# The New Jazz



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

In reference to late John Coltrane:

On Atlantic: _Olé Coltrane, My Favorite Things, The Avant Garde (with Don Cherry)_

On ABC Impulse: _Ascension,Crescent, The Village Vanguard Sessions, The Africa Brass Sessions, Chim Chim Cheree, Kulu Sé Mama, Meditations, Stellar Regions

._..and other players such as Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Don Cherry, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, later Miles Davis, and others.

You see, _this is the problem_ with off-the-wall generalizations, which are stated as "negatives" and put-downs of other music to justify what one likes;

I happen to know this music, so, to me, such generalized, non-specific mud slinging seems_uninformed;_ not because I like it and somebody else doesn't, but because I _understand it._ Also, being non-specific is very damaging to any credibility one might need.

So, how does "understanding" make an opinion appear to be_ uninformed or deficient? 
_
Because I have listed _specific examples,_ and can apply my understanding specifically to any vague, apparently misinformed characterizations:

•*"Psychotic Emotions:"* I think what this indicates is a misunderstanding of the social factors which formed this music, and which are essential for a true understanding of it.

The black jazz avant garde "new thing" emerged with The Black Panthers, the Black Muslim movement and Malcolm X, and "black power." What we are hearing is anger and protest of the American black man, and in Coltrane's case, a result of spiritual awakening; not psychosis.
_
• _*"Something non-understandable and ugly:" *This "new thing" jazz was trying to undo the "Westernization" of jazz, and reclaim jazz as a black man's music (which is true; they invented it). This meant purposely alienating the existing white infrastructure of jazz and its existing audience, and using the art to "protest" social issues and the assimilation of jazz by Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Henry Mancini, and other white jazz figures who had "cashed-in" on the black man's legacy, while they scraped-by doing gigs in bars and living in poverty in inner-city ghettos.

Yes, it is "ugly" isn't it? But at least I know _why_ it's that way; some apparently do not.

I urge _everyone _to at least try to do a WIK search or find out basic information about music they wish to comment on negatively, before blurting-out negatively-framed generalizations. Otherwise, they will have no right to "play victim" of being perceived as "ignorant."


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