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Sounds Like Jazz

Jazz is full of questions - tune in from 8pm-10pm on Tuesday evenings for some answers.  If you miss that, try the repeats at 2pm on Thursday afternoon or 2am on Saturday morning.

1      JAZZ --- WHAT IS IT?

2      MEET YOUR HOSTS

1 JAZZ -- WHAT IS IT?

Jazz is like a camel: almost impossible to define or describe, but unmistakeable when you see it … or hear it. No-one really knows where the name comes from, though one popular theory is that it derives from the French verb “jaser” --- to chatter. Other theories are rather more risqué, so we’ll let those pass as this is a family website.

It is generally accepted that the cradle of jazz was New Orleans. There, Anglophone whites and Francophone Creoles mixed with Afro-Americans, many of whom remembered the days of slavery, and with sailors of all nations who would visit the red-light district, Storyville, when their ships docked and they got a few hours of shore-leave. Received wisdom says that jazz grew from the melding of European melody and harmony and African rhythms. The instrumentation of typical jazz bands was probably determined by the types of instruments left behind by the Confederate army after the Civil War, and this also helps account for the fact that many early jazz ensembles were marching bands that would play in street parades at carnivals and during the procession to and from the cemetery at funerals. Pianists, who were not much good at marching whilst playing, got most of their employment in brothels and bars.

The first recording of jazz (or jass) was made in January 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, but this was a white band whose style, even that early, was shaped by commercial considerations. Some authentic pioneers either never recorded (e.g. Buddy Bolden) or recorded many years later when they were past their best and had been left behind by new developments (e.g Freddy Keppard) but luckily we have recordings of King Oliver and his protégé, Louis Armstrong, who, along with Sidney Bechet, transformed jazz from collective improvisation to a format centred on virtuoso soloists. Over the next six decades jazz mirrored, in essence and in microcosm, the development of European music over 900 years: indeed, it has been called Black America’s classical music.

Since the late 1970s-early 80s jazz, like classical music and pop/rock, has fragmented dramatically. A multiplicity of new sub-genres joined the old categories, so we now have (just for a few examples) traditional, mainstream, swing, territory bands, bebop, hardbop, neobop, cool, third stream, cocktail, acid, dinnerjazz, free, fire music, harmolodics, splatter, improv, electro-acoustic, fusion and nu-jazz. Between them, your five venerable hosts on Sounds Like Jazz (Bev Blackmore, Paul Harris, Hugh Jeffrey, Richard Oliver and Barry Witherden) will cover all these genres over the coming months, and give their own individual views on “the true jazz”.

Requests, suggestions for programme themes, and feedback on what you enjoy (or don’t enjoy) about Sounds Like Jazz will be welcome: E-mail your ideas or comments to me at barry@witherden2.freeserve.co.uk or info@10radio.org and put “Sounds Like Jazz” in the subject box.

Barry Witherden

2 MEET YOUR HOSTS

What types of jazz do they like ... and why??

Bev Blackmore

As a child of ten or so I was fascinated by our “accumulator” driven radio and my ability to roam the dial. Between 7pm, Dick Barton time, and bed time or when I was dragged away from the radio, I discovered the Long Wave, as it was called then. I soon found AFN, the American Forces Network, and my life changed forever, listening to Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford and many others.

My first record purchase was Alexander’s Ragtime Band by Bunk Johnson, played until the grooves were tired out; my next was Groovin’ High and Hot House by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, quite a leap in musical styles.

As a teenager I hung around with the other jazzers in our group listening to English bands: Ted Heath, Eric Delaney, Sid Phillips and others long forgotten.  We used to hang around a club for adults called the Cranleigh Club: 16 was the minimum joining age but the sight of us leaning through the open windows to hear the jazz coming out of the enormous record player softened their hearts and they let us join at 14.

After many happy years at the Cranleigh Club it was suggested that I go to art college, another revelation: jazz, girls. alcohol and dancing. When I entered the common room for the first time they were playing Chris Barber and Ken Colyer records. I had moved by then and was a conceited modern jazz fan: Mulligan, Charlie Parker and then the West coast sounds of Shorty Rogers. I spent 3 very happy years, until forcibly ejected, trying to turn trad jazz fans into Modern jazz fans. I failed miserably but had great fun trying.

Over the last 50 years my musical taste has widened and now include the dreaded folk music and even country music; at the end of the day however, my greatest loves are modern jazz, up to Eric Dolphy and others and a big helping of early blues. There is no bad music only music badly played, as Basie (or was it Ellington?) said. And as the Ellington number had it: “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” Happy listening.

Ralph Matcham

 

Ever since I discovered what music was I have always been surrounded by masses of people who know far more about the subject than I ever will.  Therefore I take the easy route – just sit back, listen and enjoy some fantastic sounds from the greats of the music world.  Who cares if an odd note or two are deemed to be awry..

 

Richard Oliver

I first developed an interest in jazz in my early teens in the Fifties. My brother who was six years older than me was a traditional jazz fan. When Humphrey Lyttelton introduced an alto sax into his band in the shape of Bruce Turner he thought it was the end of the world as we know it! The first jazz record I heard was “The Onions” by the aforementioned Humph. I spent my formative years in Bromley, about ten miles south of London Bridge. I visited many of the local jazz clubs, usually in smoke filled upstairs rooms in pubs although Chislehurst Caves was an interesting if bloody cold venue. Chris Barber and Terry Lightfoot were regular visitors but we had to go to the 100 Club in Oxford St to see Humph. I saw Chris Barber when Lonnie Donegan was his banjo man. Later I saw Johnny Dankworth when Dudley Moore was his pianist. By this time of course I had moved on and discovered big bands and more specifically American bands.

Louis Armstrong was the first of these bands that I saw and it was quite an eye opener, to see in person this legend. Around this time I also saw Jack Teagarden and Earl Hines. I al saw Bill Haley as well but we won’t talk about that!

In 1956 an older friend introduced me to big band jazz. My first record of this genre was April in Paris by Count Basie. I had never heard anything like it and I played it over and over again. Dad was not impressed but I was hooked. Basie, Ellington, Kenton and yes Johnny Dankworth and Ted Heath. There was great music being played this side of the pond as well. A visit to Ronnie Scott’s proved that. Oscar Peterson introduced me to a different kind of jazz yet again. What a show he would put on.

Over the years my tastes obviously have broadened. Miles Davis and Charlie Parker are about as far as I go down the Bop road. Ornette Coleman is, for want of a better expression, too far out for me. You won’t hear him on my programme but you will on Barry’s. This of course is what is great about jazz and music in general. There is such an incredible range of styles to suit all but the most narrow minded of people and who wants to appeal to the narrow minded anyway?

So listen in on Tuesday evenings for some great music and chat. And by the way, I must say this; I did enjoy Bill Haley.

Barry Witherden

I first started to enjoy jazz when I was about nine, through watching films like The Glenn Miller Story, The Benny Goodman Story and anything with Gene Krupa on drums. In my early teens I started to delve more into modern jazz: first Stan Getz, the MJQ and Dave Brubeck, then I soon began to understand and appreciate the likes of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean and Ornette Coleman. I had a couple of alto sax lessons and then some on keyboard,  but realised I couldn't afford either the lessons or an instrument ... and, besides, why spend time and money laboriously learning to make mediocre noises when I could be listening to the god-like genius of Bird, Miles, Trane and the others?

I guess I'm a classic example of the adage, "Them that can, do, them that can't, write about it." When I was 15, disgusted by the general drubbing that my hero, Brubeck, got (from the critics, not the public) I submitted an article defending him to Jazz Journal. The legendary Sinclair Traill, founder and then-editor of JJ, disagreed with everything I said but enjoyed the article and published it, so I was off the starting-block. Soon after, I had pieces published in Jazz Monthly, International Times, Jazz and Blues and several fanzines. In my late teens I was, for a while, Secretary of the grandly-titled British Institute of Jazz Studies and was contributing editor of its magazine. Then I dropped out of the fanzine scene for a while until, at a Christmas party in 1985, I met the late, much-missed Richard Cook, founder and editor of Jazz Review, co-author of The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD and author of definitive books on Miles Davis's recorded legacy and the Blue Note label. RDC, as he would style himself, had just been appointed editor of The Wire and, remembering some of my earlier writings, invited me to contribute to the magazine which, under his leadership, became arguably the most influential journal of exploratory contemporary music in the world. Thanks to him, I got back into the swing of writing, and have subsequently contributed to Jazz on CD, Jazzwise, Gramophone, Music Week, Classic CD, The Rough Guide to Classical Music and The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz (for which I wrote 45,000 words without the aid of free samples from the sponsor) and am currently a regular contributor to The Wire, BBC Music and Jazz Journal incorporating Jazz Review ... which is how 10 Radio is often able to be amongst the first to feature new releases before they've been reviewed elsewhere.

I'm proud to be part of the Leavisite (or Puritan, or Stalinist) wing of jazz fandom: it makes me squirm that anything with the least bit of simplistic syncopation or smidgen of improvisation gets labelled as jazz, and I resent the fact that jazz is still patronisingly defined in many dictionaries as "syncopated dance-music of negro origin" or words to that effect. If it ever was merely that (which I would dispute, since even in the early 20s it was technically innovative and had a strong political undercurrent) it soon became, in the hands of musicians like Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler, one of the most challenging art-forms of the 20th century, and, in the 1940s, 50s, 60s & 70s, a significant factor in the struggle for civil rights for black Americans. It has spawned related but now quite separate genres, such as Total Improv in Europe, and has influenced virtually all modern popular music, since Rock & Roll grew out of the Territory and Jump bands, and most pop music developed from Rock & Roll. Real jazz requires, deserves and rewards the closest attention, and is one of the few genres in any art that can totally engage the emotions whilst challenging the mind. Here endeth the first sermon!

The first programme of every month is presented by Barry Witherden, and will usually feature mainly modern jazz without neglecting the pioneer giants like Armstrong and Bechet. Some programmes will offer a survey of new releases, others may focus on a particular style or musician, but all will showcase the best in jazz.