Permit Me: The Inimitable Jack Reilly

[mke]

After the attack on Jason Moran, the invasion of Europe:

Dissonance and Consonance An Open letter to Down Beat

Dear Chords and Dischords editor,

In the current issue of Down Beat, May 2006, featuring articles on the European jazz scene, you missed a great opportunity to educate those "other" cats accross the pond on what real Jazz playing is and what styles/players should be mandatory to absorb and study. Permit me.........................

We are all familiar with the oak tree evolving from the acorn, well without the seed nothing grows. The analagy can be made with evolution of American jazz. Without the Blues, Boogie Woogie, Ragtime, Stride, New Orleans bands, jazz would not have the ingrediants, seeds, that gave us the "tree of Swing". The players of this early jazz music(1900-1930), Joplin, James P.Johnson, Willie the "lion"Smith, Earl Hines, Beiderbecke, Armstrong, Art Hodes et al, created the foundation for jazz studies/playing/improvising. Omit the planting of these "seeds" and there would never, ever, ever be an Art Tatum. Tatum absorbed all these early styles into his very being, and a mighty oak evolved. Sooner or later the house collapses with no foundation. Permit me....

The Europeans you interviewed in this issue by-passed the study of these early styles therefore, they don't understand what it means to swing. They never will unless they go backwards! Classical musicians especially composers, must go backwards and study J.S.Bach. He is foundation af all classical music that followed.

So what do the Europeons do? They rationalize and say they don't need this foundation. The results are clear; just listen to the music of "In
The Country", Esbjorn Svensson, John Taylor, Stan Tracy, Rubacalba,
Mengelberg, Solal et al, even your own D.D. Jackson. They are all virtuoso players but they don't have that foundation. They don't have the ingrediant of swing in their styles. I do not label them jazz innovators/players. The pianist/leader of In The Country states proudly that in Norway, the jazz schools let him choose what to study; anything he wants, even Morton Feldman for 4 years!! God help us! One month of Wille the "Lion"Smith or even Scott Joplin would change his playing forever! Permit me..................................

The arrogance and insularity of the Europeons finds its way into their music. Need I launch into an assault on the ECM "sound"? After Keith Jarrett there is noboby in the ECM catalogue worth listening too! And you Mr. Editor had a chance to tell the truth. You might have been able to convince the Europeans to go backwards before trying to go upwards and then sideways! Shame on you. Over 50 years of covering American Jazz you didn't even hint at a particle of truth. Permit me..........................................................

The next great genius/innovator, Bill Evans, came along in the 50's. I rate him 8 notches above Tatum mainly because of his composition legacy. Evans absorbed into his playing the early styles mentioned above, plus the Swing,(Goodman/Herman/Basie), Be Bop,(Bud/Diz/Parker), and the Modern,(Tristano), eras,(1930-1960). Bill also had a complete knowledge of Western classical music from Bach to Schoenberg under his fingers and in his ear. Bill Evans represents the last stage in the evolution of jazz. Jazz cannot go any higher; it is NOT dead! It does have a future however, but everyone after Evans only evolves sideways.

Respectfully submitted,

Jack Reilly
Beachwood N.J.
http://www.sequenza21.com/2006/04/di...en-letter.html

[Tom Storer]

Originally Posted by Jack Reilly

The arrogance and insularity of the Europeons [...]

Damn. If the shoe fits...

One has to wonder if the spelling "Europeons" was a Freudian slip or intended.

[Felix]

Bill Evans represents the last stage in the evolution of jazz. Jazz cannot go any higher; it is NOT dead! It does have a future however, but everyone after Evans only evolves sideways.

Hum. All right, f**k Coltrane, Elvin, Ornette, Cecil, Ayler, Lacy, Evan Parker, Braxton, Joe Maneri! They evolved "sideways"! What the hell does that mean? Ah, I get it. I see the next thesis subject of this genius: Post-Modern Jazz: Regression and Sideways Evolution. Great. That should solve all the problems in the study of jazz of the past forty years.

[clinthopson]

Old Jack needs a spell checker, along with a couple of other things.

[claude]

Originally Posted by clinthopson

Old Jack needs a spell checker, along with a couple of other things.

A clue being at the top of the list.

[Dan G]

Old Jack needs a map too: since when is Cuba part of Europe (Rubalcaba?)?

I don't follow all the people on his list, but I'd guess that Stan Tracey has a pretty indepth knowledge of the history of jazz, probalby Solal too. And Misha Mengelberg could answer any question about American jazz or play any style that Reilly asked of him.

Why do people seem to think that if they don't 'swing' in the 40s sense of the word, they don't know how?

[Nate Dorward]

Reilly is fast becoming the most entertaining writer on jazz today. Anyone else here heard his music? I have, & it's just as grotesque & hilarious.

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by Dan G

And Misha Mengelberg could answer any question about American jazz or play any style that Reilly asked of him.

Dr Giovannia Jilca could get away with a lot of things, but to claim that Misha doesn't know about American jazz is just way over the top.

[mke]

Originally Posted by Nate Dorward

Reilly is fast becoming the most entertaining writer on jazz today.

+1!

[John L]

Originally Posted by Tom Storer

Damn. If the shoe fits...

One has to wonder if the spelling "Europeons" was a Freudian slip or intended.

Be carefull, Tom. You may be becoming a latent Europeon, youself.


"Permit me." So I guess that we now know where some Italians learn bad English habits.

[clinthopson]

Originally Posted by giovanni petranich

Paucis verbis,
I just think you're all suffering from OLIGOPHRENIA!!

A PRESTO,

In saecula saeculorum

Has a certain bad boy drummer moved to Torino?

[burning dog]

Originally Posted by giovanni petranich

I just think you're all suffering from OLIGOPHRENIA!!

Dats rite boss

[Enforcer]

Rack 'em!!!!!!

[clinthopson]

Clasp!

[mke]

More hilarity on the horizon:

Originally Posted by Jack Reilly

Giovanni Petranich has just informed me he has finished 2 reviews of Jason Moran's recent cds. Petranich caused a mild uproar among the chat room enthusiasts over his last reveiw of Moran's debut Blue Note recording. Seems 99% disagreed with his exegesis of Moran's music and playing. They seem to think Moran is the new Messiah and can do no wrong! When a seasoned journalist like Petranich writes well and reports from the mind and heart, is honest, and knows his Jazz history, what he has to say goes deeper then, "It's just his opinion man". Petranich's critics don't argue their case, they just attack by slanderous, false and malicious name calling. Maybe we'll enter into a more intelligent discourse this time. Speriamo!

[Gary Sisco]

Nothing like a "seasoned journalist" to tell me when I shouldn't dig music I dig.

Son of Return of The Moldy Fig.

Hook them up with Grouch and they can have a circle jerk.

[Felix]

Originally Posted by Jack Reilly

When a seasoned journalist like Petranich writes well and reports from the mind and heart, is honest, and knows his Jazz history, what he has to say goes deeper then, "It's just his opinion man".

So what happens when he writes badly, dishonestly and doesn't remember his jazz history? Does he have good days, where everything he writes is the undisputable truth, and bad days, where he can't write anything but shit?

Seems 99% disagreed with his exegesis of Moran's music and playing. They seem to think Moran is the new Messiah and can do no wrong!

This seems to be directed at us "minor men" (heh heh heh). I don't think anyone on this board thinks Moran is the Messiah, just a good pianist who "knows jazz history".

First Crouch and now Reilly? You guys want to kill me!

[Gary Sisco]

A simpler point is, What happens when the seasoned journalist and the reader like different kinds of music?

Duh?

I guess we're supposed to realize we don't really like what we like because a seasoned journalist says we shouldn't because he doesn't like it.

[Felix]

Originally Posted by Jack Reilly

what he has to say goes deeper then, "It's just his opinion man".

The thing is, Gary, unless you're doing analytic criticism, like André Hodeir, jazz writing is always an opinion. Most people know that, except a couple of writers, apparently.

[Gary Sisco]

Of course it's always an opinion. What else could it be?

The only questions for me are, How much music has the cat heard? (There are some where the answer is clearly not much. Some even seem to review music they didn't listen to.)

And, How much overlap is there between the writer's tastes and my own?

If I don't know the answers, it matters not what any writer, seasoned or otherwise, has to say. It's been many years since I bought a record based on anyone's review alone. The main thing reviews do for me is the occasional alert that there's a new record out I might be interested in that I hadn't known about. What the guy thinks about it, if I'm not familiar with the guy's tastes, doesn't matter at all.