Moving On and the Real Purpose of Jazz

Okay, I'm somewhat recovered now. I've managed to listen to a few other CD's besides Helen Merrill these last few days, though I still let her sing me to sleep most every night. It was hard to put her aside, but I can't neglect my jazz education just for a woman. Well, not a recording of one, anyway. So, I went, in what I'm sure many people would consider, a completely different direction.

I've been indulging in the big band sound of Consummation by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. Stunning piece of work, this. I couldn't believe it. The opening track starts slow and builds gradually, very gradually, but when it gets where it is going, it picks you up out of the chair, slaps you twice across the face, then stabs your pancreas so it can't inhibit the flood of adrenalin pumping into your lackadaisical bloodstream, and so, rather than let you die, your heart and lungs fuss to keep up and burn energy and pretty soon, you're so mighty and high you're wondering who Helen Merrill is and why you ever cared. Fortunately, Thad and Mel know humans can't take much of this, so they throw in a few ballads and blues riffs to keep you settled, including one of the most beautiful songs ever written, A Child Is Born. It's just a great CD.

Since Thad honed his chops working for Count Basie, it was easy enough to switch over to The Atomic Count Basie, which is every bit as good as Consummation. I've only just scratched the surface of this one, so I can't write about its effect on my pancreas just yet, but suffice to say the drive in to work in the morning goes very quickly with this in the player. The vocal version of The Late Late Show is also a nice touch showing up on a big band, swing recording like this one.

And so, I still haven't learned how to stride on You Took Advantage of Me because I decided to instead learn to play A Child is Born, so we have the big band boys to thank for that advancement - or lack thereof - in my repertoire.

Let me just mention here, too, that in addition to A Child is Born, Steve Swallow's Falling Grace also contends as one of the most beautiful songs ever written, in my book, and I find the fact that someone who listened to and was involved in as much music as I was growing up never heard either one almost as implausible as the fact that both come from the American jazz tradition. Why, oh why, didn't someone tell me about this music? Why did I have to wait forty years to learn what it seems everyone knows?

The injustice of existence. Jazz was made to overcome the injustice of existence.