The Avant-Garde in Jazz As Representative of Late 20Th Century American Art Music
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THE AVANT-GARDE IN JAZZ AS REPRESENTATIVE OF LATE 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN ART MUSIC By LONGINEU PARSONS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2017 © 2017 Longineu Parsons To all of these great musicians who opened artistic doors for us to walk through, enjoy and spread peace to the planet. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my professors at the University of Florida for their help and encouragement in this endeavor. An extra special thanks to my mentor through this process, Dr. Paul Richards, whose forward-thinking approach to music made this possible. Dr. James P. Sain introduced me to new ways to think about composition; Scott Wilson showed me other ways of understanding jazz pedagogy. I also thank my colleagues at Florida A&M University for their encouragement and support of this endeavor, especially Dr. Kawachi Clemons and Professor Lindsey Sarjeant. I am fortunate to be able to call you friends. I also acknowledge my friends, relatives and business partners who helped convince me that I wasn’t insane for going back to school at my age. Above all, I thank my wife Joanna for her unwavering support throughout this process. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF EXAMPLES ...................................................................................................... 7 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 10 Definition of Avant-Garde Jazz ............................................................................... 10 Delimitations ........................................................................................................... 11 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 16 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 21 General Histories of Jazz ........................................................................................ 21 General Histories of Afro-American Music .............................................................. 21 The Political Motivations of the Musicians .............................................................. 23 The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) ................... 25 Sources dealing with analyses of “free jazz” ........................................................... 27 Improvisation and Composition ............................................................................... 28 Sources on Specific Musicians ............................................................................... 29 3 RELEVANT HISTORICAL TRENDS LEADING TO THE AVANT-GARDE ............. 30 The African Aesthetic in Afro-American Music ........................................................ 30 Blues ....................................................................................................................... 32 Ragtime .................................................................................................................. 33 Early Jazz ............................................................................................................... 34 Big Bands ............................................................................................................... 37 Bebop ..................................................................................................................... 39 Cool Jazz – The Exploration of a Modal Approach to Jazz ..................................... 43 Hard Bop ................................................................................................................. 45 4 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE JAZZ AVANT-GARDE ............................................... 47 Charles Mingus ....................................................................................................... 49 Ornette Coleman .................................................................................................... 50 Cecil Taylor ............................................................................................................. 54 Steve Lacy .............................................................................................................. 57 John Coltrane ......................................................................................................... 61 Archie Shepp .......................................................................................................... 67 5 5 SUN RA, AND THE PROGRESSION TOWARD A UNIFIED CONCEPTION OF BLACK MUSIC ....................................................................................................... 70 6 THE AACM AND COLLECTIVISM ......................................................................... 78 7 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................... 84 APPENDIX A OF THINGS UNKNOWN ........................................................................................ 97 B OF THINGS UNKNOWN: FIRST MOVEMENT ...................................................... 98 C OF THINGS UNKNOWN: SECOND MOVEMENT................................................ 113 D OF THINGS UNKNOWN: THIRD MOVEMENT .................................................... 118 E INTERVIEW WITH ARCHIE SHEPP .................................................................... 132 F INTERVIEW WITH DAVID MURRAY ................................................................... 163 G INTERVIEW WITH JOHN BETSCH...................................................................... 182 H INTERVIEW WITH OLIVER LAKE ....................................................................... 204 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 219 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 225 6 LIST OF EXAMPLES Example page 3-1 Comparison of the melody lines in Indiana and Donna Lee ............................... 41 3-2 Modes presented without melodic lines .............................................................. 45 4-1 Melodic “gestures” of the solo. From Lynnette Westendorf’s Analyzing Free Jazz .................................................................................................................... 53 4-2 Second Layer variations from Westendorf, Analyzing Free Jazz........................ 55 4-3 Taylor’s use of B-A-C-H motive Westendorf, Analyzing Free Jazz ..................... 56 4-4 Tyner’s fragments of pentatonic scales over the tonal center F.......................... 64 4-5 Comparison of the melodies and chord changes to Tune-Up and Countdown. .. 65 7 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE AVANT-GARDE IN JAZZ AS REPRESENTATIVE OF LATE 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN ART MUSIC By Longineu Parsons May 2017 Chair: Paul Richards Major: Music In the history of the music referred to as jazz, there is a clear progression in the advancement of improvisational/compositional techniques. This change occurred from the earliest days of blues and diatonic tonal systems, through advancements in chromatic techniques and sophisticated harmonic devices. By the nineteen fifties, jazz music had moved from being dance music to being music for listening and contemplation. John (Dizzy) Gillespie and Charlie Parker began using improvisational techniques that were radical at the time in terms of harmonic and rhythmic structures but were still tied to traditional song forms. These developments led to other even more progressive developments exemplified by Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and later, the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Characteristics of this “avant-garde” movement in jazz are: 1. Freedom from American song form 2. Freedom from major minor systems of tonal organization 3. Freedom from traditional rhythmic and metric structural requirements 4. Use of modern compositional techniques and motivic development in improvisations 8 5. Rehearsed improvisations that led to spontaneous group composition 6. Music as a reflection and expression of the social and political circumstances of the time. The innovators in the jazz avant-garde movement were learned musicians who chose to forsake commercial potential and instead dedicated themselves to the music for the sake of expressing their views on the world. A thorough examination of this music coupled with interviews with some of the pioneers and practitioners of the movement are examined herein. Even using strict definitions and standards, these considerations clearly demonstrate the artistic intentions and technical sophistication that warrant the designation of “art music.” As demonstrated in the text, the music referred to as jazz avant-garde emerges through a logical progression of Afro-American music, and its practitioners were open to and freely used most, if not all, of the influences present in the United States at the time. 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION During the second half of the twentieth century,