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Chris Potter should beware of jazz poison
By
Jack Massarik
28 Jul 2009
Horticulturalists are growing alarmed about the Japanese knotweed, a fast-growing parasite that gradually strangles every healthy tree or shrub in its path. Musicologists should be similarly concerned about the unchecked spread of rock, that invasive rhythmic blight now poisoning jazz, folk and world music too.
It was frustrating last night to find Chris Potter, one of the most technically brilliant saxophonists in jazz, writing and improvising over grunge beats devised by players with only a fraction of his skill. And to see Adam Rogers, one of New York’s finest guitarists, forsaking his semi-acoustic for a solid-body Telecaster built for abrasive tone and rock-level volume.
Drummer Nate Smith and Fender-Rhodes pianist Craig Taborn are also talented and inventive players but they too came across as slaves to fashion, turning such complex originals as Small World and Blue Sufi into unswinging, metronomic jazz-rock dirges. Ironically, Potter’s tenor-sax tone, aided by a superb bell-mike, sounded better than ever, broad and deep, and his bass-clarinet solo on Single Petal of a Rose (oddly the same Ellington ballad played by Joe Temperley with Wynton Marsalis on Friday) was excellent.
Won’t some individualist lead us out of the Dark Ages?
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Reader views (6)
Any discussion that uses color as a reference to what kind of music one should or can play, is not a "Humble Opinion" Bruno, it's share ignorance!
Music is a reflection of the environment that it's conceived in. These guys are playing music that is part of today's world. They all play and have played jazz for decades, let them have fun rekindling their own roots - none of them grew up in the 60's. And regardless of style, the outcome of the music is dependent on the caliber of the musicians at hand, no problems here!
Also, no one can make a blanket statement about a genre like jazz fusion. That's akin to saying that all fusion from the 70's sounds the same - I think not.
- Rez Abbasi, NY, NY, 19/08/2009 16:13
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Why do some critics think that their taste is more important than everyone else's? To all the traditionalists who think that the best jazz created was by Glenn Miller and Buddy Rich, go listen to your phonographs in solitude.
- Matt, Boston, MA, 06/08/2009 17:28
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Well done Jack for standing up and making the point obout the crossover cancer that can infect even sensible and talented musicians.
Fusion was an excuse for rock players to try to play jazz and fail. It is such a pity to see talented and serious musicians being lured into the moronic world of rock/pop.
- Toms, Chelsmsford, Essex, 06/08/2009 15:31
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jack,you deal in poison too.you once claimed brad mehldau didn't swing now your struggling with chris potter's heat."underground "at Ronnie's last night gave a five star performance to an enthusiastic and very appreciative audience.I'm afraid it's you living in the Dark Ages but hopefully you will persevere and catch up in time.this music was varied and way beyond mere rock.
- B.Cole, london,england, 29/07/2009 10:44
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I missed the Chris Potter performances but the argument about the baleful influence of rock is nearly 40 years out of date - remember Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, RTF. It's an area of music that's something of a blind spot for Jack (see the awful review of Jeff Beck at Ronnies) in what otherwise are excellent and perceptive reviews. When I last listened to the likes of McLaughlin, Metheny and Scofield, the rock influences seemed to be perfectly well integrated and and an inextricable part of their own vision of jazz.
- Johnmc, New Malden, Surrey. UK, 29/07/2009 00:58
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This review is way off the mark. This counter review hits the mark as far as I am concerned: http://londonjazz.blogspot.com/2009/07/live-chris-potter-underground-ronnie.html
'Grunge beats'? Let readers decide how much tunes such as 'Rumples' (which settles into a groove after a fiery and winding head) have to do with Nirvana and the like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eNgBt76qZY
As for Chris 'diverting from his usual style': Jack, where have you been these past three or so years? Have you not heard any of the Underground albums?
This review smacks of conservatism, as is evidenced by Jack's complaint about Rogers' use of a Telecaster. It is a post Hendrix world, and music (including Jazz) is much richer for it. Rogers' solo on 'Facing East' yesterday was searing, and it would've been impossible for him to make wondrous musical statements such as his solo on 'Train' (on the Underground 'Follow the Red Line' CD) with a semi-acoustic.
- Suva, London, UK, 28/07/2009 16:23
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