I was too young in the sixties to witness their music firsthand, yet by the time I came of age in the seventies, Jimi Hendrix had become a kind of god to me — followed later by Miles Davis and then John Coltrane. What has always astonished me is how - within the same decade - each of these towering musical geniuses forged an entirely new sound and voice from within tradition itself: honouring it, absorbing it, yet ultimately pushing beyond its boundaries until they burst free from the constraints of form altogether. Out of that rupture, they created new musical languages — languages that continue to resonate deeply with so many people and that express emotions for which words could never truly exist.
Jimi Hendrix took the blues and then practised relentlessly on his guitar to expand its vocabulary, its power and its electrifying effects. This was the period of polished 2-minute pop songs, of refined vocals and backing vocals, of nicely fitting suits and the comfort of going to mom and dad in the evening. Hendrix tore it all down, yet built it up again, exposing humanity to a sonic avalanche never heard before (and rarely heard since): loud, brutal, technically brilliant, sensitive and deeply moving.
Miles Davis was a little older, yet came later to my musical horizon, and I was sold immediately. My first experience was with "In A Silent Way", and especially the title track with its steady rhythm, its hypnotic groove and its brilliant trumpet-playing is still engrained in my brain. A decade earlier, he had already changed the course history of jazz by "Kind of Blue", a milestone then, yet when listening to it now, you wonder what all the fuzz was about, but that's primarily because it influenced all jazz after its release, as if people wondered what was so new about Picasso, who might seem somewhat conventional from today's point of view. Then "Bitches Brew". This was it. The power, the drive, the relentless and uncompromising rhythm section, the stellar musicianship, and this "man with the horn", creating sounds also never heard before, with or without "wah wah". It defied any type of soloing heard before. It opened space, and showed that anything was possible, even chaos and noise, without restrictions with the exception of the piece's overall coherence.
John Coltrane - also born in 1926 - was the third luminary. Like Davis, and in collaboration with him, they released some of the more memorable albums of the fifties with the Miles Davis Quintet: "Cookin'", "Relaxin'", "Workin'", and "Steamin'" and with the sextet later the iconic"Kind of Blue". Then he single-handedly pulled jazz out of the smoky bar rooms of the entertainment industry and turned it into Art with a capital "A": "A Love Supreme" turned music upside down. It showed something grand, a level of spirituality and personal freedom of expression rarely heard in music before, yet still compelling and mysterious despite its novel approach. Even a simple tune such as "My Favorite Things" became a mesmerising listening experience when performed by Coltrane. With "Interstellar Space", his duo album with drummer Rashied Ali, he broke with all conventions, yet despite the negative comments from the jazz community, his technique and incredible inventiveness were beyond comparison.
Despite the profound differences in their music — free blues, jazz rock, and free jazz — all three men broke with convention and revealed new ways of expressing what it means to be human. They were open to new forms, they integrated sounds from other musical styles, they were endlessly creative. Despite the many opportunities for commercial success, they kept searching, stretching their performances to lengthy and grandiose improvisations, the kind of music that would never get any radio airplay, let alone be of interest to mainstream audiences. They each struggled with drugs and addiction, but I don’t believe that alone explains the parallels between them. Even if their music was not "political" in the real sense of the word, they represented the voice of African Americans and their fight for civil rights - check Davis' "Tribute To Jack Johnson" as an example - but their music went much deeper, it was (is) the voice of more authentic feelings of anger, sadness, agony, despair, hope and transcendence than the entertainment industry could ever offer. They share a devotion to technique, not as a goal but as a means to free sound from historical constraints, and to create something more expansive, monumental, authentic, existential, spiritual, and deeply human. They transformed music. They created great art. Each possessed a sound and a voice instantly recognisable from afar, unlike anything found in music today.
Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix planned to record together. They had been preparing this for a while, and both had a show at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 - and by the way, it's truly amazing that Davis was invited to play at a rock festival - yet a few weeks later Hendrix died unexpectedly.
Three exceptional musicians, three exceptional artists somehow met and did something similar profound for music at the same juncture in time and place. They combined creative discipline and control on the one hand, with ecstatic improvisation and raw expression on the other.
0 comments:
Post a Comment