The New Jazz Musings

SUN RA : MR MYSTERY : TREASURES FROM THE FILES OF SATURN AN Overview By Michael F. Hopkins (1992),  PHOTOGRAPHY Bill SMITH JAZZMASTER INCARNATE, THEATRICAL PRESENCE EXTRAORDINAIRE, Sun Ra has enriched and enlivened the creative scene throughout the world for more than forty years. The most innovative Jazz orchestrator since Duke Ellington and Big Band Father Fletcher Henderson, Ra’s pioneering ways have helped pave the way for a wealth of breakthroughs. From the emancipating modalities of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, to the chromatic challenges posed by pianist Andrew Hill, and the panidiomatic dramatics employed by the Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Sun Ra’s influence is everywhere. Few know, for instance, that Ra helped establish the concept of the artist owned company with his Saturn Record label, decades before the idea came into vogue. His use of stage costumery and otherworldly scenario, dismissed for years, is but intensified African American minstrelry: a traditional expression...

JACK COOKE - Jazz Monthly, September 1967 JOHN COLTRANE died in hospital in New York City on July 17th. He was forty. This sudden end to the career of one of the most gifted musicians in jazz must come to everyone as a considerable shock: for me, and I’m sure for many others, it has the dimensions of a major tragedy. Most readers of this magazine will be at least familiar with the basic fact of Trane’s biography, and in any case it would take more words than I want to write at the moment to outline who he worked with, how his music evolved, the total of his achievements and what changes he brought about in the music during his career.  Perhaps it would be best at this point to try instead to pay some tribute to him as a man, for behind his music was a strong and forthright personality, and I am sure it was no coincidence that the really wide implications of his work and his greatest musical successes developed after he began to lead his own group. Trane grew slowly but inevitably i...

 Albert Ayler was considered a leading light in Free Jazz (or The New Thing) where form, structure and timing was broken down and restructured in a prepared or improvisational way. Ayler has been the subject in quite a few other of my blog posts, and one thing is for sure, he lived for his art. In a large part, that wasn't too dissimilar to other artists of the period. He struggled to make a decent living from his music, and for prolonged periods of time he was living in poverty.  In the journal Jazz Monthly from September 1967, WA Baldwin argued that Ayler wasn't so revolutionary in a "free" sense, but he was in his sound. Ayler was heavily influenced by composer Charles Ives, and the way he incorporated marching band music into his compositions. Like Ayler, Ives' main recognition only came after his death. I don't have all the articles, but it appears to be a series of five, the last of which I've previously posted  In Defence of Albert Ayler and The New...