A column about “Jazz” in Bangkok by Zen Delta
This new column on jazz in general and jazz in Bangkok in particular will come at you as the news arrives and as new developments in the business of jazz push the writer into action. There will be features and gossip and chat about not much at all if you are not a jazz fan, but plenty for the truly jazz-minded.

We kick off with an emphasis on jazz guitarists and bass players too, but we will wander the ether looking for all there is both local and global out there in the wider world of jazz.

In Jazz, The Bas(s)ics Can Easily Go Unnoticed

Charlie Mingus was a great composer and so was Blues legend Willie Dixon writing standards that you still hear today in jazz and in the blues. Both were bass players. That alone makes them special because bass players usually like to take a back seat and mind their own business, happy just to play well and in time.

And to be fair they invariably go almost unnoticed by the less-tuned-in listeners despite the fact that a good jazz unit is really only as good as the bass player and the drummer – over which the featured instrument soloist and singers have the luxury of playing/singing.

And as for composing, many bass players feel it may not be their place to be so bold and thus let the stars or non-bass-playing bandleaders get on with it.

Not much different here in Bangkok I’m afraid. But there is one notable exception.

Not be rude but when I ever go to check out the very fine ROL JAZZ TRIO when they play, it is because I want to see and hear the bass player who happens to be one of the best contemporary jazz writers in Asia, and who is certainly producing world-class jazz tunes well worth your time.

He is a busy man working to feed the world’s less fortunate by day and rushing home to his wife and bass of an evening finding time to write on his travels and then get his new tunes rehearsed with the other guys in the trio whenever he is back in town. That’s a dedicated player and composer and the beauty of the story is that his tunes often outclass the jazz standards the band delivers of an evening.

And a very fine player he is too, favoring a smaller double bass with its origins in the nineteenth century in Czechoslovakia if I am not mistaken.

He is at the very least a very good reason to go check out the ROL Trio right here in town. They play Tokyo Joe’s and the Foreign Correspondents’ Club. Click on the venues for more details.

And tell them we sent you!

HOT FRETS – A Look At The World Of The Jazz Guitar

We guitar players are always looking for The Man to listen to so we can steal the best licks in the business and get up there with the real greats once our chops kick in after a lifetime of wood-shedding! The idea is if you hear the best coming at you from them speakers, some of its gonna have to rub off and get you kick-started off that latest plateau, to quote the Reverend Cecil.

I just bought Kurt Rosenwinkel’s new album Deep Song on the Verve label over at the bitty record store on the Phrom Phong BTS SkyBridge and it’s a cooking jazz album to be sure. And Kurt is a great already and up there with some of the finest ever guitar players.

But so many truly gifted players get passed by and it’s my job to track down the one’s that got away so you can buy an album that might just scare the pants off you! And there is one guy out there who is a bit of a well kept secret and I want you and I to change that. I’m speaking of Jerry Hahn. Jerry has played burning jazz guitar with Gary Burton, John Handy, and recently with Ginger Baker among others. He is a jazz master of whom noted players as Pat Metheny will attest to as their favorites when asked. Why is it he’s been seemingly forgotten? He put out a first class jazz CD called “Time Changes” several years ago, and within the past year has released a solo guitar CD that will astound anyone who listens to it! His work can be found through a search on the web, or visit his site at www.jerryhahn.com. Once you hear him, you’ll never forget him. And tell your friends too.

Hendrix Jazz Connection

One guitar player who did not get way was Jimi Hendrix, although he did sadly check out a little too early for guitar lovers’ liking. But the only players I have ever heard sneer at the talent Hendrix demonstrated are jazz guitarists: “Oh yeah…a great showman” is a typical comment.

Jimi Hendrix’s impact on rock music is clear. Take a trip to Cleveland’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame and check out the entire floor devoted to Hendrix to see the proof of that. He single-handedly invented heavy metal while also introducing terms like “Purple Haze,” “Foxy Lady” and all while playing the guitar with his teeth! Nice trick, Jimi. But while that hallowed institution on Lake Erie seems more devoted to Jimi’s pop hits and memorabilia, there’s another side of Hendrix’s legacy that is often overlooked by the mainstream press, pop archivists and other shortsighted scribes.

That’s Jimi’s connection to jazz.

Consider first that throughout his brief but stellar career, Hendrix performed in concert with a highly interactive trio (either the Experience with Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel Redding on bass or the Band of Gypsies with Buddy Miles on drums and Billy Cox on bass). The interactive nature of both of these units allowed for much input from the rhythm section (particularly Mitch Mitchell in the early Experience days) from bar to bar (a quality of all jazz trios). Plus, the live format was wide open to stretching, which produced some extremely risk-taking improvisations from Jimi that occured spontaneously and varied radically from night to night (another quality of jazz bands).

Next, consider Hendrix’s indirect influence on jazz, which is huge considering the scores of guitarists and instrumentalists of every stripe that he influenced in the late ’60s…aspiring players who went on to become formidable forces in jazz themselves during the ’80s and ’90s- John Scofield, Mike Stern, Bill Frisell, Branford (but not Wynton) Marsalis, Dave Stryker, Robin Eurbanks, Christian McBride, Bobby Previte, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Al Di Meola, Tim Hagans, Steve Smith, Jaco Pastorius…the list goes on.

And consider that Tony Williams left Miles Davis’ band in 1968 to put together a group of his own that was inspired by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and that Miles himself would heavily emulate the Hendrix-Sly Stone aesthetic on his own early excursions into electric music. Given those factors, it might also be said that Jimi single-handedly invented fusion music as well (just check out “If Six Was Nine,” “Third Stone From The Sun,” “Up From The Skies” and “Still Raining Still Dreaming” to see where that’s coming from).

And, of course, we are left to speculate about collaborations that never happened that might’ve pointed to a new direction in Jimi’s career — with Gil Evans, with Miles himself - had Hendrix not checked out on September 18, 1970 at the startlingly young age of 27.

So dig. Was Jimi a jazz player? Did he have an influence on jazz? Or was he just a psychedelic showman who couldn’t play over changes to save his socks?

Listen Up is all I got to say!

Zen Delta is Creative Director of ACMEBROADC@ST MARKETING SERVICES which specializes in providing writing, editing, graphic design, printing, promotion + publicity services as well as publishing, web design, photography, film and music production. Contact: postmaster@acmebroadcast.tvheaven.com.

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Bangkok Jungle would like to welcome Zen Delta and his “Listen Up!” jazz column. If you liked his column, please leave a comment below.

This entry was posted Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005 and was filed under Jungle News, Listen Up!. RSS 2.0 feed. Trackbacks have been temporary removed.