I am having serious doubts of the Canadian Jazz scene. Never in such a profession do we have scholars whom are raised on the musics' of The Beatles, The Guess Who or, even The Eagles, and, have passed on their teachings of a music manufactured from Rock and pastoral-quasi floating noodling as a black art form. These musicians wouldn't know how to blow Bud Powell , Lester young, Pops, or Bird because they have not associated the need to develop a foundation derived from an oral history and historiography of these or other masters alike. Just go to the states, especially New-York, Detroit or New Orleans, those musicians have had the honor to learn from the hardships and struggles laid before in the compositions and improvisations of the masters, but more importantly , there lies a lineage from master to pupil and an ongoing cycle that of authenticity....
I consider myself lucky,.. I learned to never copy a Canadian jazz Musician.. well maybe one , Oscar Peterson. But for me, the truth lies in the soul and pain of what the music entails.So i went to new York and found me a teacher who played with or was one degree of separation away from " the truth", his name is Barry Harris.i have studied with this bebop master for nearly twenty years now and i am so glad to have not fallen to the clutches of the Canadian Jazz pedagogues.
The black struggle and diaspora is a huge impact on how one approaches the music and should not be overlooked, or else young hopefuls maybe drawing influence from emptiness derived from popular culture of the Sixties and seventies...This music starts with The Classics, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy , Ravel and should be thoroughly analyzed from this point of view.Then one must take the ragtime rhythms and find a happy marriage with Eastern European harmonies and melodies....this is a good start..
(to be continued)
Brian Jude de Lima
MA/ Ph.D Candidate Ethnomusicology
www.briandelima.com
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