The Art of Playing Dangerously
“No art says ‘I want to live’ better or more forcefully than jazz.”—NEA Jazz Master Stanley Crouch
Jazz is a dangerous art form. You live on the edge, held up by just a chord progression or melody (and sometimes not even that); from there you make up a musical story to tell. Right there, on stage, on command. Improvisation is the blood of jazz, and to be good at it requires being able to create that story, either as a monologue or a conversation with other instruments, and do it in a unique voice. That’s what the best jazz musicians do.
Since it is Jazz Appreciation Month (and this year we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of our NEA Jazz Masters program), we thought we would look at some of the more recent NEA Jazz Masters performances that best illustrate this incredible art of improvisation.
2022 NEA Jazz Masters Concert at SFJAZZ in San Francisco, California
We’ll start with the most recent, featuring three of the newest NEA Jazz Masters: Stanley Clarke, Donald Harrison, Jr., and Billy Hart playing Duke Ellington’s “Take the Coltrane.” Ellington wrote the song for his encounter with the great John Coltrane in 1962, the only time the two played together. The song proved a great vehicle for introducing the three newly minted NEA Jazz Masters playing together for the first time. Clarke starts off with some thoughts on bass before reverting to a blues run as Hart joins the conversation on drums, setting up a rhythm for Harrison to come blazing in on sax. A true demonstration on why they are Jazz Masters.
2019 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC
In 2019, soon-to-be-named NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington (she would receive her award in 2021), who was acting as musical director for the show as well, led a group in a medley of songs in tribute to NEA Jazz Master Stanley Crouch. The band included Terence Blanchard, Sullivan Fortner, Christian McBride, Charles McPherson, and David Murray. The interaction among the horns is especially sharp, and Fortner leads them from song to song in the medley while McBride and Carrington keep the steady beat.
2015 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City
NEA Jazz Master Carla Bley is most widely known for her composition and arrangement skills, but at the 2015 concert at which she received the award, she demonstrated her playing ability as well. With Billy Drummond, Tony Malaby, and Steve Swallow, she led the band on her song “Ups and Downs” with a Thelonious Monk-like precision, finding the space between the soloing sax’s notes to accent.
2013 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City
For the finale of the 2013 concert, NEA Jazz Masters Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, and Jimmy Cobb (who acted as the house band for the concert) were joined by Paquito D’Rivera and David Liebman on dueling clarinets to take on NEA Jazz Master Mile Davis’ “All Blues.” (Bonus fact: Carter, Cobb, and Liebman played in three distinctly different Miles Davis groups during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.)
2012 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City
NEA Jazz Master Wynton Marsalis leads the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on NEA Jazz Master Horace Silver’s “Señor Blues” with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire (now a major voice in jazz) and NEA Jazz Masters Toshiko Akiyoshi, Candido Camero, and David Lieberman.
And be sure to celebrate International Jazz Day tomorrow, April 30!
