The connectors of two worlds: Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie and the continuity of myth through Afro-Cuban Jazz.

[Richie Blondet]

The connectors of two worlds: Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie and the continuity of myth through Afro-Cuban Jazz:
https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/...wcontent.cgi?article=3840&context=etd-project

 

[DJ Yuca]

The above links didn't work for me, but this one should:

The connectors of two worlds: Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie, and the continuity of myth through Afro-Cuban jazz

Explains how Afro-Cuban culture influenced African-American jazzmen and led to the formation of Afro-Cuban or Latin jazz in 1947 by Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo. Explores the musical connections between the physical plane of Cuba and the United States, and the esoteric spiritual world of the...

scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu

I've only read the summary so will reserve judgement until I've downloaded and read it. Although I've already taken issue with the formation of Afro-Cuban or Latin jazz in 1947 by Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo. For me Diz played jazz with a Cuban tinge, but he never had a band that played in clave or had more than 1 Latin percussionist (e.g. a timbales player). On saying that, of course Chano's compositions were written in clave so maybe 1 or 2 of them as recorded by Diz could pass as Latin jazz.

However I suspect Machito and/or someone else recorded something that could pass as Afro-Cuban jazz prior to 1947.

Maybe the author deals with all this in his thesis. I'll try to read it tomorrow.

 

[Richie Blondet]

The above links didn't work for me, but this one should:

The connectors of two worlds: Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie, and the continuity of myth through Afro-Cuban jazz

Explains how Afro-Cuban culture influenced African-American jazzmen and led to the formation of Afro-Cuban or Latin jazz in 1947 by Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo. Explores the musical connections between the physical plane of Cuba and the United States, and the esoteric spiritual world of the...

scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu

I've only read the summary so will reserve judgement until I've downloaded and read it. Although I've already taken issue with the formation of Afro-Cuban or Latin jazz in 1947 by Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo. For me Diz played jazz with a Cuban tinge, but he never had a band that played in clave or had more than 1 Latin percussionist (e.g. a timbales player). On saying that, of course Chano's compositions were written in clave so maybe 1 or 2 of them as recorded by Diz could pass as Latin jazz.

However I suspect Machito and/or someone else recorded something that could pass as Afro-Cuban jazz prior to 1947.

Maybe the author deals with all this in his thesis. I'll try to read it tomorrow.

He also makes Machito and the Afrocubans out to be the first ever to produce authentic "Afro Cuban Jazz," which is inaccurate.

It's a typical scholarly study. Academia does not require a thesis to be 100% accurate. That's why, when it comes to this music, people need to use their own common sense and take certain things academia offers and use it to make your own determination. What academia argues is if one thinks a study is problematic, then the forum to challenge it is within academia itself. One writes a thesis challenging those notions. You show and prove. The book NEW YORK & THE INT'L SOUND OF LATIN MUSIC, 1840-1990 is a direct challenge to EL LIBRO DE LA SALSA by Cesar Miguel Rondon, CARIBVEAN CURRENTS by Peter Manuel, SALSIOLOGY by Vernon Boggs, SALSA: THE RHYTHM OF LATIN MUSIC by Charley Gerard, and other publications that pushed assumptions and opinions as fact.

There's thousands of studies just like this one. All academia cares about is structure. Did they cite other scholarly work? Did they address pertinent questions that consistently arise in other scholarship? Were gender, race and class inserted or touched upon? They don't really care about the answers being accurate or not. As long as it coincides with what you detail in your abstract.

For the record, Dizzy Gillespie and Chano did not invent the concept of "Latin Jazz" or "Afro Cuban Jazz." Those concepts existed and were documented on 78 rpm recordings going back to the 19-teens. What Dizzy and Chano (and really Dizzy) did innovate upon was a sub-genre of Afro-Cuban Jazz. What they should be credited with is spearheading Cu-Bop. The fusion between Afro Cuban rhythms beneath BeBop phrasing and improvisation in that specific musical language. Which the Machito orchestra and other ensembles never interpreted previously, until Dizzy introduced it first with five Afro-Cuban percussionists joining his BeBop Quintet in 1946 or '47 at the Diplomat Hotel in NYC, and later full time with Chano Pozo from '47-'48, and until the day he [Dizzy] died.

What the Machito orchestra were interpreting in 1941 thru 1946 (and in a very minor way), if recordings mean anything, was Swing music with Afro Cuban percussion. Some of their musical output was not always "in clave" on account of Mario Bauza hired arrangers who were not clave-conscious to arrange the chart. It was usually the charts where Pin Madera, Joe Loco and, especially, Rene Hernandez (as far as the 1940s era arrangers who arranged Jazz-oriented material) who kept an adherence to clave. This is what folks like Ray Santos expressed to me. Who joined the Machito orchestra in 1956, replacing "Pin" Madera. Folks like John Bartee and Edgar Sampson had that Swing flavor to make the band sound like the Chick Webb orchestra or Count Basie-ish. But perhaps this is where Mario Bauza may have stepped in. Although some former members of the orchestra like Jose Mangual, Sr, Luis Miranda, and Frankie Colón attested that, between the two (Mario & Machito), Machito was the more "clave-conscious" and, on occasion, would advise "careful Mario," when a chart would jump the clave. So it could have been Machito who intercede. Or perhaps the "Latin" guys (Pin, Rene) would take a look and make a change?

To this day I have yet to read a definitive scholarly stab at the music of Machito and his contemporaries or antecedents from a Jazz-Son perspective. It's either a paper acknowledging Machito and the Afro Cubans as the creators 9f Afro Cuban Jazz, with a couple of charts as samples. Without providing context to the reader that the chart(s) is/are from a year long after the band had launched. Or just a straight up dismissal that everything other than what Mario Bauza was involved in was straight up garbage and non-essential. Which is why the scholarship into Cuban popular music based in the USA is nothing more than Pom-Pom cheerleader bull$#!+. And not a REAL hard core analysis, based on the local reality as it was documented on the ground at that time. The scholarship, as well as the pseudo historians one finds on the internet or giving talks to the public, are more agenda laden than anything fact-checked. Propaganda is what most academic scholarship, as well as popular opinion, revolved around Afro Cuban music in the U.S. is based on.

 

[Latinjazz]

He also makes Machito and the Afrocubans out to be the first ever to produce authentic "Afro Cuban Jazz," which is inaccurate.

It's a typical scholarly study. Academia does not require a thesis to be 100% accurate. That's why, when it comes to this music, people need to use their own common sense and take certain things academia offers and use it to make your own determination. What academia argues is if one thinks a study is problematic, then the forum to challenge it is within academia itself. One writes a thesis challenging those notions. You show and prove. The book NEW YORK & THE INT'L SOUND OF LATIN MUSIC, 1840-1990 is a direct challenge to EL LIBRO DE LA SALSA by Cesar Miguel Rondon, CARIBVEAN CURRENTS by Peter Manuel, SALSIOLOGY by Vernon Boggs, SALSA: THE RHYTHM OF LATIN MUSIC by Charley Gerard, and other publications that pushed assumptions and opinions as fact.

There's thousands of studies just like this one. All academia cares about is structure. Did they cite other scholarly work? Did they address pertinent questions that consistently arise in other scholarship? Were gender, race and class inserted or touched upon? They don't really care about the answers being accurate or not. As long as it coincides with what you detail in your abstract.

For the record, Dizzy Gillespie and Chano did not invent the concept of "Latin Jazz" or "Afro Cuban Jazz." Those concepts existed and were documented on 78 rpm recordings going back to the 19-teens. What Dizzy and Chano (and really Dizzy) did innovate upon was a sub-genre of Afro-Cuban Jazz. What they should be credited with is spearheading Cu-Bop. The fusion between Afro Cuban rhythms beneath BeBop phrasing and improvisation in that specific musical language. Which the Machito orchestra and other ensembles never interpreted previously, until Dizzy introduced it first with five Afro-Cuban percussionists joining his BeBop Quintet in 1946 or '47 at the Diplomat Hotel in NYC, and later full time with Chano Pozo from '47-'48, and until the day he [Dizzy] died.

What the Machito orchestra were interpreting in 1941 thru 1946 (and in a very minor way), if recordings mean anything, was Swing music with Afro Cuban percussion. Some of their musical output was not always "in clave" on account of Mario Bauza hired arrangers who were not clave-conscious to arrange the chart. It was usually the charts where Pin Madera, Joe Loco and, especially, Rene Hernandez (as far as the 1940s era arrangers who arranged Jazz-oriented material) who kept an adherence to clave. This is what folks like Ray Santos expressed to me. Who joined the Machito orchestra in 1956, replacing "Pin" Madera. Folks like John Bartee and Edgar Sampson had that Swing flavor to make the band sound like the Chick Webb orchestra or Count Basie-ish. But perhaps this is where Mario Bauza may have stepped in. Although some former members of the orchestra like Jose Mangual, Sr, Luis Miranda, and Frankie Colón attested that, between the two (Mario & Machito), Machito was the more "clave-conscious" and, on occasion, would advise "careful Mario," when a chart would jump the clave. So it could have been Machito who intercede. Or perhaps the "Latin" guys (Pin, Rene) would take a look and make a change?

To this day I have yet to read a definitive scholarly stab at the music of Machito and his contemporaries or antecedents from a Jazz-Son perspective. It's either a paper acknowledging Machito and the Afro Cubans as the creators 9f Afro Cuban Jazz, with a couple of charts as samples. Without providing context to the reader that the chart(s) is/are from a year long after the band had launched. Or just a straight up dismissal that everything other than what Mario Bauza was involved in was straight up garbage and non-essential. Which is why the scholarship into Cuban popular music based in the USA is nothing more than Pom-Pom cheerleader bull$#!+. And not a REAL hard core analysis, based on the local reality as it was documented on the ground at that time. The scholarship, as well as the pseudo historians one finds on the internet or giving talks to the public, are more agenda laden than anything fact-checked. Propaganda is what most academic scholarship, as well as popular opinion, revolved around Afro Cuban music in the U.S. is based on.

I just stumbled over this and it is really gold to me. If you have the time, here are some questions:
So, if I understood this right, you could call the style of Machito and his Afro-Cubans “afro-Cuban swing” and Dizzie’s and Pozo’s work “Cubop” (latter is more established as a subgenre from what I know)
But is it not absolutely pointless to speak about Latin-jazz as a genre anyway, as jazz is not a genre but an umbrella term of many sub-genres? Or is there anybody you would associate more to that term?
And where would you put Azpiazu and for example “jungle jazz elements” of the early Ellington?
To me, Azpiazu was doing Cuban son with partly jazz instrumentation and Ellington stumbled over the drums sound looking for “African” sound and getting closer and closer to Afro-Cuban rhythm, for example in later recordings of Caravan - already in the 50ties.

I’m just very interested in the archaic origins of Latin jazz. Am I missing big names?
For example, Bechet with some of the haitian-flavored songs - of course not “Afro-Cuban” but in some aspects Haitian grooves are close to the eastern-Cuban at that time…
It’s really complex. If you have a comment on this or know about specific books, I’d appreciate. I’ve read some, but don’t recall all names.

 

[Richie Blondet]

I just stumbled over this and it is really gold to me. If you have the time, here are some questions:
So, if I understood this right, you could call the style of Machito and his Afro-Cubans “afro-Cuban swing” and Dizzie’s and Pozo’s work “Cubop” (latter is more established as a subgenre from what I know).

Look at it from a chronological standpoint and not in any definitive grouping or [sub]category. In other words what Machito and the Afro Cubans emerge with is a Cu-Swing sound (Son-Swing?) in 1941, when they first recorded, until 1947. The latter being the year Dizzy introduces BeBop over an Afro Cuban rhythm in clave to a wide U.S. [and French] audience. The latter is not an introduction to Afro Cuban Jazz [the concept itself] but to Cu-Bop. The latter being a sub-style of Jazz and or Afro-Cuban Jazz.

Look at the chronological history of Jazz and you will find, via recordings, those fusions of Cuban music and the "Jazz" of the era being interpreted, as soon as the particular Jazz style of the day takes off commercially.

- 1900s-19teens - Ragtime / Danzon/Danza-Rags

- 1920s/early 1930s - Fox-Trots / Son-Fox Trots (or what the recording industry termed it as being, Rumba-Foxes).

- 1933-early/mid-1940s - Swing / Afro Cuban Jazz (at the time the marketing for the music was limited to the term "Afro Cuban."

- Late 1940s-mid-1950 - BeBop / Afro Cuban. *Side note: When Dizzy and Chano emerge performing Cu-Bop, the promotional machine behind Noro Morales began to market him as the "King of Rhumba-Jazz." The term itself did not seem to catch on industry-wise.

- Late 1950s-present - Jazz / Brazilian music

As Jazz goes through its period of Hard Bop, Cool, Soul Jazz and then the Rock-prog Jazz fusion era of the 1970s, a segment of the Afro Cuban/Salsa music artistry followed suit. Notably Carlos Santana, Irakere, Palmieri, Barretto, Cortijo, Bobby Paunetto, Cal Tjader, Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, etc.

But is it not absolutely pointless to speak about Latin-jazz as a genre anyway, as jazz is not a genre but an umbrella term of many sub-genres?

Not at all. Only because not everyone is hip. The same thing you describe applies to Son. Yet you read people name dropping the term as a distinct categorical style to son montuno, guaracha, guajira, cha-cha-cha, Mambo. When the latter subgenres are all Son. The general public don't know BeBop from Swing. It's all just Jazz to them. People think a band playing instrumental son montunos is "Latin Jazz." They're not familiar with the Jazz language because they don't listen to it. Improvisation alone does not produce Jazz. And, so, it's important to continue to distinguish things and clarify. Isn't that the reason there's so much unnecessary debate over who created Afro Cuban Jazz. If people were aware of what musical style was being played, there'd be no debate. It's why 99% of the folks on YouTube who argue Afro Cuban Son somehow metamorphisized with Plena and Jazz to become Salsa don't actually know what it is that they're listening to. They're just repeating empty talking points that indicates zero to a listener.

Or is there anybody you would associate more to that term?

Well, there are artists who have become synonymous with the term. I would include Eddie Palmieri in a "Latin Jazz" artist category. Moreso than a Jazz music artist. Whereas someone like Miguel Zenon I would define as a Jazz musician. Who explores the folklore of his cultural heritage (Puerto Rico) through Jazz.

And where would you put Azpiazu and for example “jungle jazz elements” of the early Ellington?[%quote]

Don Azpiazu was largely a Cuban Son exponent. He and many of his contemporaries dabbled in fox trots, which was identified as Jazz in the 1920s/1930s. But he was more of a "tourist" (as a 'When in Rome' scenario when such repertoire came in handy), in contrast to what he was famous for. Which was his "Rhumbas" or Sones.

The "Jungle Jazz" of Ellington was a stab at Afro Cuban music. Which his Orchestra never accomplished authentically. 'Jungle Jazz' would be considered a novelty approach or 'exotica'. Nothing that would lump Duke into the Afro Cuban Jazz canon. Including the compositions by Juan Tizol, which had no audible or rhythmical Latin American elements, beyond the nationality of the composer.

To me, Azpiazu was doing Cuban son with partly jazz instrumentation and Ellington stumbled over the drums sound looking for “African” sound and getting closer and closer to Afro-Cuban rhythm, for example in later recordings of Caravan - already in the 50ties.

How you describe Azpiazu goes for nearly all Cuban orchestras. But to play Jazz it takes more than just orchestration.

Where Ellington failed early on, many others succeeded. And in a seamless manner that was both traditionally authentic and refreshingly new.

I’m just very interested in the archaic origins of Latin jazz. Am I missing big names?
For example, Bechet with some of the haitian-flavored songs - of course not “Afro-Cuban” but in some aspects Haitian grooves are close to the eastern-Cuban at that time…

I would not consider Sidney Bechet, or anyone from New Orleans, like Jelly Roll Morton, to be exponents of Latin Jazz, or early producers of Proto-Latin Jazz. Like Azpiazu and other Latin American ensembles, they either played Jazz or they didn't. In its lifetime Machito and the Afro Cubans was a Jazz Orchestra. Who happened to have an Afro-Cuban rhythm section. Take it away and they swing straight ahead as hard as Basie, Webb, Lunceford, Ellington, Henderson, etc.

It’s really complex. If you have a comment on this or know about specific books, I’d appreciate. I’ve read some, but don’t recall all names.

I would suggest reading "Latin Jazz: The
First of the Fusions, 1880s to Today." That goes into the eras that predate the "Tanga" myth as being the first true Afro Cuban Jazz anything.

From there it's up to you as to how you want to pursue more evidence. Familiarize yourself more with the Jazz of the 1910s, '20s and '30s and seek out recordings from those eras by referencing Spottswood's or Diaz Ayala's discographies.

Quite frankly all of the other literature are the usual narratives about Latin Jazz. Which basically declares it begins in the 1940s. They use song structures by the Machito orchestra to prove their point. But fail to put it in context (or in contrast) with music by other contemporaries of the era. Like Socarras, Iznaga, Coen, Montesino, and others, who were playing Swing in Clave.

 

[Latinjazz]

Thanks a lot Richie!

 

[Richie Blondet]

Thanks a lot Richie!

For the sake of clarification, this paragraph should read: "From there it's up to you as to how you want to pursue more evidence. Familiarize yourself more with the Jazz of the 1910s, '20s and '30s and seek out Afro Cuban or any Latin American musical recordings from those eras by referencing Spottswood's or Diaz Ayala's discographies."

 

[Latinjazz]

PS. How the hell “Machito and his afro-Cubans” is not included in the top big bands of the 40ties/50ties in any page I find? Read all of her “records/innovations” in Wikipedia or wherever you want!

 

[Richie Blondet]

PS. How the hell “Machito and his afro-Cubans” is not included in the top big bands of the 40ties/50ties in any page I find? Read all of her “records/innovations” in Wikipedia or wherever you want!

Par for the course I'm afraid. They recently published a Visual History of the Harlem Renaissance in the NY Times as a collaborative endeavor with an exhibit now showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art revolved around the Harlem Renaissance, and they excluded Arturo Schomburg who wrote a redefining essay in 1925 entitled "The Negro Digs Up His Past" during the Renaissance.

Last year they launched a soundtrack of Broadway project revolved around any and all music that had ever been interpreted in the Times Square area. They had every artist and genre under the sun. Except of course Afro-Cuban, Latin American, Brasilian or Spanish. I send them a letter with a list of names, dates, places. I still haven't heard back and the project seems to be stagnant.

The documentary JAZZ by Ken Burns had zero mention of any musician of Latin American descent. Even Tizol was invisible.

It's been that way since forever. I'm my opinion a lot of that has to do with the Latino community itself not caring enough about it. If it did there would be hell to pay and heads rolling for such omissions. But, in the community's pursuit to be embraced by you know who, we don't fight for our own culture to be included in wider narratives. We wait until there's a specialty project like Latin Music USA or the Latin Explosion, and they're all bogus to begin with. Made by the same people who empower the usual narratives that excludes Latin American culture from having a spotlight.

 

[Latinjazz]

The documentary JAZZ by Ken Burns had zero mention of any musician of Latin American descent. Even Tizol was invisible.

That documentary is fascinating to me anyways. It consists of about 50% of pure golf and 50% of absolute b***s**t
And you mentioned a new aspect of it - all that it omits or doesn’t mention.
I’m afraid Burns took the wrong people as advisers, at least for the 5 last DVDs.
It’s not often that I start a DVD falling in love and end it trying not to throw up.

 

[Latinjazz]

That documentary is fascinating to me anyways. It consists of about 50% of pure golf and 50% of absolute b***s**t
And you mentioned a new aspect of it - all that it omits or doesn’t mention.
I’m afraid Burns took the wrong people as advisers, at least for the 5 last DVDs.
It’s not often that I start a DVD falling in love and end it trying not to throw up.

“Golf” instead of “gold”. My autocorrector finds new ways of destroying my life every day.

 

[Richie Blondet]

That documentary is fascinating to me anyways. It consists of about 50% of pure golf and 50% of absolute b***s**t
And you mentioned a new aspect of it - all that it omits or doesn’t mention.
I’m afraid Burns took the wrong people as advisers, at least for the 5 last DVDs.
It’s not often that I start a DVD falling in love and end it trying not to throw up.

I thought it was well produced. What it omitted is another topic in itself. He omitted as man West Indians and African Americans as he did Latinxs.

To be quite honest I don't blame Ken Burns for not touching on the Cuban roots to Jazz by way of the Habanera, cinquillo, etc or the role Puerto Ricans played in the Harlem Hellfighters. There is so much debate and difference of opinion over that it's become a political hot potato. Better to just stick with the places and faces everyone knows, and let the folks who argue that Latinos aren't a footnote in Jazz history to produce their own documentary.

 

[Latinjazz]

I thought it was well produced. What it omitted is another topic in itself. He omitted as man West Indians and African Americans as he did Latinxs.

To be quite honest I don't blame Ken Burns for not touching on the Cuban roots to Jazz by way of the Habanera, cinquillo, etc or the role Puerto Ricans played in the Harlem Hellfighters. There is so much debate and difference of opinion over that it's become a political hot potato. Better to just stick with the places and faces everyone knows, and let the folks who argue that Latinos aren't a footnote in Jazz history to produce their own documentary.

I’m not even getting into the latinos. From the 50ties on, that documentary gets close to brain washing with the basic message that jazz died then and the only one continuing to preserve jazz are - by coincidence - the fantastic master and center of the jazz evolution, mister Wynton Marsalis himself, who happens to be the main reference of that documentary. Ken Burns did a fantastic job, I agree.

 

[Latinjazz]

I thought it was well produced. What it omitted is another topic in itself. He omitted as man West Indians and African Americans as he did Latinxs.

To be quite honest I don't blame Ken Burns for not touching on the Cuban roots to Jazz by way of the Habanera, cinquillo, etc or the role Puerto Ricans played in the Harlem Hellfighters. There is so much debate and difference of opinion over that it's become a political hot potato. Better to just stick with the places and faces everyone knows, and let the folks who argue that Latinos aren't a footnote in Jazz history to produce their own documentary.

But yes, a well researched documentary about Caribbean-Latin influence into jazz (call it as you want) is still to be made.

 

[Richie Blondet]

I’m not even getting into the latinos. From the 50ties on, that documentary gets close to brain washing with the basic message that jazz died then and the only one continuing to preserve jazz are - by coincidence - the fantastic master and center of the jazz evolution, mister Wynton Marsalis himself, who happens to be the main reference of that documentary. Ken Burns did a fantastic job, I agree.

You know LJ, I had completely forgotten about that. The documentary completely skipped over the 1970s Jazz-Rock,Funk Fusion era and went straight from Coltrane's late '70s output to Wynton. It was similar to the "Palladium: Where Mambo Was King" documentary. Which gave the viewer the impression that the spirit of the Palladium could now be found at a space like the Birdland Jazz club. Which is a preposterous notion as there is no dance floor, nor is dance music performed at the famous "Jazz Cormer of the World." All these documentaries produced within the last 40 years always have a self-serving agenda inserted into its narrative.

 

[Latinjazz]

You know LJ, I had completely forgotten about that. The documentary completely skipped over the 1970s Jazz-Rock,Funk Fusion era and went straight from Coltrane's late '70s output to Wynton. It was similar to the "Palladium: Where Mambo Was King" documentary. Which gave the viewer the impression that the spirit of the Palladium could now be found at a space like the Birdland Jazz club. Which is a preposterous notion as there is no dance floor, nor is dance music performed at the famous "Jazz Cormer of the World." All these documentaries produced within the last 40 years always have a self-serving agenda inserted into its narrative.

I would have to rewatch it, but in my memory they also omit all of Miles Davis’ activities after the 50ties, all of free jazz, if I recall right Keith Jarrett and many others don’t exist, of course no European Jazz, no Peter Erskine, no M-Base and a huge army of important musicians from Bill Frisell to Joe Lovano not existing. Basically Miles Davis “killed” jazz for commercial reasons but “a little village of Gallians” led by Marsalis preserve the real jazz until today.

 

[Latinjazz]

… and of course no Bossa Nova, don’t recall much about Horace Silver nor Soul-Jazz etc and let’s not even get started with Latin jazz or Chick Corea etc. no 80ties either, a list as long - as jazz history from the 50ties on.
However, their documentation of New Orleans Jazz until the 1950ies is a real jewel, fantastic and well explained with lots of great music.

 

[Richie Blondet]

I would have to rewatch it, but in my memory they also omit all of Miles Davis’ activities after the 50ties, all of free jazz, if I recall right Keith Jarrett and many others don’t exist, of course no European Jazz, no Peter Erskine, no M-Base and a huge army of important musicians from Bill Frisell to Joe Lovano not existing. Basically Miles Davis “killed” jazz for commercial reasons but “a little village of Gallians” led by Marsalis preserve the real jazz until today.

That has Wynton and Stanley Crouch written all over it. Both of them are on record as not digging free jazz, or anything that musicians like Henry Threadgill or Steve Coleman produce.

 

[Latinjazz]

That has Wynton and Stanley Crouch written all over it. Both of them are on record as not digging free jazz, or anything that musicians like Henry Threadgill or Steve Coleman produce.

True. But from “not digging” to changing jazz history according to own taste there’s a long way. I really wish one day we have a similar collection, and please including the Latin American contribution. Unfortunately that’s lots of work and not much money. Let’s hope someone finds motivation.