Play Interview
Five tunes that come up in our discussion (with Kevin Whitehead’s comments):
Louis Armstrong, “Potato Head Blues” 1927
Armstrong was so compelling an improviser, so melodically creative and swinging, in the mid-1920s jazz recording began to focus more on improvising and less on the written parts. Here he plays two classic cornet solos, flanking Johnny Dodds’ clarinet spot. (I think I misspoke and said this was by his Hot Five; it’s his Hot Seven.)
http://www.redhotjazz.com/hot7.html
Duke Ellington, “Black and Tan Fantasy” 1927
A good example of ‘dirty’ (complex) timbres in jazz—the ‘growl’ technique of trumpeter Bubber Miley and trombonist Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton-and of jazz musicians quoting from familiar tunes: in this case, the ending lifted from the Chopin funeral march. Duke stitches it all together into a three-minute masterpiece.
Charlie Parker, “Ornithology” 1946
Miles Davis, “So What” 1959
Count Basie, “Can’t Buy Me Love” 1966
Encore:
We barely touched on jazz post-’60s, so just to represent it here, a more contemporary jazz take on modern pop: pianist Brad Mehldau’s trio plays Radiohead’s “Exit Music (for a Film),” 1998.
Excerpts from Why Jazz?
A Concise Guide that deal with post-1980 jazz appear in the web magazine Point of Departure:
http://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD33/PoD33BookCooks_Whitehead.html