Sam Middleton's Visual Jazz

Sam Middleton is an African American artist who was born in Harlem in the 20s, during the famed flowering of culture there. Nevertheless, like so many Af-Am jazz musicians, in the 60s he decamped to Northern Europe, ultimately settling in the Netherlands. Probably the majority of jazz guys ended up in Copenhagen. This is where my good friend, the late pianist Joe Bonner, spent much of his time. He cut many records for Copenhagen's Steeplechase label. The question arises: Are Northern Europeans less racist than Americans? On the whole, probably not. But they most certainly do appreciate jazz more than we do here. Jazz musicians will receive the respect commensurate with their artistic achievement. That's not nothing.

Jazz is inherently a collage art form, or, as we might say now, a sampling form. By its very nature it can assimilate and incorporate any kind of influence. Think of how Sonny Rollins' solos are strewn with glancing references to all manner of songs, high and low. And then, while you are processing that reference, he is already on to a new figure that complements or toys with the one he just played. Levels of meaning, overlapping and diverging. Middleton's works capture this sense of jazz improvisation as a mode of expression that doesn't unfold in expected ways, that moves, sometimes fluidly, sometimes suddenly, from aesthetic event to aesthetic event; new ideas busting out here, then there, disrupting the flow in exciting ways. He does, on occasion, incorporate actual snippets of sheet music into his works. They work just fine as patterns, but they don't make the works more "musical" than they would be without them. In the continuum of musical visual art, Middleton provides an effective, pleasing bridge between Kandinsky and Basquiat. Middleton died in 2015.

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