Justice, Evidence and the benefits of doing some research on music you’re studying.
Hat tip to Ramsey for the whole “just us/justice” thing.
About Bob Reynolds
Bob Reynolds is a jazz saxophonist and 3x GRAMMY Award-winning member of the instrumental supergroup Snarky Puppy. He's toured and recorded with John Mayer and released 11 albums as a solo artist. Bob teaches jazz improvisation and saxophone lessons through his Virtual Studio and an annual retreat for saxophonists.
Bob- Loved your point in this In The Shed… Drove me right to my altar of antique vinyl to find this 1947 Wardell Gray album (don’t know how to get the photo in here, but I’ll send it to you in a separate email just for fun) which I bought for $ 0.99 at a Catskill Mountains place called Sullivan Surplus (named for the County in NYS) in 1960. I was 13, working my first summer at Cedar Hill Hotel and Farm, in South Fallsburg, a gig handed down to me by Dave Liebman, who had played it the prior summer. Here’s a link to “Just You, Just Me” from the album , .
So good, so in the groove of the jams at JATP that Norman Granz started in 1944, and continued at Newport Festivals from 1954 on. Catch some wonderful lines form 1947– and the contrafact of “It Could Happen To You” that Wardell plays at 1:25″ into the track. Also, the “riff” backgrounds the other guys spontaneously added behind the solos. Brownie’s (Howard McGhee) line at 3:37″ is also very cool and I think kind of avant for then. Most all of Barney Kessel choruses are very fine to my ears.
Also of significance is how these were some of the first integrated groups, whose swing and joyous feel implicitly showed the stupidity of segregating people from one another. Keep sharing your broad perspective of the art with us– it is of huge benefit and a great pleasure.
Best, Elliot
Thanks for this, Elliot.
Hells to the yeah! THANK YOU for this. I remember John Patitucci saying that if you really want to play this music, you´ve gotta become a record collector(student of the music). Between the internet, libraries, older musicians, garage sales, and the teachers you study with, there is a wealth of information to be absorbed regarding historical context. Until the last 15-20 years, this music was primarily an oral(aural) tradition…Wonderful post!
Totally. The trouble now is that all the music is available but you have to commit to digging for the information behind the music. That’s the real “collection” in this era.
An excellent article Bob- it takes years for a a young player to assimilate a perspective of context, and someone’s place in the history of jazz. I’m still learning about it all in my late 50’s. When so many players are motivated by technique, chops, it can take a while for them to really appreciate, say, Lester Young. We all have to get a sense of the lineage, and how it all developed. No need to judge Wayne Shorter or anyone else, on whether they can play fast bebop anyway, as I’m sure you’d agree, as long as you can get your message across, and he certainly can.
Well put. (And yes, I agree 😉