I am no jazz buff. I liked Whiplash (with some serious reservations), but didn’t know enough to really judge the music being presented. It’s not like watching a movie about Alexander Hamilton or Stalin or Elvis, where I would be all over incorrect interpretations like a panther out of a tree.
My pal Glenn Kenny, who is brilliant on music in general, linked to a FASCINATING and in-depth (putting it mildly) examination of jazz – in particular the role of the drummer in jazz – and the problem with its portrayal in Whiplash. The essay is by pianist and composer and member of jazz-trio The Bad Plus, Ethan Iverson. I cannot speak to the validity of his observations. But I do know that I love people who know stuff and approach a topic they know well in a way that provides insight for me, the ignorant reader.
It’s long. As always, I recommend not skimming.
This is just excellent.
Isn’t it fabulous?
Gosh, I don’t know where to begin. This was an excellent and thought-provoking essay. I would describe myself as a devout music enthusiast, especially when it comes to jazz, so I loved the idea of the “devotional” nature of great musicians and music. “The devotional attitude of African rhythm is one reason it’s so compelling. African rhythm seeks ecstasy through communion, not just with God but with everyone in the immediate vicinity. You don’t practice it. You plug into the ancestors and your reason for living and it’s there.” That is such a beautiful thought that I read it over and over. I don’t think I’ve ever read a better explanation or description of the feeling I bump up against when I’m truly moved by a piece of music, or a live performance. As a listener, my experience is ultimately muted compared to the actual musicians, but that ‘ecstasy through communion’ is very real. I am a huge fan of jazz drummers, and I can bore someone to tears reciting a litany of great players and performances–both live and recorded. Given that, I am in complete agreement with Mr. Iverson about the difference between a showman drummer and a drummer focused on the tune…on the swing…on the heart of the piece. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate ‘athletic/technical’ drummers—I love Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Dennis Chambers, and many others who have definitely been BIG drummers at times in their careers–but it’s the feel players who really hit me where I live. As I have gotten older, it is the nuance and communion in music that most entices me. It’s a little like the difference between the gymnastic nature of pornographic or hookup sex, and the languid, if still heated, ecstasy of sex with someone who you really love. They’re both great, but one is infinitely better. Jazz is fundamentally an African-American cultural phenomenon–that is inarguable–and I agree with some of Mr. Iverson’s feelings about white usurpation of that idiom in general, and in movies like Whiplash, in particular. On the other hand, I don’t feel the need to apologize, as a white man, for feeling more love and, perhaps, a better innate understanding of jazz than many African-Americans. I think it is a real problem that African-Americans are losing their connection to their own cultural history when it comes to music like jazz and the blues, and I think it’s a LOT more complicated than whether they are teaching those forms of music in predominantly black schools. To me, it’s a real loss for African-American heritage that this disconnection has occurred. For myself, I admit that, as much as I love the great black jazz musicians of the 50s and 60s(and beyond), I just don’t get hip-hop. It doesn’t appeal to me, and it doesn’t speak to me. That’s fine, but it might also hint at why many of hip-hop’s fans don’t reciprocate in their feelings for jazz and the blues. As Mr. Iverson says, jazz and hip-hop are not the same thing, and they definitely have different relationships to the culture. Perhaps the ‘black sovereignty’ he asserts that hip-hop protects so vigorously, and implies jazz has lost, is one of the reasons so many younger blacks seem less interested in jazz and it’s meaning in American music. Music is for all of us, but jazz is a gift from African-American culture to the world, and that shouldn’t be forgotten. Well, I’ll stop before I bore, or offend, anyone more than I already have. Just a great read–thanks so much for linking to it.
DBW – I was hoping you would weigh in!
// and I think it’s a LOT more complicated than whether they are teaching those forms of music in predominantly black schools. //
Well, first of all, I’m not sure who thinks that jazz appreciation is taught to white kids in suburban schools. Come on. The guy who wrote in to Iverson saying that it was a problem of education clearly has no idea what is going on in the public school system today – suburban, inner city, anywhere else – arts programs have been cut across the board. Nobody’s learning about Michelangelo, let alone Miles Davis.
This is an issue of losing the thread of continuity in a culture … it’s happened too with current black hip-hop artists who hate Elvis – who refuse to give him props, blah blah blah, when back in the day, all of the black artists around Elvis – were thrilled because he made it possible for them to move onto mainstream radio. Little Richard said that explicitly. “Before Elvis, I was never on the radio. After Elvis, I was.” The impact was huge. Now, though, it’s just seen as a white man stealing the black man’s sound. There is a serious lack of complexity in that attitude.
The big problem with Elvis – and this was not his fault – was the he became so huge that he obliterated his own influences, and he obliterated his imitators, and he basically obliterated everything. ELVIS knew what he was paying tribute to – but music writers at the time had no idea about African-American culture, or rhythm and blues – let alone gospel – so they had zero curiosity in asking him about all of it (and he would have been able to tell them). But Elvis became so huge that it seemed like he CREATED all of this. He didn’t. He never said he did.
I get it, I do, and the white establishment does not have a good track record with this stuff. But it’s a fantasy that white kids are sitting around in their music classes in high school learning about jazz drummers and listening to jazz music. Nobody’s learning jack-squat about the arts anymore – we used to have “humanities” in high school – but they don’t do those anymore either. I am so grateful for that class – it was a survey course, but we got it all – from El Greco to the Harlem Renaissance. At LEAST you get a sense of the timeline.
Like anything, jazz has to be passed on to a new generation by those who love it. It’s a minority taste – but those who are passionate about it can teach others how to hear it, what it is, why it is so damn important. And why a movie like Whiplash gets so much of it wrong – or ,at least, is just a SLIVER of what jazz is all about.
Have you seen the Chet Baker biopic yet? Born to Be Blue? I reviewed for Ebert. Would be curious to hear your thoughts.
Yes! My son is a jazz keyboardist, and (most of) his friends are also jazz musicians–they support themselves as musicians, and they have to hustle for every gig, because the big bucks don’t go to jazz performances. But they are easily the happiest, most energized group of young people I’ve ever known–always learning, always growing, taking delight in all of it. “Devotional” is perfect.
What a beautiful observation – really happy for your son and his friends. It’s so great to pursue something for the love of it!
What a great article! It reminded me of another, much shorter piece by Richard Brody that I read two years ago when Whiplash came out and wholeheartedly agreed with:http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/whiplash-getting-jazz-right-movies. He alludes to the importance of “devotional” (such a great word) community style of playing, and at the very least the importance of jamming with others. Brody also lays bare the spurious story about Charlie Parker that drives the fictional teacher’s rationale for his abuse of power. Brody also amusingly reflects on how Buddy Rich is not usually seen as an inspiration for aspiring jazz drummers. But what I loved best is his observation that there seems to be precious little actual love for music in this movie: “‘Whiplash’ honors neither jazz nor cinema; it’s a work of petty didacticism that shows off petty mastery, and it feeds the sort of minor celebrity that Andrew aspires to”.
HelenaG – ha! I remember Brody’s piece – it was great!
// Brody also lays bare the spurious story about Charlie Parker that drives the fictional teacher’s rationale for his abuse of power. //
God, that drove me crazy, the way that story was used.
I also had a couple of disagreements with people who saw the teacher in Whiplash as a guy who wanted to make his students great, so whatever it takes, blah blah. These people who thought he was a good teacher are not artists, have never been artists, will never be artists. I was like, “Are you kidding me? The guy is a sociopath and should not be allowed to teach.”
I’ve taken classes with acting teachers who were like that guy. Teachers like that inspire much devotion, and their students are often extremely arrogant – as though the tough-ness of the class and the histrionics of the teacher makes them better than other actors. It’s a cult. “We alone know the proper way to go about this. We go WAY deeper than other people.”
It was impossible to talk about Whiplash in any even mildly critical way during its initial release. It was like Birdman. Now, I actually despised Birdman – and I didn’t despise Whiplash or anything like that – but both films created a messianic devotion to it that made it impossible to discuss rationally. I was very thankful to those like Brody who were able to poke holes in the bullshit.
//Teachers like that inspire much devotion…It’s a cult…”We go WAY deeper than other people.”//
So true. It’s almost like Stockholm syndrome. Because if you don’t empathize with and identify with the teacher’s methods, how do you rationalize accepting his or her abuse?