#002
All that Jazz
Se repentinamente me requisitassem escolher um só contributo que cada país do mundo tenha trazido ao nosso bem estar do Brasil optava pela cachaça mineira, à França dava um merci pelas demoiselles d’Avignon, o Reino-Unido que nos presenteou com os Monty Python teria de receber uma outra pequena palmada nas costas só pelo seu awkward sense of being always on top of things.
Mas se tivesse de dar preferência a um só contributo dos EUA seria sem dúvida ao seu maior: o Jazz.
Nascido da cultura afro-americana, laivos de blues e ragtime juntavam-se ao conceito mais europeu das marching bands e por volta dos fins da ultima década do século XIX aparecia um som que iria pintar muita manta por esta Terra fora. Música “endiabrada” porque feita de celebração e sofrimento, música para que os negros trazidos de África até o Novo Mundo pudessem preservar as suas ancestrais tradições de melodia-única em estilo de chamada e resposta por cima de ritmos desenvolvidos numa estrutura contra-métrica e que refletiam a origem dos padrões de comunicação oral destes escravos deportados do rio Congo para o delta do Mississipi.
Como em certos estados do sudeste americano negavam-lhes o direito a usarem tambores (quão racista é esse conceito?) usual seria a “invenção” de outros meios percutivos: selhas e tábuas usualmente utilizadas para lavar roupa, garrafas e caixas batidas com paus ou ossos.
Só o fim da Guerra Civil traria um excedente de tarolas, bombos e pífaros que iriam repentinamente exponenciar estes novos e sincopados cross-rhythms que só poderiam ter sido criados por uma cultura com uma enorme sofisticação polirrítmica.
Calcula-se a origem da palavra Jazz como relacionada com jasm, calão para pep (de enérgico) e pode-se ler o termo num primeiro contexto musical a 14 de Novembro de 1916 num artigo publicado no Times-Picayune descrevendo as “jas bands” de New Orleans.
Numa entrevista o pianista e compositor Eubie Blake disse que “quando a Broadway pegou no termo chamou-lhe J-A-Z-Z, mas não era esse o nome. Escrevia-se J-A-S-S. Isso era um pouco ordinário e quem soubesse o seu significado nunca o iria referir na presença de senhoras”.
Jazz ficou, música que abrange miríades de facetas, do funk ao rock, assente sobre os ritmos do Beguine ou da Bossa, free, modal ou bebop, tocado por uma big band para centenas de pessoas ou por um solitário alley cat numa deserta esquina urbana. O Jazz não tem pruridos com instrumentos: vibrafone, harpa, guitarra eléctrica ou banjo, tudo lá cabe, tudo pode fazer sentido. Gaita de foles? No problem. E que venha daí um Fly me to the Moon tocado em theremin ou o Summer Wind em búzios que nós cá estaremos para os ouvir.
O Jazz é música por muitos considerada intelectual enquanto outros acham que era mesmo assim que devia ser, uma expressão artística elitista, longe dos seus primórdios bem populares. No entanto um dos grandes do género, o enorme Duke Ellington, sobre isso dizia que “é só música”.
Tenham um fim de semana cheio de swing.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
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If suddenly asked to choose a single contribution that each country in the world has brought to our well-being from Brazil I would opt for cachaça from Minas Gerais, to France I would send a merci for the demoiselles d’Avignon, the United Kingdom that presented us with Monty Python would have to receive another small pat on the back just for their awkward sense of being always on top of things.
But if I had to give preference to a single contribution from the USA it would undoubtedly be it’s greatest: Jazz.
Born out of African-American culture, blues and ragtime tinges tainted the more European concept of marching bands and around the end of the last decade of the 19th century a sound would appear that would paint many towns in deep red throughout this Earth. “Devilish” music, maybe because it was made of celebration and suffering, a sound by the people brought from Africa to the New World so they could preserve their ancestral traditions of single-line melody in a style of call and response over rhythms developed in a counter-metric structure and that reflected the origin of the oral communication patterns of these slaves deported from the Congo river to the Mississippi delta.
Maybe because in certain states of the American Southeast they were denied the right to use drums (how racist is that concept?), other percussive means had to be “invented”: jugs, barrels and washboards, bottles and boxes beaten with sticks or bones set tone and rhythm.
Only the end of the Civil War would bring an excess of of bass and snare drums as well as fifes that would suddenly exponentiate these new and syncopated cross-rhythms that could only have been created by a culture with an enormous polyrhythmic sophistication.
The origin of the word Jazz is believed as being related to jasm, slang for pep and the term can be read for the first time in a musical context on November 14, 1916 in an article published in the Times-Picayune describing the “jas bands” of New Orleans.
In an interview, pianist and composer Eubie Blake said that “when Broadway picked it up, they called it ‘J-A-Z-Z’. But it wasn’t called that. It was spelled ‘J-A-S-S’. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, you wouldn’t say it in front of ladies”.
Jazz remained, music that covers a myriad of facets, from funk to rock, based on the rhythms of Beguine or Bossa, free, modal or bebop, played by a big band for hundreds of people or by a lonely alley cat in a deserted urban corner. Jazz has no squabbles when it comes to instruments: vibraphone, harp, electric guitar or banjo, everything fits, everything can make sense. Bagpipe? No problem. Show us a rendition of Fly me to the Moon on a theremin or Summer Wind played with conch shells and I assure you that we’ll be here listening.
Jazz is dismissed by many as an intellectual sort of music while others would like to carry the flag of said status, an elitist artistic expression far removed from its very popular beginnings. However one of the greats, Duke Ellington, once said that “it’s just music”.
Have a swingy weekend.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – A Foggy Day
Marcos Valle – Alma
Jorge Darden – Alone Again
Rosemarie Taylor – Mr Sleep
Dorothy Ashby – Afro-Harping
Nat King Cole – Fidgety Joe
Jan Jelinek – Ifs, Ands & Buts
Thelma Gracen – Let There Be Love
Fab Samperi – Jazz di Mezzaluna (Smoove Remix)
Marc & Oveous – On Again
Hammond Express – Ass Enchillada
Sunlightsquare – Oyelo (Atjazz Love Soul Remix)
Nick Holder – A Word From Mr Prince
Bobbi Humphrey – New York Times
Azymuth – Tamborim, Cuica, Ganza, Berimbau
Laneous – Nice to See You
Jazzy Funk – Dont You Worry Bout A Thing (Situation Remix)
Felipe Gordon – On Birdland
Eddie Russ – See The Light
Jazz Warriors – Chameleon
Dewayon & Conga Jazz – Na Lingi Na Ngai Kubala Te
Folamour – Jazz Session for No Future People
Els Himma – Kesköö
Emma-Jean Thackray – Rain Dance / Wisdom
G Duke – Mercy
Moacir Santos – Kathy
Cici Kızlar – Gencim Yaşamı Severim
Joe Armon-Jones – Almost Went Too Far
R+R=NOW – Change of Tone
Renegades Of Jazz – En Route feat. Urda
Jean-Luc Ponty – Good Guys, Bad Guys
Axwell – Jazz Player (Mauve Remix)
Tamba Trio – Só Danço Samba
Theo Parrish – What You Gonna Ask For (Theo’s Mix)
George Benson – El Barrio (MaW Mix)
Eumir Deodato – Theme From Star Trek
Moullinex & Xinobi – AZUL
Cotonete – Super-vilain Wants Love
Stevie Wonder – Superwoman
Melody Gardot – Lover Undercover