Under the stars and into souls of great musicians, twilight descends to the steady rhythm of a finely tuned bass. Great scientists say that the universe fluctuates to the pulse of existence, but the naked eye will never see it as clearly as it did Sunday evening as the Mellon Blues Festival closed out its festivities with Jazz Under the Stars at the Fels Planetarium.
An entranced audience sat for nearly two hours soaking in the music of the Sun Ra Arkestra while they played their magical mix of space age jazz and swing.
There's something about jazz that reaches out and shakes up your system a little bit, even for the non-enthusiast. Its a genre with a lot of culture and a lot of heart waiting in the wings to back it up. Somehow musicians can make all that manpower comes tumbling right out of the mouth of a saxophone.
Forty years can mean a lot or a little to a music genre. The pace of music changes with the pace of life, but many things remain the same. In the spirit of the festival, Street takes a look at the changing face of jazz by talking to the old and the new.
Khan Jamal, a Philadelphia based musician, has been on the jazz scene in Philadelphia and worldwide for nearly four decades. His support and persistence have made him a force in promoting jazz music and the creativity of young musicians.
Andy Hurwitz is a self proclaimed jazz connoisseur and judging by his credentials he lives up to the title. He currently owns the record label Ropadope, which features upcoming jazz musicians like DJ Logic, whose show will be in Philly this Friday, and Christian McBride. Prior to that he was an A & R rep at Columbia Records Jazz label and the man responsible for running The Knitting Factory labels.
We asked both men the same questions to see how over timesome perspectives change and some remain the same.
Street: A lot of musicians are uncomfortable with the term jazz, what is your take on the word?
Khan Jamal: Well jazz really came from the word "jazz," the words they used in whore houses, and it really isn't a good term for music. It used to be used to be spelled "j-a-s-s" in the beginning. Black improvizational music would be a more proper term.
S:Where do you see the roots of improvisationl music?
KJ: What we call improvisational music has been around for many years. It really began in Africa. When the slaves came to the US they were banned from using African instruments so when they used the Western instruments they played them the way they had played them in Africa, creating something like the improvisational music today.
S:And all these years I thought jazz, sorry, improv, came from New Orleans.
K:Most people think that it started in New Orleans but it did not. Back during the 1700's and 1800's we had a person here called Frank Johnson who was a band leader and he played all over the U.S. and in Europe and the people who saw him would say "Man is he jazzin it up." There's a lot of myths out there that aren't myths but misinformation about the history of the music.
S:You've been on the Philadelphia jazz scene intermittently for about four decades. How does Philly compare to other U.S. cities like NY and to the cities in Europe?
K: Philly definitely has its place in the music history, espescially during the forties and fifties with the music of John Coltrain and Dizzy Gillespie. It was them who really brought the city out. Philadelphia has made a great contribution to the music.
S: What do you think inspires most jazz music?
K: It's the artist who plays the music that gives off an effect, and its different every time. It comes out of his soul. Events in a man's life effect the composition of his music. I played with so many different people and inside so many different genres of music and I am influenced by all of it. I'm influenced by music period.
Street: A lot of musicians are uncomfortable with the term jazz, what is your take on the word?
Andy Hurwitz: It depends on who you're talking to. I think now espescially with the younger cats people would be honored to be labeled with the term jazz. I think a lot of people don't even want to be labeled anything. With logic (DJ Logic) for example we get the jazz label in the billboard charts and we're honored to be categorized as that because of the history and the culture.
S:Where do you think the roots of improvisationl music lay?
AH: This is a straight history question isn't it?
S: Not for everyone. There are a lot of misconceptions.
AH: It comes from Africa and the blues and negro spritual slave songs that gave birth to the blues and then jazz really came up in the New Orleans area. The roots of Jazz are the blues and the roots of the blues are the slave songs from Africa.
S: How does Philly's jazz scene compare with other US cities like NY?
AH: The weird thing about Philly is that some of the greatest jazz music of all times comes from Philly and even modern day guys are coming out of there, but what happens is that they leave Philly to become famous. Philly doesn't have much of a nurturing jazz scene. Here in NY you can go out every single night and see at least four combinations of jazz. Of course NY is unique in that fact. I think Philly has a pretty strong scene but the influences of Philly jazz run deeper and spill into different genres like hip hop and dance music. As far as the scene goes there really isn't one. If you want to be recognized in the jazz world you have to leave Philly.
S: What do you think inspires most jazz music?
AH: Life man. Just life. It depends on who is writing the music. Some people think jazz is really sad and bluesy and deep. A lot of what inspires. It is the treatment of African American people over the years. Its all about your personal experiences and thats it.
