In the mid-late 90’s I wanted to get gigs at cafes where I could play standards and bop tunes and work on my jazz playing as I figured that environment would be pleasing to work in as it’s quiet and people can still talk but the music can be burnin’. So I got a trio together and off I went.

My first gig with my trio (trumpet, guitar and double bass) was at a café in the Myer Centre in Brisbane’s CBD. After some persistence with the manager he gave us a spot and we kept it until they changed management, always the case. However the music part of it was great. I got to learn tunes and I had to play quietly. I didn’t want to use mutes, so playing quietly made it a challenge. I remember when checking out the New York big bands I realised the rooms they play in are small and the bands don’t play loud but it’s so intense. So I really wanted to work on playing quieter.

We ended up working about 3 cafes a week plus a function and or wedding and we were still an instrumental jazz trio. Every time we played people seemed to really enjoy it. To be honest it wasn’t great jazz as we were all still learning but it was the best way to learn. It was pleasant enough to the ears of the general punter and for a few years I did a lot of gigs and made some good money.

The internet was still in its early days but it was coming along. Not everyone I knew had an email address and you certainly didn’t need one, yet. Eventually everyone had one and websites became the new way to do anything.

Cash gigs eventually dried up and noise restrictions started to hit cafes in Brisbane thanks to what is well known as the “Sun Apartments Affair”. Pop music became more electronic and was distanced even further again from what was the 90’s jazz resurgence, which started in America but flowed on globally. This “Resurgence” was post 70’s and 80’s fusion; it was acoustic and it was sophisticated, well produced, contemporary, rhythmically and tonally adventurous without being indulgent or silly, it was an extension of a tradition and people liked the sound of it.

It was, and still is, hard music to play but now the internet is around people could hear what was happening in other countries in an instant, and the music place became flooded with every type of music, equally, or at least it has become a potentially fair playing field. Record companies have slicker websites but it doesn’t need to be too slick, you just have to have it up there. This is a great resource for listeners, fans, potential clients. Basically today, anyone that wants to know about someone now just goes straight to the internet. A good way to get your music heard or exposure is to label it in a way that fits into a category. Remember MySpace had categories to label your music, and a huge number of people I know had multiple categories attached to their music and this made your music more appealing or at least would make it look more appealing. And just like high school it was cool to have the most daring or challenging categories so people would think you were so different.

This really helped cross-cultural music projects. The music became more fashionable as it was more accepted. To have a band or musical project that had a few categories attached to it was the new “thing-to-do”. The quality of the music was and still is generally quite good and on MySpace you would sift through people’s “friends” and check out more music. I felt there was no real point in putting up my straight-ahead modern jazz as you could listen to any of the greats with a few more clicks, plus it wasn’t the “thing” to do. Jazz clubs were now, more than ever, being filled with bands that had a couple of other labels attached to them and their music reflected this. Using the internet is a lot smarter and cheaper way to do business. So while I’m not saying anything new here, I have often wondered but have not yet an answer for; how has this helped jazz or has it confused it more?

Jazz is not for everyone and I’m not trying to define what jazz is, as once you define something it will/can be challenged and the definition becomes void, but maybe there is room for what isn’t jazz?

Now that we have new musical labels attached to jazz, what makes the following trends in jazz, “jazz”. A “cross musical-collaboration” with another musician/s from the other side of the world that fuses the musical practices from their traditional homeland with jazz? Or doing re-worked jazzy arrangements of great popular songs, or playing music that is so spontaneous that it is a risk even for the performer? While these things can result in good music to listen to and challenging music to play, what makes them jazz? Is it to make jazz new or different? Jazz may include these things but it is far larger than them.

I teach. I’m paid to deliver information, be encouraging but critical so that people learn. Being critical in jazz is difficult as there are so many things you can get away with. However, bad time and not knowing many tunes, from memory, is frowned upon in my workplace. But doing a gig when you don’t know what tunes are going to get called and you have to use your knowledge of tunes to play a concert and work out intro’s and endings instantly so that the tune works, is encouraged. Or knowing the arrangement from a particular recording and playing it, quoting another tune can be really hip and really humorous, getting lost only to be brought back in with a cliché phrase from anyone in the band to prove that you got lost is, well… fine, but not really, depends on who you’re playing with, and why you got lost. Playing the same tune differently either with the tempo or feel or even just changing the phrasing of the melody, not using all the things you know because it’s not always needed but you never know when it might be that you’ll need them. These are only a smidgen of the things that, for me, make it jazz.

These things happen all the time, every time you play jazz. I know when I’m not playing jazz, that’s for sure! So why am I confused? I’m not but I think jazz is. It is becoming rarer at jazz venues that have people that can play heaps of tunes or call standards and bop tunes, or that can quote other tunes or phrase the melody differently every time. It is rare that people are even expected to do this kind of thing. It seems to be more about bands and group sound and perfection. There’s more “jazz mixed with something else” to help capture ‘group sound’. Now the labelling is, but not always, “jazz mixed with something else” it has more public appeal because it’s not just “jazz”, it is now “jazz with something else” it is also easier to be less critical of the music in a jazz context as it’s neither “jazz” nor “something else” it is both.

Piano solo…

Talking to someone is generally easy if they can talk the same language as you, and talking in a group of people is also easy (depending on the company you keep) if you are all talking in the same language. You might know what you’re going to talk about but you might not know exactly what you’re going to say. When you do know the topic do you actually think about all the individual words and letters that you are saying? And when you plan to say a particular point when is the right time to talk? If you aren’t clear of what you are talking about, people won’t understand you.

Jazz is a musical language that people use to create music. The more that it is planned the less exciting it is to listen to. Just like watching a panel TV show like ‘Q and A’ or ‘The Project’, the people may or may not know the topics they are going to talk about, but they don’t know what words they are going to use or maybe they know a few key “buzz” words to get a reaction from someone else, they have to adhere to Television Codes and work their speech in a way that fits within these codes and still deliver their message in a way that the audience can clearly understand them. Or it’s like a football game, of any code. You know you are to score points (kick goals, whatever..), you know your opponents are going to try and stop you but you don’t know where the ball is going to land every time and you have to play within the rules of the game. A game can be messy if the rules are broken regularly or if it’s just poor playing or the game can be great because both teams are really good. Regardless of who wins, the game gets played either well or not and each individual goes home and works on their weaknesses so that next time they play better with less mistakes which will result, at least, in a “better game”. Still no one can predict exactly what’s going to happen in each game besides the fact that a team will score points and the team with the most points win.

To play jazz, that doesn’t need to be called something else because it isn’t, at an acceptably high level is, I understand, my personal choice. But did I already say, that “jazz is not for everybody?” But nor is Cricket, Rugby League, AFL, Soccer and Netball or Q and A, TV sitcoms, reality TV and don’t get me started on those weird games from the US, what the hell are they doing, I have no idea.

I’m sure someone is now screaming “what about progress in the music”. Listen to someone like Keith Jarrett, who has reached a level where complete creative freedom within a tune still results in good jazz. His playing is so identifiable and individual, every performance is completely different. General music lovers not just jazz buffs can listen to it and really enjoy it, yet he’s still just playing standards. Progress is there, that level of musicianship is outstanding, every time he plays its progress. Another way to look at it, has the English language progressed that much over the last 2 decades or has it decreased or has it just changed slightly? (which would indicate progress), as you can tell from my poor grammar that if anything we are losing really important information within the English language which results in poor English. With more people using acronyms and emoticons to deliver their message it hasn’t progressed that much at all yet we still talk to each other to communicate, write emails, send txt msg’s etc-.  Bringing this concept back to jazz, the way I feel, it hasn’t changed as much as what it did in other decades of the previous century, but it’s still there. When you hear it played well it sounds good and sounds like jazz, just jazz, not “jazz mixed with something else”. While musical trends have gone in different directions (for better or for worse) jazz has still remained as jazz. The level of good jazz has decreased, for arguably a lot of reasons, but there are still people out there that care about the authenticity of the music, playing the music clearly and accurately.

CODA

Our English language is codified into the 26 characters that make up the alphabet. I think it would be impossible to learn the English language by only knowing the alphabet. My 2 year old daughter can speak and communicate what it is that she needs or wants but she can’t say the alphabet in its entirety yet (she can almost sing it though…). So if you are still reading you are obviously interested or curious about jazz. I think it is absolutely wonderful music because of the parallels to life. I don’t see the exact same parallels in other labels of music. Classical music for example, where you learn a difficult piece of music and you perform it the same way every time, very easy to be critical as you can miss a note in the score. Popular or Rock or whatever you want to call it is somewhat similar, if I go and see AC/DC in concert I expect to hear the guitar riff that goes with ‘You shook me all night long’ the way it was recorded. But listening to Miles Davis record ‘My Funny Valentine’ with his band of Red Garland, John Coltrane, Paul Chambers and Philly Jo Jones, then listening to the recording of the same tune years later with Herbie Hancock, George Coleman, Ron Carter and Tony Williams we don’t expect to hear the tune played the same way, but it is still within the boundaries of jazz. This is a reflection of his progress as a musician and a person.

When I go to the art gallery I still see paintings in rectangle frames. I always ask myself if they’re allowed to paint something new in picture frames still, then why is it so hard to understand that every time we play a Bb Blues it’s different in some way even though the frame (structure) is the same. The fact that I’m not Miles Davis means that I’m going to play a Bb Blues using the skills that I have acquired. If I copied him note for note I might as well be putting on an American accent and talk like that all the time too. Jazz is a universal musical language.

Intro – last 8 bars…

I first met James Morrison when I was 19 and the University Big Band (QUT) I was in had a Gala concert with James and his brother John Morrison. Still being a kid I was too shy to talk to him but I really wanted to, anyway what would I say?

A few years later I was playing in the Tony Hobbs Big Band (R.I.P. Tony Hobbs) and we were doing a function with James, this time I thought I’m really going to meet him and ask him about trumpet playing. We had a rehearsal and I thought after the rehearsal would be the best time to approach him. James turned up to the rehearsal coming straight from the airport, pulled his trumpet out and just played like he always does, magnificently. I couldn’t believe it. I knew he was good, but to literally pull the horn out of the case a just soar all over the horn was mind boggling. I was not approaching this man, he did not need to speak to someone like me.

In the next year I found myself in pick up (throw together) big bands for various functions and James was again the featured guest a few times among other notable Australian artists. I was very lucky to get these opportunities and was absolutely stoked. I would tell all my friends “yeah, I got a gig tonight, it’s with James Morrison” I thought I was so cool.

Anyway, I eventually stopped getting asked to do these gigs because I kept forgetting to play. Each time the trumpet section was to play I was coming in at least 2 bars late because I kept watching James and was absolutely astounded with what he could do, on whatever instrument he brought with him. The lead trumpet player in the section kept yelling at me and was giving the most glaring looks every time I forgot to come in. So, I eventually, after a bunch of gigs, stopped getting called. I didn’t get told, but when one of my friends said to me “yeah, I got a gig with James Morrison tonight” I knew I’d blown my chance. I was more disappointed that I didn’t get to meet him and have a real conversation, even about something other than music and trumpets.

Today is the Inaugural International Jazz Day thanks to Herbie Hancock [Legend]. I was asked by Jazz Queensland if I could organize some students to play at various places in the city and the state library. It sounded like a great idea but it was on a day that I had teaching and the students had classes and to make up the classes would be hard.

So I put it to Jazz Queensland that we have a “New Orleans” style street parade through the Queen Street Mall. They were into it, and I started the ball rolling in getting it organized.

I had John Morrison on a gig at the club that I run the Turnaround Jazz Club and was telling him about what I’m organizing, and he suggested you should let James know about it. I thought to myself, if we had James Morrison that would be, oh so awesome. I obtained his email and I quickly got onto it. To my surprise, James was into it and going to be in Brisbane. I couldn’t believe it.

The parade was great fun, we had over 100 musicians in the parade, James led the parade riding a ‘Segway’ (2 wheeled, one person transporting machine, very cool!). I knew I was going to be meeting James and was still very excited as I was 17 years ago. We chatted for about 5 minutes (about the whereabouts of his trumpet case) and can I say James Morrison is just the nicest guy! Easy to deal with, loads of fun and still (not surprisingly) plays absolutely amazing.

Anyone reading this might know or know of James Morrison and the real reason I wanted to blog about James is because he is an Australian icon, he’s inspired generations of musicians, he’s played with the best jazz players in the world (type his name into youtube), when you mention his name overseas, more so when people find out you’re from Australia they mention his name, their eyes light up and they straight away think ‘Jazz’. What James has done for jazz in Australian is raise the profile of Jazz and then some.

Unfortunately I have heard lots of musicians ‘bag’ or have negative comments toward him for various reasons, and to be honest I don’t know why? If it’s because he’s made a lot of money, good on him, so he should, because he’s bloody good at what he does. If it’s been because he plays lots of high notes, good on him because he can, (I can’t) and I don’t know of anybody else in this country and very few around the world that can actually do what he can do on the trumpet, not just the high notes but his ease at getting all over the horn. If it’s because he plays lots of notes, listen harder and you’ll find that he doesn’t actually play lots of notes all the time and when he does, he does it so bloody well, and good on him because he can.

Someone actually said to me “he should stop flying planes all over the place and concentrate on his music”, I mean really? REALLY? Are you kidding! Sounds like he’s worked pretty hard on his music to me. Anyway he can do what the bloody hell he likes.

So the Aussie tall poppy syndrome strikes again. The only reason I can see that anyone would ‘bag’ James Morrison is because they aren’t as good as him [at music]. Whenever other trumpet players [not always but…] are around him they try to play higher, louder and faster than him. I have no idea why they do this. It’s not a competition. James Morrison’s high register on the trumpet is so glorious and controlled that unless you can play like that why would you let James make a fool out of you and why would you do that in front of him, and I believe he’d be doing his best not to get into a “high note competition” because he’s so musical (and high note trumpet competitions are rather boring in my opinion) and such a nice guy that he wouldn’t want to embarrass anybody. Instead I’m sure he’d rather encourage them to make good musical decisions and play good music.

I have got myself to a level that I’d be happy to stand next James on a stage and play music [not hussling for a gig here either]. Not in my life will I be able to achieve, technically, what he can do on the instrument (also remember he plays lots of instruments), but I’d still be able to make music with him. The problem would be that people in the crowd would most likely say “Oh, but James is better” of course he is. He wouldn’t be where he is today if he wasn’t as good as what he is. But if anyone does think that, they’re missing the point. IT’S NOT A COMPETITION. There is no winner, nobody crosses the line first.

The real winner in all of this is the music itself. Thanks to people like James Morrison the music gets played at a higher level. James can make you cry when he plays a ballad, something that, I think, is underrated in his playing or overlooked because of his technical prowess, he can excite a non-jazz lover and, for me, he swings his butt off, all the time, on any instrument and can make an ordinary band sound good because he swings so hard!!

CODA

So, thank you James Morrison for being an Australian, I know it wasn’t your choice, but I’m proud of this fellow Australian, some important people in this country value him greatly as he wears with pride his OAM badge (a prize that doesn’t come easily, my grandfather received one for serving Brass Bands for 50 years). Read his book, not surprisingly, it’s great, hilarious, honest and humble. Even though I don’t actually “know” James and have only spoken to him for a matter of minutes it’s these qualities, honesty and humbleness, that are in the greatest of human beings which is why, not surprisingly (again) James Morrison is as great as he is.

Get behind James Morrison and he’ll push the music further!

Intro, pedal over the 5.

My wife and I was in Japan for a holiday a couple of years ago and before I left I checked out the jazz clubs and what was on. We were in Osaka and went along to a gig at a club call ‘Rugtime’ after the gig there was a jam session. The jam session was run like what I experienced in New York, you put your name down on the sheet at the bar with what tune you want to play and wait until your name gets called. Being the only westerners in the club and playing the trumpet got me talking to the club owner. I don’t know how to speak Japanese and the Japanese are so polite and don’t want to offend us with their poor English (which not poor at all, they just have a high standard at anything they do) we ended up having the owners daughter translate. So it started out with the typical tourist conversation and eventually got into jazz. I told them I would be meeting Teramusa Hino when we get to Tokyo as my father brought him to Australia when he was in the Dave Liebman band in the early 80’s. They almost fell over. I had no idea how big (famous) he is in Japan. Anyway my name gets called out and I’m on stage with my trumpet, I called ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ (very safe option at a jam session in a foreign country) and we played. It was fun, sounded fine, the band were listening the punters responded, then the tune finished and I looked around at the band to say thank you and they wanted me to stay and play another one, then the strangest thing happened and I realised something I had never realised before.

We couldn’t talk to each other, we were using hand signals, eyebrow lifts and head nodding to communicate to each other as to what tune we are going to play next. Eventually we settled on ‘Secret Love’ (the sax player called it, I’m thinking “great he’s going to call it at a blistering tempo and I’m gonna die, oh well, here we go). It started and it was happening, they were good players, burnin’ on an up tempo tune. That tune finished and they wanted me to play another one (I thought to myself cool, they must be into what I’m playing as a band like this wouldn’t let someone stay if they weren’t at least “an ok player”).

I was working on the same things that I was practicing before I left Brisbane and was trying these things with strangers that I couldn’t talk to, but it was fine, when I slightly missed a substitution I was trying to put into a tune I felt the same (what are you doing, you just screwed that up, but at least you had a crack at it) look from the bass player that I get from the bass player I work with a lot in Brisbane. Everything, when playing music, felt normal.

I realised that they only way I could communicate with them is by playing music. The talking thing was useless, I (embarrassingly) couldn’t say anything to them but I could play music and it felt the same as if I were playing a gig in Brisbane. This was an amazing experience, but more importantly it made me realise how jazz is a universal music and that by learning the language of the music enables me to play with anyone (who has also learnt the language) in the world.

So, one thing I think that punters (unless they’re already jazz buff’s) don’t understand is that we are playing a language. When using that language it sounds like jazz. Being able to use that language (in a band that is also using the language) you can communicate to an audience.

Not surprisingly some of my favourite TV shows are Q&A, Insight, The Project, The Panel (not on-air anymore) and radio presenters Kellie Higgins-Divine, Richard Fiedler’s conversation hour (they’re not selected because I was interviewed yesterday by local ABC, it’s because they’re on when I’m driving my car), because there is people in open discussion, but having to keep within the TV codes and regulations and be politically correct, talking about current affairs. There’s no script but they know the topics they’re going to talk about, there is a timeframe to work in, although sometimes you wish they’d talk about that topic for longer.

This is just like playing jazz. We know we’re going to play the melody but we’re not going to play it the same every time, we use the language learnt to create a new melody, our own melody, instantly over the tune we are playing, we have to react to the other’s in the band or it just sounds like everyone’s talking over the top of everyone, and we do this in front of an audience.

CODA

So for this case maybe the general public don’t understand it because they don’t get exposed to it, or like some programs (TV and Radio) it’s just not very good or it’s too cheesy, or it’s so off the wall and self-indulgent that nobody wants to listen.

Ok, so i’ve worked out how to update my own website without having to pay someone else how to do it. Very liberating feeling.

I do intend on blogging more and posting links, video’s, audio and whatever else I like as well as things I don’t like.

My mother recently passed away from battling with cancer for 2 years. In her last month I got to spend time with her and those moments/hours spent with her are so precious to me for many reasons. One of them is that she actually told me that I’m obsessed with JAZZ. I smiled and took it on board, but it stuck in my mind. A few days later I realised that yes I am obsessed with JAZZ.

The next time I saw her we sat and watched the cricket in hospital (Friday day-nighter Australia verses Sri Lanka) and I really wanted to ask her about why she told me that and what does it mean, but I didn’t want to talk about myself knowing that my mother is in hospital with not very much time to live, I wanted to talk about her and what was going on with her and wanted to just hear her voice as I knew it wasn’t going to be long before I’d never hear it again. Anyway after general chit chat she asked me “how’s the trumpet going?” in the same way she’s asked me that question a million times before, and so I had to ask her about her comment toward me in the previous week.

Without going into the awkward silences that you normally go through when questioning someone on something they said about you, to you. In the end I was happy to be obsessed with jazz, as I love it so much, but then mum asked me “what’s the problem with being obsessed about jazz, you have been since you were 10 years old and would listen to that Art Farmer record all the time”. It’s moments like that, that make me miss her so much and also makes me understand how much she knew about me that I didn’t know about myself.

So, explaining to her that, well, jazz really isn’t cool and when I was in high school I was teased not just by other students but staff would also laugh at me because when asked who my favourite “band” was, I would say “Miles Davis”. I was being honest (another thing my mother would instill in us kids) and I thought I was also being cool, because I thought Miles Davis was “cooler” than all the bands that all the other kids were listening to like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Metallica, Bon Jovi and the list of hard rock bands from the late 80′s and early 90′s goes on.

Having the conversation made me realise (again) that being “cool” did not matter. And from what I’ve learnt from jazz has been so much more valuable in my daily life than what being cool could ever do. I know I’ll never be one of the “cool” kids because I don’t value it, I value jazz.

CODA

Last night I had the great pleasure of presenting Kristin Berardi and James Sherlock at a club that I run called the ‘Turnaround Jazz Club’ the gig was great. They’re both excellent musicians and absolutely wonderful people. I found myself (post-gig) at Kenny D’s place (a place I love being because of the challenging of music ideas and concepts through conversation, listening to all sorts of music, great laughs and Cooper’s (this place will remain nameless to protect the people there, no names will be mentioned but pseudonyms may be used, if needed)). Once I forced Woody Shaw’s ‘Stepping Stones’ album on them, someone else told me they had a Woddy Shaw album they wanted to give to me, after going through the track names on this album I realised it was ‘Night Music’ and then this person was trying to remember who the personnel was, I prompted him with Steve Turre, Mulgrew Miller, Tony Reedus, either Cecil McBee or ??? and yes I was right (not surprisingly given my obsession) then I realised that this was the exact band that my father Greg toured to Australia in 1979/80.

On my way home I realised why I’m so obsessed with jazz, because it’s been in my life since I was born. I don’t know of any other Australian (other than my sister’s and brother) that had the likes of Woody Shaw, Mulgrew Miller, Tony Reedus, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Johnny Griffin, John Scofield, Dave Liebman, Adam Nussbaum, Steve Swallow, Randy Brecker, Rufus Reid, Jim McNeely, John McNeil the list goes on… anyway these people would come over to our house and have dinner/parties/barbecues. This is why I realised i’m obsessed with jazz is because of my connection to it. I feel so lucky and privelaged to have this in my life, i’m not boasting I’m only justifying my existence (which helps me to remember how not “cool” I am).  I had Johnny Coles (if you don’t know him, he played on the Gil Evans/Miles Davis recordings) play happy birthday to me at my house when I was 4.

So, please expect more from me, as now all I have to remember is the password to my website. I’ll be putting to some clips and audio up from my gigs, I would love to hear some critical feedback (something that is sacred to jazz is critical feedback, it helps the music get better and progress (this topic will come up again)).

Today is ANZAC day and I’m off to a birthday party, CIAO.