Evolution of jazz Cool jazz continued, part two
[02:36 - 03:07]
For.
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One of the examples of Tristan as harmonic usage in the utilization
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of frequent modulation in the use of ornamental
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chords and building the structure of composition. Is the first section
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of while.
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We. Were.
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To go.
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Yes.
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A particularly good example of Tristan O's linear concern is his composition
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cross-current.
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Oh.
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And finally the aforementioned recording of intuition which to repeat
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here when I was description was an experiment to create out of skill an intuition of
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spontaneous music that would be at once atonal contrapuntal and improvised in a jazz bass.
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There was no preliminary sketch for this music. It was intended to be created
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spontaneously or not at all.
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A in.
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A in.
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A.
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The interest on a group's further experiments in this kind of spontaneous
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generation have not been recorded as yet. My own view of
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Tristan though is that he is now and will continue to be a major
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influence on the evolution of contemporary jazz. But more I expect as a teacher and
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theorist than as an actual performer composer. Some would like Schoenberg and
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classical music.
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Human rights that Tristan and his group have labored at their music under many difficulties
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the insistence of recording companies and some critics and on linking it with
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has hidden its own qualities the envy of other musicians in the 10 years of nightclub owners
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have kept the group from working under the right conditions. Well from working at all I
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expect envy is too strong a term I think other musicians
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have been emotionally and
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in some cases have been emotionally opposed to the music but it's not so much a matter of envy.
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It may well be they don't sufficiently comprehend what Tristan was aiming at. The
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infrequency of work has kept Lenny and his men busy teaching playing intermittent
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engagements anything to stay alive and as a result has kept them apart often.
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Hence there have been too few opportunities for them to fashion new numbers to
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expand in his direct and unimpeded a line as the music has demanded the
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scarcity of engagements for music as fresh and free has often reduced the playing
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edge of Tristan as musicians who have rarely produced less than a good performance but have often
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missed the peaks patently within them and Ulanoff is quite right it's an
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extremely unfortunate thing that men like Tristan know. Do we have
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to be concerned with basic security product anomic security
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problems instead of being allowed to evolve their important formulations in
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contemporary jazz under a much more favorable
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conditions. COHEN It's for example has been a member of these Stan Kenton
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organization for some time.
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Not because of any particular affinity he has for the Canton music but
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because of the fact that he and his family have two weak
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opponents among the pupils of Tristan has contributed himself
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importantly to jazz and all of him.
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Human rights. Now we can sit down and analyze his playing
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most of which he will describe as moving toward a goal rather than his achievement
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though more of his goal is apparent in his music that he will permit himself to say. The
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first thing he says is sound actually there hasn't been a sound put down on alto as there has been on tenor
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and I don't think I'm going to do it but it's a thought anyway. I first became aware of
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Sandy Runyon who was my teacher between Lou Honig and Lenny Tristan.
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Santi stressed a brilliant piercing sound and I was impressed with it at the time.
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Then there was the sound of Lester Young and the old basi records real beautiful tenor saxophone
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sound. That's it for alto to hear a sound. How many people
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Lester influenced how many lives because he is definitely the basis of everything that's happened
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since and his rhythmic approach complex in its simplicity how can you analyze it.
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Shall we tag some words on it call it poly rhythmic describes his process of
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assimilating new rhythmic feeling the process duplicated on all the levels of comprehension and
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expression in jazz improvisation. First you write it out then you can improvise something.
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What do you improvise. That takes us to the melodic line superimposition.
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He is describing here his and essentially just a nose method. It's not of course the
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method that all modern jazz men use superimposition superposition of the individual
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line upon the basic chord structure and in addition to the changes in this line the substitutions.
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There is the building on the fundamental chords. And then there is the use of intervals different intervals
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avoiding the Badal and the obvious I tell you what I mean when the altering of the major
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construction of the melody is confined to an occasional flatted fifth. Used as a stopping
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point and no more. What you have is a very cute approach to melody and no more
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with us the flatted fifth would be in the line. As with the other variations I thought of as
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regular intervals the flatted fifth becomes the regular fifth of the tonic. This
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approach integrates the new intervals and that brings me to the crux of the matter. The
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construction of new melodic lines. It means he says getting away from the mass of
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popular music. Doing as much as possible with the chord structure of pop tunes and then doing
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away with the chord structure of pop tunes. Look what you're doing most of the time in a 32 bar
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chorus. You get one a phrase three times in a second eight bars in the bridge and
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so in three choruses of lowing you play the same eight bars nine times and another eight bars three
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times. Reflecting on the strictures of Cora's construction Lee offers an
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explanation of his conception of phrasing an explanation notable for its clarity and
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cogency. Let's say we change the punctuation of the 32 bar structure like carrying the
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second 8 bars over into the bridge making a break sometime within the second 8
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and in the middle of the bridge instead of the at the conventional points.
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We re paragraph the chorus. Or better since we have already altered the construction of
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the line we we re paragraph a paraphrase. And that leads to the next
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logical point to continuity and development because you've got to think in terms
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of both so that everything holds together so that you could get not four
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choruses but a four chorus statement. Leak on it sketches the
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outline of his own styles suggest the way music looks and sounds and feels to him and of the man with whom he
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plays. He leaves you and writes on said his contrapuntal convictions.
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Assuming that anybody who listens to these Tristan a group or two has his own
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units will perceive the linear structure of their performance. But that
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perception alone is not enough it is vital if one is to approach apprehend the reach rich invention
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and feel the lovely texture of this music that such sketches of style and suggestions
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of underlying conception inform one's listening. WHERE IS LIAM
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self-will work his way back from the Museum of Modern Art to the Metropolitan pacing the endless
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galleries with his sympathetic and encouraging wife in search of sources and understanding and
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insight to correct an early antipathy toward the visual arts. So most his
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listeners dig beneath the rich sound of the tight organisation to find
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facets of his music hide something even finer beneath the conscious exploration of all
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that is or can be in Jazz Hall but what all that can be
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in the important contributions of CO and its interest. It's almost as if Lee
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Konitz had made of his alto saxophone a Thinking Reed almost but not quite fairly
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the best of Tristan as students is to some degree afflicted as the least of Lenny's pupils
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are. By a doctrine a limitation of style and idea.
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I expect however and to add to you an obvious delineation of going it's that
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the codes will eventually evolve and will break or away from present
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doctrinal limitations. Indications of this can be
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found in these recordings. The first is called Rebecca
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and with Lee his guitarist Billy Bob are
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you.
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A further example eco nuts and Billy bar in duet for saxophone and
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guitar.
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In his chapter on cool jazz Ulanoff writes of other men
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who may well become important contributors to the evolution of modern jazz
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clarinetist and writer John the porter Denison of Philadelphia
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who felt that a tonality was to become part of the jazz procedure but felt Pauley tonality
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playing into three or more keys at once was a necessary intermediate stage
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and another man much interested in Polytone ality as well as counterpoint his Dave Brubeck.
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This interest in multi linear improvisation is one
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of the main aspects of current jazz. After the harmonic
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melodic and rhythmic advances of the boppers and the
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melodic sonic developments of the cool school. There came jazz men
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influenced by all this.
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Who brought back to jazz. The multi
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linear improvisation largely absent since the New
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Orleans Dixieland jazz.
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But now this collective multi linear improvisation was based on all of
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the advances that had been made throughout the evolution of jazz particularly
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as many Tristan pointed out. And as we quoted in the preceding lecture.
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This was made all the more easier and as a matter of fact inevitable because the boppers in the
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Kuhlman. Were influential in evolving the
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single line. And making it more complex richer
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so that when multi linear collective improvisation came it had much more
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in the single line with which to work with which to experiment.
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Next week a discussion of Dave Brubeck
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and Jerry Mulligan and the beginnings of
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a survey of European contemporary jazz.
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You have been listening to the evolution of jazz as recorded series prepared and produced by
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Nat Hentoff under the auspices of Northeastern University and presented by the
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Lowell Institute cooperative broadcasting Council. The evolution of
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jazz was recorded in the Boston studios of WGBH Af-Am.
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This is the national educational radio network.
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This program has been transcribed using automated software tools, made possible through a collaboration between the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and Pop Up Archive. Please note that no automated transcription is perfect nor is it intended to replace human transcription labor. If you would like to contribute corrections to this transcript, please contact MITH at mith@umd.edu.