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Also this issue: Jazz Band 2.0 Silvertide/Brando Philomel Zero 7 Sparta |
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April 11-17, 2002
music
Jazz has often been construed as an outpost of rugged individualism, the purview of a particular (and particularly American) species of self-sufficient loner. There’s some truth to this perception, given the genre’s uncommon focus on solo feats -- but it tends to obscure the principles of collectivism that reside at the heart. While jazz has always nurtured outlaws, its history has been shaped in equal part by cooperative and mutual ideals.
The Jazz Composers Collective offers one fine embodiment of these ideals. Conceived and founded by bassist Ben Allison in 1992, the JCC purports “to construct an environment where participating artists can exercise their ideals of creating and risking through the development and exploration of new music.” It has largely met this goal, by maintaining a lively series (five concerts per year, each featuring the work of two composers) and a steady stream of fresh ideas. Last month’s 10th-anniversary celebration in New York featured a different JCC-based group every night -- and each ensemble, despite often sharing the same core personnel, reflected a distinctive focus and vibe. Few listeners, educated or novice, would confuse the music of Michael Blake’s Free Association with that of Allison’s Medicine Wheel or the Ted Nash Quintet.
Of course, jazz collectives can and do exist without being so defined. Cornetist Rob Mazurek has essentially stood in the center of one for a while now, as founder of the Chicago Underground franchise, which shares players with several related ensembles. (The Chicago Underground Duo appears, with Mazurek’s laptop project Orton Socket, on Thu., April 11, 9 p.m. at The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888.) In Philly we have groups built around either a personal or compositional axis, like the Sun Ra Arkestra (perhaps the oldest “jazz collective” extant), Bobby Zankel’s Warriors of the Wonderful Sound (which plays Fri., April 12, 7:30 p.m., at the Calvary United Methodist Church, 48th and Baltimore, 215-724-1702), and Odean Pope’s Collective Voices Saxophone Choir (Thu., April 18, 9 p.m., Tritone, 1508 South St., 215-545-0475).
The nonprofit Center for Improvisational Music, which was incorporated early in 2001 by trumpeter and M-Base member Ralph Alessi, is a conduit for collaboration of a more lateral sort. Operating under the assumption that “students really learn the most from each other,” Alessi has endeavored to liberate jazz education from institutional dogma. Appropriately enough, this week’s CIM benefit concert features two ensembles that perfectly illustrate Alessi’s claim. Bruce Lee is a meditative electro-acoustic quartet featuring several of the most promising young progressives in New York City, while Jersey Band is a hyperactive, genre-splintering quintet from Rochester, N.Y. While stylistically worlds apart, both groups embrace a truly cooperative model -- proving that the whole can indeed be greater, and more effective, than the sum of its parts. (Bruce Lee and Jersey Band play a benefit for CIM on Mon., April 15, 8 p.m., Tritone, 1508 South St., 215-545-0475.)
To report a gig or any other jazz-related news -- e-mail Nate Chinen at n_chinen@citypaper.net.
