Reading friend & colleague Ted Panken’s always inquisitive and informative interview style, on this occasion with the potent Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava in the March ’12 edition of DownBeat http://www.downbeat.com/digitaledition/2012/DB201203/single_page_view/38.html, was thought-provoking on several fronts. The mind drifted to considerations of the European scene, and the fact that Rava is an excellent example of what one might consider the first wave of home-grown Euro improvisers. Through the various biographies/autobiographies and periodical accounts of the Masters since the time of black artist migration (escape?) to Europe during the latter part of the first half of the 20th century we are well acquainted with their romance of European touring and in some cases expatriation – from Sidney Bechet to tenormen Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, and Ricky Ford (what’s become of him?).

More recently the mantra, particularly from African American artists, has been about the contraction of European performing opportunities for U.S. jazz artists. A big reason for that has been quite simple – through various measures of assimilation and educational development, Europe has a home-grown coterie of improvisers. These artists have filtered the so-called jazz esthetic through the lens of their cultural perspectives to build their own native approaches to the music. Italy has been an incubator for artists who still cleave to the more soulful aspects of the music, elements which have often been seemingly dismissed, denied or patently avoided by their Nordic brothers and others. Some of that same soulful element can be found in France as well, but not quite as potently as in Italy, from elders like Rava to precocious youngsters like Charlie Parker‘s spiritual great-grandson/Phil Woods‘ spiritual grandson, the altoist Francesco Cafiso.

You could see that coming years ago when U.S. music schools like Berklee began affiliating with festivals such as Umbria Jazz to produce music education intensives. Sitting in on some of those classes as a reporter back in the late ’80s this writer was struck by the thirst and zeal with which Italian youngsters flocked to their Berklee classes for that fortnight. Race hasn’t seemed quite the issue with Italian assimilation of the jazz esthetic as is suggested by eyewitness accounts in France, thus perhaps the inherent soulfulness of Italian improvisers. As for France, there has long been a covert racism designed to limit African American musician’s access; witness the thinly veiled racism practiced by the French pianist and critic’s darling Martial Solal and his backdoor efforts at excluding black musicians from the French jazz equation; accounts of that covert racist doggishness came this way through impeccable sources. Hopefully someone with first-hand experience will continue to pull those covers back, but I digress.

Italy has been a bit of a different story however. Panken’s inquisition with Rava and the trumpeter’s series of ECM recordings reveal an artist comfortable with expressing recognition and gratitude for the African American root of the music. Early in his odyssey Rava was befriended by such African American artists as Don Cherry and Archie Shepp, and he’s never forgotten or dismissed that. Along more general lines, check the following cogent passage from Panken’s interview about the basic responsibilities of a jazz musician from a band perspective:

“I feel that all bands are like a tribe. Once I read that the Cherokees had a social organization where nobody owned anything, everything was for everybody and everybody used what they needed. It’s a perfect idea of democracy. In a jazz group, when it works, that’s what it really is. No one renounces their ego, but you don’t impose your ego on everyone else. It’s a perfect harmonic situation, like the cosmic balance, where everything is right. Maybe I bring a line, some chords, a little point where we meet and play, what I want, but I leave everyone freedom within that frame to find what to add or take out. That way, I think the musicians who play with me give their best, better with me than when they play their own thing.”

Enrico Rava’s latest recording is Tribe for the ECM label; also featuring the prodigious trombonist Gianluca Petrella.

Continuing our dialogue on the audience equation for creative music, which heretofore has focused on the puzzling conundrum of the African American audience, the always thoughtful saxophonist-composer and record label (Inner Circle www.innercirclemusic.com) head Greg Osby weighs in on the audience in general, with a particular emphasis on calling into question musicians who only seem to play for their own self-aggrandizement and that of their peer musicians.

A recent conversation with one of my colleagues was both illuminating and also sad at the same time. My friend, who had just completed a lengthy tour, was lamenting that for the entire duration of the tour, he felt that the audiences just didn’t “get him” or were oblivious or apathetic to his mission as an artist. (“They just weren’t hearing me, Man.”) I attempted to reassure him that we, in improvised music, are often subjected to blank stares and less than ideal responses to much of our proud work that we may have spent a great deal of time developing. Our audience numbers and the amounts of positive feedback are considerably lower than that for other situations that usually have fewer demands on them in terms of sacrifice, intent or pure artistry. This is a fact that we have been conditioned to regard as normal and therefore have accepted.

I have often struggled with this notion myself, given that I have endeavored to be as provocative and progressive with my work as is necessary in order to inspire myself and my bands, as well as to leave the audience with imagery that would be reflective of my full artistic intentions and purpose. Producing experimental, risk-taking music and stretching conceptual parameters has been what my peers and I consider to be quite normal, and we impose very specific expectations on ourselves as well as on each other concerning how things should progress or be constructed. However, what I consider normal and acceptable has often been dismissed as “cerebral, left-of-center, “cutting edge”, and I am often called a maverick or even controversial. Although I understand the need for description, it has dawned on me that these labels, as well as my failure to connect with audiences outside my own artistic indulgences are what, on a broader scale have served to fail the music in terms of “reaching the people on a very basic level.

My current dilemma was more clearly illustrated when I played a few tracks from my latest release “9 Levels” a year ago for my sister in St. Louis. Mind you, my sister has never been one to tactfully withhold her opinion. Although never deliberately malicious, her candor has a sting to it that is often misinterpreted. After listening to said tracks, I wanted her honest overview of what she’d heard. Her response, although jarring, was quite possibly the eye/ear opener that I’d needed, and it was probably necessary that I’d heard it from a loved one as opposed to someone with a questionable agenda. She said that my work sounded like Mad Clown Music, and that it gave her the impression similar to that of a multi-act circus with the sword swallower in one ring, multiples of clowns trying to fit in a small car in the next, acrobats on the flying trapeze and trained seal, lions and elephants – all going on at once. To her, it was impossible for her to focus on any one element because so much information was bombarding her auditory senses at the same time.

At that point, I understood the reasons for the blank looks at concerts, the off-base reviews, the empty seats, the refusal of agents and promoters to book my groups, etc. What has been normal for me is anything but normal for laypersons and even some learned aficionados. It was brought to my attention that in order to make a connection with “the folk”, it is not necessary for musicians to pelt them with layers of stylized content and high concept all the time. Such displays of artistic self-indulgence are best left for schools or audiences that are comprised of primarily students or fellow musicians. We simply have to understand and accept that everyone cannot adequately decipher long-winded barrages of notes and musical content. It would be like going to a restaurant and eating a dish of one’s favorite food that had been over-seasoned with too many ingredients – after a point, it would be impossible to taste the actual food anymore as it’s flavor and intent would have been obscured by the zealous and heavy-handed overkill of too many spices.

One must consider that this is not an easy task for any contemporary improvising musician to carry out, where one’s prowess is judged based on an extreme knowledge and execution of advanced content, knowledge and achievement – all displayed with as much virtuosic flair as possible each time you play. In many music circles, anything less is considered unacceptable. But the fact remains that the only people who actually have consistent positive responses to such pyrotechnics all happen to be other musicians – none who contribute to keeping the bills paid at a venue. Most get in clubs for free and almost never buy CDs anyway. So why then should it be so important for players to play so much, all the time just so your friends can high five each other and remark of how “baad” you are?

Musicians will have to understand, in the scheme of salvaging the remaining support base for the music, that it is no longer acceptable to present music in such a fashion and that the paying public should be their primary concern – not producing music that is designed exclusively for other musicians. We will have to ask ourselves if patrons are responding favorably to well crafted and completely developed works and if they are truly being inspired by the musical stories that are being told? Are they being delivered life-changing impressions through musical organization? Or are they being bombarded with endless run-on sentences of superfluous content, as if in a firing squad where the notes are functioning as sonic bullets? Musicians would do well to produce music with both experienced and uninitiated listeners in mind, and must proceed with the knowledge that not everyone hears as we do. This is not to say that there is no longer room for intellectual excursions and reckless flights of fancy, but artists will have to me mindful of just who their targeted demographic and listener base is, or needs to be. I, for one, have no desire to be subjected to several 15 or 20 minute compositions in a row, lengthy solos, unnecessarily complicated pieces that have no discernable primary melody (yes, I’m guilty) and sullen, meandering pieces that don’t make their point. If I, a veteran musician, can no longer tolerate it, (and neither can my sister…) then I certainly can’t blame paying audiences or booking entities for not responding favorably or supporting such overwhelmingly self-indulgent output as well.

Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, Ben Webster, Miles Davis, Count Basie, Paul Desmond, Shirley Horn, etc…each made some incredibly profound statements without over saturation. Lesson learned.

Robert Glasper backstage at Oberlin College the other night greeting one of his fans, the writer’s daughter Iyesha Jenkins.

One element of our dialogue on the black audience for creative music, as well as our conversation with Nicholas Payton (scroll down for that dialogue) and his ongoing promotion of the omnibus term “BAM” relates to the need for artists to be more audience-friendly. And by that I am certainly not advocating for outright pandering to the lowest common denominator. Several examples of what is meant by being audience-friendly hit home just over the last few days. Listening to Robert Glasper’s new disc “Black Radio” (and one could make hay on the cryptic scale for that title!) leaves this writer with a sense of a contemporary artist skillfully juggling his deeply creative and heady impulses with the music of his peers and the “body” sensibilities of those sounds. Check his recent appearance on Letterman via YouTube for video/audio evidence; balance the vocals with your sense of his acoustic piano and his rhythm section’s complex pyrotechnics (dig particularly Derrick Hodge‘s bass guitar contribution), then take into account the studio audience’s raucous response to that blend. Your commentator also recalls Payton’s recent apt reaction to the work of Glasper’s longtime drummer Chris Dave‘s traps work as more akin to Baby Dodds than Tony Williams, clearly demonstrating that these contemporary musicians, though decidedly forward-thrusting, still reflect the root.

Just finished checking out Esperanza Spalding‘s latest effort, coincidentally titled “Radio Music Society.” (Is there a common theme thread to these artists’ intentions? Seems so…) Again, this writer is struck by the melding of creative impulses and canny song selection – originals seamlessly blended with gems from Wayne Shorter and Stevie Wonder for example – mixed with vocally delivered timely thematics, like emphasizing self-pride to African American youth on “Black Gold,” and once again you get the sense of a creative, uncompromising artist who has set out to successfully craft audience-friendly sensibilities.

Last night was certainly well spent at the Bohemian Caverns on DC’s bustling U Street nightlife corridor. The subject was a unit led by young tenor & soprano saxophonist Kenneth Whalum lll, a rambunctious band that included bassist Burniss Travis, pianist Kris Bowers, and the elastic pocket of drummer Jamire Williams. In front of a pleased and packed house, Whalum and company took no prisoners on the creativity scale, performing a program laden with their originals and leavened with re-workings of nuggets from the likes of Radiohead. Yet they engaged the audience and the audience – with a significant component of 20-something black folks, including plenty of women – engaged them right back. Whalum, part of the growing Memphis music dynasty of the Whalum family (led by his uncle Kirk), has worked with the likes of Common and other prominent hip hop denizens and he brings that sensibility (ala Glasper) to an uncompromising music pallet that speaks to an audience. It ain’t all about odd meters, overly complex originals and young musicians playing for themselves. More on the Bohemian Caverns in a moment; stay tuned…

At another, though decidedly related end of the scale in DC there’s another eminent audience-friendly band, the Michael Thomas Quintet. Their trumpet playing leader is deeply steeped in Blue Note lore, particularly keen on the Art Blakey–Lee Morgan axis. Together over a dozen years, this is a ruff & ready group that likewise rejects compromise, yet at the core of its hard bop proposition is a keen sense of engaging their audience. The opening line from yesterday’s Washington Post review of their March 8 hit at the Strathmore Mansion in suburban DC says it all:

If the complex music theory and technique threaten to leach all the feeling and fun from jazz, D.C. area trumpeter Michael Thomas seems determined to bring it back. Thomas’s quintet — intact after 14 years — plays classic hard bop, but avoids cerebral labyrinths, relying on riffy melodies and playful but impassioned performances to hit the listener in the gut. That approach filled the Mansion at Strathmore’s music room Thursday night with a crowhat thrilled to the quintet’s every vibrant note.

Completed the weekend (March 9-11) with Herbie Hancock at the Kennedy Center. The KC Concert Hall was packed and Herbie delivered an exceptional, groove-oriented career retrospective of sorts – ranging back to “Canteloupe Island” and “Speak Like a Child” and covering selections from his Columbia electric records with pieces like “Actual Proof”, and even working in a return to his vocorder days with “She’ll Come Running.” The master adroitly moved from acoustic piano to the latest toys in keyboard wizardry, and trotted out his “keytar” to good effect. This tour he sports a rhythm band, with James Genus on bass guitar, relative newcomer Troy Lawrence on drums (a bit of a basher on occasion; bit too much backbeat, bit short on finesse – though admittedly this was a first sighting) and most significantly the immensely gifted guitarist from Benin, Lionel Loueke. A relaxed Hancock kibitzed with his audience, joking between pieces and strolling the stage – working the room as it were, the epitome of the original point of this screed – being audience friendly, and there ain’t nothin’ wrong with that, especially when you consider audience development the #1 challenge for creative music.

Always on the read for young writers with a viewpoint on creative music, I’ve recently been exchanging Tweets with Brooklyn-based writer Angelika Beener. Ms. Beener, who at least in part comes to this music through the influence of her father, trumpeter Oliver Beener, wields one of the most probing, vibrant and positive pens its been my pleasure to encounter in a minute. She has contributed to the jazz prints, including JazzTimes where she’s written about some of her peer artists, including saxophonists Marcus Strickland and Kenneth Whalum. But as is the case with other writers, its in her blog Alternate Takes (http://alternate-takes.com) where you can sample the true heart of her writing. At Alternate Takes she’s written most recently on the rising vocalist Gregory Porter‘s new Motema release, her dear friend Robert Glasper‘s scintillating new disc “Black Radio,” and an interview with a subject not often covered in the traditional jazz prints (yet another reason to blog!), Max Roach’s lively daughter Dara Roach.

Given her writing proclivities, Angelika seemed a natural to contribute to our ongoing dialogue on the black audience for this music. Here’s what she had to say:

First off, I’d like to thank Willard Jenkins for the invitation to join in on this discussion about the Black jazz audience. I think it’s both a wonderful subject, and a great time in the music to bring it up.

Whether or not people agree, per se, with Nicholas Payton’s BAM ideology, it’s stunning to witness the amount of response and passion associated with the subject. It has become a springboard to more open and honest discussions about race and jazz, which I believe can be a move in the right direction for the music overall.

I agree a great deal with the points Atane [in our most recent dialogue post, preceding our Payton interview] made about the baton dropping between generations. I would just add that jazz is only one of the many African American gems that were seemingly not willed to us. There is an overall abandonment of Black cultural pride in my generation. Utter indifference regarding our history is evident in the glorification of an ignorance our youth seems to revel in. We’ve apparently “arrived” so much so that embracement of our history is viewed as a set back. Black youth are dropping out of high school at record speed and in record numbers, and we can sadly go on and on with disturbing statistics in a myriad of areas. There is no wonder about why there is such a small Black jazz audience.

This being said, I think Atane makes another great point regarding actual and perceived. There is a movement brewing in jazz which is enlisting a younger, Blacker audience. Most strikingly, artists like Robert Glasper and Esperanza Spalding (both of whom have released urban-leaning jazz albums this week) are ushering in this audience in significant numbers. But my mother always said, “Once jazz moved downtown, that was it.” Harlem’s jazz scene is all but ignored, and to be quite honest, most of the better jazz musicians don’t play Harlem. There is an undeniable difference in caliber of musician that generally plays in the Uptown venues and jam sessions. (I say generally, please don’t misunderstand me!) Presenters like Harlem Stage and Revive Da Live are starting to bring that stellar quality back to Harlem, which is essential, but we have a ways to go in terms of a vital scene with top notch musicians. This is a vivid illustration of what I spoke of earlier regarding the way our history is viewed: as something passé and categorical, and in terms of jazz, a place which went “out of style” in the 50s. I have no doubts that the uprooting of the music from its home was a calculated move, and we need to be just as calculative and strategic in bringing it back home.

I would be remiss not to mention the onus on our musicians to help expand the Black audience. To touch on the woman’s perspective, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve walked into a jazz venue, and had to check a nearby mirror to see if I had grown nine more heads from the looks on the faces of the typical jazz audience. That I am viewed as the odd woman out (Black and female) for embracing and enjoying my own culture says a whole lot about the state of the jazz audience. Additionally, to be able to bet that most of the musicians I am watching won’t be leaving with Black women that night says its own mouthful. We are all human beings, with a right to choose to date whomever we please, but we cannot expect to grow our audience, and run from our women. Period. I am exhausted of the “Black women don’t come to the club” thing. Blame is a dangerous and historical tool that we are unfortunately still falling for, instead of looking at the real issues on the table. We have to stop blaming our women for not supporting the music, especially when so many Black male musicians of my generation stumbled into this music themselves. (That one uncle you had who played Ramsey Lewis albums, or that high school band director who hipped you to Bud Powell.) Now all of a sudden we are so cultured that we are above affording a Black woman that same opportunity to happenstance-ly discover a piece of her heritage? White women should be as rewarded for being more “cultured” than Black women, as Black women should be blamed for being robbed of her culture. Black women have been relentlessly disinvited from the jazz community at large (let’s reflect on Miles Davis’ Someday My Prince Will Come album cover). We have to want to see our women in the clubs, and do what is necessary to make that happen. Is it a little extra work? Sure. But that’s called being Black in America. We have always had to be vigilant about education from the days of slavery, and we still do today. We have to remain vigilant.

Cultural disconnect is one of the saddest things to witness, and there are so many dynamics to consider when it comes to rectifying it. Namely, purists versus non-purists (whatever that really means). That’s a discussion for another post, I suppose, but it is a big part of the overall audience problem. We have to be willing to allow a bridging of the gap, however a musician deems artistically necessary, if we are ever going to see a Black audience develop. We don’t have to love all of it, but again, we cannot blame and condemn musicians for their artistic choices. Goodness knows this goes against the very philosophy of what jazz is. It has always been cutting-edge, and brave. We have to allow this tradition to continue, less we compromise the art and further ostracize the audience.

That’s all for now. Thank you again, Willard, for the opportunity to talk to your readership about this very important topic.

NEXT TIME: Greg Osby meditates on issues related to the audience in general… Stay tuned!

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Want to know why trumpeter Nicholas Payton is so convinced that the term JAZZ is completely outmoded, and why he suggests BAM – shorthand for Black American Music – is a more ecumenical and honest term for today’s creative music? We interviewed Nicholas on Sunday, February 19, 2012 at the 3rd annual Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival on that wide-ranging subject hours prior to Nicholas, Terell Stafford, and Brian Lynch lifting the roof off the festival and thoroughly slaying their audience with a killer Trumpet Summit. Here’s our interview, courtesy of good friend Bret Primack, The Jazz Video Guy (check his incredible inventory of videos on his The Jazz Video Guy YouTube channel).