> Personally I would love to see an "addendum" to the film that covers later > Jazz and completely discredits the "smooth jazz" tripe of the 80s and 90s. > Maybe Ian O'Brien and Kirk DeGiorgio could serve as consultants? :^)
Kirk DeGiorgio, for one, doesn't think too much of Cecil Taylor either. I seem to recall him thinking that Taylor passes the point where experimentation loses contact with soulful expression. Though the opening of "Unit Structures", the track (or, if you'd rather, part of track), would be my retort, there. I'm not sure but I can imagine he thinks the same of Albert Ayler, but it's all in a body of tradition to me. And that's the point against Burns and Marsalis, I reckon. There was also, I hear, the unbelievable dismissal of Bud Powell?! What the?! I'd imagine they *must* have mentioned Monk fairly favourably (please?) but to neglect to credit the influence of this trio, is ridiculous. The whole feel to the documentary seems to be really divisive: along the whole lines of a tired old "what is jazz?" debate. Jazz is the whole body, the whole tradition, and that precludes making judgements of taste to decide whether these 3 of massive influence deserve "canonisation". Personally, I can't conceive of a jazz history without Bobby Hutcherson, Andrew Hill, Jackie McLean, Eric Dolphy, Wayne Shorter etc. Jazz is, for me and a lot of others these days, largely that which culminated in those great mid 60s Blue Note sessions. A personal preference, of course, but not a rare one. Burns says: "Not enough water has passed under the bridge to make historical judgements of the past 30 years [of jazz]." So it is impossible to determine if any music from the last 30 years has had any kind of impact? But it is possible to view the entire history of jazz on the premise that allegiance to the commercially successful form of it in the last 30 years (hard bop) is the determining criterion of relevance? I'm not an historian, but this seems to me to be an awful, and hypocritical, methodology. (On second thoughts, maybe Kirk DeGiorgio is the man for the job: he has an MA in Medieval History.)
