its nearby resort cities, where he would remain until the cultural revolution of 1949. 

Yuan is referred to by some as the Father of modern jazz in China.  While a touring ethnic musician he chanced to hear an American style jazz group in western Romania in 1978 and was overwhelmed by the music and the first saxophone he had ever heard.  Yuan began playing the sax in 1984 with only a limited access to jazz music.  He is now the proprietor of the CD Café, one of Beijing’s most popular nightclubs and perhaps the leading authentic jazz venue in Mainland China.  Yuan himself plays nightly with the house band and regularly hosts international guests.

Chinese Jazz Websites

• Beijing jazz  provides links to a few other jazz websites
• Hong Kong Jazz Association  A very current resource for jazz in Hong Kong
• Chipin & Kaiya's Chinese Jazz Website  Maintained by Chi-pin Hsieh and Kai-ya Chang, with biographies, etc. Mostly in Chinese.
• Jazz Clubs China  A listing of a few clubs in China

 

INDIA

The culture and music of India is vastly different from that of the Far East.  It should also be noted that some of the countries previously mentioned e.g. Malaysia and Singapore, have large Indian populations.  However, India itself, being one of the world’s most populous nations, also has one of the most diverse ethnic and religious mixtures. 

It is interesting to note that the astounding dissimilarity between traditional Indian music and even instruments with that of the West, would preclude its adaptability with jazz.  However, we must again remember the British colonial influence of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  The introduction of Western instruments, harmonies and the like to Indian culture could be viewed positively or negatively.  This depends upon whether or not one views the culture as being diluted or enriched.  We will leave this discussion to cultural anthropologists.

For our purposes, we simply note the introduction of Western musical ideas over the past one hundred fifty years, and the result as it pertains to jazz music.

Finding jazz music in a country the size of India is not difficult. Indeed, in the larger cities and tourist destinations such as Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, and the seaside resort of Goa, there are numerous hotels and clubs that cater to Western tastes.  The real evidence of Indian interest in jazz music can be seen by the number of native Indian jazz musicians and their efforts to combine traditional Indian music with jazz.

One of the leaders in this movement is Naranjan Jhaveri, founder of the Jazz-India Vocal Institute.  Jhaveri’s teaching of Indian microtonal techniques has been hailed by American jazz singers.  He has given numerous clinics and master-classes throughout the U.S. and also founded a jazz festival in India.

A good example of the blending of jazz with Indian classical music is the Brown Indian Band.  Indian classical music is similar to jazz in its dependence upon improvisation and scale based melodic ideas.  From their website you can hear audio clips of Indian jazz. 

Indian jazz links

• jazz clubs India  Listing of a few clubs in the larger cities.
• JAZZ GOA  A local jazz society based in the seaside resort.

 

ISRAEL

Our last brief stop on the Asia is Israel.  This small and young country (half the age of jazz music itself), boasts its own vibrant jazz scene complete with players, clubs and jazz education.  Although there are innumerable great jazz players of Israeli lineage living in the West, Israel now claims its own cadre of great players and teachers.  Currently, the epicenter of the Israeli jazz scene is the western city of Tel-Aviv For a good intro to jazz in Israel with links to musicians, clubs, history, etc. check out Israeli Jazz Online.

 

Questions for Review

1. Japan’s cultural roots are bound in non western music yet they have embraced Jazz more than any other country.  Why?
2. What did Oleg Lundstrem do in the years between the cultural revolution and the opening of China’s boarders to the west in the 1980’s?
3. Listen to the clips of Indian Jazz.  Describe the different elements of Indian and western Jazz as recorded on the clips.
4. Look at Israeli Jazz Online.  Outline the major events in Israeli Jazz history.

 

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AFRICA

 

When discussing jazz in Africa it must be stated once again that although the contribution of Africans and their descendants is an essential ingredient to the music, it was the combination of cultures and environment in late 19th century America that brought a new art form to fruition.  Thus, while jazz has strong cultural ties with Africa, the jazz tradition did not take root in Africa until it was brought there by American and western Europeans through colonial channels in the early 20th Century.

Indeed, even today while festivals do exist in select countries in West Africa, by and large jazz is noticeable in few African nations other than South Africa where it thrives.

The history of jazz in South Africa is both rich and unique.  The political struggles of the apartheid era took its toll and caused some of the most important artists to live in exile, yet the fight for freedom found jazz as one of its most important voices.

The first known performance by African American musicians in South Africa took place June 19, 1890, when the minstrel troupe of Orpheus Myron McAdoo's Virginia Jubilee Singers from Hampton, Virginia presented a series of concerts in Cape Town.  McAdoo’s tour of the country lasted eighteen months and had a lasting impact on the street carnival music, harmonic concept, and the performing arts culture in general.

With the advent of the phonograph, radio, and jazz recordings brought by American merchant seamen in the early 20’s, the exuberance and excitement of the Dixieland style quickly became popular in black townships as well as in white society.  The townships established in the 1950’s were little more than government sanctioned slums.  Nevertheless, for the thousands who called them home, they were neighborhoods where specific cultural and tribal musical traditions could be carried on and blended with jazz styles creating an atmosphere not unlike New Orleans had been a half-century earlier. 

The 1930’s –50’s saw an infusion of ethnic township music into traditional jazz styles and beginning in the 1950’s, the emergence of bebop inspired nationals who would lead the way into the world of modern jazz.  A seminal moment occurred in 1960 when American jazz pianist and educator John Mehegan performed in South Africa on a U.S. State Department tour.  While in South Africa, Mehegan took the opportunity to record an album titled “Jazz in Africa” with a group of local musicians who would become some of the most important in the history of jazz from their country.  Among them were trumpeter Hugh Masekela,, trombonist Jonas Gwangwa, and also saxophonist Kiepie Moketsie.

Hugh Masekela, was born in 1939 near Johannesburg and began playing trumpet at the age of 15 with the help of anti-apartheid activist, Father Trevor Huddleston who actually provided Masekela with a horn donated by Louis Armstrong.   With help from Huddleston, John Dankworth and others, Masekela was able to escape the oppression of his country in order to study in London and later in New York.  Masekela’s skills as a player and composer and his ability to fuse the various pop and jazz styles with his South African cultural origins, brought great success in the world stage beginning in the late 60’s.  Having recorded over 50 albums with everyone from Louis Armstrong to Paul Simon, Masekela has achieved national hero status in his country.

Like Masekela, singer Miriam Makeba is also well known on the world stage as an artist and political activist.  Born in 1932, Makeba performed with some of the same groups in South Africa as did Masekela, and the two were even married for several years in the early 1960’s.  Makeba chose not to return to her politically charged country after a tour of Italy, resulting in her passport being revoked.  She then followed Her husband to England and the U.S. to study.  Her 1968 marriage to militant black activist Stokely Carmichael made it necessary to emigrate once again to Europe where she was a regular at many international jazz festivals.  She and Masakela were part of Paul Simon’s Graceland tour in 1987, and she has since been considered one of South Africa’s most important artists.

Among other jazz masters of South Africa is pianist, Abdullah Ibrahim.  Born in 1934, Ibrahim (formerly named Dollar Brand), began studying piano at the age of 7 and played his first gig at 15.  While on a European tour with his trio in 1962, he was discovered in Zurich by Duke Ellington who subsequently financed his first album on an American Label.  In the following years, he would perform at the most prestigious jazz festivals and even substitute for Ellington on several gigs.

Less interested in non-jazz and pop genres, Ibrahim has branched out only in the direction of third stream music, combining jazz and classical styles for movie soundtracks and other concert projects. 

Among musicians who chose to remain in South and who survived the turbulent transition to democracy was tenor saxophonist Winston "Mankunku" Ngozi.  Born in 1948, “Mankunku” was probably too young and without opportunity when political oppression became pervasive in the early 1960’s.  The strict segregation of musicians forced him to such lengths as performing behind a curtain with an all white big band, and recording under a pseudonym.  In 1968 he recorded the landmark album "Yakhal'Inkomo", hailed by critics as the most important South African jazz recording of all time.  The album has been reissued three times on vinyl and is recently available on CD.  The title when translated from the Xhosa language means “the bellowing bull”, and refers to the sound made by cattle being led to slaughter.  Such was the power of the message conveyed in “Mankunku’s” music.

It is fair to state that jazz is an integral part of the cultural life of modern South Africa.  Jazz festivals happen on an almost monthly basis and more than one international festival occurs annually.  In addition, jazz education has been a staple part of many school music programs since the 1980’s.

Among the leaders in South African jazz education is American ex-patriot, Darius Brubeck.  Born in 1947 and the son of jazz legend, Dave Brubeck, Darius Brubeck has been a Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Natal in Durban since 1983.  Members of his many student groups who have toured internationally have become professional artists in their own right.

 

Artist Discographies:

• Hugh Masekela
• Miriam Makeba
• Abdullah Ibrahim

 

African Jazz Links:

• Afribeat A good route into the African jazz scene, present and past.
• South African Music  A current website with reviews and events.
• Joy of Jazz  Festivals and other jazz events sponsored by Standard Bank

 

Questions for Review

1. Why has Jazz flourished in South Africa to a greater extent than it has in the rest of Africa?
2. How did the progression of Jazz styles develop in the South African Townships?
3. Who was John Mehegan and what part did he play in the development of Jazz in South Africa?
4. Why are so many artists from the American Jazz community drawn to South Africa?
5. Hugh Masekela and Mankunku Ngozi are contemporaries but developed very differently as Jazz Masters.  What are these differences? How has this affected their music?

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AUSTRALIA

 

The history of jazz in Australia is remarkably similar in its earliest days to that of South Africa where touring black minstrel groups from the U.S. toured as early as the 1850’s.  This was perhaps the Australian’s first contact with American music.  The Australian gold rush, which coincided with that in California, also brought Americans and their music down under.

 

Early 20th century

Thanks to this early contact, and the later increase in the flow of American music to Australia after the invention of the phonograph, Australians developed a strong interest in jazz and its related forms. Jazz was quickly picked up by local musicians, mainly from phonograph records, and was well established by the 1920s. The first Australian jazz recording, "Yes Sir That's My Baby" by American Ray Tellier and his San Francisco Orchestra, was issued in 1925. 

The popularity of jazz, principally "swing" music, increased significantly in the mid 1930s. A few of the more well known bands were bands of the this era included Ray Tellier's San Francisco Orchestra, Sidney Simpson & His Wentworth Cafe Orchestra, The Palais Royal Californians, Al Hammett & His Ambassadors Orchestra, Jim Davidson & His New Palais Royal Orchestra, Frank Coughlan & His Trocadero Orchestra and Dudley Cantrell & His Grace Grenadiers.

Because of the large influx of American armed services personnel stationed there, a number of important big bands from America toured Australia during WWII.  Among them was the band of clarinetist Artie Shaw, who had enlisted shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and toured extensively throughout the South Pacific.  Although access was often limited because such entertainment was usually restricted to American military personnel, some local musicians went to extraordinary lengths to gain access to the concerts.

Tours by top American groups were occasionally hampered by Australia's immigration policies.  Jazz groups with black or "mixed-race" musicians were regularly refused entry and in one of the rare cases when a black band was allowed to tour, they were forced to leave prematurely after some of the musicians were caught partying in their hotel rooms with white women.

 

Post-World War II

Following WWII, Australian jazz began to split into two major styles as was also the case in the U.S. The more popular style was described as 'dixieland' or 'trad'. It exerted a significant influence on popular music over the next two decades, and also had an ongoing (if less direct) effect on the popular music of the Sixties and Seventies, through performers such as Judith Durham of The Seekers and Margret RoadKnight, both of whom had started their musical careers in the "trad" genre.  A similar divergence could be seen in the U.S. with the post-war careers of Louis Armstrong and others such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gilespie, and Miles Davis.

The Australian Jazz Convention was founded in 1946 and has continued ever since, making it the world's oldest continuous jazz festival. One of the most significant figures of postwar Australian jazz, and the figurehead of the 'trad' movement, is pianist Graeme Bell (b. 1914), who could rightly be called the Louis Armstrong of Australia.  Bell’s All Stars band was the first Australian jazz group to tour overseas and attain wide international recognition. The All Stars' groundbreaking four month visit to war-ravaged Czechoslovakia in 1947 to perform at the World Youth Festival in Prague in 1947 was a landmark event.  . 

As jazz historian Bruce Johnston notes, this was a daring undertaking for the time – the band members left jobs and sold businesses and possessions to help pay for the venture. Moreover, there were none of the support systems now available to travelers or touring performers, and these problems were complicated by the chaotic conditions prevailing in Eastern Europe in the immediate postwar period. So precarious was the venture that by the time they left, the band had only been able to raise enough for one-way tickets. Nevertheless, their appearance at the Prague Festival was a triumph and a planned two-week stay extended to a rapturously received nationwide tour lasting four months.

This was followed by an arduous but ultimately successful eight-month tour of the United Kingdom, becoming the first jazz band to tour the UK for some 20 years. The Bell UK tour was later recognized as being a major influence on the development of postwar British jazz, particularly in terms of the All Stars' dance-oriented style which was crucial in transforming British jazz from an intellectual, purist past-time into a popular social event centered on dance and audience participation.  Bell’s band was also the first international group to tour China after Tiananmen Square.

Melbourne became the center of the post-WWII revival of Australian jazz, and the bands of Graeme Bell, Frank Johnson, Len Barnard and Bob Barnard, Frank Traynor and The Red Onions had a strong influence on the direction of Australian jazz.

In the 1950s, and again principally through the importation of records, a number of jazz musicians became passionately devoted to the new modern Bebop style and exemplified by the music of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and others, as well as "jump" exponents like Louis Jordan, whose music was a direct precursor of early rock'n'roll.

There were two important centers of activity for Australian bebop. Jazz Centre 44 in St Kilda, Melbourne was founded in the Fifties by entrepreneur Horst Liepolt, (who later founded the Sweet Basil club in New York). This venue fostered many leading talents including Brian Brown, Keith Stirling, Alan Turnbull, and Stewie Speer. Around the same time a group of Sydney musicians opened the El Rocco Jazz Cellar in Kings Cross, Sydney, a venue that jazz historian John Clare (aka Gail Brennan) counts as a crucial formative influence on the later direction of much of the Australian jazz scene.

 

1960s and 1970s

The growth in popularity of Rock and other genres in the 1960’s took its toll on both sides of Australian jazz, with many “traditional” fans drawn away first to folk and later to pop and rock. Many of the players who emerged from the Australian bebop scene including saxophonists Bernie McGann and Bob Bertles, drummers John Sangster and Stewie Speer, and pianist Bobby Gebert, joined or performed with rock bands and many of these "modern" players also became sought-after session musicians.

During the 1960s a broad new style formed in the modern direction. Under the influence of so-called "cool" or "West Coast" style typified by Dave Brubeck and Gerry Mulligan, leading soloists such as multi-instrumentalist Don Burrows, and guitarist George Golla gravitated to this more accessible form, while others such as Bernie McGann, John Sangster and drummer John Pochee remained passionately devoted to the more aggressive and progressive directions of bop, as well as absorbing the radical influences of the "free jazz" experimenters of the Sixties such as Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor. It is interesting to note that during the 1960s Bernie McGann was criticised for being an Ornette Coleman imitator -- even though he had never heard Coleman's work at the time the claim was made!

In the 1970s there was a return to the 'big band' format and groups such the Daly Wilson Big Band enjoyed considerable popularity, as did Galapagos Duck, who were part owners of and regular performers at Sydney's longest-running jazz venue, The Basement.

Jazz fusion largely passed Australia by, although the group Crossfire was probably the best and best-known Australian act to work in this area.

1980s and later

Through the 1980s and 1990s jazz remained a small but vibrant sector of the Australian music industry. Despite its relative lack of visibility in the mass market, Australian jazz continued to develop to a high level of creativity and professionalism that, for the most part, has been inversely proportional to its low level of public and industry recognition and acceptance.

Players who were more influenced by "traditional" or cool jazz styles tended to dominate public attention and some moved successfully into academia. Multi-instrumentalist Don Burrows was for several decades a regular presence on television and radio, as well as being a prolific session musician. Although Burrows made no secret of his dislike for bebop and free jazz, he became a senior teacher at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and has exerted a strong influence on Australian jazz through his recordings, performances and teaching.

Multi instrumentalist James Morrison, who was heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong, has carved out a very successful career playing a style not unlike that of Wynton Marsalis, that blended some modern elements (e.g. the crowd-pleasing high-register technical bravura of Dizzy Gillespie) with the accessible structures and melodies of 'trad' and 'cool' jazz.

Many "second generation" bebop-influenced performers like New Zealand born pianist Mike Nock, bassist Lloyd Swanton, saxophonist Dale Barlow, pianist Chris Abrahams, saxophonist Sandy Evans and pianist Roger Frampton (who died in 2000) rose to prominence in this period, alongside their older contemporaries, led by the illustrious Bernie McGann and John Pochee, whose long-running group The Last Straw has carried the torch for this stream of jazz for many years.

The trio of  Tony Buck (drums), and Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Chris Abrahams (piano), known collectively as The Necks since forming in 1987, was notable for its hour-long jams of jazz and ambient music textures, gaining widespread attention both in Australia and internationally. Their album Drive-By, which consists of a single 60-minute track, was named Jazz Album of the Year in the 2004 ARIA (Australian Recording Industry) Awards.

 

Selected Australian jazz websites:

• Jazz Australia  A large, well maintained launch pad for Aussie Jazz
• Sydney Jazz Club (SJC)  One of the many regional jazz societies
• Bennetts Lane Jazz Club
• Victorian Jazz Club
• Newcastle & Hunter Jazz Club
• Illawarra Jazz Club
• SoundAbout - History of Jazz in Australia  - a two CD anthology of Australian jazz recordings from 1925-1989
• Australian Jazz Archive  Repository of historic recordings, films and interviews
• Graeme Bell an interview with the “Father of Australian Jazz”
• University of Queensland  One of the numerous jazz studies programs available

 

Questions for Review

1.      What are the parallels between the history of Jazz in Australia and the United States?

2.      Is there any comparable group in the American Jazz scene of that of Graeme Bell and his All Stars Band and their tour of Czechoslovakia in 1947?

3.      Some styles of Jazz seemed to enjoy a longer lifespan in Australia than they did in the United States.  What were they and why do you suppose this was so?

4.      Australia has many great Jazz musicians; choose three and compare their education, careers, influences and their styles.

 

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