Jazz for aficionados

Miles:

That could well be true. In my case, Bird and Dizzy were never on my list of favorite players. Sometimes these guys seemed to be playing the practice / exercise book. At least To my untrained/not-hip ear.

Corroboree:

Interesting, but a futile effort to save / preserve a doomed culture. That's the usual routine. Europeans come to a land, destroy the indigenous people, their culture, and the wildlife, then centuries later, go through all sort of BS to 'save' it. Miles was probably tired of that also.

NOTHING, survives contact with American(western european) culture. As soon as we see the Golden Arches in North Korea, victory will be complete.

Nice post. O-10 always aims to educate.

Cheers

When it came to jazz with an African twist, nobody could do it like "Art Blakey". Every time I see this LP cover, I know what I'm going to hear; the best African drumming in or out of Africa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu_L5CNlo60&list=PLAFA1557EAD0A6D6D

Drumming in Africa was meant to go with dance, they had a different dance for everything, including religious worship and celebration. I had a friend who belonged to Katherine Dunham's dance troupe, and I saw them practice a lot. African drumming and dance go together like ham and eggs, once you get used to them together, you can't have one without the other; "Now that you've brought my ham, where's my eggs," or vice versa. This is my favorite number by my favorite African trumpet player, "Hugh Masekela". What we see here dramatizes "Stimela" in dance, I find it captivating. This choreography is a tribute to Kathryn Dunham".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SuwmE3JM0A

Here we have the "authentic drumming" from Haiti. There is a sacred museum of sorts in Haiti where the curator has these sacred drumbeats from Africa that go back before slavery. They are stored in a kind of code; this drumming goes with the dance it's meant to accompany. In order to put the drum code and dance together, he would have to travel with you to Cuba and Brazil for sure, but they have to make a match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqP0s9MBuoo&list=RDrqP0s9MBuoo#t=7



This dance in Cuba might to the uninitiated might look like flinging around and jumping to the beat, but it's just as structured as any European dance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRNEVAzaX9s

I suppose the Cuban dancers come closest to what I saw practiced by the Katherine Dunham dancers. No that's not a mismatch, Katherine was a dance "anthropologist", in addition to being a dance teacher. All of these dances originated in Africa where she studied. What I saw practiced by the Katherine Dunham dancers was better than anything I've seen at the movies or on television when it came to African dance. There was an exhibit with a long film of them practicing at the museum in St. Louis ages ago, and tears came to my eyes when I realized I was young lean and flexible, just like those dancers, when this was being filmed, and I recognized some of the dancers.

Enjoy the music.

I think there is an important difference between a listener tiring of a certain style of music and an artist "tiring" of it because, as an artist, he/she needs to move forward and continue growing and evolving. Now, a case can easily be made for why that should also be the case for fans of a music, but the listener always has the luxury of being complacent; no great burden being a listener. Miles was the quintessential artist as far as this goes; always reaching and searching. Even when the listener does continue to stay lockstep with an artist's growth and evolution, the artist's previous work never stops being relevant.

This was, IMO, possibly the greatest jazz band that ever was and is music that never stops being hip:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kJq3j4rA0o0

*****This dance in Cuba might to the uninitiated might look like flinging around and jumping to the beat, but it's just as structured as any European dance.******

Count me among the uninitiated.

*****but it's just as structured as any European dance.*****

Ballet is structured. No one can critique the Cuban dancer. Did she do it well? Who knows. As you said, she was just jumping around. The drumming was not related to what she was doing.

Cheers

Haiti Drum Ensemble:
Nonsensical to this western brain. Again, what is this?

Dance Anthropology: Part of the attempt to create 'instant' culture and history. Usually out of thin air.

Beware of these folks who spend their lives trying to make Africa something it wasn't.

I bet you own every Olatunji record. :)

Cheers