I actually like Gene Ammons myself , esp. when he dips into r&b much of what I consider folk music . Just not all day.
Telling a story is the heart and soul of jazz and as any great storyteller
will tell you , the only story you really have is your own .
The audience is moved by emotion and a player that has to think of what
he is doing technically may tell a story but it won’t be his own.
One of the biggest"A-ha" moments in my life took place at a Bob Hope Show in Vietnam . As a Platoon Sgt. I was one of the few allowed to carry
a weapon so I had to attend and keep the boys in line .
The usual parade of lame jokes and half-naked Hollywood starlets etc grinding it out etc went on for about 90 minutes to semi-obscene calls, grunts and clapping from the 5.000 troops in the audience .
Last act was a B-List Standards singer named Jack Jones, an established singer, but I’m sure not 50 people there had ever heard of him or the standards he sang .
He came out on stage and simply said, Hi, Fellas, I’m Jack Jones and I’d
like to sing a few songs for you .
He sang 3 standards , I don’t remember which, and as he walked off the stage 5, 000 troops sprang to their feet and as one gave him a TREMENDOUS roar , 3 times that any starlet got and it continued for a good 5 minutes !
This was well into the war and most of those troops were dredged out of the ghetto’s, rural south , Puerto Rico etc ,were poorly educated and drug use(hash)was epidemic .
Yet these lowest of the low knew what all humans instinctually know,
there is no substitute for authenticity .
Goes double in music as that is also instinctual .
Telling a story is the heart and soul of jazz and as any great storyteller
will tell you , the only story you really have is your own .
The audience is moved by emotion and a player that has to think of what
he is doing technically may tell a story but it won’t be his own.
One of the biggest"A-ha" moments in my life took place at a Bob Hope Show in Vietnam . As a Platoon Sgt. I was one of the few allowed to carry
a weapon so I had to attend and keep the boys in line .
The usual parade of lame jokes and half-naked Hollywood starlets etc grinding it out etc went on for about 90 minutes to semi-obscene calls, grunts and clapping from the 5.000 troops in the audience .
Last act was a B-List Standards singer named Jack Jones, an established singer, but I’m sure not 50 people there had ever heard of him or the standards he sang .
He came out on stage and simply said, Hi, Fellas, I’m Jack Jones and I’d
like to sing a few songs for you .
He sang 3 standards , I don’t remember which, and as he walked off the stage 5, 000 troops sprang to their feet and as one gave him a TREMENDOUS roar , 3 times that any starlet got and it continued for a good 5 minutes !
This was well into the war and most of those troops were dredged out of the ghetto’s, rural south , Puerto Rico etc ,were poorly educated and drug use(hash)was epidemic .
Yet these lowest of the low knew what all humans instinctually know,
there is no substitute for authenticity .
Goes double in music as that is also instinctual .