Draw! The Art of the Jam, Part I

I remember taking a legal philosophy class where we dealt with the concept of a "meta-question." I figured it's about time that I tackle a "meta-topic" here-- the jazz jam session. I really believe that someone could write a dissertation on this topic, so at the very least this will take me a couple of posts...and it may not be entirely sequential so please be lenient :-)

The jam session is, in my opinion, the central nervous system of jazz. It exists in every town and in every country where people play jazz. It has existed for at least a century, and probably a lot longer. In fact, if one were to calculate the total number of notes played at every jam session in history, that number would be roughly 10 times the global economy! Ok, I made that last part up. Seriously though, these things are pretty prolific. Jazz is a social music, and whether you're new to the scene and want to establish yourself and learn who the players are and what they're about, or you're a grizzled vet and want to see old friends and scope out new talent, you'll head to a jam session.

But jam sessions are also complex animals, managing to be both an Esperanto version of "We Are the World" and an episode of Fight Club rolled into one. The jam session has other names as well, including the slightly-less-inviting "cutting session." And while I'm no etymologist, that seems like a pretty accurate description as the musicians literally cut away at each other on the bandstand until only the best players are left standing. I'm often intrigued by how the audience only hears/sees the music, unaware of the old (and often epic) ritual taking place before their eyes. I suppose it's perceptible through the energy of the music...

Obviously, jazz has many sides. Sometimes it's gentle, sometimes plaintive, melancholy or even a little goofy (though still really hip :-)). And sometimes it has an almost violent ferocity, which I believe is forged in jam sessions.

I'll finish this segment by describing my first experience at a real jam session. Growing up in the Boston suburbs I had a lot of exposure to jazz-- great teachers and school programs, easy access to Berklee and a steady stream of jazz greats who came to perform at Boston clubs. But it had been cushy. So in the 1993 I decided to give the "bigger" scene a shot, and I hit Wally's. Wally's is a Boston institution, a hole-in-the-wall located in the South End/Roxbury neighborhoods, and has been a proving ground for decades. Legend has it that drumming revolutionary Tony Williams played there regularly until he joined Miles Davis' trailblazing 1960's quintet...

In later years, the best players from Berklee and New England Conservatory would serve as the house band for the Sunday afternoon jam session. Branford Marsalis was there in the 1980s, followed by Antonio Hart, Christian McBride and Roy Hargrove. By the time I got there, the group consisted of Teodross Avery, Aaron Goldberg, Reuben Rogers and Mark Simmons.

I had never played at that level before, and I received a thorough butt-kicking every time I set foot in the place. They would call obscure tunes, or would take traditional tunes and make them virtually unrecognizable by playing them at ridiculously fast tempos. Sometimes they would throw in a double-time feel (making the tune seem twice as fast) or introduce more complex metric modulations-- basically all of the things the top players were experimenting with and attempting to add to their vocabularies.

Sometimes you'd be forced to "battle" a far superior horn player, trading improvisational choruses in a way that felt like playing a musical version of the basketball game of HORSE-- match the shot or get off of the stage/court. And there were unwritten rules of conduct and competency that were enforced: if you played too long, the rhythm section would literally stop playing! My hands would sweat so much that my fingers would slide off the keys, and I could never sleep after a Wally's session from the excess adrenaline...

So if you've hung in this far I'll give you a breather :-) That's an opening take on the jazz jam session under the microscope. I'll be coming back to this often as New York has the greatest jam session scene in the world...and I'd love to hear your experiences either as a player or a listener, so please drop me a line or leave a comment!

Old Friends, New Music

From the "Road Not Taken Category" (or more accurately, "A Detour" :-))...

I just attended a beautiful show at the Village Vanguard entitled "The 3 Cohens Sextet". It featured siblings Anat Cohen on tenor sax and clarinet, Yuval Cohen on soprano sax, and Avishai Cohen on trumpet. The stellar rhythm section consisted of Aaron Goldberg on piano, Matt Penman on bass, and Gregory Hutchinson on drums.

Yuval Cohen is a special story for me. When I was at Berklee College of Music in Boston in the mid-90's, Yuval and I became great friends as we were both students of saxophone legend Joe Viola. Yuval, while a far more advanced player than I, was always gracious and a wonderful friend. I spent a lot of time picking his brain about saxophone technique and playing sessions, liberally interspersed with games of chess and basketball...through Yuval I met his younger siblings, Anat and Avishai, both prodigious talents who also came to study at Berklee from Israel. My family even had the pleasure of hosting them for a wonderful day at the ocean in Gloucester, Massachusetts. One of the things I remember Yuval telling me was his dream of one day writing original music for, and starting a band with, his family.

Unfortunately, what was a very promising start to a music career was halted when Yuval developed a medical condition during an international tour that left him unable to use his hands. When I last visited him in Israel, he had stopped playing completely and had begun a career in, coincidentally enough, law...

Well, Yuval is back and then some. With a lot of hard work he regained the ability to play and has subsequently put his legal work on hold to resume a thriving musical life. He has formed his dream band with Anat and Avishai (both of whom are now at the top of the New York and international jazz scene), and "The 3 Cohens" are in the midst of a week-long date at the most storied venue in jazz. He is truly an inspiration to me.

So, onto the music! I attended the 11pm show on Wednesday, and was thrilled by a generous six song set. The evening featured music by all of the Cohens, including an uptempo arrangement of "Ornithology" by Avishai, Yuval's innovative re-harmonization of "Love and the Weather," and Anat's original composition, "Yuvali." All three Cohens displayed a remarkable virtuosity on their respective instruments, but that's par for the course in the upper echelons of the jazz world. What sets them apart-- as individual players and as a unit-- is their warmth and communication, which seems to feed their creativity as well. I can't remember the last time that I witnessed a group of musicians so attuned to each other. In a music scene renowned for it's detachment, the Cohens were rooting each other on, dancing, and letting out low whistles after particularly cool solos. And it translated into greater creative energy for each of them, for the rest of the rhythm section, and engaged the audience. Truly a pleasure.

As for the rest of the band, the superlatives get a little old, so I'll leave it that they are each "monsters" (that's a high compliment in jazz parlance). Matt Penman and Greg Hutchinson are some of the most skilled, creative and in-demand musicians on the jazz scene today. And Aaron Goldberg is simply amazing. Aaron and I actually go back further than Yuval and I do: we played in a school jazz band together in 1989-1990. He was good when he started, really good in short order, and soon became amazing (simultaneously attending Harvard while the rest of us were slogging through music school). He is now one of the world's leading voices on jazz piano, and he thrilled the audience and his band-mates with spell-binding solos and sensitive interpretations of the originals...

The 3 Cohens have released several recordings, and I highly recommend them all, particularly their latest, "Braid" (which also features Aaron Goldberg). They bring joy to their music and you will love it.

I'll close by saying that even though my evening was about the music and warm reunions (they are still the same good-natured and humble people they were as students), I couldn't help but think about what an inspiring story Yuval, Anat and Avishai are. They have worked their way from being complete unknowns from another country to trailblazers on the New York jazz scene, they have had overcome all sorts of adversity and odds, and their love and support for each other is apparent and heart-warming. I thought about meeting them as kids almost 15 years ago, and it makes me wonder what other special talent is hiding in unusual places...

Congratulations again, guys. You sound wonderful. Joe Viola would be very proud...