Bang! The closes louder than I ever could imagine and a starring mass of plastic beatnik-looking adolescents are looking my way. Great! All the wool sweatered wineboys, looking at me like I'm some kind of a carnival attraction. The sweet, emo-glassed cuttling boy is drinking his cheap wine as if it was a Saint Emillion. Charlie Parker's sextet is playing and nobody seems to give a damn. I sit down at the bar and order some of the overprized coffee they sell here. Damn, Parker's hot! Parker was the only reason I came into this bar anyway. There's nothing I'd rather do right now than sitting here alone, bopping. Bopping? Yeah, just closing your eyes, flick your fingers to the swing and enjoy.
Although I grew up on punk and hardcore music, jazz must be the best thing ever. It's the only genre that kills, swings, stomps, hisses, flows, marches, travels, pushes, hits, strangles, fucks, runs, breaths, explodes and kicks at the same time! If you never listened to jazz or never saw a jazz concert, it's difficult to imagine this. But one true experience and you'll know what I'm talking about. In jazz, nobody gives a shit about that one note you play, or the one sentence you sing... jazz is not about that particular moment, jazz is the moment. You can play an entire Thelonious Monk album and listen to it attentively. You won't remember a single note, but the listening experience was great. Some people and moments in jazz:
1. Jazz in Paris - Django Reinhardt
Django was born in Liberchies (Belgium... yes!) somewhere 1910 as son of a Gipsy Family. Due to a fire in the caravan he lived in, Django's left hand was badly burned and he only got 2 mobile fingers to play. Through this accident he created a brand new fingering system, using only his 2 middle fingers to play solos. Seeing a Django Reinhardt live-video is therefor a must for every guitarplayer around. When he joined the "quintet of the hot club of France" in 1934, he became one of the leading persons in the rising Paris jazzscene. When the war broke out he was touring England but he went back to Paris. And he stayed there except for an American tour with Duke Ellington. So he was kind of the ambassador of Jazz in Paris. And Paris still is the capital of jazz.Early november 2003, I was slacking with a friend through the streets of Paris. We'd been sightseeing the town all weekend long and there was only one thing we forgot to see: jazz in Paris. As we had been sightseeing without any map we had no idea where the jazz action would be in Paris. It was sunday... so everything should have been closed. While taking the underground my friend asked me: "where the hell are we going to find some good jazz in a huge town like this?". The next station answered our prayers: "Saint Germain des pres". The only pub that was open was a pub called "la Rhumerie". Rhum, the only thing I hadn't been drinking this weekend. We ordered a rhum, a monte christo cigarre and checked out the be-bop band playing. They were grand, doing some wonderful variations on Thelonious Monk and Charlie parker. The guitarist had that slight Django touch. After the concert we talked with the band and I was discussing the variations on "greensleeves" I once heard from Jimmy Smith. 20 minutes later I was hearing those same crazy variations on what used to be a kids' song. It was ready for a whorehouse now. The "men in bop" played in my hometown one year later and everybody knew how great Paris and Jazz were.
2. Freejazz and Anthony Braxton
Miles and Parker (Yarbird!!) started it with be-bop, Coltrane might be one of the godfathers but the free jazz revolution kind of started out with Ornette Coleman's album "free jazz, a collective improvisation". A friend of mine once told me: "if it swings you call it jazz, if it doesn't swing you call it freejazz". I guess the guy talks out of his ass too because freejazz can swing like hell. The cool thing about freejazz is the "free" part. Musicians stopped improvising according to the music other people were playing and just started freaking out in their own unique way. Play what you wanna play... in a non-adolescent rockband state of mind. Sun-ra, Han Benninck and our own Belgian Freejazz hero Fred Van Hove kept the free music alive. You never know how important the innovators are in music but something tells me freejazz has had a huge impact on todays emperimental scene.
Another great artist in the free-jazz revolution is a man called Anthony
Braxton. I knew the man a little bit since I had a great album of him doing some variations on Thelonious Monk. Last year the free music festival in Antwerp was some kind of a birthday party for this great man. So I took a friend and we sat in our seat listening to some girl doing piano-variations on Anthony Braxtons sax music. There was this black guy sitting behind me shouting "YEAH, SHE'S GOT ME MAN". In one way I liked the guy because he honestly appreciated nice music. In another way he was getting on my nerves and I wanted him to shut up for eternal damnation. 2 days later (Braxton would headline and close the 3-day festival today). I had to go alone. When I finished buying a month wage on vinyl I went to the bar and ordered 2 beers. When I paid for the golden liquid, I came to the realisation that I was alone. What was I going to do with 2 beers? A typical negro-spiritual voice comes from behind:- God I'm gonna get me one of those!
- You want one? I just ordered one too much.
- You sure? Thanks man, cheers! You're enjoying the concerts?
- Yeah, I've been here for 3 days and having the time of my life.
- Good son, very inspiring to see so much great musicians huh?!
- Hell yeah, reminds me I should practise a little bit more on my drums.
- Hahaha, great! Hey, I gotta get ready man. See you later.
- Sure
Little did I know what the loud black guy meant. 3 minutes later Mister Braxton was standing quite nervous on stage with his students. I guess he needed a beer. While I was thinking about all these great people, all these great moments and anecdotes I shared with jazz music and musicians I came to realise... This bar sucks. I got my hat, went out, got into my car and played some Sun-ra, and I played it loud!
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