AMERIC.A,N CROSSROADS

Edited by Earl Lewis, George Lipsitz, Peggy Pascoe, George Sánchez, andDana Takagi

t. Bo¡der Matters: Remapping Anerícan Cuhural Studies, by José DavìdSaldívar

z. The Whìte Scourge: Mexiczns, BlacÞs, and Poor Wbites iø Texas CottonCalrzre, by Neil loley

3. Indians in the Mahìng: Ethníc Relatíotts and Iñd.ian Idefltities aroundPuget Souad, b,v Alexandra Harmon

4. Aztlán and. Viet Nam: Chrcano end, Cbìcaaa Experìences of the War,edited by George Mariscal

S. ImTwgration and tbe Political Economy of Home: West Indian BrooÞlynand American Indian Miflneaþolis, by Rachel Buff

6. EÞ|c Eflcounters: Cuhure, Medn, and U.S. Interests ifl the MiddleEast, r 9 4 5-z oa o, by Melaûi McAlister

7. Cofltagious D¡ui¿es: Epidemics and Race ift Sdfl Flañcisco's Chinatoøn,by Nayan Shah

8. Japañese Amer¡can Celebratíon and Conflict: A History of Etbnic Identityand Festiual, ry j4-t99o,by LorKwashige

9. American Sensations: Class, Empire, and tbe Productîon of Popular Cul-zre, by Shelley Streeby

¡a. Colorcd Vhite: Trdnscending the Racìal Pasr, by David R. Roediger

rr. Rep/o&tcing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and. lJ.S. Imperìalisrfl ik PaeTtoRrco, by Laura Briggs

12. næXicana Encounters: The Mdþing of Social Identtties on tbe Border-/azds, by Rosa Linda Fregoso

13- Popular Culture in the Age of \Yhite Flìglzr, by Eric Avilat4. Tíes That Bixd: Tbe Stol-j of aft AfTo-Cberokee Family ìn Slauery and

Freed.om, by Tíya Milesx5. Cuhwal Moues: Aficaa Americøns and the Politics of Reprcsentation,

by Herman S. Gray

Cultural Moves

African Americans dnd tbe Politicsof Representation

Herman S. Gray

UNIVERSITY OF CA LIFORNIA PRE55BerÞeley Los Angeles Londot

Chaprer r âppeâred âs "The New Condirions ofBlack Cuhural P¡oducrion, Or PreÊgurins ofa Black Culrural For¡nario1," in Betu)ee L¿a a^d Cuhar¿ ReLocatins Lesal Stadies, ed.L.C.Bowe! D.T. Goldbers, ánd M. Musheno (Universiry of Mìnrcsora Press, zoor). Chaprer ¿

åppea¡ed as "Jazz T!âdiúon, lnstitutional Formãrìon, a¡d Cultu¡al P¡acrice: The C¿non andrhe Streer as F¡anervorks for Oppositional Black Culturål Polirics," in ¡¡ou So¿iologt toCvltatul Sta¿ies, e¿. ElEa berh Long (Bl¿ckwell, r 997). Châpte¡ 4 âppealed âs 'Black Represenmlion in rhe Pos! Nerwork, Posr Civil Rishrs Vorld of Global Media," io Ra.'e, Racish,aid the Mass Med¡a,ed.Simon Co6le (Open U¡iversiry Press, roor). Parts ofchapter 6appeared as "À Diffe¡e¡! Dream olDiffe¡ence" in Clitial Studies ifl M6s Connanicatiofl(December 1999). Chapler 7 appeared as "Cuìrurâl Polirics as Outrâse(oùs)" \n Reø¿¡ssanceNoÆ, vol. 1, no. r (zooo).

Unñeßiry of Calilornù Press

Berkeley ând Los Angeles, California

U versily of Califomiâ Press, Lrd.London, Ëngland

O ¿oo5 by rhe Regens of rhe Univelsiry of California

Lib¡ary of Congress Càtaloging-in-PubLicarior Dara

Gray, Herman, rgJoCùlrural noves : African Arn€licâns ând rhe polrrics of represenration / Herman S. Gray.

p. cIlI.-(Àmer;can crossroâds j rr)sunmary: "ExamiDes ùe impoftance ofcul$re in rhe pùsh fo¡ black potirical powe! andsociâl recognirion and algues rhe key black culrural pracrices have been notable in reconfiguri,rg rhe shape and rexrr:re ofsociâl ând culiu!âl life in lhe U.S. Drawi4 on exanples fronjazz, relevisio¡, and ¿cedehia, Gray hishlishts cul¡ural s!¡aresies for inclusion in rhe doninânrcul$re âs weli as cultural Þcncs thar move beyond rbe quesr for mere recognirion by chal,Leng'ng, d;s¡L,pdng, ând unseÈling dominânt cukural representarions and institurions. In theend, G¡a-v challe¡ges rhe conventional wis¿om abour rhe cem¡aliry of represenranon and poli-rics in bleck cukx¡al produc¡ion."-Provided by publ¡sher

Includes bibliographicãl refe¡ences and index.ISBN o'5ro-¿t174-r (cloth : alk. paper).-rsB^- o-t20-24Ìaa-a þbk. I alk. paper)r. Àf¡ican An€ricans on relevision. ¿. ÀIrica¡ ÀEelic¡ns-Sonss and music-Hisrory ând

c¡iricism- L Tille.II. Series.

?Nr992.8.Át4c68 looj7 9 1. 4 5' 6 s 299 6ô7 3 --Àci

2004022297

Manufactu¡ed in ¡he Uni¡ed SrâÈes of Anericâ14 rj 11 rr ro 09 08 07 06 ojfa9a7 6 54 3LaPrinred on Ecobook Jo contaìû¡ng 3 ninimùm jo% posr-consumer wasre, processed chlorinefree. The balance conrains virsin pulp, includinc 257. Foresr Srewârdship Council Ceniñedfo! Do old sroqh rree cuEins, processed errher rcF or ÊcF. The shee! is acid free and meetsche minìnum requiremenG of,{,\sI/NÌso 219.48-r99: (R 1997) (Pe¡manence of Pãpef).

Contents

Acknowledgments

lntroduction: Strategies, Tactics, Moves

PAI.'| r . Strategies

The New Conditions of Black Cultu¡al P¡oduction

Jazz Tradirion, I¡stitutional Formation,and Cultu¡al P¡actice

Th.e ]azz LeÍt

PA¡.T lÍ Tactics

'!7here Have All the Black Shows Gone?

Television and the Politics of Diffe¡ence

Different Dreams, D¡eams of Diffe¡en¡:e

Cultu¡al Politics as Outrage(ous)

PART III Mozes

Is (Cybe¡) Space the Place?

Music, Idenriry and New Technology

Conclusion: Cultu¡al Moves

Notes

Bibliography

Index

l.

z,

1

4-

5

6.

7.

I

t3

)2

5?-

77

89

IÌ4

r48

r85

195

La5

CHAPTËR 2

JazzTradition,Institutional Formation,and Cultural Practice

In r99r, Lincoln Cente¡ fo¡ the Pe¡fo¡ming Arts in New york Ciry inau-gurated its jazz program and insralled its 6¡st a¡tistic directo! trumpetvirtuoso Vynton Marsalis. This historic move, car¡ied out by a majorAme¡ican cultu¡al institution, signaled the emergence of a new period ofvisibility and legitimacy for jazz ir tïte narional cultu¡e. Lincoln Center'.sdecision provides a ¡efe¡ence point for exploring the operation of cul-tural politics-issues of aesthetics, race, and institutional fo¡mation-within a dominant cultural organization.l Moreover, it is an opportu-niry for reflecting on the sometimes tenuous and misunderstoodrelationship berween the sociology of cultu¡e and cultu¡al studies as

analytic strategies for making sense of contemporary culture.Marsalìs's centraliry here is by no means coincidental. Indeed, given

his leadership of the generation of jazz musicians often ¡eferred to in thejazz press as "the young lions," his musical fo¡mation in New Orleans,his fo¡mal training at Tanglewood and the Juilliard School of Music,and his unparalleled recognition aûd achievements (e.g., GrammyAwa¡ds in both jazz music and classical music), Marsalis's role is per-haps singular. I mean, then, to highlight the media's representation ofMarsalis, as well as his own use of media and Lincoln Center as plat-forms, in order to make sense of his impact as a musician and cultu¡al

flãdvocate. Tn orher words, I examine rhe tacrical moves, social condi-

I tions, and cultural polirics of rhe renewed attention to jazz as a cultural

lpractice in ¡he con¡exr of rhe media ¡epres€nrations, debates, andI

12

J^zz Traðition

¡ polemics surrounding Marsalis and the legitimatìon and recognition ofj jazz by major cultu¡¿i insrirutions like Lincoln Cen¡e¡." Vhile I develop the cultural politics of Ma¡salis and his wo¡k at Lin_

coln Center mo¡e thoroughly, I also gesture towa¡d an ulte.n"tir" cul-tural approach to the practice of jazz. The ser of p¡oductive pracdccsand aesthetic approaches associared with Ma¡salis and Lincoln Cente¡ Ishall ¡efe¡ to as a canonical proiect. The alternarive, a view of aesrhe¡_ics and productive pracrices rhar I locate in the metaphor o f tk:pg!_SUL

vention. i "iþlicitly-mark

th" social, cultural, ;d poliiãTo"nd";LioT-tFese practices, since rhey d¡aw on distincr ltho,:gl, .o-.,i;."\shared)

rechnical vocabuiaries, cultural assumptions, aesthedc concep-kions. and social investments in Af¡ic¿n American musíc r¡aditions.L-At the level of cultu¡al and aesthetic politics, these disúnctivcapproaches and practices enact diffe¡ent, but important, oppositional

lpossibilities. Thus, while I place these practices in dialogue with eachothe¡,.I also wanr.ro suggest thar ìn the end they involve diffe¡ent waysotj.]ng rhe music in parricuìar and lAfrican American) culrural poli_ticiìî'general. I deliberarely set into analytic (and political) tension,ithen, these culru¡al projects and che cultu¡al politics-aesthetic andiinstitution¿l-that they enacr.TThe

gro*ing .edia atrenrion and public interest in jazz-the criticaldebate ove¡ its direction; the installation of Lincoln Centet jazz pro-gram; the proliferation of philanthropic, public, and corpo¡ate financialsupport; and the growth of ¡esea¡ch and training opporrunities in con-servatories, instìtutes, and unive¡sities-signal a significanc advance inthe ins¡itutional ¡ecognition and legítimatron of jazz.2 This recognitionand legitimarion are especially striking when seen f¡om the perspecriveof the sociology of culture that foregrounds rhe organizational, sr¡uc-tural, and social relationships within and through which such recogni-tion is achieved. In shorr, I view rhe activities and debates surrounding

lMa¡salis and his canonical project at Lincoln Cenre¡ as an effective

l(and largely successful) st¡uggle fo¡ institutional space and recognition

lwithin contemporary cuÌture. This effective struggle for institutionalrecognition and legitimacy is all the mo¡e significant when consideredfrom the long view of the histo¡ic ¡elationship between jazz and a dom-inant culrural insritution like Lincoln Center, which, as ríe Los Ange-les Times described it, is an "institu¡ion ¡hat has looked down itsnose at jazz fo¡ decades."3 Similarly, culrural studies help to clarify thecultural politics involved by alerting us ro rhe racial) aestheric, and dis-

="@w_

j4 Straregies

cursive constructions and scruggles thar also lie at the center of thisprocess,

'Wynron Marsalis and his support€rs are absolurely cenüal to unde¡-standing this move towa¡d insricutional recognition and legitimation. Inhis va¡ied ¡oles as media personaliry, recording artist, cultural advocate,arts administrato¡ composer, and performe! one caû tease out elementsof his ¿esthetic and cultural project, as well as the i¡sti¡utional strategiesfor realizing them. Marsalis's visioo arid the cultural politics that unde¡-write it are pivotal for grasping the significance of the cultural strugglessurrounding jazz since r99o. His effective, though no doubt polemical,directorship of rhe Lincoln Center program ìs a useful en¡¡ee to rhisinstance of contemporary cultural struggle.

INSTALLING THE C.A.NON

Wynton Marsalis is one of the most accomplished, celebrated, and¡ewarded musicians of his gere¡ation.a Indeed, so proliÊc and cele-

b¡ated is Ma¡salis that the¡e have even been the inevitable compalisonsin the press to Leonard Be¡nsrein.s Marsalis wo¡ks in a variety of ven-ues (jazz clubs, concerts, and festivals), media and educational settings(workshops, universities, radio, and televisior), and performance con-texts (modern dance, ballet, opera, quintet, big band, and orchesüa).His collabo¡arions in ¡elated a¡t fields include wo¡k with cellisr Yo-YoMa, choreographers Garth Fegan, Peter Marrins, and T\¡/yla Tharp, as

weìl as opera diva Kathleen Battle. His Grammy Awards, lucrativerecording contracts, television and radio series, and directorship at Lin-coln Center ensure a busy and demanding schedule.6

It is not just Marsalis's public visibiliry commercial success, and pro-

;hssional achievemenrs rhat I want to highlight here, but rathe¡ how the

\frgure of M¿rsalis, in criticai and popular discourse, may be ¡ead as

lan example of an oppositional cultural strategy by African Ame¡icans

þea9ed in struggles for insriru¡ional legitimacy and recognition.TMarsalis himself. in tacr- has used rhe social space of culrural perfor-mance and the institutional space of Lincoln Center as platforms fromwhich to issue certain pronouncements about his vision of the musicculture, and ¡¡adition. Ancho¡ed by a modernist vision of aesrhetics, Ipurisr suspicion of rhe dangers of commercialism, and a deep commir-menr to racial pride, his is a cultural project-a canonical projectr to beprecise-which aims fo¡ institu¡ional recognition, codification, andlegitimatjon.

lazz T:.aditron ) s

From his highly visible and influential public platform, Ma¡salis a¡-ticulates a cuÌtural, social, and aesthetic vision which aims to canonizejazz and to ensure it a significant place of cultural recognition and legir-imacy for his and future generarions.s

Aesth etic Modernism and Anticommetcidlìsm

One of Ma¡salist most impressive qualities is his ability to forcefullyarticulare his aesthetic approach to jazz. Tony Scherman observes thât"many disagree with him but few musicians o¡ critics have whatMa¡salis can claim: a thought-out unified view, a cosmoiogy, and aes-

thetic."9 Marsalis's aesthetic approach to jazz involves a complexunderstanding of the music's contemporary cultural context, its histori-cal fo¡mation and tradition, its technical elements, and the significanceof its key innova¡o¡s. Socially. Marsalis's aesthetic is founded on wharhe calls iazz's essence,

Some of the essential uaits of jazz are rhings that have norhing ro do rvìrhmusic. Fi¡s¡ comes rhe concept of playing- You rake a rheme, an idea,and you play with ic. Jusr like you play with a ball . . so you have thespirit of playiog. Next is the desire ro play wirh other people. Thac meansleaming ro respect individuality . playingjazz means learning how toreconcile differences, even when rhey're opposites. . Jazz ceaches youhow to have a dialogue with inregriry. Good man¡e¡s are impo¡tantand spirìtuality . . ¡he soul of ¡he musjc comes out of that. You have rowant to make somebody feel good with what you pla,v. Many so-called curting edge forms assault the listene¡- Bu¡ ¡hat's not the identiry of iazz. Theidenrity of jazz is to presen¡ i¡selfwich some soul to people.10

These cha¡acte¡istics fo¡m one part of Marsalis's vew of jazz as amode¡n form. This social unde¡sranding is very much organized a¡oundhis conception of the Àme¡ican characte¡ and his belief in rhe possibili-ties of Ame¡ican democracy. For Marsalis,;-azz expresses a mode¡nimpulse- It 'means a group of people coming together and playing with-out prepared music. It means negotiaring your personality against thepersonality or with the personaliry of ano¡he¡ musician with no conuolsove¡ what the othe¡ musician is going ro play. That's mode¡n ro me.

-Thar never existed until rhe rwentierh century."i t

J Musicall¡ Ma¡salis stresses convenrional musical elemenrs thar char-l,¡¡terize and hence disringuish jazz. -fhese include blues, swing, collec-

tive improvisation, syncopatior, call and response, vocal effects, andwo¡ldliness. So cent¡al a¡e these constitutive eiements to Marsalis's par-

J6

ticulâr musical approach to jazz that it is worth quoting him dìrectlyand at length on each element:

Blaes. Biues gives che lazz musiciân ân unsen¡imental view of the world.Blues is adulr secuia¡ music, rhe first adulr secular music America pro-duced. It has optimism rhar's nor naive. You accepr uagedy and movefo¡ward. Blues is down home sophisticarion. Blues ¡s such a

fundamentai fo¡m that it's loaded with complex iûformatioû. ft has â

sexual meaning, the ebb and flow of sexual passion; disappointment,happiness, jon and sor¡our It has a whole ¡eligious coûûotation too,rhar joy and lift. - . . And blues gives you a w-ay to combine dissonanceand consonance.

Søløg. Swing means constanr coordination, but in an environment thar\dif6culr enough co challenge your equilibrium. In jazz somebodyt play- '

ing on every beat. - That's what makes swinging in jazz a challenge.

On every beat there\ the possibiliry of the rhythm falling apart. Youhave the constant danger of not swinging. Swing isn't rigid. Somebodymight take the swìng ìn a new di¡ecdoÍ, âûd you have to be ready to gorhat rl-a,v. You're constan¡ly rrying to coordinare wich somerhìng that'sshifting and changing. - - - A lot of what Âf¡o-Ame¡icans did rn music'!'r'as refrne things thet alread,v existed. Afro-Americans didn't invent it,but they refined ic to ano¡hei level and put anothe¡ type of Americânrwist ro ir.

Colle.tiue i?kprouisatioz. ?eople getting together ând meking up music as a

group.

Syncopation. A syncopated approach ro rhythm means you're always p!e-pâred ro do lhe unexpected, aÌways ready to frnd yourequilibrìum. In jazz you're improvising wrthin a form. You chal-Ìenge thar form wich rhythms and harmonies. . Itt ali connected ro

che notion of playing. You sec parametets and then you mess with them.

Ca[l and Respoftse. Slaremenr, then counter-statemeût and

conÊ¡mation. In jazz, the call and response is spontaneous. Youinvent it. llayers cali and respond freely, alÌ th€ time. You have twotypes of call and response in jazz. The first is concu¡¡ent. . . . That'srhe most fascìnaung call and response, the simultaneous t1pe. That'scrue collective improvisation. . The big bands made call andresponse sequenaial-that's the second rype-and orchescrated it. In bìgband music, che soloist played and then che ensemble responded wrrh an

arranged Phrase.Yocal Effects. Thete's achieving vocal effeccs on instruments, vocâl effects

rhat come, fo¡ the most pert, from the Negro ùadition, down home !¡a-dition. Southe¡n shouts and moans, those slides and growls and crises

and screams,

WorldLiness.There is a spirit of rvorldiiness rn jazz. You can hear how ¡azzis connected to ocher musÌcs from a¡ound the world. Folk musics speci6

Straregies Jazz -ftadüon

cali¡ but also classical t¡adirion. . . Ellingron is the prime example.. . He was tryìng to apply the sound of jazz, not by ìmitating otherpeoplet music bur by understanding how ns elemenrs Êt jazz; jazz musicis nor provincial.l2

For Marsalis, then, jazz is the expression of the highest ideals of rhebiack cultu¡al (as opposed to racial) imaginarion. Jazz emerged out of a

ûaceable past, structured by a formal set of elements, and practiced bya recognizable group of composers and performers. In othe t,lratds, jazz

fis characrerized by a complex ser of social values. a sophisricared tradi-

I don of recognizable rexrs and pracritioners, and a systematic means of

freproduction. Recognizing these qualities, jazz, accordítg to Marsaiis,must be formally srudied, systemarically codified, and pracriced rh¡oughpe¡formanceJ educa¡ion, and institutional recognition. It must be sup-ported as well through an informed and critical public discourse.

Ma¡salis's aesthetic approach to jazz forms the basis upon which heidentifies a panicular corpus of styles, players, compositions, and sran-dards by which the music is measu¡ed and judged. llithin the jazz for-mation, he d¡aws a ¡athe¡ sharp distinction berween what he calls jazzand rhe avant-garde, particularly with respect ro rhe seminal contribu-tions of artists like Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman. Marsalis is espe-ciaily forceful about chis distinction: 'I've talked to Ornete abour hisnotion of f¡ee jazz. I think it's chaos. Maybe it's not, but that's what Ithink it is. Chaos is aiways out there; it's something you can get f¡omany fifry kids in a band room".13 lthiie he is quick to nore rhar the fam-ily of players loosely knowa as rhe avant-garde do nor call thei¡ musicjazz, his view applies particularly to post-Coltrane stylistic develop-ments in jazz; for example, the work of the !íorld Saxophone Quartetand the A¡t Ensemble of Chicago.

I've listened to it (the avanc-garde), I've played with rhe musìcìans,I was arthe lì¡st corcerr the World Saxophone Quater gave. I played on brlls wichthe An Ensemble of Chicago. ICs noc inreresting to me ro piay like rhat. IfI've rejected it, it! not ouc of igno¡ance of it. I don't know any peopÌe wholìke it. It doesnt resonate .rr,'ith anything I've experienced ìn the wo¡ld. Nofood I've eacen, no sports I've played, no women I've known. I don't evenlike Cok¡a¡e's late¡ stuff, to be honesc. I don't listen to i¡ [ke I do "A Love

-Supreme.' l¡ was wi¡h the rype of rhings thar thar lare period Coltrane didIthar jazz destroyed its telationship to the public. That auant-garde conrep.Ition of music, that s loud and self-absorbed-nobody's interested ìh hearint'tthat on n regula, óasis. I don'r <are how mu"h publiciry ir gers. The publcÍs not going to want ro hear people play like Lhat.''

38

Since, for Marsalis, jazz must be supported by a critical and informeddiscourse, in addition to avanr-garde musicians and composers, he

di¡ects some of his most unlorgiving criticism towa¡ds critics, journal-

isrs, and music industry personnel who in his estimation profoundly

misunde¡stand and misrepresent ¡he music. "Jazz commentary" he

observes,

is roo often shaped by a rebellion against what is conside¡ed the limirationsof the middle-class. The commentato¡s mistakenly believe that by willfullysliding down the intellectual, spiritual, economic, or social ladder, they will6nd freedom down where the jazz musicians (i.e., "real" people) Iie. Jazzmusicrans, however, are searching for freedom of ascendance. This is whychey practice. Musicians are rebelling against rhe ìdea that they

should be excÌuded f¡om choosing whac they wanr to do or think, agaiost

being forced into someone else's mold, whether it be the social agendas ofrhe conservarive esrablishment o¡ the new fake Ìiberal establishment ofwhich many well-meaning jazz observers are part.lj

Along these same lines, Ma¡salis has more recently obse¡ved that "injazz it is always necessary to be able to swing consistently and at differ-ent tempos. You canrot develop jazz by not pìaying it, not swinging or

fplaling the blues. Today's iazz criricism celebrates as innov¿tion forms

i of music rhat don'r add¡ess the fundamentals of the music. Buc no one'lwill creare a new sryle of jazz by evading its inherenr difficulties."ì6" It i, in the deployment of his aesthetic vision against critical excesses

and misrepresentations that one begins to get a glimmer of Marsalis's

cultural politics; as early as r 9 8 8, in the editorial pages of th e Neu Yorþ

Tizes, and in his ow n vol',tme, Søeet Suizg Blues on the Roød, Marsalis

inrervened directly in the public discourse about jazz.17 These interven-

tions are key, for in them Marsalis offe6 a corrective to what he sees as

misrepresentacions of jazz; the objective for Marsalis is, of course, torestore to musicians the authority of judgments and representation ofthe music and ¡hus ¡eestablish levels of competence, musicianship, and

arristic integriry This is how Marsalis put the matter: "Right now we're

trying to get back to people playing at a competent level of musician-ship. Another battle is fo¡ musicians to be recognÞed as authorities on

music. That's never happened in jazz. And we'¡e battling for the recog-

ni¡ion of rhe ¡itual aspects of jazz, of the fact that jazz music is not likeEuropean classical music."18 Ma¡salis's attempt ro distinguish jazz fromwhat he regards as excessive (and damaging) confusion between Euro-pean classical music and the jazz avant-garde is perhaps matched onlyuv llpssqç!sp5-{$.:g!{9+4194=b4h-r-cor¡eq!11elfecr.rol

Suategies

wlazz Tradüon

39

commercialism on jazz. As such. he has consis¡entlv rJiv¡...¡ ^- ,_.".*,,..u ¿nc dis_ringuished jazz from commercial forms Iike pop. r6çk. and hip-hop. Hisaesthetic moderdsm is complemenred, then, by conrempt foi.oå*.._cjal conr¿min¿rion rhar ¡h¡earens the purity. nobility, and int.o,of jazz through confusion ."d -i-;ry: "i;;; ;;;;':;;#:ii3Ma¡salis once quipped early in his ca¡eerle This senrimenr ç¿p¡¡...Marsalis's contempt for the corrupring in{luences of comme¡cialism onjazz. Atd, he does not mince wo¡ds ro express his feelings abour con_tempo¡ary popular music: "popular tuøes are sad pieces of on"_rbo)dshit. Tod¿zy's pop tunes are sad. Tu¡n on ¡he ¡adio and try to Ând a poptune to play with you¡ band. You can't do it. The melodies a¡e staric, ¡hechord changes are just the same senseless stuff repeared ove¡ and ove¡agaín."zo

i/ Jazz r,eeds ro be "prorecred," as ir were, f¡om these leveling influ_jences, because in a cuhu¡e driven by profir and record sales, confusion,

I mrsrepresentat¡on, and, worse for Marsalis, a misuse of rhe term 72¿¿

þan easily result. Again, Marsaljs puts the matte¡ lo¡cefully and direccly:

-'Aaything is jazz; ever¡hjng is jazz. Quincy Jones, shit is jazz, DavidSanborn - that's not to cut down euincy or David. I love funk, it,ship. No problem to it. Tbe thing is, if it'll sell records to cell that stuffjazz, they'll call it jazz. They call Miles' srufÍ jazz. That srufÍ rs rlor ¡azz,man. Just because someone played jazz at one time, that doesn,t meanthey're still playing it."21

In a ¡athe¡ i¡onic twist, Marsalis suggesrs that while comme¡cialismcont¡ibutes to ¡he social diminution and loss ofcultu¡al ¡espect and legic_irnacy for the music (in the eyes of some), popular music benefits. aes-thetically and culturall¡ f¡om its associarion with jazz. This js howMarsalis explains it in his 1988 Netu york Times edítortal:,,I recentlycompleted a tour ofjazz festivals in Europe in which only two out oftenbands were jazz batds. The promoters of these festivals readily admit

fr'most of the music isn't jazz. bur refuse to ¡erame these ev€nts seek_

\ring the aestheric elevarion rha¡ iazz offers.,'zz In the same edito¡ial he-observed, "ro maoy people, any kind of popular music can norv be

Iumped with jazz. As a ¡esult audiences too often come ro jazz with gen_eralized misconceptions abour what it is and what it is suppos"d ro be.Too often, Øbat is repfesented. as iazz isn't jazz at a.ll. Despite atte1"/Lpts

¡ by tt,riters and record companies and promoters and educatorc and e)en

Vusicians to blur the lines for commercial purposes, rocÞ isn't jazz andnetu age isn't iazz and tueith el ale poþ or third stream.Tberemay be muchrhat is good in all of them, but they ain,t jazz."2i Such confusion and mrs_

rep¡esentation! when combined with the relentless commercial impera-

tives to sell records and at all costs to tu¡n out hits, is, for Marsalis, at the

hea¡t of the matter This situation, which generates misconceptions, mis-

understandings, and appropriations oÍ iazz, is what seems to t¡ouble

Ma¡salis most.

Racial Nationalism anà American Democracy

A simila¡ kind of protectionist stance defines Ma¡salis's conception of

the ¡ole ofAf¡ican Ame¡icans in ¡elationship to jazz. \Ûhile certainly not

limited to it, thrs conc€Ptiot begins with and is perhaps most evident in

his defense of both, iazz and Af¡ican Ämericans against the Persistent

and dest¡uctive racial myths that still pe¡meate many of the critical and

popular conceptions abort iazz and its practitione¡s. Ma¡salis con-

fronted this myth directly in the editorial pages of the Neze' YorþTimel"The myth of the noble savage it jazz," he asserts, "which was bo¡n

early and stubbornly refuses to die, despite all the evidence to the con-

trary, regards jazz as merely as a p¡oduct of [obl€ sa'/ages-mus¡c þ/o-duced by untutored, unbuttoned semìliteÍates-for L'hom hístory does

not exist."24 For Marsalis, jazz critics and the misinformed commentary

they produce are partly resPonsible for the perperation of this rnyth:

"This myth was invented by early jazz writers who, in attemPting to

escape their American prejudice, tu¡ned out a whole world of new

clichés based on the myth of ¡he innate ability of early jazz musicians'

Because of these w¡ite¡s' lack of unde¡standing of the mechanics of

music, they thought there weren't any mechanics. It is the'they all can

sing, they all have rhlthm' syndrome."25

In cont¡ast to the "semilite¡ate unbuttoned" image of the music that

the m¡h of the noble savage presents, Linda Williams, writing in the

Wall Street Journal, describes Ma¡salis as "a show business rarity: a

black performer who has built up a big mass-market audience while tak-

ing a black nationalist approach to his a¡t."26 Villiams suggests that,

for Marsalis, "jazz is much more thall entertainment: lt ¡s 4n inportant

expressiot of the zoth century Black expeïience in Atterica' 'Jazz is,' he

Tecently wrote, 'the nobility of the race þut into souTtd; the seftsuousness

of romance ìn oør dìalec4 it is tbe picture of the people in all theìr

gtory. "

Given che histor¡ social climate, and deep cultural roots of the myths

that Ma¡salis has taken on, one can begin to see the c¡ucial rqle of racial

(and, fo¡ some, black nationalist) politics within his larger cultural and

Scracegies Jazz Tradirion

aesthetic project. Indeed, as councerdiscourse, Marsalis attacks this poi-sonous cultural assauh on black people and jazz from a position care-fully crafted f¡om his own cultural fo¡mation in the black South, hisìntellectual mentoring by Stanley C¡ouch and Albert Murra¡ and hisconside¡able command of musical history, aesthetics, and mechanics:

My generarion 6nds irself wedged berween rwo opposing rradìtions. Oneis the c¡adicion we know in such wonde¡ful derarl from rhe enormous re-corded legacy that tells anyone who wili listen that jazz broke the ¡ules ofEuropean conventions a¡d c¡eated ¡ules of its own that we¡e so speci6c, sothorough, and so demanding that a grear aff resuhed- Thìs an has had suchuniversal appeal and application that it has changed che conventions ofAmerican music as weli as those of che world at large.28

As with his concep¡ion of aestherics and his position on the commercialcor¡uption threatening jazz, Marsalis's racial politics are the sou¡ce ofconside¡able cont¡oversy. He has publicly debared jazz critic James Lin-coln Collier on jazz criticìsm (especially Colliert writing about DukeEllington). He has att¡acted bine¡ and often heated c¡iticism f¡om neo-conservative, liberal, even progressive cultu¡al critics like Terry Trea-chout, Peter'Watrous, and Gene Santo¡o. Neoconservarive T¡eachouthas even charged Ma¡salis with ¡eve¡se racism, owing to MurìãäbTJing practices, booking policies, and his choices of repertory and com-missions in the jazz program ar Lincoln Cenre¡. While Treachout uses

Marsalis's di¡ectorship of the program at Lincoln Cente¡ to attackMarsalis's intellecrual mentors-Stanley C¡ouch and Albert Murray-his most vehement c¡iticisms are di¡ected towa¡d Ma¡salis.2e And whilec¡iticisms of Ma¡salis's choices in programming, orchestra personnel,and musical styles have come from musicians and c¡irics alike, Trea-chout's is by far the mosr venomous in its disdain fo¡ the way that racein his view underwrires Ma¡saiis's t€r¡ure as director. This c¡iticism of

¡-Marsalis stems f¡om T¡eachout's view of jazz as politically neutral,

I color-bLind space ofcultural and socjal practice. a space where. in his

þtimation. race should not, indeed cannot mafter. T¡eachour suggests,-for example, thar "so fa¡ as can be determined, jazz was 'invenred'

around the tu¡n of the zoth century by New Orleans blacks of widelyvarying musical education and ethnic backgtound. . . But uhitesurere playikg iazz tuithin a decade of its inìtial aþpeatance, and beganmaþing imþortltftt contribratìons to ¡ts stylìstic deueLopment shortlythereafter Until fairly recentþ, most musicians and scholars agreed thatjazz long ago ceased to be a uniqøely blacþ idiom and became multi-cuhural in the truest, least politicized sense of the uord."3a

4\

4L

Having established his view ol jazz's histo¡ic multiculturalism, Trea-

chour singles our Ma¡salis's Lincoln Center program for its ¡ace-based

hiring policies and commissions. 'Unde¡ Ma¡salis and Crouch," Trea-

chour writes, "Jazz at Lincoln Center presents only programs about

black musicians; whites are allowed to play with the Lincoln Centet Jazz

Orchestra, but the hisco¡ic conr¡ibucions of earlie¡ white players, com-

posers, and alrangers ale systemarically ignored, and contemporary

whire composers a¡e not commissioned co w¡ite original pieces for the

full o¡chestra. This policy is so egregiously race-conscious that it has

even been attacked by admi¡e¡s of lVynton Marsalis."3l Treachout's

essay is peppered throughout with direct attacks not just on Marsalis's

guidance of the Lincoln Center jazz program, but Marsalis's characceq

politics, and musicianship. For instance,

Marsalis is unapologetic about such matters [his controversìal leadership ac

LmcoÌn Center] aod apparently he can afford to be. At thirry rhlee, in addi-tion to having performed and ¡eco¡ded much of the cÌassical crumpet litera_

ture, he rs rhe most famous jazz musician in America . Interestingly,

not all of rhese achievemencs hold equally well under scruriny. Technicallyspeaking, Marsalis is a vìrcuoso by any concervable standard . . . but his

iazz playing ts feh by many to be cold and ironically enough derivative

Änd,

Ma¡salis takes se¡iously, his job as an unappointed spokesman for AlbertMurray's and Stanley C¡ouch's ve¡sion of che jazz tradition. ' . He has

been quick co criticize other musiciens, notably, Miles Davis and SomyRollins, for "seLling out" to commercial music. And he is adamanc indefending his conduct as artiscic director of Jazz ac Lincoln Centec

And finall¡

Although he uses white players boch in the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestraand in his own group, it is uidely believed that he harbors a general dis-

dain for u,,hite musici¿¡r, and the belief seems ro be borne our by the

facrs.i2

'Wirh passing digs ar the generation of so-called "young lions"spawned by the success of Ma¡salis, Treachout details how racial poli-ti.cs rî jazz operates: how privileging blackness in jazz works to rhe

advantage of bìack players, in recording coûtracts, bookings, and

appearances; how ir cont¡ibutes to the misrepresentation of social ¡ela-

tions in the music (color-blind multiculturalism); and, perhaps most

imporrantl¡ how it disadvanrages white players. In the end, for Trea-

chout, Marsalis is the most visíble, successful, and hence egregious

St¡ategies Jazz Tradition

demonst¡ation of the presence of ¡eve¡se racrsm rt jazz. He notes, bit-terl¡ that one can easily multiply such examples ro show how reve¡se¡acism has become, if not universai, then porentially legicimate h jazzand indeed, how it has insinuared itself throughout the jazz commu-niry . . . The new ¡eve¡se racism ln jazz is not, of course, an isolaredphenomena. It has a¡isen at a time when such government policies asquota-based affi¡mative action have made ¡ace-consciousness a pe¡va-sive feature of American sociery. In the absence ofthese policies . . . iris unlikely that public institurions like Lincoln Cenre¡ and ¡he Smithlsonian lnsrirution would lend the prestige of thei¡ names ro arrisricenterprises run on racialist lines, or submit meekly to cynical politiciansplaying the race card. . Bur rhat is jusr whar makes che current epi-demic in the jazz world so disturbing, and its implication so far-

¡ reaching.l3 M¿¡salis's aes¡hetic and racial politics make fo¡ someL strange bedfellows, indeed. White neoconse¡vative idealists who cele-

b¡a¡e the colo¡-blind, multicultwal aspects of jazz, mainsrream critics,and in some cases black radical avant-garde players have fo¡ diffe¡entreasons challenged Marsalis's heady pronouncements and his leadershipof the Lincoln Center program. On ¡he othe¡ hand, Marsalis has alsobrought togerher neoconservative African Ame¡ican cultu¡al c¡itics andintellectuals, young black performers and largely libe¡al middle-class(white) audiences unde¡ a banne¡ of a challenging but accessible middle-brow music, racial pride, and affirmation of Ame¡ican democracy andcultu¡e.

- Marsalis's racial politics aim to establish the cenrrality of black pres-'ieirce and conrributions ro ¡he American experience. lflhe¡e T¡eachout

\sees (and aspires ro) color blindness, Marsalis sees (and rejects) racial

\and culrural invisibiliry rha¡ is susrained by rhe conrinuing salience oflracism in all aspecrs of American life and cultu¡e. Check out this r994"exchange berueen Ma¡salis and ¿n inrerviewe¡:

Qr How closely is jazz bound up with the experience of A{ricanAme¡icans?

Marsalis: h ís ìnseparable-ín its inceþtion. They crcøted it. Bur why haswho c¡eaced ic become more imporrant than whar was c¡eared? Irhas t¡anscended irs inceprion

Q: One wonders if rhere will ever be a jazz innovator, someone onrhe level of Ëllingron who is whitel

Marsalis: thete migþt nor, but itt not impo¡tant. It doesn,t make a differ-ence. It is of no signi6cance . . why is rr even an issue? Thartrhe thing you h¿ve ro ex¿mine.

Q; OK, rvhy is itì

44 Straregies

Marsalis: Becatse in ou¡ time ¡acism still carries more weight than musìcalfact. Duke Eilington didn,t have enough white in him? He,s anAmerican. He's f¡om Washington, DC.

Q: People probably assume rhar Ìrt impo¡rânt ro you ro say rhar aligreat innovâtors in jazz have been biack.

Marsalis: I don't ha¡e ro say ir. I iusl say Louis Armsrrong. I don't sayblack Louis A¡mst¡ong. I mean "what about pride in humanity?,,Ellìngronì achievemenr is hi,, ¿chievement. I¡i ¿ human ¿chieir-meIlr. Because, remember, the Afro-American experience isAmerican experience . -V/hefleuer

the NegTo is successful at some-thing, there has to be an excuse made up for the tuhy. The bestway to do thís is to make bís achrcuement seem líhe somethingonly he can do, for some racially deriued re¿soz-which ¡emovcsthe direct compecition ard excharge rhat âctually exists.34

And in the more controlled contexr of his own book, Su.teet SwingBlues on the Road, Marsalis pur rhe matter (the relationship berweenjazz and black folk) this way:

As Crouch says, "They invented ir." People who invent somerhing atealways best ar doing ic, âr leasr unril other foÌk Êgure our what ir is, If youcelebrate less accomplished musicians because you share a super6cial bond,you cheat vourself- An¡.way if you ask mos¡ black Ame¡icans today rvho isrheir favorire iazz musician, rhey will name some instrumental pop musician. So much for ¡ace. The younge¡ musicians of any racial group todayswing in spite of cheir ¡ace, no¡ because of i!.35

*legardless of the venue or rhe occasion, in the final analysis Marsalis,sI view of che relarionsbip berween race and jazz is a complex amalgama-

I tion of deep belief in rhe possibiliry of American de-o.rac¡ a c.l"bra-

\tion of African American conrriburions ro Americ¿n cuhure, and a cri-

Itlue of racism. An individualist ethic d¡ives both his c¡eative spirit andhis sense of possibiliry for realizing his p¡oject in rhe institurional spaceof Lincoln Cente¡.

INSTITUTIONA L R EVO LUTI Oìi

If nothing else, Ma¡salis has ce¡rainly used his position as arrisric direc-to¡ of the Lincoln Cente¡ jazz ptogram as a platform to bring togetherand ¡ealize a b¡oader cultural project: to estâblish a jazz canot and cre-ate a space for irs insrirutional legitimacy within a premier cultu¡al insti-cuÌion. The conflicts over rhe realization ofthat project are as much gen-erational as aesrhetic and poljrical. Pete¡ Watrous, jazz c¡iric for rheNeu, Yorþ Times, characteûzes the conflicts this way:

In many wa,vs the fight is over not only the directioa of jazz atLincoln Cen-rer, which has been an exceptionai advocace of younger musicians, but âlso

]azz Tradition 4s

the direc¡ion of ¡azz: Vho has the righr to repre,ent ir? V/har w;ll i,. Â,,.be? How will irs history be rvritten?"And a.rp;,. ,t

" lrio., pr";;,ai"t'

sound and fury itt a âght that is over The .uri.irnr, *ho .o._r-rrã.à ,1"bandsrand, have w6¡.16

If one accepts rWãtrous's critical app¡aisal, and I am strongly inclined todo so on the broader issue of cultural politics, then ìt is nece;sary ro ru.nonce again to Ma¡salis. Fo¡ mosr c¡itical observe¡s ag¡ee he is tbe piv_otal figu¡e a¡ound which important insdrutional spaces harre b'e.nopened and significant legitimation of and inte¡est in rhe musrc ¡ealized.How Ma¡salis ìnitially sought ro ¡ealize this vision was ser out in his1988 Netu Yotþ Times edírortal (well before his di¡ecorship of the Lin_coln Center program was announced), where he wrote,

lFe designed a ClassicalJazz Series this yea¡ thar deals wìth rhe music ofDuke Ellington, Tadd Dameron, and Max Roach, as well as evenings givenover to singers and instmmentalists interpreting standard songs. This ieriesfocuses on two thilgs: the compositìons òf maþr u,viters and"the qualíty ofiriþrotisatiaft- . . ile enjoyment and enrertainment a.. or."Lo,rrl.mar¡e¡s in the ClassicalJazz Series. ir should be clear rh¿r we ¿lso,ee aneed rc help promote understandings of Luhdt haÞþefts in ¡aza.

^î imÞo.-

ftanr pan of rhe 'eries. therefore. ¿re program noie" b¡ Sr¿nle) Crouci.r,(which seek to erplain the ffitent of the musicìans as ¡tell as the meaniig of'the art. .

... , lle feeJ rhat the proper p¡esenrarion of notes, song ritles ãnd

even small discographìes will help audiences bette¡ understand ihe essendalelemeûts of the music and thereby enjoy che music even mo¡e. Ciassl_cal Jazz at Lincoln Centet-wherher celebraring rhe work of individuala¡tisls or using improvisational talents of ¡naslers . , is ìntenr on helpingtogive jâzz, its ertists aad its products rheir deserved place in Americanculru¡e. I also feel rhat the Classical Jazz Seles gives iincoln Center addi_tional reason ro ¡ege¡d itseif as a cente¡ of wo¡ld culture.lT

Since r988, through the Classical Se¡ies. commissioned works, col-laborations, media and education, perfo¡mance, and critical engage_ment with the discou¡se on jazz, Marsalis has used the insriturionalspace and internarional reputation of Lincoln Center quite effectively_namely ro inc¡ease the visìbility and legitim acy of jazz.38 For Marsahs,

¡'the recognition of a jazz canon by cultu¡al instirutions like Lincoln Cen_

/ ter nor only ensures the music's su.vival and legitimation in the sociery's

I domrnanr cuirural rnstirurions, bur provides him with a promrnent pub_\ hc forùm from which ro engage jn poljrjcal 5rruggles over cuhure.' The effecriveness of Ma¡salisì cultural project cannot be ascribed

solely to him, in isolation f¡om the social, economic, and culru¡al ¡rans_formations that have occurred in jazz since abour r99o. Despite his effec_tive intervention into the discu¡sive debates on jazz, there have been

--w

46

notable developments in the political economy ofthe reco¡ding industr¡corporate sponsorship of jazz festivals and performance venues, mediacoverage, education and uaining, and research on jazz. Many of the per-

formance venues-notably small independent jazz clubs-have been

replaced by corporate sponsorship, national franchises, megafestivals,

and multicity tours.l9 Remaining local independent venues have to reg-

ularly book "name" talentto att¡ac¡la¡ge and affluent-enough audiences

in o¡de¡ to make their operations profitable. Alrhough clubs and localperformance venues long associated with jazz continue to ru¡n over at a

(:mpid pace, new fo¡ms of public cultural and financial suppo¡t for the

I music have appeared in rhe form of foundation support. iuried competi-

I tions, degree progr¿ms, research programs, and repertory programs at

þlleges and unive¡sities. Programs like those at Lincoln Center, theKennedy Cencer, and Carnegie Hall are complemented by performancecompetitions like rhe Theolonious Monk Ins¡itute and resea¡ch a¡chives

like the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers Universiry the Cente¡ fo¡Black Music Resea¡ch Cente¡ in Chicago, the Smithsonian lnstitution,and the Ame¡ican Resea¡ch Center.40

As fo¡ reco¡ded music, the compact disk ol course has replaced the

vinyl LP as the standard format in which ¡eco¡ded music is presented.

Through various dist¡ibution arrargements and marketing strategies

between ¡eco¡d companies and major corporations, jazz is effeccively

reaching new ma¡kets. Notable examples are a¡¡¿ngements between

Blue Note Reco¡ds and Starbucks Coffee, as well as those between cig-

a¡ette manufactu¡ers, liquor companies, car manufacturers, and jazz

fes¡ivals,a1 Music videos, television commercials, and special campaigns(e.g., rhe U.S. Postal Service's commemoralive sramp series ot lazz leg-ends) also have become an important means through which the musicgains exposure. And, of course, public television and cable television(e.g., Bravo, Black Entertainment Television) have become importantmedia outlets fo¡ showcasing jazz. for the most part, public and collegeradio remain the primary radio outlets for iazz, particularly since com-me¡cial outlets in major urban areas like New York, Los Angeles, andrhe San Francisco Bay Area no Ionger exisr.

Audiences for jazz-both those who purchase the music on compactdisk and those who attend conce¡ts and clubs-are increasingly edu-

cated, affluent, young, and very often white.a2 To be su¡e Ma¡salis andhis "young lion" associates have also helped stimulate interests in jazz

on the part of black middle-class youth, some of whom, ironically, are

also drawn to chose comme¡cial fo¡ms that Marsalis fea¡s mosa for their

Strategies Jazz Tndüoa

insidious effects or the music-rap, acrd jazz, house, jungle mLrsic,

daoce hall, and reggae. These styles have brought young people co jazz

by way of a search for new stylistic possibiliries, as well as a familiarirywith earlier players and styles wirhin the jazz rradirion.ai

The popular and crirical coverage of jazz, much of which is aimed atyoung affluent consumers, is limited to a small but energetic jazz press,

including publicatiots llke Dorun Beat, Jazz Times, and. Jazz Is. \t rhepress, popular coverage of the music is limited largely to major metro-politan dailies like the N¿¿¿, Yotþ Times ar'd the Los Angeles Tiznes. Agrowing body of independent films (e.g., A Greøt Day in Harlern),brog-raphies, and scholarly monographs have begun to emerge as well.44

THÉ ROAD AND THE STREET

I want to propose that Ma¡salist caoonical project ar Lincoln Center,

/while an expression of one form of resistant black culture, is also fun-tdamentalJy conservarive. Musicianq and critics alike view ¡his as a proi-ect that const¡ucts a classìcal canon by formalizing it into static rextsand confining ir to museums, conservatories, and cultural institutions.{jIn fact, drawing on the insights of Amirj Ba¡aka and Af¡ican Ame¡ican

lliterature, Narhaniel Mackey argues that such projects move jazz from\¿ *verb" to a ''noun."46 In irs "high modernisr'' rone and aesthetic

assumprions, Ma¡salist plonouncemerrls on the aesthetic dangers andcomme¡cial corruption of popular music joins long-standing culturaldebates abou¡ the ¡elationship of high culture to popular cultu¡e and thecontaminaring effec¡s of the latte¡ on the fo¡me¡.47In Ma¡saiìs's cultu¡al

luniverse, the move to loc¿te rhe co¡¡osive effecrs of rhe popuìar arts on\he;".r."non is, no doubr. a powerful polirìcal move.

ln a clima¡e of neoconse¡vatìve assaul¡ on the arts and culture,Marsalis's cultural project is especially appealing preciseÌy because it is

built on crucial assu-.tions about the value of "cultu¡e" (and moral-ity) in the still un¡ealized porential of American democracy. Politicall¡rhis scheme accepts a (rraditional) view of the e¡osion of cuftu¡e and val-ues (which are under assault) and links it to powerful agencies of legiri-mation and recognition thar aim to lix the limits of cuiru¡e and protectit f¡om the corrupting fo¡ces of the marker, commerce, and untu¡o¡ed

þsces. I find rhis position and its aesthetics culcurally and politically

\convenrional and elirisr, rhe way that t¡aditionalists (both radical andleenservarive) hare always been on the quesrion of popular cuirure. Thisvision ¡elies on discou¡ses and institutions of legitimation and power, a

48 Srraregies

discerning and informed public, a critical community of judgmenr andevaluation, and powerful institutions to value and signal as importantthe conventions, rechnrcal rules, literatures, practitioners, and uaditionon which a canon is constructed-48

Conse¡vative o¡ not, I do recognize, and even applaud, rhe st aregicand effective inte¡ventions of Marsalis. Not so much as a capitulationto Ma¡salis's aestheric and cultural politics, but to acknowledge rhesheer complexity of the position and the effective ¡esults that Ma¡salishas sraked our and enacted at Lincoln Cenre¡.

Whe¡e Marsalis mobilizes his ¡heto¡ical positions and institutionaltactics around the need to canonize jazz, to ensure it institutional legit-imacy in the broade¡ Ame¡ican cultu¡al landscape, when examined f¡omwithin the politics of Af¡ican Ame¡ican music a differenr ser of culturalp¡actices ând political possibilities emerge. There is another approach to

_the jazz tradition. Indeed, when one considers the t¡adition itself and the

[productive pracrices and social conditions that shaped it, one finds

\ many of the corruprive influences that Marsalis and his intellectual men-

lrors fear mosr for their banefr¡l effects on rhe music-popularir¡ dance,

lmass markering. and ¡he influence of popular sryles.* While I can only gesture roward this othe¡ approach to the t¡adi-tioû-an approach which I cha¡acte¡ize as the sensibiliry of the ¡oad andthe street-l do so in o¡de¡ to make a poìnt about rhe srudy of culturalpractices and to foreground the politics at work in a different approachro jazz as a sire ofcul¡ural struggìe. Bv indicating an aLternative to wharI have called a "canonization project," I do not mean to suggest that rhesensibiÌiries and practices of a ¡oad-and-st¡eet aesthetic do not exisr inMa¡salis's own project. In fact, in Sueet Su,íng Blues on the Road,Marsalis w¡ites quite robustly about the cenr¡aliry of the ¡oad to hisown formatìon and continuing p¡actice as a jazz musícíat.I do, how-

['e.'er, mean to unde¡score the fact that the locations and conditions of¡ J production where jazz main¡ains its motion and fioue?nent, innouationt/ll\ I and expansion. conrinue in those cultural spaces outside canonical dis-

þourses and institution¿l pr¿crices of legirim¿rion,I take the metaphor of the ¡oad and the sr¡eer f¡om the great territory

bands of the r93os and t94os. The road (as opposed to, for ìnstance,the "tou¡")was an expression used by musicians to desc¡ibe life on theroad-the experience of traveling from community to community, townto town, ciry to city to perform. The music, social relations, and culruralstyles whìch defrned u¡ban black communities in the r94os and rgjoswere, as cultural hisro¡ian Robin D. G. Kelley brilliantly details, the

Jazz Tradition 49

basis fo¡ the fo¡mation among many working-class blacks of politicalconscìousness and cultural understanding of blackness.ae Kelley arguesthat it was black popular forms and cultural sryles found in the sr¡eerand clubs of black urban America that gave shape and expression to ¡hecultural and political consciousness of blacks.

On the road, musicians perfected their skills, discovered new ¡nusicalinfluences and players, made frìends, and const¡ucted communities rhatextended bevond the i - m".l i"te co.6n.. 6flõ!ãi[v.-fr'ãoiËiãi¡he ¡oad allowed musicians and bands to sharpen rheir acrs, pick up newtalent, modify their books, and gauge the ¡esponse ro thei¡ music. Theliteral rqad and the st¡eer, then, were places where musicians bor¡owedand mixed styles and experimented wirh new possibilities. ln the process,they created music that was dynarnic, dialogic, and fashioned our of theexperiences and needs ofeveryday life.'!Øhile I have no desire to re-crearethis lite¡al "road and street," I do want to shift the discussion f¡o¡n thislite¡al and histo¡ical road and st¡eet to a metaphorical one.

Although very much rooted in a jazz tradition, rhe metapho¡ical ¡oadand screet of jazz as a cultu¡al p¡actice depends on a different concep-tion of and relationship to the traditìon, It requires a conception rooredin constant change and transformation, where t¡adition is not simplyabsüacted, codified, and preserved in c¡itical judgments, cultu¡al insti-rgtions and reperrory performance. In this image of jazz as a cultural

þractice, rhe music lives and breathes, as it were, in the acrive crearions

I and experiences of changing performance and encounters with contem-

] porarl ideas, srfles. influences, and performance possibilities, including

I those in popular and commercial cultu¡e. This diffe¡ence in conceptionJ/and approach represents fa¡ mo¡e than a semantic disag¡"aa"n, o.-aon-

ceptual dispute ove¡ how the music is ¡epresented. &gpp¡û_S¡br_.t¡adition in this view ofj4az practice (including its canonical manifesra-tions) is-!9..çåsûge-¡!¡ptJitlglrft, to emphasize its "verbal" character,as Mackey puts it.5o

In contrast to rhe aim of building a canonical t¡adition in o¡de¡ toensure a place of legitimacy and recognition by dominant cultural insti-tutions, an enti¡e cohort of Ma¡salis's contemporaries-Don Byron,Gerri Allen, Steve Coleman, Cassandra Wilson, Graham Haynes, Court-ney Pine, Kenny Garre tt, and Branford Marsalis----continually d¡aw froma range of stylistic influences which challenge and srrerch rhe t¡adi¡ion.

¡These musicians, like many of rheir predecessors, keep jazz movrng

I rhrough its engagemenr wirh popular forms, new technologies, and com-

\mercial rouces ofcircularion. Insread olprotectìng the jazz t¡adition from

50 Strategres

the corrupting influences of popular and comme¡cial fo¡ms like reggae,

rap, rh¡hm and blues, dance hall (as well as Native American, SouthAsian, and African forms), this coho¡t of contemporary musiciansexpands the jazz tradition byreworking it through metapho¡ical encoun

re¡s in the lire¡al st¡eet. With an emphatic stress on the ve¡bal rathe¡ than

¡nominal dimension of the music, these musicians are engaged in al dynamic reinvenrion and dialogic rewriting of the tradition.

JAZZ .q.ND CULTURAL PO LITIC S

I want to conclude, then, by highlighting the anal¡ic and political impli-carions of these two distincr, but relaced, cultural practices. These twokinds of practice operate simultaneousl¡ very often existing side by side,within the same social, economic, and discursive space. And yet I thinkit is fair to say that, culrurally, rhe disrinct political effects and possibil-ities of each are quite differenr. Those practices that gain a measu¡e ofinstitutional recognition and legitimacy are privileged in terms of visi-

/'biliry. funding, and reproducrion. I believe that chis very move also

I results in the marginalization and displacemenr of pracrices (and musi-\ cians) thar do nor enjoy a similar recogoition and legitimacy. They point

in different ways to diffe¡ent modalities and registers, differ€nr aesthericpossibilities, and cultu¡al st¡ategies that challenge, even rearrange, dom-inant conceprions and judgments of the music.

Ma¡salis and his supporters effectively consolidared and institution-alized a specific conception ofjazz wirhin a dominant cultu¡al institutionlike Lincoln Cente¡ for the Pe¡forming Arts. Moreover, rhe program arLincoln Cente¡ is emblematic of rhe Iegitimarion of jazz that rests onpowerful social and cultural assumptions about the value of art (in thiscase, "real jazz") as one important source fo¡ the inculcation of co¡eAmerican values-moraliry integriry and responsibility. Like the t¡eat-men¡s of baseball and the Civil War, this narradve of jazz as both theexpression and realization of whar is quintessentially Ame¡ican is ar thehea¡t of the Ken Bu¡ns's PBS documenrary on the history of jazz.sl Ylith'!üynton Marsalis as one of the central consul¡anrs and on-cameraexpetts (jazz critic and Ma¡salis associate Sranley Crouch sewes as

another, as does the w¡ite¡ Albe¡tMu¡¡ay)in the documentary,PBS'slan

/ and the instaìlarion oÍ a jazz department at Lincolo Center is, I would

I argue, tbe frnal discursive move in the canonization of this specific nar\ rative of jazz in the Ame¡ican cultural imagination. lt is also c¡ucial ¡o

the representation of late-twentieth-century American society and, in

'7

JazzTrað.ition J r

Burns's vierv (if the documentary is any indication), the culmrnarion ofthe long march toward ¡acial equaliry a march rhat celeb¡ates cultu¡aldiversity as one of the signal achievements of Ame¡ican democrac¡5?

I highlìght the importance of these cultr:¡al moves by Ma¡salis andKen Burns, not because I agree wnh rheir aesrhecic positìon or rhe cul-tural polidcs on which they rest, but because I chink they illusr¡ace rhecomplexity and significance of va¡ious kinds of black culrural moves,especially their policical impacr in the wide¡ cultu¡al and social a¡ena ofAmerican culru¡e.

Popular and critical discou¡ses as well as significant financial supporrand inreresr have congealed around Ma¡salis\ nocion of jazz. its key-rexts, and exemplars. Cuhurall¡ rhis has ¡esulted in ¡he c¡eation of asignificant social and cultural space for jazz in popular discourse, themarketplace, and cultu¡al instirurions. In the context of ongoing warsabout culture, values, and art, this is surely a signi6cant accomplish-ment. And as the polemic surrounding Ma¡salis's tenu¡e ar Lincoln Cencer indicates, the conrinuing political struggles ove¡ how jazz is con-structed, represented, and positioned does matte¡.

CHAPTER 3

The JazzLeft

At the level of cultu¡al and aesthetic politics, the jazz left offe¡s a dis-tinctly different, but no less legitimate, oppositional critique about theplace of jazz anð black c¡eative music in rhe national cultu¡e.l I delibe¡-ately contrast with the canon make¡s this distinct projecr and the cul-tural politics that it enacts.

By arguing for the viability of an alternative (and at times related) setof practices and na¡¡ative accounrs of the music in the most expansiveand dynamic sense, I don't want to suggest thar such competing projectscan be reduced to simple binary formulations of good and bad practicesor progressive and reactionary culrural politics, o¡ that musicians andcritics aligned with one mighr nor appreciate, be influenced b¡ or evenadvocate fo¡ the other2

I do mean, howeve¡ to make this ptoject-its cultural logic andmoues lespecrally its assumprions and politics)-visible. In other words,

fl want ro consider critically the practices, spaces, networks, assump-

I tions, and social rela¡ions of an approach to the music that emphasizes

I rhe expansive possibiliries in lazz ít terms oÍ its mouelnent, itunouation,tg.rÅ openness. I conrend ¡har such projects often go unnoticed and are

thus relegated to the margins of cultural discourses about j azz andblack

/creacìve music, because rhe rerms, spaces) and operations that st¡ucture

/ them, de6ne rheir pracrices, and position their practitioners very often

I exist beyond rhe Jogic of canonical recognition, institutional legitimac¡\and conventional disco¡rr<e 3

5z

fhe lazzLeft Jj

MOTION .{ND MOVEMENT

By using the metaphor of motion and mouement, evoked by ,.rhe ¡oadand the street," I emphasize the uerbal and transgressiue aspects of thediscou¡ses and pracrices ol the .,jazz left.', By emphasizing ho*, -o.,"_ment, and dynamism, I u,ant to stress rhe dynamic of change that is alsocent¡al to the production and practice of jazz anð. c¡eative music. Asmenrioned in the last chapte¡, I take as one early expression of this for_mulation the grear black territory bands of the r93os and r94os, forwhom rhe ¡oad was an experience of travei f¡om community to com_munit¡ tow-n to town, city to citJ'.a The music, social ¡elations. and cul_tural styles that defined urban black communiries in rhe r94os andr95os were rhe basis fo¡ rhe formation of political consciousness. cul_tu¡al unde¡standing, and social afÊliation among biacks of rhe da,r., espe_cially the working class.5

I also use the metaphor of rhe ¡oad and its imagery of movemen!,openness, and transgression to emphasize the social (and institutional)conditions of possibiliry----collecdve forms of social organization, sharedexperimentarion, and a willingness ro take risks-¡har make such inno-vation possible in rhe fi¡st place. Musicians from Charles Mingus,Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Sun Ra, tothegreat collectives in the r96os, r97os, and rggos like the Association forthe Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in Chicago, the BlackArtist Group (BAG) in St. Louis, Horace Tapscoct,s pan Af¡ican O¡ches_tra in Los Angeles, O¡nerte Colemant Atisr House, Sam Rive¡s,s RivBeaStudìo in New York, and M-BASE in Brooklyn, all exemplify the kindsof organizational models, musical pracrices, and aesrheric approachesthat I cha¡acte¡ize as the jazz lelt.6 The music, social relations, and dis_courses produced by these communities, the aesthetic assumpdons rhat

,-guided rhem, and the organizarional ci¡cumstances th¡ough which they

I deveJoped depended on a dynamic conception of thetradirion and a will_

\ 1oSn.-rr ro emb¡ace fo¡ms that were formally located (by the reigning

\ tazz drscourse anyway) ourside of jazz.7 Seminal figu¡es on the jazz lefr-approach the jazz tradirion not just as a set of texts and discursive p¡ac_

tices organized by strict rules of interpreration and performance, insdru-tions, and formal systems of evaluation and judgment. To be su¡e, suchrules and procedures do exist, as they musr in all fo¡ms of art.8 However;in cont¡ast to the unerring devotion ¡o a set of codified texts that comealive through performance, for practitioners of the jazz left the musiclives in the active c¡eations a¡rd interactions evolving out ofperformances

and encounters with contemporary ideas, sryles, and tastes, includìngrhose in popular and comme¡cial cultu¡e.9

The disdnction that I want to foreground here, berween rhe fo¡malstasis of a canonical project and the dynamism, openness, and collectiveimpulse of the jazz left, moves well beyond a mere semantic dispute orconceptual disagreement about how the music is represented or who

/gets ro represenr it.10 [ ¿m more concerned with the cr-rltu¡al poli¡ics of( the matter, rhat rs, how systems of evaluation, assumpdons, p¡actices,

\ procedures, and resources authorize and privilege one set of musical

þracrices as against anorber. Canonical or not, all conceptions of cul-tural producrion depend on systematic procedures of selecdoû, p¡oduc-tion, evaluation, and exhibition.ll Cultural practices chat aim systemat-ically to sustain and reproduce themselves depend on some fo¡mulationand codificarion of a past, a tradition. -{ cenrral point of dispute in theLincoln Cente¡ cont¡ove¡sy (and with respect to black cultural poliricsmore generally) is the ¡ole of that t¡adition, how it is narrated and rep-resented, the uses to which it is put, how it is involved in rhe fo¡mationand extension of cultu¡al visibiliry and authoriry. Fo¡ membe¡s of rhejazz left, in contrast to the canon make¡s, the point of the ¡¡adi¡ion is tochange it, reinvenr ir, emphasize its "ve¡bal" characte! as NathanielMackey so elegantly puts it. In the politics of cultu¡e, ¡einven¡ion has a

li19e'

DISRUPTION ÂND DISCONTINUITY: PRECÙRSORS

A coho¡t of Ma¡salis's contemporaries loosely constitutes what I refe¡ toas the jazz left. Don Byron, Gerri Allen, Steve Coleman, Gene Lake,Cassandra Wilson, Graham Haynes, Greg Osb¡ Kenny Garrett, JamesCarter, Terri Lynn Carrington, Vernon Reid, and B¡anford Ma¡salisdraw liberally from a wide range of musical influences. These playersexpand and extend the very tradition thar Marsalis and the canon mak-e¡s at Lincoln Center want to formalize and protect from the contami-nating influences. of commercial cultu¡e and untuto¡ed tastes.1z These

ínusici¿ns. like rheir rnusic¿l predecessors. keep jazz moving by rheir

\active engagemenr wirh and incorporation of popular influences, new

\technologies, and comme¡cial possibilities. Instead of canonizing andþrotecring rhe jazz rradition from the corrupting influences of popularand comme¡cial fo¡ms like reggae, rap, rhythm and blues, and dancehall (not ro mention va¡ious experimental, electronic) and wo¡ldmusics), this cohorr of rhe conrempora¡v ja

Strategies The lazz Lek

by ¡ewo¡king ic th¡ough thei¡ encounters wirh both the merapho¡icaland the lite¡ai sc¡eec.i3 As such, these contemporaries of Ma¡saiis chal-Ienge and unsenle the jazz sratus quo, thereby joining a thir ty-year ,. tra-dition" whose immediare origins go back to the r95os.

Cecil Taylor, Ornecre Coleman, Don Cherr¡ John Coltrane, Sun Ra,and Albe¡t Ayler represenred a generation of avant-gardists who alsotook an expansive approach to jazz by gorng ou¡side of the quicklyforming srylistic certe¡ of be bop.1i Taylor and Coleman, in parricular,continue to be active and ìronically are now viewed in some quarters ofthe jazz establishment (and the press) as vital parrs of the same ¡¡aditionthat rhey troubled and expanded. Ar the same time, for canon makersthey are occasionally still the objects of lingering and sometimes binersuspicion. Piayers like Coleman and Taylor are still accused ofnot reallybeirLg jazz players, and de¡ided fo¡ having experimented and aggres-sir ely pushed rhe boundarie: of rhe music.

O¡nene Coleman is in many ways rypical of the earliest gene¡arion ofexperimental players and composers. Still prolific as ever, Coleman hasrecently enjoyed rhe kind of modest comme¡cial success and sustainedcritical support rhat has ironically led to na¡ional prizes (e.g., a ry94MacArthu¡ Fellowship) and a rribute by none other rhan Lincoln Cen-ter. Toda¡ such accolades may place Coleman closer co rhe jazz statusquo than even he might have imagined. Nonetheless, such longeviry andsustained c¡itical acclaim have not dampened Coleman,s openness !onew ideas or his c¡i¡ical stance on na¡¡ow and conventional approachesto the üadition. It 1996 he told Down Beat magaztne

Like everything in Western culrure, everyrhing has co have a value morethan ro yourseif, no marcer what you do, regardless of horv good you areor how bad you are, how beautiful or how ugl¡ You have co, if you,regoing to come ro the srage of expression, ârsr find the people who wiliallow you in their terrìrory. To see if the value of whar you do 6rs rhe imageof whar they're doing in relacionship co wealth. Some people will find rhaiquicker than orhers. Theret nothing wrong with chat; it becomes more likea personal privilege than a free opportunir¡ I rhink thact rhe reason rvhyrhe music in America is so limited as far as concepts of sound. America, it,sa young counrry and yet rhe ancescors that ran America came f¡om an oldcountr¡ I don't think we'li ever carch up.15

Ornetre Coleman works in a variery of performance senings and ven-ues, wirh a number of diffe¡ert performance units (including his elecricband, Prime Time, thar plays creative music ranging from pop and rockro folk and ve¡nacula¡ world musics). He has even included video Dre-

56 Srretegies

sentations, poetry readings, and body-piercing demonstrations in hisperformances. As one writer put it, "Coleman,s notions reÌate to art asa total concepr, not something chiseled at and compa¡rmenralized in theongoing process of creadng a global niche cuiture.,'16

Because Coleman has so consistenrÌy wo¡ked ac¡oss many musical

þundaries, uansforming and extending, merging, and mixing rhem, to

lcaregorize him srrìcrly as a iaz z player is ro limit and fix him in ways that

ldefy his exrraordinaly c¿reer and influence on music, most especially

lþzz. Finingly enough, ir is rhis very broad approach to sound and musicthat defines Coleman's most significant influence on 1azz, In at affec-tionate lette¡ to Coleman published 6y Dotun Beat tn r992, music criticJohn Lirweiler wrote,

You certainÌy altered the mainstream of jazz. The¡e is a maìnline o¡ main-scream of jazz developmenc rhat srrerches from Buddy Bolden and JamesReece Europe down to the very latest work by Edward lTilkerson and Den-nìs Gonsalez- Before you came along, Ornerte, a very few- individuals. and rdioms (eârl), jazz, swing, bop and their excensions) dominaredjazz. Even though you and some o¡he¡s have exerced a tery wide iÍfluenceindeed, so many separace idioms bave appea¡ed that no single indì-vidual or idiom dominates; ir's as if the maìnstream of jazz has become adelta, like the mainst¡eam of othe¡ weste¡n arts near the end of the zothcentur¡17

Coleman has long insisted on an ecumenical approach to jazz thatopened and st¡etched the music, rransgressed boundaries, and rein-vented the tradition. Ornette and his contempora¡ies can be c¡editedwith extending its compositional possibilities, taking the music into theconcert hall, and opening the way for jazz to engage with sound and per-sonaliry the way that Armsrrong, Ellington, Parker, Davis, and Coltranedid.

Institutionaìly and organizationally, Coleman codified his He¡culeaneffo¡ts into Harmolodics, Inc. Located in New Yo¡k and administeredby his son and manager, Dena¡do Coleman, Harmolodics, Inc., isnamed afte¡ the Coleman-invented theo¡etical system that defines andguides his approach to ¡he music. Part ¡eco¡d company, part rehea¡salstudio and management umbrella fo¡ his various performing units andc¡eative p¡ojects, Harmolodics, Inc., is the culmination of a life's wo¡kand a work in progress.ls

Coleman's career st¡esses the gaps and discontinuities of a cultu¡alfo¡mation and t¡adition in contrast to the Lincoln Cente¡ construcrionof the tradition, which emphasizes continuiries and inhe¡irances, ¡egu-

fheJazzLefc ,7

,lariries and signal moments. ln the figure of Colem¿n and orhers of nis

]Benerarion. one 6nds rhe firs and st¿rrs. conflicts ¿nd rensjons of dis_

I conrinuiry and inrerruprion, whrch ¡esult in a very different story of the

þz traditìon. As Gene Sanro¡o says about Coleman, ,,his music, ofcourse, still sets the mainstream on edge, even afte¡ his decades on thescene."19 In his sheer originality and c¡eative imagination, Coleman'smusic "b¡oke out of w-hat had become jazz's prison house of language:the recurrent cycle of chords, basic to rhe theory-thirry-rwo-bar songfo¡m-his tunes, which then as now tended ro tu¡n on blues¡ boppishfigures or near nursery rhymes, were designed to be open, so thar musi-cians could modulare f¡om key to ke¡ chord to chord, rhythm rorhythm when the need st¡uck them.,,20

This approach was rhe sou¡ce of freedom that so threatened the con-ventions of be-bop's stylistic dominance that Coleman and his col-leagues were regarded by the members of the jazz establìshmenr as mav-ericks or impostors or just plain incompetent. As a composer andìmproviser, this freedom affo¡ded Coleman and his colìeagues an inc¡ed-ible range of compositional latìrude and improvisational flexibilirysince Coleman's music encouraged players to explore and combine dif-ferent musics, styles, tonal srrucrules, and performance possibiiities.The commitment ro rhis freedom accounrs fo¡ Colemant still-cur¡en¡forays into funk, pop, and electronic as well as vernacula¡ music. Cole-man and his colleagues moved freely through diffe¡ent musics, extend-ing and building on the r¡adition wiúout being slaves to ir.

|-- This f¡eedom. ¡he challenges ro convenrion it produced, and the con-

I flicts thar resulted heighten some of the very tensions and discontinuities

I that narrarives of t¡adirion and contìnuity must, of necessiry make rep-

I resentable by repressing, incorporating, o¡ a¡ leasr formally confining

lpzz and irs ¡¡adirion ¡o conven¡ional srrucrures ¿nd de6nitions. ln this¡espect, O¡nette Coleman's explorations forced a reckoning with thetension between soloist and the collective, composition and improvisa-tion. According to music critic Gene Santoro, Coleman has an incisiveunderstanding of jazz's peculiarly Ame¡ican dialectic.,'

Firs¡ is the reia¡ion between ¡he role of composition and the role of improvisation. . Second, like every imporrant 6gure in the music from JeliyRoll Morton on, Coleman has sought his own way ro reconcile the coroi-lary puli between the individual whose need to shape a unique voice out ofrhe pasrt shards rs a jazz axiom, and the group whose abilrty and need tointeract in spontaneity and support rhe individual are necessary rf the musicis going to make inte¡nal seose.21

Santoro argues ¡hat such tensions emphasize "improvisation" as thecommon element in jazz. Rather rhan pursue a path of music based

Iargely on interpretation and thereby risk sure death, jazz has negotiatedthese tensions by developing a series of dialects. If one accepts Santoro'sproposition, one sees rhat the contestation ove¡ such dìalects is proba-bly the greatest source of struggle and disagreement in the conuove¡syabout who is in and out, what is jazz and what is not. But I would go

lTunher and sugges¡ ch¿¡ at the cente¡ of these disputes is a ser of discur

, fsive operations-a sserlions and claims roo¡ed in appeals ro aurhenriciry.

/ fa pure history. anointed players, and a codifieà set of strlndards by

{ lyriti.lt the music's value can be assened and defended.22 lfhe¡e the

\ .'cunon makers look ro rhe pasr as rhe basis of cultu¡al authority and

\social legirimacy, members ol the jazz left look to the present and thefutu¡e without ¡esortiûg ro an implicit hierarchy of claims or styles forwhat counts and who decides.

Ornette Coleman and his contemporaries in¡roduced new vocabula¡-ies, conceptual approaches, and solutions to the tensions between so-Ioist and group, composition and improvisation, voicing and instru-mentation. !(/hile ir may appear that they were not especially effecdveat consolidating rhei¡ interventions into fo¡mal institutions beyondworking bands and ¡eco¡ded collaborations, their lasring con¡ributionswe¡e codified inco distinctive compositions and performances that havebecome thei¡ own sort of standa¡ds. The f¡ontal force of these musicaladvances has become synonymous with key players, recording dates,and occasionally well-wo¡n compositions like Coleman's 'Lonely

,lWoman" or Colt¡¿ne's "A Love Supreme." The codification of the chal-

\ Ienges of this generarion ol rhe jazz left is, I think, the expressive effect

\ of a ser of re¡¡iro¡ial and discu¡sive ski¡mishes which we¡e played out

þ rhe terrain of rarhe¡ conventional sites and nar¡atives o f jazz history-I The Bu¡ns PBS documenrary and the recen¡ Lincoln Center programs

are simply rhe latest .*pr"ssion of s,,ch ski¡mishes.

COLLECTIVES, CREÂTIVITY, COMMUNITY

The succeeding generation of avant-gardists on rhe jazz left learned keylessons f¡om their predecessors. In addition to absorbing ¡he new lan-guage, the spirir of experimenration, a¡d collabo¡ative practices ol theprior generation, they creaced o¡ became involved with "communiry-based" organizations thar also served as performance venues, trainingcenters, and organizational sires in which to cultivace new players and

Srrategìes the lazzLeft s9

audiences. They also arriculâted complex formulations abour chei¡music, praccice, and politics. The Associa¡ion fo¡ the Advancement ofC¡eative Musicians (AACM) and irs many performance units areemblemacic of this organizational involvement and cul¡u¡al srance.2iThe AACM was the direc¡ beneficiary of the eariy generarìon and a

formatiye cultural organization through which many signiÊcanr mem-be¡s of the contemporary jazz left developed.2a

The membe¡s of the À{CM cukivared an expansive approach to rhetheir music. Indeed, among the myriad combinarions of performancepossibihties and collaborations that sprang from the AACM was the A¡tEnsemble of Chicago, a group thar ope¡ated "in rhe space cleared by thef¡eedom seekers like John Colrrane, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor andAlbert Ayler" Accordingly, "rhe A¡t Ensembìe was busy tinkering wichand retooling the tradition, making explicit references to va¡ious folk-forms, ucilizing extended non-energy improvisarions, and advancing anexpanded notion of multi-insr¡umentalism rvi¡h tables of little instru-ments."2i

This view of the music and rhe tradition produced a conceptualapproach and practice that conside¡ed exploration and exp€rimenrarionas the ¡ule rathe¡ rhan rhe exception. The influences ofrhe contemporarymusic scene (including both expe¡imenral music and commercial popu-lar music) provided the musical and social landscape in which musicalideas developed and flourished. The aesrhetic gaze was toward the pres-ent and the furure (with a deep appreciation of the importance of tradi-lronl. As suchwas a building block for new possibiliries. Coming a< it did ar rhe heighrof the black power movemenr and rrruggles ror black polirical empow-e¡ment and cultu¡al auronom¡ groups like the AACM and BAG them-selves eithe¡ became central components of community organizations ormembers joined community-based organizations.26 BAG and AACMoften functioned as the cultural components of communiry-based move-ments fo¡ cultu¡al awareness and political empowerment thar sprang upin local cente¡s. Musicians staged concerts, offe¡ed music lessons, ranafte¡-school p¡ograms for kids, and pa¡ricipared in local communiryactions. All of these elforts we¡e locally roored and guided by a collec-rive sense of cuftu¡al ¡¡adition and practice.2T Togethe¡ wirh their ecu-menìcal conception of black music and its cradition, rhese qualities

Pelped ro esrablish and define a model of cultural praccice thu,, *Ài1" l"r,i visible to traditional ins¡i¡ucions, is no less effective as a project thar seeks

þ:cognirìon. Iegirimacy. and insrirurionalizarion.2s

6Õ Strategìes

For the purpose of establishing the hisrorical and aeschetic genealogyofthe contemporary jazz left, following in particular George Lewis, EricPorte¡ Ron Radaoo, and orhers, I want to emphasize the centralify o{the collecrivisr practice and aesthetic approach of the AACM and one ofits most important exemplars, the Art Ensemble of Chicago. This is howjazz writer John Corbert appraises the importance of ¡he AACM: .,The

organizarion is now unquesrìonably a landma¡k institution, and record_ings like Roscoe Mitchell's Sound \Delmark), Richa¡d Muhal Ab¡ams'Mama and Daddy (Black Saint), Anthony B¡axron,s For Alto (Del-mark), rhe Ait Ensemble of Chicago's Fa nfare for the Warrìor (Atlattic)all bea¡ testament ro its overwhelming impo¡tance in rhe lineage of con-temporary 1azz."ze Co¡bet! cha¡acte¡ization of rhe AACM as a .,land-

ma¡k" institution is what inte¡ests me most here, for it goes some way

/toward esrablishing rhår rhe AACM.epresents a powerful alternattve{model of insrirurionaf formarion ¿nd cuhural practice.

Again according to Corben, "the AACM is nor me.ely a museumi-fied monument. Rather, ir is an ongoing project, a ìiving communiry ofplaye¡s, teachers, and students who measure their success in te¡ms ofcommitment to a way of musical life they learned in rhe Association..30Fashioned from the centraliry of polirical commitment and a collectivistcommunity-based organizational structure, the AACM developed, nur-tured, and ci¡culared a distinctive aesthetic approach to the r¡adition.An impressive group of musicians has been trained and supponed in thisinstitutional contexr, absorbing and reproducing its aesthetic app¡oachand cultural pracrice. Outside of Chicago, the A.ACM,s sphere of ini:lu-ence is perhaps most evident in New York Ciry where Corbett suggeststhat "rhe New York Jazz scene sounds much the way ir does today as aresult of the wo¡k ser in motion by rhis Midwest collecdve back in May1965. Even outside the bounds of'jazz' musicians as fa¡ afield as therock group The dBs and the noise band the Far have claimed the AACMas direct influence."31

Although the AACM claims an impressive list of past and p¡esentmembers, the Art Ensemble of Chicago (composed ofthe lare trumpeterLester Bowie, saxophonists Joseph Jarman and Rocoe Mirchell, percus,sionistDon Moye, and the late bassíst Malachi Favors Maghostus) is oneof the performance units which most typifies its aesthetic approach, collective organizational structure, and political commitments. By ther99os rhe AEC was in irs thi¡d decade as a working unit. Howa¡d Man-del desc¡ibed them as "using African rhlthms, modern compositionaltechniques, be-bop, do-whop, swing, reggae, dixieland shuffles andstruts, subtle atmospheric effects, and raging free improvisarion ro

The lazz Left 6i

/'redefine iazz."l2 Thei¡ music has even been desc¡ibed as che ..creolization

Vf time and cultu¡e.-ll Don Moye, the AEC\ percussionist claims that'the tetm jazz app\es to only one of the idioms we deal with. Itt all greatblack and we respect all ics forms-they,re part of ou¡ musical he¡-tTage "34

The grand sweep of this approach to rhe music is also expressed inthe AEC's stage performance, instrumentation, and process of songselection. Appreciated as much fo¡ theì¡ inventive costumes and stagec¡aft as fo¡ thei¡ musical eclecticism, the membe¡s regard this as äexpression of the group's collective ideals, which they developed asmembe¡s of the AACM. As Roscoe Mitchell said, ,,we were musiciansin Chicago who had rh€ desire to have more cont¡ol ove¡ ou¡ own des_tinies, that's what the AACM is ail about. Tfe we¡e able to sir downtogether and analyze the past and figure out our plans for ¡he futu¡e.The philosophy ofthe AACM and the AEC has spilled over intoother things besides playing."3i In rerms of thet expansive view of themusic and the aesthetic sources rhat inform it, member Joseph Jarmandesc¡ibes rhe band rhis way'

The myth and image of the A¡¡ Ensemble as a cult group is fading becauseof the ¡ealness of ou¡ diverse appeal and che credibrlity with which weengage ìn so many dìffe¡ent musical fo¡ms, and che elements of our per_fo¡ma¡ces a¡e not unique to black culture. We face paint, for ex"-il", notas war paint but rn place of masks, whrch a¡e used in cultu¡es of every ech-nicir) ro subiug¿re rhe personaliw of rhe performe¡ so he can more easjllbecome a representarive of the communiq. Masks ¿nd cosrume, rnake uni-re¡sal sta¡ements and are archeqvpal symbols. Ve use Afro-Ame¡ican ele-ments because they're closest ro our experiences. But rrt an American expe-¡ience too. So even if we donl play rock, rock audiences unde¡stand us. Sodo tradittonal jazz fans, though we may not piay much tradirionaÌ jazz.J6

So in musical philosoph¡ organizational srrucrure, and culrural practice, the AECt membe¡s and their contemporaries push the conceptualbounda¡ies of the tradition, being neither exclusive no¡ dismissive.Indeed, one write¡ desc¡ibed the AACM as a "harmony fo¡ce in f¡eejazz" th.at'brought back blues, rhe sound of tradrtional lazz arrdswing," along with "long-ignored instrumenrs such as the violin andclarinet, and self-invented and found inst¡uments. They were creatingnew extended fo¡ms and even restructuring the jazz ensemble- Rhythmsectìon-less wind groups and unaccompaoied horn solos appeared."37

In te¡ms of the rudiments of an insdtutional sructure, a distincriveaesth€tic approach, and an enduring cultural practice through whichthat approach was enacted and reproduced, the second gene¡ation of

f¡eedom seeke¡s is importanr. The AACM and their many conrempo-¡a¡ies exrended the achievement of O¡nette Coleman and his genera[ion,Iaying the groundwo¡k fo¡ rhe continuirg coûsolidatior and reproduc-tior' oÍ the jazz Ieft.

-T]lE JAZZ LEFT

The coho¡t of conremporary avant-vangardists and experimenrers

expresses what I call ¡oad-and-street sensibility because of these musi-cians' willingness to t¡ansgress the bounda¡ies of racial, musical, and

aescheric caregories. Typical of chis transgressive approach is cla¡inetistDon By¡on, who wo¡ks in a variery of setcings and d¡aws from myriad*social, polirical, and cul¡u¡al influences, including European classical,

Jewish, folk, vernacula¡ and Cuban popular and t¡aditionai music.

Explaining his use of rhe term the iazz left, which I have bo¡¡owed lib-erally, Byron says, "I made the case tbat jazz's left hølf is being margin-alized. h is being marginalized by people who present jazz in institu-tions, on the radio, in print and everybody knows that."38 Going rightto the hea¡t of the cultural politics rhat conce¡n me here, Byron's elabo-ration is instructive; "1 thought jazz left of Lincoln Center needed øn

institutional home because it didn't have one. . I think CarnegieHall and Lincoln Center have really elevated jazz's status and the music

[-ãnd musicians I know couLd use rhar sort of help, The way I see it, jazz

\ is a two-headed monsre¡. wirh a Democ¡atic and Republican side, and

i without rhe Democra¡ic side che beasc dies."re7 ln rheir reìarionship to the music, rhe quest for institurional srabiliryand longeviry and the cultu¡al practices and sensibilities that definetheir music, players associated wirh what Byron calls the "Democ¡aricsíde" of jazz approach the music like previous generations of experi-mente¡s and avant gardists. In terms of rechnical competence, imagina-tion, and openness to all kinds of musical influences and sources, Byronis one of the most gifted and prolifrc members of his generation. He is

equally at home with the music of Duke Ellington as with klezmer greatMicky Karz, rock, calypso, o¡ classical chambe¡ music.ao Not surpris-ingly, Byron's sense ofprivilege to draw from such a wide ¡ange of musicís an eiþ-ñõsiõn ollìs musäãlformarion and commitment to st¡etchingboundaries, as fíi.s Wall Street J oønal profrIe explains,

The upbringing that gave Byron his sense of entitlement combined rigorousciassical rraining wìth rhe media sensibilicl. of a child of the 6os. "The ¡ealbasis of my aesthetic was the TV show Såizdglg. I idencì6ed with the

Straregies The Jazz Left

backup band, Those cars could play behind anyone-Jackie 1üilson, ChuckBerr¡ che Righreous Brorhers, the Lerrermen - my paren$ took me ¡othe New Yo¡k Philharmonic, but I was mo¡e inte¡esred in Lawrence $lelk.His band fearured a clariner and they were on TV.,,al

Byron is passionate about his openness !o popular and commercialinfluences and his ¡efusal of a one-dimensional conception of rhe traditior. He rejects the press and music induscry categories used to de6nehim, his musical approach, and his choice of sr.rbjects. Here is Byron onthe press,s fascìnation with his interesr in (and mastery of) klezmermusic: "I'm not doing Jewish music instead of doing classical musicinstead of doing black music. I play whar I like and I don't feelrhe needto live one genre of music like the young be-bop cats who only listen robe-bop and put down pop music."a2

Technolog¡, has also given Byron access to a kind ofglobal st¡eet t¡af-fic and musical markerplace, f¡om which he and his contemporariesdraw on pop and ye¡nacula¡ resources to extend thei¡ ¡ich musicalimaginations. Byron's ecumenical approach to the full range of musicaloptions from James Brown to Mickey Katz is what makes Byron and hiscontemporaries so interesting and compelling musically, perhaps eventhreatening co the jazz ¡¡aditionalisr and canon defenders.ai Byron andMarsalis might even be seen by some as working much the same musi-cal and cultu¡al terrirory (rhemarically and in rerms of their mastery of

I differenr musical idioms and styles). But Byron is ciearly motivated by a

] sense of moving the music and rhe r¡adition beyond different musical

I and cultural borders, while Marsalis has devoted much of his public

I energy and credibiliry to establishing and then bolstering a na¡¡ow vier.v

[_g! rhe jazz tradir.ion, In this rather lengthy resporse, Byron corrments onhis conception of the t¡adirion:

I wouìd say thar for me lazz is a new music idiom and so is classical music,even though the majority of what happens in classical music has norhing codo with new music. I don't even think thar preservation is really even ¡€le-van¡ in rhe sense ¡hat whar rhe idiom is about isn,r reproducrng, isn,rar least all abour reproducing a pasc sound- Like Beerhoven isn,t a rçro-ducrion of Mozart o¡ Brahms isn't a reproduction of Bach, and rhey ãconsider chemselves pa¡t of ¡he same r¡adirion, rhere is this sense thatthìngs hâve to move on and I co¡side¡ both iazz and classìcal music not

6j

folk idioms. I rhink ¡he i¿zz idiom hr, ,gjçgidgjl3lhgrj!ü¿ ,folk'dto.offiu¿hit's ¡eally doing is c¡eatine a folk music armospher,.1-s reaUl dornq ß phere. We're rurning OscarPererson's playìng or even \X/ayne Shorter,s playing into some kind of musi<reperition rhing. And you can'¡ ¡eally have both. You,re eithe¡ a¡t music

, w!æ!-xb¡r

64 Strategies

and you're about what's gonra happen next or you're nor- People who arerhe most conselvâtive are domìnaong the calk, the press, the wholedebare-a conse¡vative tone. Wha¡ li¡tle money is being spit out by theNEA, some of rhese corservative cats âre dominating sorc of who gers whaland whar kind of music gets funded.aa

In taking this critical position Byron is by no means unique. His posi-tion is tvpical of other contemporary players on th.e iazz Ieft.

Greg Osb¡ saxophonist arid cofounder, with Steve Coleman, of theBrooklyn-based collective M-BASE, is, like Byron, passionate and out-spoken, ecumenical, and eclectic in his use of popula¡ and comme¡cialinfluences in his wo¡k. Like Coleman, Osby counm among his culturalinfluences be-bop, Motown, kung-fu movies, and funk. The M-BASEcollective was 'a group of black musicians, mostly in their late zos or

3os (at the time of the colleccivet formation). All but a few of themmigrated to New York Ciry alter growing up in othe¡ ¡ich c¡adles ofblack music-St. Louis, Chicago, Mississippi, Detroit."4i

In the early days of the collabo¡a¡ions that led to the M-BÄSE col-lective, two issues seemed to especially animate Osby and Coleman.

One was the sea¡ch for a distinctive individual voice on thek inst¡u-

lments. The other w¿s the need fo¡ autonomy and cont¡ol over the c¡e-

\ atiue process. especially conuol over the social conditions and cultural

\ meanings of rheir c¡e¿tive lab or.It a :'993 Down Beat interview, OsbyÞexplains

rhe significance of a distinctive sound and its importance in thejazz tocabulary.

I got che call ro play with Leste¡ Bowìe's big band when I â¡st came totown (in r98l )- Lesre¡ is ore of the cats that iíspired me to pursue an individual voice in the musìc. I was playing with Jon Faddis at rhe time and thewhole di¡ection of rhat was what (Hamiet) Bluiene calis "model T:music."Playing with Lestert group--and close inspection of hìs hisrory-showedme that his approach was more appealing than continuing to regurgitateeverybody else's ideas. . People that we hold in so much esceem we¡einventors in lheir own time. Charìie Pa¡ke¡ didn't make his mark by con-tinuing to sound hke Lester Young. Without your own sound you canteven hang out.46

In the same inte¡view the late uumpeter Leste¡ Bowie also appreci-ated the importance of developing a distinctive voice: "you could be

good, but even local cats wouldn't regard you as hip unless you had

your own personal phrasing and sound. That was a prerequisite, NowJhey rry ro ru¡¡ ir inside out. make the least developed the most devel-

\ opeò. You do haue to go tbrougb the music of the past, to lea¡n hoø toI

The lazzLeft 65

lplay; .but o.n.e you do tbat. that's it . - iazz is not some academtc

lexerqse.'*,- Along wjrh the forma¡ion of a shared working environment. forOsby the motivation behind the development of IhJM_BASE .oll..¡i".was also practical.

When me end Sreve Colem¿n starred M_BASE. ir w¿s ¿ bunch of oeoolegetting rogether and ralking. but we didn.r hrue rnyrhing e"rrbli.ñJ"'-I ester lBowiel u.ould saq -So wh¿r is rh¿r? Vh¿tchl ¿ll eorrrr, ¿" i". "",,-selve-s?" [WeakJy in response] "!(/e ll try . - we.re : e;;;;;.'. .:He [Bowie] said, "l got all thìs stuff set up, I can play with this band- thatb¿¡d." Thar çruck ¿ chord: you could crea,.

" ".rú ¡"*. Ji""rJf, i.r,'skrlls, us,ng rhe s¿me core of people_an umbrella srructure, like theAACM combined with George Ciinton\ pa¡liemenr Funkadejic ¿s opposedto working wirh rhe same grouo ail the rime. puning our r¡. rr_. fi'"ãìi-¡ecords-48

In musical range and eclecticism, organizarional flexibiliry and inge_nuity, entrepreneurial imagination and drive, it is little surprir" th"t f,_,ikguru George Clintont performance unirs, includini parliamenr_Funkadelic, and the AACM we¡e models for Osb¡ Colãman, and M_BASE. ft is also striking that both Osby and Coleman, like Byron, havest¡ong thoughts and clea¡ ideas about the tradirion, irs .*.-pl"rr,

"ndthe jazz left's relationship ro them.aeThe following exchange between Osb¡ Lester Bowte, and Douln

Beal interviewe¡ Kevin Vhitehead caprures rhe passion rhar animatesthei¡ collective commirmenr and vision about ¡he t¡adirion. Nore too rheintergenerational admi¡ation between Osby and Bowie.

Bowte: Playing -B¡e Bye Blackbird..or qounding like Duke Ellinpron.tharì gor norhrng to do wjth where çe.ã coming from. iharithe foundation. We got to do the resc of rh. houi. ìøìth ;arr,its not so much what you play as how you play. Itt not some-thing you put into the repertorre. Itt a Lving bìeathing 1.oungbab¡ music.

Wb¡ehead.: [mock exasperation]. Jazz is American,s classical music. I(rehave to put it into the concert hall ro ger respect.

Bowte: \ agtee wìch you. Love ro see jazz at Lincoln Cente¡_ir shouldhave been there years ago. Every city shoul d have a jazzorchestra with budgets equal ro the philha rmonic,s. But don,tnegate the other things that are haþþeking, don,t srunr lhegrowrh of the music. ¡üfe're not gonna sacrifice the music co gerto the collce¡r hâll.

Oså1' These people [folks associated with Jazz at Lincoin Center]

have ¡o expand rheir role¡¿nce of o¡he¡ branches of che rree.

These are all facets comiûg from ¡he same root source- I con_

sider what I'm doing, what Lescer's been doing, to be cruer tojazz's historical motive chan playing works remrniscenr of othe¡rimes, another clìmare.

Bo¿¿æ: Ils not a simple music aûymore. So it does belong in the srree¿

on rhe farm, it needs equal access ever''where, the same as

?.counr¡y wesrefn, rap, ¿nything- Becâuse jazz is ali

1 \ rhese . . . ¡azz is hip-hop, dixieJand anything peop[c Þlaying4 \y want it to be. -M¿n donÌ lr:ren to that Argentinean shi¡. it

mighc influence you." C'mom baby! Influence melJo

As this exchange shows, there is ¡ema¡kable consistency it the jazz

left's discou¡se abour the need to t¡ansgress the bounda¡ies of the t¡adi-cion. From O¡nette Coleman to the M BASE collective, the disposition

of openness roward the music and rhe tradition is the same. Like the

music collectives thar preceded them, the M-BASE collective initiallycame logether ro develop a dis¡inctìve aesthetic approach, musical lan-guage, and colleccive organizational structu¡e which would allow them

to traflsgress the bounda¡ies and conventiots of the tradition,In the late r98os, M-BASE (which refers to Micro Basic Array of

Srrucrural Extempo¡atiors) began as a musical collective of young musi-cians each of whom eventually established thei¡ home base in Brooklyn,New Yo¡k. The original members included Greg Osb¡ Steve Coleman,Cassandra wilson, Gerri Allen, Robin Ewbanks, and Graham Haynes.

Although each has gone on ro establish successful careers) many mem-

bers of che originai collective ¡emain in ¡ouch with each other and occa-

sionally perform together professionally.By way of explanation, some journalists and some of the members

¡efer to M-BASE as "the inre¡action rhat goes on between musical struc-ru¡es and improvisations on them."sl Comparisons to O¡nette Cole-man's Ha¡molodic sysrem o¡ George Russell's Lydian system are

inevitable and, I chink, justified.

Along with Osb¡ much of rhe hea¡t and soul of M-BASE ¡evolveda¡ound saxoÞhonist Steve Colema¡" a Chicago-born musicianwho came

of age musically under the rutelage of Von Freeman, Muhal RichardAbrams, George Lewis, and the general influence of the AACM. Cole-man's musical and culu¡al inl'ìuences jnclude AJ¡ican and Eastern phi-losophy. kung fu. be-bop, funk. and the Cub¿n new-song movement.il

Along with establishing an organizational sr¡uccu¡e and formulatingan aesthetìc approach to the collective's work, Coleman developed an

ambitious program of out¡each and education designed to cuitivate new

Suategies The Jazz Left

audiences and spread rhe word abour M_BASE. Coleman and fellowmembe¡s insist that the collec¡ive model on which M_BASÈ is st¡uctu¡edrs not simply anorher srylisric jncervenrion vying for dominance andrecognition in the cluae¡ed history of stylistic displacemenr driven bythe,euesr.for rhe nexr new thìng, Rarher, their collectìve

"ppro"J 1u.wirh simila¡ efforts in the past) represents a fundamenral

way ofthinking abour creating musìc. It is nor ¡he music irself. The rdea ìs

,:::t:.1?lî?:9-: musical style and play rha¡ forever . Ti; .";.;p¿rlon.ot

À4-BA5E is in many ways a non,Western conceptìon of how ro use\ musrc to expre5s experiences. The conceprs ot M BASE ¿re bãsed prim¿rilvon Africa and c¡earive music oi rhe Af¡iia¡ dirrp".". Th. _irr; i"';;i;ì;'prim: riìy in rhe area of spirirual, rhyrhmic. and m.loal. ¿e".loprnenc. "

_Finally. rhe concepr of \,\ hich swle is berter ,l.r"n ,no,i,.l. ,*1. t !, io'ot*..

Ihere. 5rnce rhe goal is the experierce of culr ure and philosóph¡, rhere is noY berter " ti

To implement this conception of the music and ensu¡e the workrngand c¡eative condirions necessary Lo perform it, Coleman (echoingLester Bowie) c¡eated a se¡ies of distinct performirrg urritr, St"u. èol"_man and Five Elements; Steve Coleman and Metrics;lteve Coleman andthe Mystic Rhyrhm Society; Renegade !(/ay; and Steve Colem"r, ,n¿ ,t.Sec¡er Docc¡ine. Each performance group provides Coleman with the

rcpponuniry ro develop, inregr¿te, and present different aspects of his

I musrcal inrerests and personaliry Coleman,s nu_. "pp."r. with each

I unrt,. he saysì as a concession ro the vagaries of the marke¡ and rhe

I requ¡remenß oi sustaining a collective approach to musical production

i arlo coflaboranon ¡n a¡ envi¡onment where egos and fame dominarePro purl ptâyers rn difterenr, often conflicting di¡ections. Coleman hasreflectecl a lor on rhis poìnt, and his obse¡vations are wo¡th quodng atlength:

I staned rhese diflerenr groups ro pro! ide rome way ¡o ¿llow me ro workwrtn others ln ¿ cre¿¡ir e environment. you see. rvhen I w¿s tvorkine wirh(essandra \!ilson. Creg Osby. Cerri n11.n..,.., *. ,nrJ. i ;;"i.¡,;.;"to h¿ve ¿ group thar did no¡ h¿ve a mus¡c¿l leader lor business leaderl. Iwas one of.che prrshier people rn che group in rerms of ¡rying to adv¿nceour musical r,vay of rhinking. Vhen rhe pre.. beg"n ro ,u.i,åUout u, ì, ,group rhey decLded ro make someone in rhe group rhe leader. ln evetv inter_view rh¿c I've erer done ¿nd when I ralked rã anyone I mrì. ;, ,iàìå,',i'reli rhem rhar I was not rhe leade¡ of M_BÀsr

".¿ ,¡r, ,¡*. *^'rî ià"ã*

This made no difference ro lfestern-rhioki"g ;ourrr"ii.,. *io inlìråi',nîrhere w¿¡ ¿ leader. ¿nd it was nomrnally wrrr,.n ,t", t rrnr,.a ,"r'i.L riïle¿der of M-BASE'.-fhir led ¡o problems as o,¡".r """J'. ¡ã l".i"i'r,oy peopte ourslde of rhis process \crirics. wrirers. record compant peoplel

67

as doing more thiûgs of a leâdership nâture, they wânted to be looked at as

leaders. Eventually egos came into play and this rs one of che reasons whyrhis parricular group of people are not really working rhat much rogethertoday. So I decided to jusr starr the group myself and lead in a more obvroì.rs way so there would be no argument and therefore no ego banles-s4

Fo¡ Coleman the o¡iginal idea of forming a collective or set of wo¡k-ing associations to make music was natu¡al and rewarding.

My goal was, and is, ro express lhe reÌalionship of mankind, myself in par-ticular, to everything else through music (or some sort of organized sound).

Since I do not live in this unive¡se alone I feeL rhat this is best done by morethan one person at a time, or group of people. I've always wanted to be

a¡ound orher creative individuals so that is wh1. I took up with others, if itis called a coilective or not is not realÌy rhe point for me, ir's the wo¡k thatgets done and trying to stay on this path of creative exp¡essioo.5j

It was but a few short steps from this phrlosophy to the formation ofM BASE. Again Coleman:

Gettìng together wirh the orher people who have been conside¡ed in thepast as being a parr of the M-BASE collective jusc happened as a result ofme expressing myself and ochers doing the same. . I wrll always be

workìng with people and since the frame of mind that I and the people chat

I work with aie generally in M-BASE (and nor the music itself), then ma,vbe

you could say rhac M-BASE is a collective. For me, rhe M-BASE coliectiveis the group of people who have cont¡ibuted to a way of thinking abouc

cleacing this music. It is noc a group of peopÌe who create a certain style ofmusic.56

Given his philosophical and a€sthetic proclivities, and perhaps

because of his experiences in the evolution of the M-BASE experiment!

Coleman draw-s a rarher sharp distinction berween M-BASE, or whatCassand¡a Wilson called "a way of life," and the va¡ious performance

units with whom he tou¡s and ¡eco¡ds.

This alte¡native sensibilit¡ this way of life as Coleman calls it, is notjust articulated in absract philosophical and aesthetic te¡ms. It shows up

dn the music of Coleman and the othe¡ fo¡mer membe¡s who actively cul-

I rivate experimental approaches to sound while remaining open to a wide

I array of musical inlluences.'- The sensibiliry is also expressed in a musi'

þl and cultural practice rhat. like Don Byron's, is decidedly political For

instaoce, on at least two occasions Coleman has taken his band on

extended tou¡s {including to Cuba and California) whe¡e he has estab-

lished ¡esidencies at universities, community centers, and churches.ss

$fhile in residence, Coleman and his group (which included dance.s, per-

Straregies The Jazz Lefr

cusstomsts, and rappers) gave workshops, lessons, lectures, and per-formances (many of which were free) ar the communiry_based venues-ie

Even i¡r these contexts the notions ofcollecdvity and community wereon Coleman's mind: "It's a community music that we,re playing, nor justin the sense that w-e play for the communiry which we dá, but that insrdethe group the music depends on a team effo¡t.',60 Beyond the inrernaldynamics ofpersonalities, business, and the general rigors ofrunning andmaintaining â band, Coleman is also committed to establishing rhe visi¡biliry, legitimac¡ and insritutionalinf¡asr¡ucrurenecessarytosustainandnurture the jazz lefr. According to the SanFrancisco Bay Guatdian, Cole_mant activities on behalf ofeducatio¡ and community are a far cry fromlflynton Marsalis's conducting a lecture-demonst¡ation in an elementaryschool o¡ a church basement.6l Although this is t¡ue in the st¡ict sense ofvenue and visibiliry as a cubural mouedesignedto establish and promotea specific approach and vision the aims a¡e the same. In othe. -ordr, "nd

l-ihis is rhe dimension I want to srress, Coleman and his colleagues actively

\ esrablished nerwo¡ks. cuhivated knowledge and information, and devel,

\ opedexplicitcrireriafor judgmentsand discriminarionsaboutrhe music,

\ as Marsalis did rhrough concerrs, television broadcasts, and educarional

\ oyrreach rhrough the auspices of Lincoln Cen¡err For Coleman, rhis mean¡ trying to ,,do a lor of community rhings.ard finding "different ways of gening the music to the people in waysthat a¡e conducive, like having people pay less and having more opensituatíons which a¡e ideas I got from people like Colt¡ane and Min_gus."62 In 1996, for instance, Coleman set up shop in Havana, Cuba,and later in Oakland, for exrended periods with his band, the Five Met-¡ics. In Califo¡nia they "rented a large house in Oakland,s F¡uiwale dis_trict," where rhrough meeting people and hanging out, Coleman cuiti_vated new audiences and established musical friendships.

So the contemporary ideals, transgressive cultural practices, and cul-turaÌ politics inherited from an earlier generation of avant-gardists likeO;Deme Coleman and ¡he AACM continues wirh work of Don Byron,

fGreg Osb¡ and Sreve Coleman. The aesthetic approach, cultural prac-

Itices. and organizarional strategies of these co¡rtemporary membe¡s ofIthe

jazz left help complicate and reckon with whe¡e and how diffe¡enr

lcuhural pra*ices operate and are positioned in the shifting politics and

þFucrures of black culrural production- !íith the canon builde¡s whoac.\tpy the jazz mainsrream, the jazz left fo¡ms pan of a broade¡ and asI have rried to suggesr, co'rtesrã;;ñ;Ì6;;ñ;. This conresred fieldinvolves significant disputes over the te¡ms and shape of a cultu¡al

69

vision, a polirical cririque, and aesrhetic imaginacion, all in the name olcultu¡e and identit¡ What is ar stake is nothing less than claims to the

rep¡esentation of black cultu¡al t¡adition and the inscription of that t¡a-dition into the organizational, aesthetic, and political landscape ofrwenry-fi rst-century Ame¡ican cultu¡e.

In re¡ms of the conrested claims ot jazz atd black music uaditions,whar the case of the jazz left shows are the sfrategies, tactics, nerwork,organizarional st{uctures, and performance sites through which a gen-

eratior of contemporary players (like its counterparts at Lincoln Cen-

ter) gains (and sustains) a measu¡e of cultu¡al aûthority and legitima-tion. Now I want to conside¡ these culru¡al moves fo¡ recognition and

legirimacy in terms of what the canon makers and the jazz left share, tosee where they diverge, parricularly in terms of the vision (and effects)

of the cultural politics that unde¡w¡ite their respective proj€c¡s,

As I argued in the previous chapter, the most explicit and politicallyenduring effect of the canon makers is the fo¡tification and consolida-tion of lheir relationship to major cultural organizations and institu-tions like Lincoln Center As a major institution of cultural authorityand legitimation, Lincoln Center provides the platform, ¡esources, sta-

tus, and visibiliry rhat Ìhe canon makers d¡aw on to const¡uct and advo-

I cate for their parricular no¡ion of the jazz tradrtion.63 Through therr

I relationship with Lincoln Cenrer, the canon make¡s are in the position

Ito define, defend, and advance their perspective. The availability of

-rar.,u.aa, with which ro stage productions, generate p¡ess cove¡age,commission works, and employ artists provides the financial and orga-nizational basis f¡om which to asse¡t sustained recognition of jazz in ttrepublic imagination.

In the hands of the canon makers, rhe uadition is produced anddefended through the identìfication of key composers and ûgures (Arm-suong, Ellington, Parker), key compositions, recordings, and perfor-mances that are codified into a body of work which then becomes partof the canon. A key discu¡sive op€¡ation in this process of canonizationis idenrification, collection, codification, and evaluation o{ texts (e.g., re-

/cordings, compositions, and performances). This process allows for the

I perfecrion, masrer¡ and reproductioo of an identifiable body of work

\tha c can be reproduced by a community of practitioners, evaluarors, andtonsume¡s. These key figures and rexts consritu¡e che contou¡s andbounda¡ies of the ¡¡adi¡ion and a ¡nusician's ¡eìarionship ro it. Popular,vernacula¡ and comme¡cial influences are sc¡eened out and co¡donedoff, devalued, and marginalized, for their allegedly contaminating andcor¡upting influence on the ariointed wo¡k. Sources of replenishment

Scracegies The lazz Letc

and exrension to this canon a¡e ro be found in the periodic anemprs toupdate, perfect, and replicate as close as possible the original sound,intent, and performance.

Institutional legitimacy and cultural authority are produced and sub_sequently reinforced in the press and media. Cultural capital and socialstatus flow in the di¡ection of key players, spokespersons, and wo¡ksbecause of ¡hei¡ identificarion and affiliation wirh each other and pow_e¡ful insritutions.

ln a limited bur nonetheless impo¡tant sense. rhe culrural polirics pro-duced in ¡his process might be seen as opposirional, fo¡ black cuhu¡alpolitics anywa¡ to the extent rhat jazz music and the jazz tradition havehe¡etofo¡e ¡emained outside of, if not beyond, rhe cultural, financìai,and organizarional reach and inre¡ests of dominant cultu¡al institutions.

(fhe cultura! moues by the canon make¡s like Ma¡salis and his co!I leagues ar Lìncoln Cenrer can be considered oppositional ro rhe degree

I that theu efforts secure a measu¡e of instituÈional recognition and sup_

Lg9rt on par wirh orhe¡ fo¡ms of art and cultu¡e. These strategies mighr

'also be seeû as oppositional to the extent that they articulate a vision ofblackness and black experiences in those cultu¡al spaces that haveheretofore nor recognized such experiences.""

/ Nonetheìess, as an opposirional cultural practice, the politics of rhe

I canon makers can be mured, moving between social libe¡alism and aes_

\ rhetic conse¡vatism. Libe¡al because rhe consr¡uction and defense of jazztradition is, ir rheir view, very much parr of an Af¡ican Ame¡ican cul-tural t¡adirion. ln a climate of political conservatism, attacks on afâ¡_mative action, and suspicions about rnulticulturalism, this vierv defendsimportanr cultu¡al terrain. Indeed, conse¡vatiye scholars and journalists

;loing banìe in the cuhu¡e wars continue to ¡espond to this position with\ charges of racism and reve¡se racism. Àt the same time, rhe project ofì insrirutionalization-including Lincoln Center and the Ken Bì¡ns doc-] umentary-is conservariveJ in my estimarion, because of irs unyielding

i commirmenr ro a convenrional conception ofthe jazz tradition, its sem_I inal contributors, and jrs key rexrs.v Taking a more rransgressive approach to rhe tradition, the jazz left,

by contrasr, operates without, and hence beyond, che fo¡mal insdru_rional, organizational, and financial infrasrlucture and resou¡ces neces-

pry ro get and susrain rhe recognition and stability enjoyed by the( canon makers. I see rhe jazz left as a mo¡e amorphous, loosely scruc_

\ rured. but no ìess imporranr inrerven¡ion in fashioning a public imagi_

I natron and. more powerfully, an alte¡native understanding of jazz arLd.

I black diasporic culrural fo¡ma¡ions.

7/ Scrategies

Like rhe canon makers, the members of the jazz left value the impor-tance of a distinctive and unique voice as the hallmark of jazz expressiv-ity. Because players and composers are in constanr sea¡ch of new

l-"ppro".h.r and grammars, they iook to popular, vernaculal, commer-

lcial, experimenraJ. and global influences as sources of new possibility

þrher rhan of conraminarion and suspicion. One of che major conse-quences of these choices, especiallythe greater range ofaesthetic freedomand cultu¡al auronomy thar comes with ic, is the absence of visibility andsustained recognition, regular employmenr, recording opportunities,and luc¡ative sala¡ies.

Membe¡s of the jazz left, thus, often remain rnarginal to daminanrinstitutions of legitimation and visibility-recording companies, main-stream press, and even cultu¡al institutions like Lincoln Center. Playersrely frequenrly on alternative institutions or social organizations likemusic collectives to develop their work and ro culrivate audiences, whilesupporters and critics depend on such venues for regular access to themusic. Small museums, galleries and restau¡ants) music festivals (espe,

cially in Europe), a¡ts graûrs, independent recording companies, com-muniry-based social and political organizations, and increasìngly theInte¡net serve as sponsors and performance venues that provide oppor-tunities for frnancial and organizational support.

In rare cases, cultural visibility can come f¡om affiliations with presti-gious arts olganizations and even press coverage. It is more often the case

that professional and social nerworks, collaborations, and locally basedperformance venues se¡ve as the basis for building the social infrastruc-ture necessary for musicians on fhe iazz left Ío develop their craft, nur-

,-¡ure new audiences, and susrain their practice at a reasonably high level.'[ In other words, culrural Legirimation comes nor so much f¡om affiliarion

.[ \ with dominanr cu]tural insritutions, but social networks, word of mouth,lì \and local ci¡cui¡s of information generated through performance,

lrecordings. and repurarion-in a word, the road and rhe s¡reer."i

-Like rhe wider contexr of black e.rpressive culture, the jazz scene is

complex, contested, and vib¡ânt. Despire these cultural tensioûs andstructural conditions, the presence of jazz rn the Ame¡ican nationalimagination remains visible. Both the canon builde¡s and the jazz leftare in thei. own ways constructing and advocating fo¡ the music insocial and cuitural spaces that have he¡etofo¡e not recognized andappreciated the music.

With the kind of resou¡ces, recognition, and legitimacy that thecanon make¡s now enjo¡ the insdtutionalizattor' of jazz in dominant

The Jazz Left 7J

mainstre¿m institutions will likely find acceptance.66 That, after all, isone of the intended aims of cultural insritutionalization. Bur, as theBurns documentary shows, this insritutional powet has also marginal-ized and isolated the rnusic of rhe jazz left.

'!üith notable exceprions, the conventìonal wisdo¡n in the jazz dis-course is thar rhe musict history can be unde¡stood dialecrically (e.g., asa succession of stylistic displacements and successions).67 In this view,two (or more) competing sÍyles vie for dominance and hence need eachother fo¡ the conrinued surr,'ival and pe¡iodic reyitalization of the music.This na¡¡ow and convenrional unde¡sta r.díng of jazz uaditron is inc¡eas-ingly dubious.68 For despite the presence and acceptance of jazz nthemainstream, it has neve¡ been so aligned with dominant and legitinat-ing institutions of colture power- The prospects for i¡s continued main-streaming and acceptance in the wake of the success of the Lincoln Cen-te¡ prog¡am seem quite health¡6e

The inte¡nal dynamics letworks and practices operating on the jazzleft, while certainly shaped by the circumsrances of rnstirutionalizatiorr,do not depend on them. Musicians regularly look to new sou¡ces forexpanding the ¡radirion and the boundaries of their aestheric concep-tions, musical p¡actices, arrd cultu¡al identìties- These musicians con-tinue to be attentive to soundings in other spaces and places rh¡oughourthe wo¡ld- A measure ofthe maturiry of black cultural politics illust¡atedby the debates, p¡acrices, and tensions wi¡hin Af¡ican Ame¡ican creatiu;---.',musics can be gauged by the fact thatthe discou¡se on black cultural pro Iduction and polirics, as rhe compa¡ison ofthe canon make¡s and the jazz

Ileft shows, has moved beyond issues of identiry and nationalism.T0 Tl4_lmusical sou¡ces in the streets, and in otherplaces and regions outside andinside of black communities throughout the world, offer vibranr imagi-

I native possibiJiries. ln the culrure wa¡s over the tradirion, th,e jazzleft has

\ not so much lost o¡ er-en conceded to claims of the canon make¡s as

\ shifted the sites of imaginarion and ¡he sou¡ces of expression.- It has taken over seven¡y-five J,ea¡s for jazz to frnally reach a secu¡e aplace at Lincoln Center. That is a major accomplishment, never mind alot of years fo¡ Ame¡ica's so-called classical music to finally get somerecognition in the halls of the nation's dominanr cultu¡al institutions_Meanwhile, on the margins and at the bounda¡ies of this recognition,the jazz inagrnarion and its practirioners on the lefr have staked out dìf-ferent objecrives and politics.

r98

siry of Minnesotâ Press, 1994); Dick Hebdtge, Hiding in the Light: On Inxagesand Thìngs lLonðon: Routledge, 1998).

2l. Mike Davis, City of QudTtz: Excauatixg the F ture ¡n Los Angeles lLon-don: Verso, r992. ).

24. Jimmie Ree'es and Richard Campbell, CracÞed Couerage: '[eleuìsion

Neus,the Anti-Cocaine Crusade, and the Reagan Legacy \Dtrham. N.C-: DukeUniversrty lress, 1994); Gray, Watching Race; Kelley, Yo Mama's Disfunk-t ¡on a I;'V atkir\s, Rep r es e ht i?1 g.

25. Judirh Srace¡ Rethínkíng Famìly Yalues: ln the Name of the FatniQ(Nerv York: Beacon Press, 1996); Harpe! Are We Not Men?

26. Roderick fergnso A, Aberrations rn Black: Touard a Queer of Color Cri-rr4ze (Minneapolis: Universiry of Minnesotâ P¡ess, zoo3).

17. Ibid.28- Cornel \üest, one of the members of Harva¡d's celeb¡ared dream ream,

was rnvolved ìn a dispute wirh Hañ,a¡d Universiqv president Law¡ence Sommersover ìüescl research and political acdviry The dispute eventually led ro thebreakup of rhe academic d¡eam team at Harvard, when llesc accepted a facultyposrdon âr Princeton Universiry While it has not has c¡eated the same ¡evet-be¡a¡ions ac Lincoln Cenrer, Marsalis ended his long associadon with ColumbiaReco¡ds. For more, see Dâvid Hajdu, "lfynton's Blues," Atldnt¡c Monthly,March zoo3,4j-j8.

29. Michael Berube, "Pubhc Academ¡" Neu.t Yorþer, 9 ]anuary t995.7 )-80.

3o. For a somewhar mo¡e c¡itical discussìon ofthe emerging new black intel-lectuals, see Adolph Reed, "!Øhat Are the Drums Saying, Booker? The Cu¡rentC¡isìs of ¡he Black Intelleccual," Village Yoíce, rr A.pril r99j, jj.

3 r. Jack E, Ifhire, "The Beauty of Black Al:t," 'fik1e, October ro, t994, 66

;2, Throughout much of the r99os ûeocoûse¡varìves developed and sus-tâined a st¡ong ideological, poJitical, and rnrellectual presence in public discourse and rhe media. Through ralk radio, relevision talk shows, think ranks,and private foundatio¡s rhe neoconse¡va[ive ideologues flooded rhe publicimagination with therr panicular brand of ideas. This culminared of course inrhe explicit branding of ¡ox News as the ideological mourhpiece of¡he neocon-se¡vå!ìve calrse.

33. Anne du Cille, S&inTtade (Cambridge, Mass.: Harva¡d Universiry Press,f996).

;4. Paul Grlro¡ "Àfte¡ the Love Has Gone: Bio ?oÌìrics and Erho-Polirics inthe Black Public Sphere," Public Cuhute 7, no. r (t991: 49-77.

lj. Cornell West a¡ticulares a srmlla¡ view of the dangers ofmarker valuesand cau¡rons about the dangers of black popular culture defined solely in rermsof rhese values; Corn elVest, Race Matters (Boscon: Beacon ?ress, r 993 )-

J6. Avery Gordon, Ghost[y Mattets: Haunting and. the Sociological løagi-ftation \Minneàpolis: Universify of Minnesota Press, r997).

37. G1hoy,The Black Atlaatic.1 8. Lipsttz, D angerous Crossroads-

CHAPTÊR Z. JAZZ ^TP.ADTIION, INSTITUTIONAL FORMÂTION, Á\\DCULTURAL PRACTICE

My thanks ro the following friends, colleagues,,and srudencs who gene¡ousìyencouraged, read, and commented oo various d¡¿fts of this.¡"p,Jr, O*i*i,Andrews, Leonard Brown, Russell Eilìs. Srephen Feld. Janet Fra,l."nd.r", nå.uLinda Iregoso, Lisa Guererro, Saidiya Hartman, Robin D- G. Kelleli ElizabertrLong, Tommy Lott, Bill Lowe, Ronald Redono, David Scott, Srerling Smckev,Lìsa Thompson, Roben Thompson, David lfellman, Debo¡ah !loo. andRichard Yarborough. Special rhanks ¿lso ro my rese¿rch assisr¿nr. Cindr Lui,who helped me track down press accounrs of Mersalis and the Lincoln Cenre¡Pfogram.

r, On these and simila¡ themes, see Bernard Gendron, .,Moldy Figs andMode¡nists: lazz at War (ry42-a6)," in Jazz among the Discourses, eã. KrinGabbard (Durham, N.C.: Duke Universicy Press, r995) 3 r-57; Sreven Ehvorch,'Jazz in Crisis, r948-r9j8t Ideology and Representarron,. in lazz among theDìscourses, ed. Krin Gabba¡d (Du¡ham, N.C.: Duke University press, 1995;,57-7 6.

t. "Jazz: A Special Secrion," Netu Yorþ Tímes Magazine, z5 June 1995,r9-4o; Gene Sanroro, "All That Jazz," Nation, B Jatuaty 1996,,4-6;pet;t!flatrous, "Old Jazz Is Our, New Jazz Is Older,,' Neø yorÞ Timis, 3t March1994; Lrnda llilLams, "4. Young Musìcian Trumpers a Revival of Tiaditionallazz," Val! Street Jourkal, 24 Seprcmbet 7986.

3. Richard Guillian, 'The Young Lions Roat. Los Angeles Tìnzes, r; Sep_terrrber r992.

4. Jervis Anderson, "Medium Cool," New yorker, 12 Decembe¡ 1994,69-83; Richard Guilliat, "Eminence J azz,. San Jose Mercury Netzs, tr jrne1993; "lazz: A Special Sectìon," Neu Yorþ'[ithes Magazine; GeÍe Sanroro,"Young Man with a Horn," Nation, r Marcb ry9i, z8o-g4; Viliams, ..AYoung Musician."

5. Àlex Ross, "A.sking Some Good, Hard Truths about Music," Nea: yor&Tlrzes, rz November r995.

.,,,.9. Ior T9r. recenr developmenrs in Ma¡salist caree! see, David Ha¡du,

"li/yntont Blues," ,4tlantic Monthly, March zoo3, 43_5g.7. Other norable examples of the effective use of similar srrategies in impot-

tanr cìrku¡al sites include highty visible ñgures in rheater,6lm, and AlrìcanAmeric¿n s¡udies.

8. Frank Conro¡ "Stop Nìt Picking a Genius,. N¿¿¿, yorþ Times Magazine,z5 June_r995, z8-3 r, 48, 54, 7o; llynron Marsâlis, ,,lfhar

Jazz Is_and1sn,t,,,editorral, Nelu YorÞ Tirzes, 3 r July 1988; Wynron Marsalis, Sø,eer Staing BIu)son the Road l\ewyork: lL lL Norron, 1994).

9. Tony Scherman, "llhac Is Jazzì,' American Heritage, Ocrober r99J,66 ff.

ro. Ibid.rr. Ibid-

12. Ibid.; quotarions are f¡om various places iû the erucle.r3. Ibid.r4. Ibid.; my emphasis.rj. Ma¡salis, "What lazz Is," 24.r6. Marsalis, Søeet Sroíag Blues on the Road, t4r.r7. Marsalis, "llhat Jazz Is" and Stueet Suíflg BLaes o/t the Road.r8. Scherman, "\líat ls lazz?" 66 Íf.r9- Quoted in !üilliams, "A Young Musician," r.zo. James A- Liska, "lüynron and B¡anfo¡d: A Common Understanding,"

Dolam Beat, February r994, 4z ft; my emphasis.zr. Ibid.; my emphasis.zz. Marsalis, "What Jazz Is," zr; my emphasìs_23. lbid.; my emphasis-24. Ibid.; m1' emphasis.25. Ibid.26. ìlilliams, "A Young Musician," r.27. Ibid.; my emphasis.28. Marsalis, "lü/hat lazz Is," zx.29. Sranley Crouch is an essayist aûd jazz c¡icic and Albe¡r Mu¡¡ay is a nov-

elist, brographer, and jazz writer.3o. Terry Treachout, "The Colo¡ of Jazz," Commennry, September 1995,

5o ff.; my emphasis.

3 r- Ibid.; Crouch serves as a¡tistic edvisor to Ma¡salis in che jazz programet Lincoln Center

32. Ibid.; my emphasìs.

33. Ibid-; my emphasìs.

34- Scherman, '!7har Is Jazzl" 66 ff.; my emphasis.

3 5. Marsalis, Srueel Suing Blues on tbe Road, 142,43.j6. Watrous, "Old Jazz Is Our," Cr r.17. Marsalìs, 'lfhat Jazz Is," z4; my emphasis.

3 8. For rnore ol this, see Santoro, "AIl ThârJazz," J4; Ross, "Asking SomeGood, Hard Truths," JS; Watrous, "OldJazz Is Out."

39. See Santoro, "All That Jazz"; Petet Watous, "Is There a Mid-Life C¡¡sis at the JVC Festival?" New YorÞ Tìmes, Atrs and Leisu¡e Secrion, 8 July r!95,rl.

4o. Santoro, "All That Jazz."4r. lbid.; Srarbucks also owns a Vest Coast chain of upscale music ¡erailers,

Hear Mr¡sic.

42. Williams, "A YoÌrng Musician."43. George Lipsrrz, D angerous Crossroads: PopulaT Music, Postmodeïnism,

and the Poettcs of Plac¿ (Londor: Vetso, r994); Santoro, 'ltll^fhat lazz.,,44. See Krin Gabbard, eA.,la<z aøong the DÁcoørses (Durham. N-C-: Duke

Univerçity Press. r995ì; Santoro. 'AlJ That Jazz.4 5. Ior example, Nathaniel Macke¡ " Other: From Noun t o Yet6," in I azz

dmong the Díscourses, ed. K¡in Gabba¡d (Durham, N.C.: Duke UniversityPress, r995 ), 76-roo; Sancoro, "Young Man wìth a Horn"; ìüauous, "Old JâzzIs Our-"

46. Mackey, "Othe¡: From Noun to Ve¡b.',47. Patrick Brantlinge4 Bread and Circuses: Theories of Mass Cubute ancj

Socìal Decay (lthaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, r98;); Max Ho¡kheime¡and Theodo¡ Adorno, "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Decep-tion," ii Di¿lecti. of Enlighteftmefl4 ed.M^x Ho¡kheìme¡ and Theodor Adorno,trans. John Cumming (New York: Seabury Press, r944; reprint, t97z), tze67.

48. For mo¡e on how these operations work in jazz and rockr see Sancolo,"All That Jazz"; I(l iiams, 'A Young Musician"; Robert lflasler, Runmflg withthe Deuil: Potuer, Gende¡ and Madness in Heauy Metal Musi. (Hanove! N.H,:University Press of New England, r993).

49. Robin D. G- Kelie¡ "The Rìddle of the Zoot Suit: Malcolm Little andBlack Cultu¡al Politìcs du¡ing Sfo¡id \Var Il," ia Race Rebels: Culture, Politics,and the BIacþ Working CLass, ed. Robin D. G- Keiley (New York: Free Press,1994), J5-55.

jo. Mackey, 'O¡he¡: F¡om Noun to Verb."5r. Krin Gabbard, "Ken Burnst Jazz': Beauriful Music, bur Missing a

Beac," Cbronic[e of Hìgber Education, r5 December 2ooo, Bt8-r9; see eisoBen Ratliff, "Fixing, fo¡ Now, chelmage of lazz," Neu,, YorÞ Tímes, 7 lanuary?oor, sec. 2) jz-33; and "A Roundtable on K eû Búfirs's I azz," moderated byGeoffrey Jacques, lounzl of Popular Music Stud¡es r3, no. z (Fall zoor):

5:. See Gabbard. lauamong the Dis,ourses.

CHAPIER 1. -T}lÊ

JAZZ LEFT

r. Craig LaBan, "The V/hoie Hìscory of Jazz, acco¡dìng ro Lincoln Centeq,'mastert thesis, Columbia School of Joumalism, r994; Eric Potcet, Vbat Is ThisTbìng Called. Jazz? African American Musiciafls és Artists, Clitics, and Actitists(Berkeley: Universiry of California Press, zooz); George Lewis, "Experimen¡alMusic ìn Black and'\?hite: The AACM in New York, t97o-t985," CurrentMusicology 7t-73 {Spring zoor-z): roo-r 5 8; see âlso chaple¡ r in this volume;Don Byron, quoted in interview wichJosh Kun, phorocopy possessed by author;see elso, Pete¡ Watrous, "Remember Mickey Kaø? No? S7ell, Jusr Lisren roThís," Neut YorÞTimes, t9 Jantaty r99o,Ct, Cz4; and Jeremy llolff, ".q. 'CaCf¡om the B¡onx Makes His Ma¡k on Klezmer,' Wa Street J ournal, 19 Septem-ber r99r, A.rz.

z. George Lewis, for example, insists that rhe genre category (jazz' 1s much

too ûarrow and limiring a desc¡iption of the con¡emporary prac¡ices of blackc¡eative music. For Lewis jazz continues ro eûfo¡ce end limit che aeschedc andc¡eative boìrnda¡ies available ¡o black musicians; Lewis, "Experimental Musicin Black and lfhite."

3. In his account of che history of the AssocÌation for rhe Advencemen! ofCreative Musicians, George Lewis is especiaLly atrentive to the discursive prac-tìces and affects of;ournalists and crirics. See Lewis, "Experimentai Music inBlack and lühite."

4. Scon Deveaùx, Tå e Bitb of Bebop: A SociaL and Musical Hísrory (Berke-Ley: University of Califo¡nia P¡ess, r99z); Presron Love. A Thousand Honet,

Creeþs Later: M1 Life in Music ftom Bas¡e ta MotoLun axd Beyond lF{ar,oter,N.H.: Universicy Press of New Ëngland, r997); Robert Gordon, Can't Be Satis'

fied: The Life and -[imes of Muddy Vaters (Bosron: Linle, Brown, zooz);

Horace Tapscon, Songs of the Unsung: The Musical and Social Joumey ofHorace Tapscott, ed. Steven Isoardi (Durham, N.C: Duke University Press,

zoor); Freà Wesle¡ Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sideman lDurham' N'C -

Duke Unrversiry ?ress, zooz); Counr Basre and Albert Murra¡ Good Morning

Blues: The Autobiogr'Þhy of Count Basie (New Yo¡k: Da Capo Press' 1985;

¡ep¡in¡, rggj); Sherrie Tucker, Søing Shift: "A!l Girl" Bands of the t94os

(nu¡han, N.C., Duke University Press, zooo); Quincy Jones, Q' The Autobi

ogaphy af Quincy loz¿s (rr-ew Yo¡kr Doubleda¡ zoor).- 5. Áobr"b. G. Kelley, "We Are Not What We Seem: The Politics and Plea-

sures of Communiry," in Race Rebels: Cubwe, Politics, and the BIacÞ Vorking

C/¿ss, ed. Robin D. G. Kelley (New York: Free Press, r994)' r6r-83; and 'TheRiddle of the Zoor Suìr: Malcolm Linle a¡d Black Cultu¡al Polìtics duri¡lg

Iüo¡ld lfa¡ II," in Rdce Rebels: Cubute, Polítics' and the Black Worhíng Class,

ed- Robin D. G. Kelley (New York: Free Press, t994), i 5-5 5; Love, Thousand

Honel Creeks Lltel; D\ke Ellington, Mzsic Is My Mistress (New York' Da

Capo Press, 1975); Albert Murra¡ Stomping the Blues \New York: McG¡aw-

Hil1, r97 6).6. lorrer, What Is This'fhing Called lazz?;John F. Szwed, Space Is tbe Place:

The Líues and-[ìmes ofSøz Ra (fiew York: Pancheon Books, r997); Tommy Lee

Lort, "The r 9 6os Avant-Gârde Movemenr it lazz," Social ld entitìes 7, io 2

(zoor): r-rr; Tapscott, Songs of the IJnsung; Lewis, "Experimental Music in

Black and \fhire"; Ronald Radano, Neut Mtæica[ Figurat¡ot1: Aflthony Bllx'ton's CubtÍal Crit¡que (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993)'

7- For more on ihese speciâc ideas, see Krin Gal:,|>arð., ed., lazz among the

Discourses (Durham, N.C.: Duke Universiry Press, r995); Lewis, "Experimen

cal Music r¡ Black and lVhire"; Tapscon, Songs ofthe Unsung.

8- For more abouc the impact of rules and Procedure oÍ artworks, see

Howa¡d Becker, Art World.s (Berkeley: Universiry of California ?ress, rjSz);Paul Lopes, -the Ríse of a lazz Att World \Car'bridge: Cambridge Universiry

Press, zooz).9- Trumpete¡ Lester Bowre suggescs that the relationship between jazz and

the popular music of his formadve period was very much che same as rhose ofhis Àenco¡s and those who came befo¡e him- In orher words popula¡ music has

always been an impotcanr sou¡ce in the scandard jazz repenoire. Quoted inLeBan, "The Whole Híxory of lazz."

ro- The question of ownership and representation ìs one of rhe central ten-

sions characterizing much of the press coverage about the (conrroversial) Lin-coln Center program and the Ken B¡l¡ns documenrary for PBS.

rr. See, for example, Dtana Crate, ed. The Sociology of Cubure: Energing

Theoret¡..al Perspectiues, (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, r994), including the

inrroduction; Lopes, Tåe Rise of a lazz Att World.rr. A middle generation of musicians is very important to the iazz Ieh'

Among these I would include David Murray, Julius HemphiÌl, Lerol' Jenkins,Henry Threadgill. Maûy oflhis geûeration o{ musicians were formed rn the con-

Notes

rext of musical colleccives in the r96os and l97os ir o¡gânizarions like BlackA.rrist Group (BAG) in Sr, Louìs and ¡he Associarion fo¡ the A.dvancemenc ofCreacìve Musicians (AACM) in Chicago. George Lipsirz, "Like a Weed in a

Vacant Lot: The Black Ardst Group in Sr- Loots," ìr\ Decompositìon: Post Dis,ctplinary Performance, ed- Sue-Ellen Case, P Brerr, and S. L. Foster (Bloomng-¡on: Indiana Unive¡siry Press, zooo), 5r-6r.

r3. Kevin Fellez, "Becween Rock and a Jazz Place: loce¡culcu¡al Interchangein Fusion Musicking" (Ph.D. diss., History of Consciousness Program, Univer-siry of California, Santa Crw, zoo4).

r4. George Lewis, "Improvìsed Music after r95o: Afrologicai and Eurolog-ical Perspecrives," Blacþ Musrc Research Joumal ú (ry96): 9r-tzz.

r5. Steve Dollar, "The Lightening Rod." Dot¿,n Beat,February t996,2.6.16. lbid.r7. John Litweiler, "Thank Yor.r! Orneúel" Dou,n Beat,IeîÞary :,992, )r.r8. Fo¡ mo¡e on Harmolodics, Inc-, see Vivien Goldman, "Harmolodic

}{arlem,' Village Yoice, 3 Seprember ry96, 4t, 44.r9- GeÍe Sântoro, "Dancing rn Your Head, " Natíon, n- Auglst t99 t, r99 ff.zo. lbid.¿¡. Ibid.zz. Robert Valser, "Deep Jazz: Notes on Intenority, Race and Criticism," in

Inuenting the Psychologìcal: '[otuard a C bural History of Emotìonal Lìfe inAmerica, ed.loelPfrster and Nancy Schnog (New Haven, Conn-: Yale Univer-siry Press, r997)J 27r-96.

23. For more on the ÀACM, see Porter, Wåat Is This'thing Called I azz? aadLewis, "Experimencal Music in Black and !7hire-"

24. As I noted earlier rhrs polirical, organizârional, and culrural approach orproject ro was also practiced wirh great effect in Los Angeles wirh Horace Tap-scom, Sc. Louìs with BAG, Greenwich Village with fuvBea Srudios with SamRivers. Indeed, I would contend tha¡ one of the sructu¡al conditions of possi-bility that made such locally based organizarional experiments possible was thepresence of committee hìgh schooÌ bands and band reache¡s rvho ¡emained con-nected to local commu¡ities and t¡ained successiye generarions ofaspiring musi-cians. In addition ro places like Ka¡sas Ciry, Detroit, and Chicago (DuSableHigh School), some of¡hese fo¡mida ble æachers are locaced in places like Wash-ington, D.C., Houscon, New Orleans, and Berkeley, among others.

25. John Corbett, "Ëarly AE(C)," Douln Beat, June 1994, 49; Lewis,"Experimental Music in Black and llhire."

z6- Lorr, "The r96os Avant-Garde Movemenr in Jazz"; Lewis, ,,Experi

men¡al Music in Black and llhire"; Porteg What Is This Thing Called Jazz?a7. I would note ìn rhis respecr that it is more rhan a bit ironic, how the con-

cept of tradirion funcrions rarhe¡ mo¡e rigidly and Êxedly in che conrext of ¡henationalis¡ based polirics of rhe period-norably black power and various inca¡-nations of pan-Africanism. Musically of course, for many of rhe musìcrans andculture workers, the concept of ¡¡adicion as lìxed and unerring is ¡arher morelimrting and conservatìve.

¿8. Fo¡ mo¡e on the avant-garde, see Lorr, "The r96os Avan¡-Ga¡de Movement in Jazz"; Po¡ter, What k This'fhìng Called Jazz?

29. John Corbert, "The Music's StrlÌ Happenin'," Down Beat, Decemt'eri99o,6\,66.

3o. lbid.

3r. Ibid.; see also Lewis, "Experimental Music in Black and White," and"lmprovised Music after r95o."

3r. Howard Mandel, "From Chicago, Deep in the Art ofJazz," WashìngtonPost, u3 Sepcember 1984,

33. Robert Palmer, "zoch Annìversary for an UnusualJazz Ensemble," NerzYorþ Times, r4 April r985.

34. Quoted in Mandel, "From Chicago, Deep in rhe Art ofJazz," Hrz.3 5, Quoted in ibid.j6- Quored in ibid.

37. Lirweiler, "Thank You! Ornette!" 3r.;8. Quoted in Peter'Warrous, 'Brookìyn Academy Finds Room fo¡ Out-

siders ofJazz." Nerz, YorÞ'fimes, tz October r995; my emphasts.

39. Ibid.; my emphasis.

4o. \lynron Marsalis has been dull'celebrated for a simila¡ musical dexte¡-iry and mascer¡ havrng won Grammys in borh the jazz and the classical ca¡egories âs well as a Pulitzer Pri¿e for composition.

4r. Jeremy Wolff, "A'Cat' f¡om the Bronx Makes His Mark on Klezmer,"Wall Street lolarkal, Sep¡embei r9, r99t, Arz.

42. lbid; Byron also includes ruûning commentaries about the critics, che

press, and racial discou¡se in his ¡eco¡ded wo¡k.

43. Polirics are never far from Byron's music, expressed most directly in theritles of his composìtions and recording sessions. In hìs music Byron has dealtwith topics ranging from theTuskegee Expe¡iments and af6¡mative act¡on to themarginalization of Jodi AJ-Fyad, father of Princess Diana's boyfriend.

44. Don Byron, quoted rn interview with Josh Kun, unpublished ms., n.d.

45. Errol T. Louis, "Jazz Makes a New Sound wìth Soul, Pop, and Com-purers; Brookl-vn Musical Collecrìve: Macro-Basic Array of Strucured Extem-porizations," Szriråsonian, Ocrober t989, 176;Le\¿ìs, 'Experimental Music inBìack and !(¡hite."

46. Quoted in Kevin Whi¡ehead, "Jazz Rebels: Lesrer Bowie and Greg

Osby," Dot)n Beat, Augusr 1991, 17-

47. Ibid.; my emphasìs.

48. Ibid.49. Porter, What Is Thk Tbing Called lazzl5o. ìíhicehead, "Jazz Rebels," zo; my emphasis.

5r. Louis, "Jazz Makes a Nerv Sound," 176 ff.

52. This information is from the Coleman Veb site, wÍ'w'm-base.com,which contains essays, biographical information, drscographies, and bookinginfo¡mation-

53. Sceve Coleman lleb site (accessed r5 May 1998)-

5a. Ibid.

55. Interview rvith Vjay Iyer, M-BASE lleb page; Vijay lyer, "Steve Cole-manr M-Base, and Musical Collecctvism," M-Base Web slle (acc€ssed May1998).

Notes

56. Ibid.57. Most notable among ¡hese âre Greg Osby and Cassandra llilson.j8, At leasr one of these ¡eside¡cies was financialiy supponed by the Lilla

\Tallace Reader\ Digest Fund for Aùdience Developmenr, Dan Ouellete, ..Tree

of Jazz Grown rn Brooklyn Reaches Bay Atea,,, San Francísco Chronicle, z7July r996; Ben Racliff, "A Jazz Guerrilla Blows Back in, Spreadìng Ideas," NewYork'limes, r8 August zooz-

59. Derk Richardson, "Ourward Bound,', San Franc.isco Bay Cuard.ían,4-jaSeptember r996j Ouellerte, "-ftee ol lazz." See Lewis, ,.Experimen¡al Music inBlack aod SØhite," on BAG and AACM; Lipsitz, .,Like

a rüy'eed in a Vacant Lot."on BAG: lapscon, 5o ngs of the lJ nsung, on UGMAA in Los Angeles.

6o. Richardson, "Outward Bound," 4o.6Ì. Ibid.62. lblð,.63. For a comparrson of the xate ol jazz at anothe¡ New- yo¡k cultu¡al insri-

tution, Carnegie Hall, see Robin Pogrebin, "New Di¡ecto¡ at Carnegie Eiimi,nates lts Jazz Band." Netu York Times, r7 January u ooz.

64. See Lewis, "Experimenral Music in Black and !fhite,,, for a very usefuldiscuss¡on of the limits of black identities produced around the politics of st¡ictbounda¡ies and genres, and the role of rhe AACM in compiicarrng norions ofblackness.

65. \Vith sÙuctural changes in the music business, especially wìrh respect totouring, the tensions or.er the relationship of jazz to popular music, transformatiorìs in rhe racìal pacterns of consumption and the availabilrry of black ven-ues, ic is perhaps doubly ironic thar rhe road and rhe street continue ro besources of inspiration and new possibilitres, even as the actual road and st¡eetbecome harder to negotiare âs sources of wo¡k and susrained cultural practice.

66. For an interesting account of developmenrs in Ma¡salis's owû career seeDavid Hajdu, "Wynton's Blues," ,4tlantic Monthb,, March zooJ,4l 58.

67. Porter, Wbat Is Tbis Thìag Called Jazz?; Gabbard, Jazz among the Dis-cozrses; Nathaniel Macke¡ "Other: From Noun ro Verb," in Gabbard, la<za/nong the Dßcourses; DeYeatx, The Bìrth of Bebop; Feliez, "Berween Rockand a Jazz Place."

68. Tucker, Swing Shift; DeVeaux, The Birth of Bebop; Gabbarð, Jazzanong tbe Discourses;Pone4 What ls TbisThing Called Iazz?;Lewis, "Exper-imental Music in Black and White."

69. One could easily count as a measute of this mâinsrreaming the numberoflelevision comme¡cials and programs as well as Holly'wood 6lms thar ¡rse jazzfo¡ chei¡ sound uacks.

7o. See, for example, Stuart Hall, 'What Is This'Black'in Biack PopularCultu¡e?" rn BlacÞ Popular Culture: A Prcject by Michele Wallace, eð,. GinaDent (Seatrle: Bay Press, t99z), zx-37.

CHAPTER 4. WHÈRË HAVE ALL THE BLAC( SHOWS GONE?

A dìffe¡ent version of this chaprer appeared as 'Cultural Idenrity and AmericanTelevision in the Posr-Nerwork, Post-Civil Rìghts Era," and was originally pub-

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