DownBeat June 1999 [antikvár]

'I'M THE BEAT U N E 19 9 9 Exit Music For A Century by Jason Koransky On Ihe count of three, iel's all turn our radio dials from lhal jazz station (if you're lucky enough lo have one) to the alternative rock station for inspiration. Well, let's not get too radical here, hi today's over-commercialized worid, so much popular music is still mindless dribble. L^ut it would be nice to take a minute and shed the musical blinders. After all. not all popular music is a product of big-money promotional campaigns. What excites listeners most is when they hear an entirely new sound from a rock, rap or rb act that's pushing the envelope with an unpredictable and raw energy. Do music fans seek new jazz artists for the same reasons, or are they simply looking for a young incarnation of a legend? We feature 25 under-40 musicians in this issue with the specific intent of not examining which artists will perpetuate the sounds of Phil Woods' alto saxophone, Ray Brown's bass, Milt Jackson's vibes or Miles Davis' trumpet. That's a boring read: A magazine full of imitators wouldn't tell us anything except for the fact that past generations of jazz musicians developed their own voices. Rather, we turn our attention to the sounds of a new generation. Pianist Brad Mehldau turned his attention to the melodic creativity and sensuality of Radiohead when he recorded "Exit Music (For A Film)" for his Art Of The Trio Volume 3-Songs album. Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien, the vocalist and two guitarists of the British rock group, originally wrote and recorded the song for the soundtrack to the post-modern film recreation of Romeo Juliet (it also appears on the band's 1997 album OK Computer). Upon hearing "Exit Music"'s haunting beauty, Mehldau constructed his version of it (see Page 24); and wilh such passionate material with which lo work, Meiildau and trio males Lirry (Grenadier and Jorge Rossy produced one of Ihe more beautiful and fascinating culs on Songs. They didn'l try lo make a "Ijoltcr" version of a rock song: rattier, they made il their own. There's nolhiiig wrong if every once in a while we lliul in jazz llic sanu- llash-in-a-pan popiilarily ot rock music, Il makes Iho music mon- exciting. Plus, today's young jazz musicians can't help bul to turn llu-ir cars to rock, rap and r&b. 'Hiey have grown up wilh MTV, and the music has providcrd liie soundlrack to their lives. Sure, ihey study and listen to the jazz tradition, practice and perform wilh shades of the past, h's im|)ossible not to. Bul eventually, lo achieve personal satisfaction wilh their voice. Ihey liave lo make a break toward the future and not get lost in the past. Youthful verve and ambition, coupled wilh an open mind, are key to this kind of progress. Take the multigenre guilar work of Jeff Parker (see Page 50). One moment he plays with Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor in ihe avant-garde Chicago Underground Trio or Orchestra, and the next he's on stage with Radiohead's Thom Yorke: unpredictable beauty the ambient, technology-driven rock group Tortoise. Regina Carter (see Page 20) has recorded straightahead and smooth jazz albums. and she also appears on r&b sensation Lauryn Hill's '98 multiplatinuni The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. Susie Ibarra (Page 35) studied witli Milford Graves and draws inspiration from the likes of Denis Charles and Ed Blackwell, bul she's found a personal percussion sound lhal reflects the fast-paced, bustling society in which we live today. Nineteenth century Scottish pt)et Roberl l^uis Stevenson wrote, "Youth is tiie time to go tlashing from one end of the world to the olher both in mind and body." Wlien young, it's lime to make bold explofations. logo out on a limb and discover nuggets of imcluirleivd sonic lerrain. And these can he found anvwhore. DB