Tonight I watched Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis, about which I have blogged before. It's a superb show for jazz fans. This episode features three tenor sax players who span the history of modern jazz. Benny Golson played with John Coltrane when they were teenagers. He tells a delicious story about meeting Charlie Parker. Coltrane carried Parker's sax after the show, and asked him all sorts of questions about reeds and mouth pieces and such. Both of them went home and put the new information to use. After a couple of weeks, Coltrane called Golson: "did you notice any difference?" When Golson said no, Trane replied: "well, neither did I." Maybe genius isn't in the choice of reeds.
The show also featured Chris Potter, who has played with Steely Dan, and Marcus Strickland, a young rising star. All three played a set with Lewis's fine band, and together joined Lewis at the end. With some dismay I admit that the younger player clearly had the edge. I am starting to suspect that it's too late for me to "learn to work the saxophone."
Jazz suffers more what all musical genres suffer a little: the burden of hero worship. Jazz suffered a collapse after 1965, and though it has recovered, no figure past that point has achieved the fame of the jazz gods like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, etc. A lot of older players suffered for this. I faintly recognized Benny Golson, but couldn't place him. A little research on line filled the gap. He played on Art Blakey's album Moanin'. I have been collecting Blakey cds, but I have chosen ones with Wayne Shorter playing sax. I am going to have to get the ones with Golson on them.
This hero worship is something of a tragedy for fine players like Potter and Strickland. But make no mistake: jazz is alive.
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