What do the clothes say about the player?

crawjo · October-15th-2004, 12:51 AM

Just idly thinking tonight about this. I remember reading a Stanley Crouch essay ("On the Corner: The Sellout of Miles Davis") where one of the things he attacks about Davis is his change in attire. To quote Mr. Crouch:

"Davis's music became progressively trendy and dismal; as did his attire; at one point in the early 1970s, with his wraparound dark glasses and his puffed shoulders, the erstwhile master of cool looked like an extra from a science fiction B-movie."

Anyway, thinking about this made me think of the performers for whom dress was important, a part of the performance, almost: Sun Ra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, particularly. Now I wonder if clothing is as important in making a cultural statement about the music or the musician as it was for some in the 1960s and 1970s.

What do you guys think?

kenny weir · October-15th-2004, 01:01 AM

have no opinions really on the above topics, but I do know who I consider to be the All-Time Sharp-Dressed Jazzer Of All Time (second from left):

Tom Storer · October-15th-2004, 03:03 AM

I appreciate it when musicians look they have at least given some thought to looking nice. This doesn't mean expensive suits and ties, or matching outfits, and of course it all depends on the context. Guys playing very informally in a hole in the wall in front of a dozen people--if they're in jeans and T-shirts, they fit right in, and the audience is comfortable with it because they're usually dressed the same way. No problem there. But I think it's unfortunate when, for example, a group with top billing in a festival shows up looking sloppy in front of a thousand people in a concert hall. Like, dirty old sneakers, ill-fitting jeans and a T-shirt that's seen better days.

This doesn't make me dislike the music--I make the distinction and appreciate the music as if my eyes were closed. But socially speaking, it's nice (to me, at least) to have the impression that there is some degree of formal presentation.

Case in point: not long ago I saw the Art Ensemble of Chicago, with a young trumpeter from Chicago whose name I forget. Corey something. Not bad. Anyway, there was Roscoe in a dapper cream suit with a sort of ironic-50's lounge look, Don Moye in traditional AEC faux-African garb, the bass player in brightly colored, festive attire, and Corey something doing the jeans and T-shirt thing. The other musicians were having fun with the clothes, making an effort, expressing themselves--and that's always been part of the AEC theatricality, too. If you'd seen the trumpeter on the street he would have looked anonymous, generic, unremarkable. But on stage, next to the others, he looked like a bum. It isn't what he was wearing or not wearing so much as the impression that he didn't care and hadn't made an effort.

To address crawjo's question, I don't think clothes are as important as they once were: there is no longer the sense that if you go on a bandstand you should be wearing a suit and tie, nor can I think of any groups outside the AEC that have a signature clothing style. People dress nicely or not depending on their own tastes.

One last thing: don't you wish Pat Metheny would get a different haircut and stop wearing striped T-shirts?

Richardo Caerleoni · October-15th-2004, 06:09 AM

I think the 1970s were "a time fashion totally forgot"!

OK, I'm still trying to get Miles's green button down shirt ! ("Milestones" 1959 ) but it doesn't influence my opinion of his later music - good or bad.

So why single out Miles? Is Stanley getting ever more desperate for reasons to dislike him...Jazz "died" before Wynton's Armani?

This guy is a Jazz Critic? Rhetorical.

mke · October-15th-2004, 07:39 AM

I like Miles's clothes from the 70s LPs.

I like wearing a shirt, suit and tie, but I don't know if it's comfortable to play music in it. I was always surprised to read comments on the 80s Young Lions suits, as jazz musicians wore suits pretty much from the beginning. I thought it fit in with the "jazz as elevation of an oppressed people" view of things.

Uli · October-15th-2004, 07:55 AM

I always thought that Miles' wig was a bit of a sellout and like Blakey's suggestion that he should have used Earl Hines'.

Hey Tom, next time I see Corey I will let him know that this frog called him a bum.

mke · October-15th-2004, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uli

I always thought that Miles' wig was a bit of a sellout and like Blakey's suggestion that he should have used Earl Hines'.