It all started when a friend of mine introduced me at the age of 18 to classic Chicago style blues. Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and a more obscure but equally enthralling blues musician Johnny Shines.
I never shut out any style of music. I honestly don't even care about the genre that much, it's necessary for place keeping and pulling from your iTunes library I suppose?
I never understood those critics who get angry at musicians who fuse various music styles together. Why would they care what other people play or listen to? OK, they play so-called "real" jazz, I get it.
Early on in my music listening journey, I gravitated toward Miles Davis the most. I was amazed, perhaps even shocked at the scope of styles he developed, or had a hand in shaping over his career. I equally like the bop years, the modal years, the Gil Evans collaborations and the electric period. I love it all.
One doesn't have to like all those styles of course, and one can like a single style over the other, makes no difference, it's all personal preference. I happen to like electronic instrumentation, and I don't mind a bit when the odd style is fused with jazz, I actually embrace it to the fullest.
One of the most outspoken jazz neo-conservatives is jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. The New Orleans native was on my radar as I began my deeper music listening journey. After all, he was one of those gifted jazz musicians I was gravitating toward 20 plus years ago.
I still listen to his albums like, Black Codes from the Underground from the mid-80's, and the album The Marciac Suite from the late 90's are fine pieces. His 7 CD set Live from the Village Vanguard shows an undeniable musical ability and audience rapport, it's hard not to Like Marsalis the charmer in that setting.
My problem with neo-cons began when I read about the blood feud Marsalis had with Miles Davis in the mid-80's, even inferring through his mouth-piece Stanley Crouch that Davis was a sell-out. Over the years since, I have heard many more divisive comments from Marsalis about fusions of jazz, and other genres like hip-hop. At least in recent years Wynton has mellowed some.
Imagine disrespecting someone as important to modern jazz and music in general as Miles Davis, simply because he did not stay inside the narrow walls of acoustic jazz? I find it very bizarre frankly.
I won't apologize for liking many genres of music. I can listen to Merle Haggard singing "Mama Tried," then the next moment Miles Davis Blowing one of his greatest trumpet solos on record during "Right Off" from the album A Tribute to Jack Johnson.
That 70's Davis music is not as commercial as many critics say. It's either avant-garde or hard-funk for the most part or not classifiable, with long drawn out drones and odd swirling sounds exploding from the speakers. Tons of street wise beats, and long live-jams that were edited sometimes harshly by producer Teo Macero trying to make it more palatable to the buying public, hardly a sell-out.
Wouldn't your music have to be radio-friendly to be a sell-out? Wouldn't you have to be ignoring your creative spirit for a paycheck? I don't see any compelling evidence of selling out anywhere with the 69-75 music. This sell-out label was made up out of thin air it seems? One wonders why then?
They act like Miles was playing smooth jazz or something, that criticism never made sense. Even in the 80's Miles was playing a similar style as the 70's, all be it, a more refined, better produced style of it, but not at all smooth jazz. This music is not Kenny G. to say the least.
These narrow-minded genre protectors exist in all genres: "How many times did I have to hear about Metallica selling out? OK, maybe Metallica actually did sell-out a little, their music was much more palatable to the general public from the single "Enter Sandman" and beyond, the opposite of Miles' 69-75 electric music.
I liked that bluesier softer around the edges Metallica style. They weren't really breaking new ground any longer, but sure seemed like all the nu-metal bands that came after sounded like the music on Load and Re-load.
Miles' electric period was neither softer or refined, Bitches Brew is a brutal avant-garde rock chamber jazz of sorts, it was no less creative or groundbreaking than any other style he developed. Once you get to the guitarist Pete Cosey's stint with Miles' 73-75 band, you have a hard funk style, that is absolutely not remotely like the top 40 funk of the Ohio Players or Earth Wind and Fire.
The truth is, these genre protectors don't have an issue staying inside that genre they're protecting forever, it's safe harbor to them. When someone they admire inside that genre moves on to greener pastures, whether that's instrumentation or style, they can't handle it. They are actually offended that the artist in question would dare enrich themselves with a new style of music.
Those same people slammed Parker and Gillespie, then Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, and then finally Miles and his move to rock and funk sounds. Miles never said he was playing jazz, why did those critics care anyway? What difference did it make to them? What about Wynton's buddy Ken Burns? Well, here is a different perspective on him, and his entertaining yet flawed documentary, Jazz.
There have been so many artists I have discovered over the years that the neo-cons would have steered me away from: Artists like, Ian Carr, Jaga Jazzist, and John Zorn. Progressive rock bands like Caravan, Gong, Colosseum, and Soft Machine are all fine examples of music that doesn't fit in the classic jazz narrow box.
I will leave you with this: How would Jazz its self ever have developed past swing, if the be-bop creators had listened to the neo-conservatives of their day? Miles, Monk, Trane, Mingus, likely all of them wouldn't have existed as we know them today. Art is art, people must create, and expand their pallet, that's life...the neo-con's need to live with that.
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