|
"Bunny M." is a seventeen-year-old Dallas resident who plays drums, piano
and clarinet. Her passion for jazz and the challenges she faces as
a youthful fan of it is the focus of her Jerry Jazz Musician column, "Accent
on Youth."
Listen to Dinah Washington sing Accent On Youth 
___________________________
Accent on Youth
by
Bunny M.
"Kind of Blue," by Aaron Waugh
Icons of Jazz
______________________________
With every great change or movement comes its leaders, its
pioneers, its icons -- those great, enigmatic figures whose names are forever
linked in history with their respective achievement, and who are often the
most interesting and dynamic figures in their field. Painting has Monet and
Picasso; film has Hitchcock, Garbo, and James Dean; and literature has
Shakespeare, Dickens, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. For the most part, the artists
are so well known that the mere mention of their first -- or last -- name
is sufficient to identify them. Music, on a broad spectrum, has its own set
of luminaries, among them Mozart, Sinatra, and Elvis, and nowhere is this
system any less present than in jazz. A musical tradition going back over
one hundred years spawns a long and formidable list of greats -- names which
are still well known today for their musical milestones and devastating cool.
From this rich musical history, I would like to single out a select few of
these "Icons of Jazz," personal favorites, and figures whose influence,
personality, and all-around style would, in my opinion, especially appeal
to today's youth: Ellington, Miles, and Sinatra.
| Miles Davis once proposed, "At least one day out of the year all musicans
should just put their instruments down, and give thanks to Duke Ellington,"
and I most ardently agree. His effortless magnetism was legendary, and combined
with his debonair, luxurious style of living, it earned him the nickname
"Duke." Having a musical career going strong for over fifty years is a difficult
trick to pull, yet Ellington made it look easy, creating beautiful,
inspirational, and thought-provoking masterpieces. Ellington's life and work
spun one of the most intriguing jazz stories -- that of a suave, elegantly
dressed, dashing young (and young at heart) man amid romanticized images
of life on the road, penning musical ideas on napkins during a free moment
on the train (he once wrote out a melody on the sleeve of his shirt, not
having any composition paper on hand); or holed up in a hotel room during
a late night writing session, wooing girls and breaking hearts, and translating
it all into a body of work earning him the distinction as the most prolific
composer of the twentieth century. Listening to his music and reading his
words, I always got the feeling that Duke Ellington was one of the few people
to have walked the earth who truly knew what life and living was about.
And yet for all his depth of character and personality,
Ellington also had a beautiful, somewhat idealistic perspective and a personal
flair and flamboyance that young people today might find appealing. Even
in his later years, Ellington astounded his peers with his relentless energy
and stamina. He was said to have a monstrous appetite, and was fond of drinking
Coca-Cola by the case, with additional packets of sugar added to it. His
fondness for the opposite sex played a part in his musical interest . He
once said, "I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that
every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and
another to my right," but he also had a genuine fondness for women as a whole.
When introducing "Satin Doll, "for example, according to Memories of Duke
author Ken Weingartner, "He would say that they were dedicating the song
to the most beautiful woman in the audience . . . 'We know who she is. And
we know that she knows that we know who she is, so we're not going to embarrass
her by pointing her out.' Every woman in the audience thought it was her."
One thing that surprised me, which many teens, especially girls, might identify
with, is that Duke apparently loved talking on the phone: "I'm a telephone
freak, the greatest invention since peanut brittle." |
Portrait by Cliff Warner 
Duke Ellington
*
It
Don't Mean a Thing, sung by Mel Torme |
Portrait by Cliff Warner
Miles Davis
*
So
What
Move |
Ellington's wisdom on life would be especially beneficial
for young people today. Want a few examples of his philosophy?
"There are two kinds of worries -- those you can do something about
and those you can't. Don't spend any time on the latter;" "Grey skies are
just clouds passing over;" and "A problem is a chance for you to do
your best"
Duke once said, "A man is a god in ruins." Towering above
his peers in talent and sophistication, Duke Ellington is certainly a god,
but he's hardly in ruins.
If Duke is a "Voice of Wisdom and Knowledge" for today's
youth, Miles would be the "Voice of Youthful Apathy and Rebellion." It was
Miles who often pioneered such musical rebellions as cool jazz, modal jazz,
and jazz-rock fusion. Recordings like Birth of the Cool, Kind of
Blue, Milestones, and Bitches Brew are still wildly popular
today, and continue to be cited as musical influences by even the most non-jazz
oriented musicians. Not bad for a young lad who started playing professionally
within two years of first playing the trumpet. A disciple of Charlie Parker,
Miles abandoned his Julliard studies to follow Bird, and blew with the best
of them -- Billy Eckstine, Gerry Mulligan, and Art Blakey, to name a few
-- emerging with more than just a little of the surrounding coolness rubbing
off on him. Let's face it, from his natty fashion sense and penchant for
fast cars to his devil-may-care attitude (it was he who introduced the phrase
"So what?" into casual English), Miles was cool, so cool it hurts even to
this day.
And his sound! Whether shredding through bop like a Concorde
jet or setting a ballad smoldering, the Davis trumpet has an incredible clarity
and lightness to it. From the time he first picked up his trumpet, it was
clear he had a special musical gift and a keen ability for improvisation,
as witnessed on his greatest recorded performance, Kind of Blue, a
summit achievement in group cohesiveness and improvisational prowess recorded
virtually entirely in one take.
Like every pioneer, Miles Davis possessed the infrared
vision to see outside conventional thinking, believing that "Even the sky
ain't the limit." "I'll play it first and tell you what it is later," he
once said, but perhaps his musical genius can best be summed up in his words,
"Don't play what's there, play what's not there."
The only person I can immediately think of who could
possibly tie with Miles Davis in a cool contest is Frank Sinatra. The
Chairman, the Rat Pack, his fedora, his self-appreciative ego -- what isn't
cool about Sinatra? From the New Jersey streets to big band crooner to
singer-swinger supreme, Frank Sinatra has all but conquered the entire compendium
of music and popular culture in general. I have a friend who, for some reason
only completely understood by them, addresses me as "Frankie," the underground
clone of Frank Sinatra. Aside from a Chinese astrological kinship (we are
both Rabbits) and the ego ("I am a thing of beauty"), I can't say I fully
understand the parallel. "I wish that one of these days somebody would learn
to do [my art] so it doesn't die where it is," Frankie once said, and I'd
step right up - if I only had that kind of cool. |
| "The Voice" -- a moniker which at first listen seems incongruent
for a pop singer, instead conjuring images of a pompous operatic powerhouse
-- may actually be the closest approximation to verbal appreciation of Frank
Sinatra's vocal abilities. His voice is a seemingly simple one, with no frills
and no gymnastics, but it is exactly that pared down quality that makes Sinatra
so cool. (Check out a Brazilian Sinatra excursion courtesy of the Jobim classic
"Agua
de Beber" for a lesson in laidback coolness). Not that he couldn't belt
out a tune -- just listen to
"I've
Got You Under My Skin," perhaps the Sinatra tune -- but when Sinatra
sings, it's almost like being privy to an intimate conversation, both in
timbre and lyrical meaning. And man, does he ever swing! On tracks like
"Tangerine," "Mack the Knife," and "Almost Like Being in Love," the groove
can only be measured in Richter magnitudes.
All musical abilities aside, the feature that strikes
me as the coolest about Sinatra is his effortless style and swagger. Sure,
we can slap on a tux and measure the angle of the tip of our fedoras with
a protractor, but somehow it's just not the same as when Ol' Blue Eyes did
it. Sinatra was known for his fine-toothed-comb attention to the minutest
details of dress and presentation, from the patent leather pumps he loved
to the impeccably folded silk handkerchief with just the right amount peeking
from the top of a breast pocket -- a craft he took much time to master. And
who can forget the fedora tipped rakishly atop his head? "Cock your hat --
angles are attitudes," the Chairman said, regarded even today as a leading
authority on "Attitude." Sinatra was also a stickler for good old-fashioned
manners and respect for women -- "Never yawn in front of a lady, treat a
lady like a dame" -- a trait which is always cool in Bunny's book.
I think young people, in their intensity of emotion,
can relate to Sinatra's words: "I don't know what other singers feel when
they articulate lyrics, but being an 18-karat manic-depressive and having
lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an over acute capacity
for sadness as well as elation." The greatest Sinatra advice I know? "Dare
to wear the foolish clown face." With such fresh, timeless music and words
of wisdom, is it any wonder they called him "The Voice"? |
Frank Sinatra
*
Almost
Like Being in Love |
While I've never been known to be "with it," I can say
with certainty that cats like Duke, Miles, and Sinatra redefined "cool" then
and now, and only those seriously out of the loop would disagree. Ellington,
Miles, and Sinatra are not mere names or even personas -- they are formidable
forces to be reckoned with, whose independent thinking, awesome talent, and
timelessness make them figures more than "bad" enough for today's young and
hip scene. The question therefore is not "Are they cool enough for you?"
but rather, "Are you cool enough for them?"
______________________________
Peace is the word,
Bunny
*
"Bunny M." is a seventeen-year-old Dallas resident who plays drums, piano and
clarinet. Her passion for jazz and the challenges she faces as a youthful
fan of it is the focus of her Jerry Jazz Musician column, "Accent
on Youth."
You can contact Bunny at: lotusflower1922@hotmail.com
*
Accent on Youth archive
|
