As I think on “What does jazz appreciation mean to me?” I trip over one word like a poorly placed rug: appreciation. In my initial roll call on the place this music holds in my life, the word “love” stands out. But not being one to offer a blanket sentiment casually, I have to ask what does love mean? It certainly isn’t casual: It’s a verb in my mind. It’s active and inquisitive; an ever evolving layering of history, meaning and memory. Love initiates a tuning up, an assessment, and like this very music, inspires a deep look within. It’s akin to the fine work of polishing a lens.
In the polishing, I find my own heritage — Irish Catholic — to be a resonant sounding board for creating context, even rhyme and reason, for my pull to this African American art form. A few years ago, I happened upon an essay, “Music and Memory in Ireland” (Steve Coleman) that had a phrase that stopped me:
“It was the two blind Dunne brothers who first split my darkness open.” (Tony Mac Mahon, 2009).
A fiddle and banjo duo, performing Irish music and singing “The Broken Pledge,” cast a spell on Mahon. He was 10 years old when he heard the Dunne Brothers and was forever changed.
I too was about that age when I heard Marshall Royal, Count Basie’s lead alto player, on my mother’s turntable in 1972. Royal’s sound rang out with sounds of truth. The Basie band had a swing that spoke only of the joy of life: both serious and exuberant. As a 9-year-old hearing that band, I knew in my bones that this was a significant moment: My darkness had been split open.
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My mother passed away the next year. Going through that particular part of my life was indeed challenging, hectic and more. Yet, I kept that Basie sound in my mind, like a talisman. Its fierce swing, and Marshall Royal’s swagger became a touchstone. Going forward in life, I am grateful that there have been other artists who have, in their way, opened a portal to beauty and truth for me.
What I have begun to learn, through my Irish culture, and through this music called jazz, is that both rely on the music and words standing the test of time. Like a time traveler, music brings much more to the listener than just melody and lyric. It transmits history, legacy, stories, human emotions, resolved and not resolved.
Do we each truly live in the “now?” I’m not convinced. I think as listeners to jazz, an array of times, in addition to the present, are held within each of us. A song from a hundred years ago can connect with you just as powerfully in the “now” as it did in the “then.” And you can be forever changed by it, as I was hearing Marshall Royal for the first time.
In my view, the music exists both synchronously and nonsynchronously, which provides a magical portal through which to experience the world and the people within it. I am deeply grateful for the music jazz. For me, it’s been a compass, providing me directions to go in and to explore; a way to find solace and to soften sadness or frustration while inspiring me to keep my head up. Jazz is a deeply honest and vibrant music and it has brought much joy and wonder into my life.
Jayn Pettingill is a Bay Area native. As a saxophonist she has studied with Anthony Braxton, Frank Morgan and Art Lande. She’s performed throughout the Bay Area, the United States and Canada. Her project, Kaijuscope explores her love of science fiction and Pacific Rim motifs and legends. Monday/Wednesday/Friday, Jayn is the host of KCSM’s “Morning Cup of Jazz.”
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
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