I’m listening to an interview Ethan Iverson conducted with Keith Jarrett for the BBC. This is great hearing him talk about the American quartet, a huge influence for the Bad Plus. If you’re into jazz and respect an intelligent interview, then check it out.
This will only be up for a few days on the bbc site.
Here’s the link for Jazz on 3.
The other day I bought “Money Jungle”, the 1962 Blue Note album featuring Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. George Wein calls them a “triumvirate” on the liner notes as it’s quite a meeting of giants. I was amazed at how modern the whole album sounds, especially the opening track “Money Jungle”. Most of the compositions are by Ellington and are much more abrasive and free sounding than his most famous hits like “A train” or “Satin Doll”. Often I’m guilty of dismissing Ellington as too mainstream or standard sounding, but this album completely upsets that notion.
In The Drummer’s Time by Rick Mattingly, Max Roach describes the circumstances surrounding the title track “Money Jungle”:
On every piece, he would give us a lead sheet that just gave the basic melody and harmony, and it was left up to us to be creative and do something with it. But he would give us a picture. For This piece, he said, ‘Think of a city like New York and all the skyscrapers are tree trunks, but they are barely visible because of all the money flowing down the side of the buildings like foliage. That’s the money jungle. And Crawling around on the streets are serpents who have their heads up; these are agents and people who have exploited artists. Play that along with the music.’
So maybe there’s not as much money flowing in New York, but this quotation seemed particularly relevant today. And it definitely got Roach and Mingus fired up. Have a listen below.
