ETHOS

By Paul Pennington

This thing that we have come to understand as jazz has encompassed a variety of subgenres that have surfaced throughout musical history. Many of these outgrowths were important to the sustainment of one of America’s earliest forms of music. We can take a particular look at the musical path of the original jazz pioneers to understand the evolution of the art form. Adapting and fusing funk, jazz, electric, and rock sounds allowed for Miles Davis’ original love to sustain popularity over the fast-paced cultural explosion and expansion that is American history.

Because of this we gained the smooth jazz styling of George Benson, the funk-fueled sounds of Donald Byrd, and the jazz-inspired hip-hop skills of Digable Planets. What has been relatively absent in the present, particularly in the pop arena, are the older sounds of Hard Bop, Swing and Modal jazz. These sounds made famous by musical geniuses such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane have, in many ways, been removed from a younger audience. What can be seen and heard, however, is the emergence of a new crop of young artists that I believe will fuse the sounds of today to resurrect the sounds of old, whilst maintaining their stylistic roots. (Sidenote: Sooooo yeah…all the artists are defintely not black…but I just really love that song…and I’m black so I can do whatever I want…)

—ROBERT GLASPER—

I’ve done a good bit of gushing about the 27-year old pianist already on the blog and don’t expect me to stop anytime soon. From jazz classics (Blue Skies/Irving Berlin) to hip-hop classics (Stakes Is High/De La Soul) Glasper does it all. What is so impressive about his style is that it never strays from the cool jazz styling, a sound made popular by artists such as Bill Evans and Vince Guaraldi. Despite the onslaught of “smooth jazz” fusions, ranging from “A Smooth Sax Tribute to Marvin Gaye” to “A Smooth Jazz Tribute to Amy Winehouse” (seriously what idiot is financing these absurd projects…stop it.), Glasper keeps the music sophisticated and yet relevant. For many jazz fans his sound is akin to the percussive and simplistic playing style of jazz pianist and Pittsburgh-native (Shout Outs to the 412/724!!!!) Ahmad Jamal.

If I could have one thing in the entire world it would be a Robert Glasper J Dilla Tribute…seriously I would never listen to a single record again if that ish came out…

A particularly interesting note comes in the form of the Glasper version of “Stakes Is High.” J Dilla who produced the original track actually sampled the powerful piano strokes from Jamal’s “Swahililand.” Because of the two artists similar styles it is not definite which song Glasper is actually playing.

Ok so maybe that’s not interesting, but for a musical nerd, I almost wet myself from the musical intracacy.

In related groupie news, I met dude at the Common/Q-Tip concert (he’s actually the guy playing the piano in the new Tip video for “Gettin’ Up”) last year and literally had nothing to say. I think I mumbled something about his albums being dope or something silly like that. Dude was literally walking through the crowd on some nonchalant, “I’m not a big deal” tip. I completely forgot to get a picture with him and I’m pretty sure I batted my eyelashes once or twice…it happens.

—ESPERANZA SPALDING—

Yeah…Esperanza Spalding is pretty dope. Let’s go through the stats…

1. She plays the oboe, violin, and clarinet but got…”musically bored” and decided to dominate the double bass (that giant monstrosity of an instrument that you have to stand up to play)
2. She sings…well…in two languages (English and Spanish)…I cannot sing well in any languages.
3. She is a professor at the prestigious Berklee College of Music…where she graduated.
4. She has a self-titled album (I want a self-titled anything before I die…)
5. She performed at Penn’s Annenberg Center which gives her baller status through the transitive property of me (I go to Penn, ergo anything associated with the school is by default pretty dope)
6. Yeah….she’s turning 24…this year…24.

So basically she has done more than anyone else I know…and most people that I’ve heard of before she even can think about her 30’s. Oh yeah and that whole teaching thing started when she was around 21…”But how can you teach when you should still be in school?”…By starting college when you’re 16 like my baby Esperanza…Get on her level.

One more thing: She may have passed up Alicia Keys on the list of women I want to marry…I’m really in love with this woman. She likes The Roots and would def be down for going to jazz clubs…that’s all I’ve ever really wanted in a woman. She’ll def be my girlfriend by November. (inside joke…)

—SOIL & “PIMP” SESSIONS—

I could do an entire post about why Japan (Asia in general really…) is dope. The main reason comes from their affinity for jazz. Looking at artists such as Nujabes or DJ Mitsu, there is a clear and heavy jazz influence throughout Japan.

Soil & “Pimp” Sessions (yeah…that’s their name) diverges from the fusion path and takes it all the way back to the Hard Bop scene. The jazz band plays powerful and exciting up tempo pieces that make you want to wild out on another level…I’m talking old Busta Rhymes’ wild out…knocking ish over and everything…yelling nonsensical jibberish with eyes buggin out…

If the Steinberg-Dietrich Experiment (our tentative college jazz/experiment/new wave/hip-hop band) ever happened…this is what I would imagine it as…peep me on the alto sax…

They’ve come out with at least one studio album every year since 2004 and each one has been quite solid. Their most recent endeavor, “Planet Pimp” (I really need to figure out what the deal with the whole “pimp” this is…do they not get the connotation of “pimp” or do they really just not give a damn…) brings the same powerful, horn-blaring sound to the forefront.

I am by no means a musical expert but I figure if Gilles Peterson invites you to play than you’re pretty dope because Gilles Peterson is dope. The same goes for Jamie Cullum, who had them back him for what I would assume was a top ten concert of all time. They also got an invitation to play in Germany by Jazzanova (find and download/buy immediately…thank me later)…Jazzanova had Tigallo and D-Brock on their last album so they probably make better than music than whatever is in your iPod right now…

If you’re still confused by this completely unheard of group let me clarify their sound a little more: Imagine if you had Duke Ellington and Just Blaze get together to conduct a club band…yeah it’s like that.

—CHRISTIAN SCOTT—

Just because you have a talented relative doesn’t mean that you will automatically be talented (ask Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Post-2000 Janet…) New Orleans native Christian Scott may not have gained his musical prowess from his legendary uncle, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. (of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers), but he definitely got his musical stripes playing with him at the age of 15. Like Spalding, Scott was talented at a young age, which gained him admittance to the Berklee College of Music, which he somehow managed to finish in three years, while touring and working on his first album…and probably all kind of other baller activities…

38 seconds of Christian Scott>Anything you have ever done musically…

Scott’s 2007 release, “Anthem” encapsulates the trumpeter’s feelings about the devastation that took his Louisiana home. The album is laden with somber and melancholic ballads drenched with the pain of looking through “Katrina’s Eyes” as well as darker tunes expressing the understood rage and anger of not-so-natural man-made disasters. Interestingly enough, Spalding lends her skills to the album as well as talented young pianist Aaron Parks.

From what I’ve read apparently Scott dresses really well too…like people look at him as a fashion icon…not like his belt matches his shoes “should be done regardless” type thing…I therefore run with Scott now too. I expect a Christian Scott/Lil’ Wayne NOLA collabo entitled Top 5 Dead or Alive: Greatest Jazz Artist of All Time…somewhere after the Da Drought 49.

The stage is set for a resurgence in the jazz scene. Herbie Hancock’s outstanding record River: The Joni Letters won Album of the Year at the Grammy’s, young people are as pretentious as ever which is always a plus for the ever-culturally commodified genre that is jazz and most importantly there is a healthy batch of young artists (also peep Parks, Anat Cohen, Marcus Strickland, Mathias Eick, Derrick Hodge [plays with Glasper and did the real dope Bass sections on Common's Be and Finding Forever]) making great music. The only thing the game is missing are some dope vocalists. Amel Larrieux’s Lovely Standards was gorgeous (another musical crush of mine…?uesto took her to prom…wooow) and Chrisette Michelle sounds like Sarah Vaughan…if Sarah Vaughan was forced to make questionable commercially viable R&B crossover albums..smh. However you want to dice it jazz is reemerging as a popular sound and shouldn’t lose momentum anytime soon…hopefully I’ve put you on to some new solid artists…if so you can find me at the Ahmad Jamal concert in Philly…maybe with my girlfriend…holla.