I don't really buy the hook of this Martin Johnson piece in New York magazine -- is there really anything distinctively "non-Trane" about these four guys? And conservatories are responsible for making players less slavishly reliant on Coltrane-isms? Really?
That said, it's nice to see great players like Bill McHenry and Joel Frahm get some props in a magazine that doesn't normally have a lot of time for jazz. I'm not as familiar with the other players profiled -- Ned Goold and Chris Byars, although evidently Ned has a blog.
Here's a taste:
The best and most distinctive among them is McHenry, whose new record is called Roses. A native of Maine, he arrived in New York in 1992 to find a fairly enervated and unwelcoming scene. He did a tour of duty playing for lousy tips in East Village bars but couldn’t gain traction in the more serious local clubs. “I was just weirding out in people’s basements,” McHenry says of his playing then. So he decamped to Barcelona for a year, where he found a more nurturing environment. By the late nineties he had hooked up with guitarist Ben Monder and bassist Reid Anderson (of the Bad Plus), who, along with drummer Paul Motian, now make up his quartet. Their years of playing together have given them that kind of telepathy that turns solos into duos and trios, and then takes entirely unexpected turns. Since his return to New York, McHenry has been ubiquitous, playing in numerous other top bands, including a regular Sunday-night turn in Brooklyn with trumpeter John McNeil in a quartet devoted to obscure numbers by dead composers.
The article also answers the question "Hey, whatever happened to Gigi Gryce?":
(Gryce, a leading saxophonist and arranger in the fifties, is himself an interesting story—fed up with the music biz, he abandoned it to develop a top-notch public-school music program in the Bronx.)
Wow, that photo is horrible.
Posted by: mwanji | 15 August 2007 at 05:31 AM
I know Martin and I like his writing, but I'm not so sure about the Coltrane hook either. And I think the vogue for Coltrane produced some phenomenal music by Liebman, Joe Farrell and plenty of others.
Also, I am sure this was not Martin's intention, but I cringe, cringe, cringe when I see a photo of four white saxophonists who are praised for saving jazz from the influence of a black legend. I'd be surprised if Frahm, McHenry, Goold and Byars see themselves that way at all. (I'm a fan of all of them, by the way.)
I'll be doing a profile soon for the Philly Inquirer on Odean Pope, one of our less-discussed Coltrane heirs. Big mistake to consign players like Pope to the dustbin.
Posted by: David Adler | 15 August 2007 at 01:57 PM
Also, I am sure this was not Martin's intention, but I cringe, cringe, cringe when I see a photo of four white saxophonists who are praised for saving jazz from the influence of a black legend.
Especially since the most notable apostate from the Church of Coltrane in the past twenty years is Mark Turner.
On the other hand... I honestly don't think that putting a bit of distance between yourself and Coltrane is a bad thing for a younger tenor player to do. That vein is pretty well tapped at this point, and I think there's a big difference between the guys who followed closely in Trane's wake (Lieb, Farrelll, Pope, and of course Brecker) but brought their own mojo to it, and the third-, fourth-, fifth-generation copies.
One thing that actually does distinguish Joel from the morass of musclehead post-Trane harmonic hurdlers is his devotion to Sonny. (It would have been nice if Johnson spent some time talking about exactly how these players deal with Coltrane's legacy and his dominating influence on tenor players.) It's weird to me that Sonny is so beloved and yet not obviously influential -- the qualities that make his playing great are only rarely heard in modern-day tenor players.
Posted by: DJA | 15 August 2007 at 03:52 PM
All true, thanks. I'd have to say Frahm is my favorite tenor player right now. And the most devastating quote-smith around, very true to Sonny in his particular way.
Posted by: David Adler | 15 August 2007 at 04:46 PM
"It's weird to me that Sonny is so beloved and yet not obviously influential -- the qualities that make his playing great are only rarely heard in modern-day tenor players."
That may have to do with why Coltrane is an icon far beyond jazz and Rollins isn't. I'm not quite sure why that is the case.
Posted by: mwanji | 16 August 2007 at 06:44 AM
I'm not quite sure why that is the case.
I'm pretty sure the spiritualism (especially A Love Supreme) and subsequent mythologizing has a lot to do with that. Also, he was the very picture of the relentlessly "serious" artist. Sonny's more of a wild card, and uses irony and irreverence a lot more explicitly, which (for reasons I don't really understand) makes him less attractive as a representation of people's idea of a Great Artist. And of course, Coltrane's recorded output is a lot more consistent, his classic quartet had unbelievably good chemistry, and he died relatively young.
That said, André 3000 is doing his part to create a mystique around Sonny...
Posted by: DJA | 16 August 2007 at 12:09 PM
You know, inspired by the Sonny thread, I just reached for The Freedom Suite and put it on. And then I learn that Max Roach has died. Dammit.
Posted by: DJA | 16 August 2007 at 12:17 PM