Jazz and the Ambiguity of Influence, Part 5: Thoughts on European Jazz
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| Michel Petrucciani |
So: What to make of European jazz? In the interest of simplification, I'll make two essential points. First, that when it comes to hardcore American jazz, that is, jazz as practiced by the American masters, Europe can be preferable in terms of both performance and appreciation. And, second, that there are many modes of European jazz that are minimally jazz in any traditional sense but nevertheless which could not exist without it.
1. I find it telling that whenever I try to find some live jazz performances on YouTube the best concert footage is inevitably from a European broadcast. Essentially, there is no question at all for them that jazz is an art form of the highest order. Now, here in the States, many people who love the arts appreciate this fact, but it's hard to make a dent in the overall philistinism of our environment. Take PBS fundraising week, for example. Will jazz make an appearance? No, it will not. But the three Irish tenors will, or some doo wop oldies acts. And if PBS will not promote jazz in the US, who will?
Because of the European sophistication in this regard, many black American jazzers decamped to Europe, especially France and Scandinavia, in the 50s and 60s -- the great tenor sax man Dexter Gordon chief among them, as well as the amazing Thad Jones. My old friend from Denver, the late pianist Joe Bonner, spent part of each year in Copenhagen, where he recorded for the Steeplechase label, which Gordon also recorded for. When I was in Europe in the mid-80s I looked Joe up over there. There were no cell phones and no Internet, so to find him, I just went to a jazz bar and started asking around. They pointed me right to the piano bar where he was playing. I found Joe there, and after that gig finished we went to an all night jam session. That club was packed and cookin'. But basically, virtually every jazz player of note recorded for Steeplechase during the 70s when American record companies had largely abandoned the form -- including legends from Ben Webster to Jackie McLean, but also white masters of the art like Stan Getz and Chet Baker. The Black Saint label in Italy is also prominent, usually featuring US and other musicians of a more avant-garde orientation. Now, European reverence for jazz and its masters does not prove in and of itself that Europe is less racist than the US, but without a doubt the black American players felt relieved to be treated as true artists, with no asterisks attached.
What about the European players? When the American recorded and gigged in Europe they both played with other Americans and with homegrown European players, who could hold their own in any setting. Chief among these players was the bassist, Niels-Henning Orsted Peterson of Denmark, otherwise known to everyone in jazz as NHOP. He was the house bassist at Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen where he backed such formidable figures as Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Evans, and Dizzy Gillespie. If you can hang with these people you can hang with anyone. Perhaps the greatest European player of the last 40 years was the French pianist Michel Petrucciani. He was a "little person" who suffered from a genetic bone disorder that led to his early death at the age of 36 in 1999. Do yourself a favor and check him out: Lyricism and swing of the very highest order. He was so good that it was the prospect of playing with him that inspired Charles Lloyd to emerge, in the early '80s, from his voluntary seclusion at Big Sur, forming a new band with the 18-year-old Petrucciani in the piano chair. Of course, the greatest European players of all were Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, who, during the 30s and 40s, swung as hard as anyone ever has swung with their Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Not coincidentally, I think, Petrucciani and Grappelli teamed up for one of my "desert island" jazz discs, the 2006 recording Flamingo, which also featured the American veteran Roy Haynes on drums and the Hungarian master of the upright acoustic bass, George Mraz.
2. Then there is this thing we can call the "European sound." I can't imagine that anyone, upon hearing the "pure" as opposed to more American-derived European groups, would think they are hearing anything other than jazz. Many of these groups may not include even a trace of swing or the blues or hard bop, but the improvisational aura is precisely what we perceive as the essence and modus operandi of the jazz art form. It's a bit of that "if it walks like a duck" thing. Often, the groups present extensions of the more impressionistic modes of jazz, which themselves have roots in European classical harmonies, even when originating in the US. One of my favorites working in this genre is the Helge Lien Trio of Norway. I found them when I was searching for cover versions of "Look For the Silver Lining," and they really caught my ear. The sound is sometimes stately, sometimes brooding, but always poised and interactive and explorative. Above all, the label most identified with the European jazz aesthetic is Manfred Eicher's ECM Records. Ironically, the premier ECM artist is Keith Jarrett of the US. But maybe this isn't ironic, since it was Jarrett, with his epochal Köln Concert, who helped set the stage for all European jazz to follow, to say nothing of Jarrett's influence on countless American groups, as well as anyone attempting a fully-improvised solo piano concert. Eicher has envisioned a sound world that is as distinctive in its own way as a Rudy Van Gelder Blue Note classic. And like Blue Note, ECM has a distinct visual look too. I suppose most ECM artists are white, but the sound isn't white; the sound is ECM. I was listening to an excellent ECM record the other day -- a group led by the Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel. The quintet featured the white Americans Brad Mehldau and Larry Grenadier on piano and bass, and the black Americans Ambrose Akinmusire and Eric Harland on trumpet and drums. Everyone fit right in.
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