A few years ago, I wrote this for my favorite class back in college, Intro to Jazz. I decided to post this on iHD in memory of Guru.

“Where do I start?” was the first question I asked myself on how I would begin to conquer a genre that is so rich in culture. It has transcended time and expanded through generations. I had three logical choices mapped out in my head. The first would be to go in chronological order with swing, bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, and fusion. Second, I could just key into a certain instrument so I can get a sense on how others utilize it. Lastly, I can do what most would do, start with the best. When asking advice on where I should start, Miles Davis was the name quickly thrown out. He represents jazz music the same way reggae fans and rock fans identify with Bob Marley and The Beatles. A man an extensive catalog, influence and longevity. A friend of mine advised me to begin with Kind of Blue, released in 1959, as a starting point because it is very accessible. He has yet to meet a person who disliked the album so I valued his suggestion.

After class lecture and with my new profound understanding of “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday, which I had previously owned, I decided to give it a more thorough listen on the way home. I no longer enjoyed the song because of its piano melody and Holiday’s soothing voice but for its brilliant metaphoric somber message. The lyrics are poetic, using the black bodies to symbolize the strange fruit that swing “in the southern breeze.” A song this powerful captures the turbulent times that sadly existed, where racial hatred fueled anti-black riots and hangings. They were first used as slaves, for capital accumulation, and once the emancipation was passed, barely had any freedom. It is mind boggling at how people could find entertainment in the misery of others so southern trees did indeed bear a strange fruit. Songs like these are no longer written mainly because there is a lack in revolutionaries and exploitation exists just as it did before. Black culture, music in general, today is the direct result of the immoral construct of capital marketing and classist ignorance. And many are complacent with this and there is reason why people miss the good old days.

Hip-Hop is an art form that is based on a sample or interpolation of an older record for its beat. It usually borrowed disco beats and later utilized James Brown as their source of music. Thanks to the innovation and risks that De La Soul, a hip-hop group in the late 1980s that still are relevant today, they were able to sample a wide variety of pop, rock and funk. It came with a high price since a number of lawsuits were quickly filed against them once they achieved commercial success. But their innovation helped usher in an era where producers would not be afraid to use a wide variety of music genres. In the early 1990s, A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock and Gang Starr began to incorporate jazz as their foundation of creating instrumentals to improvise over.

A Tribe Called Quest, a group from Queens, New York, created an album that is widely considered the greatest fusion between hip-hop and jazz with their 1991 classic sophomore LP entitled The Low End Theory. The way the beats were structured and pieced together was astounding. A song like “Butter” displays the intricacy and its different elements. While the drums were from an R&B record, what was looped came from the beginning chords of a Weather Report song to be topped off with a saxophone from Gary Bartz. They even included bassist Ron Carter to play live bass on “Verses From The Abstract.” Art Blakey and Cannonball Adderley, amongst others, are sampled from throughout the album.

The lead vocalist of Gang Starr, named Guru, hails from Boston, Massachusetts and actually attended college as a jazz major so the influence would easily harvest in his recordings. While he dedicated a song to the genre, “Jazz Thing,” he took it a step further by releasing a solo project called Jazzmatazz, which is followed by two more volumes. The first two definitely lives up to its name. The album has live instrumentation, instead of being based on samples, where Guru gets the opportunity to work with some of musicians he grew up listening to. Cameos by Donald Byrd, Lonnie Liston Smith, Roy Ayers and Branford Marsalis come in and play their instruments – trumpets, piano, saxophone, and vibes – respectively. Creatively, the Jazzmatazz series differs from the street oriented Gang Starr albums and it is extremely lighter in tone. The third volume of this trilogy strays away from jazz and actually encompasses soul music.

Maybe Jazz is not foreign to me at all. The more I look at the CD sleeves of Hip-Hop albums I own, the more I notice how many songs have incorporated Jazz recordings. Jay-Z rhymes over a jazz tune by Ahmad Jamal and Nas, whose father is actually a blues player, flows like water over the xylophones of a Heath Brothers record. I enter a music store and immediately go to the jazz section to look for Kind of Blue. I am amazed at how many albums Miles Davis has actually produced. Fortunately, the album I was looking for was there and I purchased it. I was shocked to see the names of other musicians whose names I have already been familiar with – Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, and John Coltrane.

My first thought was, “this album must be good.” I sat in my car and removed the shrink wrap, took out the CD sleeve and read the critical response and the way each song had been structured. Written by Robert Palmer, it says, “ ‘So What’ is a simple figure based on 16 measures of one scale, 8 of another and 8 more of the first, following a piano and bass introduction in free rhythmic style.” I do not understand what all of that means yet but the piano and bass introduction is smooth and once the cymbals and trumpet take over, I am hooked. “Freeloader” begins with the same vibe but with more emphasis on the piano in the beginning. “Blue In Green” is a relaxing and an easy listen. The album is wonderful, definitely the masterpiece my friend hyped it up to be. So with a little research via internet, I decided to go to the store and pick up Bitches Brew, his most acclaimed and lauded album.

Bitches Brew was made ten years after Kind of Blue and has a completely different cast of musicians on the album. The cover to the album is sexy but it was quite an experience to listen to the actual album. I have grown up in an era where music has been stripped down and packaged into four minutes and thirty seconds, with a repetitive beat and catchy chorus. I was almost intimidated on some of the songs on the album which lasts over twenty-five minutes! The horn bleeps throughout the title track is a pretty challenging listen. I end up not liking the album and I consulted my friend. He said, “Miles Davis, well, jazz in general is an acquired taste. You should listen to it whenever you get a chance. While you are cleaning your apartment, when you’re on the internet, whatever you are doing listen to the music. You have to get used to it.” I still got plenty of time to develop an ear for it. I later decided to listen to some Dizzie Gillespie, who actually taught and inspired Miles Davis. His style was completely different; it is bebop, with more up-tempo groove and trumpet heavy oriented songs (at least the songs I heard).

R.I.P. GURU

Jazz is a beautiful art form. I got a lot more listening to do that takes time and patience but my foundation is already set in Hip-Hop music. One of the greatest examples of great jazz instrumentation on a hip-hop record could be heard on Pete Rock’s “Mind Blowing.” A really nice bassline, a smooth guitar, xylophones to compliment the singer, and a saxophone to break down the chorus. Mind blowing indeed. I look forward to exploring many other jazz musicians like Max Roach, Theolonius Monk, Donald Byrd, Betty Carter, John Coltrane and getting deep into Dizzie Gillespie. I just wonder what artists are currently out now continuing the great legacy that was laid down by the pioneers and the forefathers. Regardless, jazz is an amazing genre that is diverse. It will last. In the words of Guru, jazz is “smooth… great to dance to and great to romance to.”