Bryce Goyer Second Reading Post
March 07, 2018, by Bryce
#Critiques and Support of Coltrane’s “Avant-Garde” Jazz
I have always enjoyed reading critiques of things, mainly movies or TV shows, but I also enjoy reading reviews of music. I find that even if I agree or don’t agree with the reviews and critiques, I gain more of an understanding of whatever is being reviewed. I enjoyed reading reviews of this “Anti-Jazz” movement of John Coltrane because they helped give me an understanding of his style of jazz, as well as the typical style of jazz during this time period. This new wave of “avant-garde jazz”, from what I understand, was almost the antithesis of what traditional, swing jazz was. The three articles that critiqued this new jazz movement build off of each other, with Leonard Feather opening his article with praise of John Tynan’s critique of “the musical noises currently being peddled in theme of jazz”, and three people writing in “Cords and Discords” about their appreciation of Feather’s stance on the matter (Tynan).
I thought that Tynan’s piece in “Take 5” did the best job really explaining to an unexperienced reader (such as myself) about what this new wave of music being called jazz really is. Tynan is reacting to the music of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy, musicians who he has recently listened to at the Hollywood’s Renaissance Club. He calls this music “anti-jazz” as he views it as going against the normal conventions of the jazz he has come to recognize,“It is my old-fashioned notion that there should be discernible rapport and working unity between soloist and rhythm section , that each should complement the other, transforming individual effort into a collective bed of delivering what I have come to expect of good jazz- the elusive element, swing.” (Tynan) Tynan says that these new musicians are “deliberately destroying” this elusive element and in doing so their music is on “an anarchist course” that he terms “anti-jazz.” (Tynan) These terms seem to be a very strong way of addressing a new wave of music, but it seems almost familiar. The strong animosity of Tynan over the changes of jazz music being played reminds me of how strongly feel about music currently. When an artist changes their sound, when a member leaves a band, when a genre starts to shift towards something new, a lot of fans tend to favor the older reincarnations of the music.
I also enjoyed the fact that we were able to see the other side of this discussion, that we could read Coltrane and Dolphy’s response to this critiques. They don’t seem particularly angry at the critical responses their music has gotten. The most resounding takeaway of their response is that they’re not trying to revolutionize the jazz genre, they’re just simply playing what they enjoy. They also wish that the critics would try to understand what they’re writing about, and if they can’t understand it, talk to someone who does. Coltrane believes that this search for understanding is essential to criticism and music. It’s this universal theme of understanding that Coltrane leaves us on, essentially connecting criticism with music. I was shocked that after the passionate criticism leveled on Coltrane’s music, he can view it all with such a positive outlook.
I really enjoyed looking at both sides of this new wave of “anti-Jazz”. It helped flush out this style of music more, understand how it was different from earlier jazz, as well as where it was coming from.