Pam Howell loves jazz more than she loves shoes and wine, combined - which is to say, a LOT. An administrative professional and aspiring author, she is not a musician (listeners can breathe a sigh of relief); rather, she discovered her passion for jazz by sneaking into her father's LP collection as a child. Pam is committed to jazz outreach and when she is not editing news content for LAjazz.com, she can typically be found in one of many local jazz clubs tapping her foot and furiously scribbling notes. Read her posts at: www.lajazz.com/blog14.cfm
The other day I was talking to my sister Kim about reinvention. Everyone does it from time to time, whether it's getting a new haircut, or taking a foreign language class, or changing your name to a symbol, or shaving your head and speaking with a fake British accent. As Kim and I were talking about ways to stage mini life-makeovers it occurred to me that I could widen my musical horizons to make myself more multi-dimensional.
Loving jazz as much as I do, however, makes it hard to jump back into my 80's hair metal roots feet-first. So when my friend Elizabeth suggested that I should be her "plus one" at The Bad Plus' recent show at the Mint, I thought it was the perfect segue into my own musical reinvention. Now, those of you who are familiar with The Bad Plus might say, "Um, you big dummy, they ARE a jazz band!" and then I would say, "Yes, you're right." However, many things about this show made it a departure from my typical jazz forays and thus a contributor to my personal development, and I'd like to share a couple of the resulting insights with you.
Insight #1 -- Feeling old is underrated. Let me tell you, it was a huge shock to my system to be one of the oldest people in attendance at a jazz show, and the youngsters were out en masse. I had no idea that The Bad Plus had such a relatively young following, and from our vantage point in the corner of the bar, it was definitely out of jazz character to observe the bartenders making billions of white Russians and opening bottle after bottle of Budweiser instead of pouring glasses of red wine and double shots of Johnnie Walker Black on the rocks. I'm loving that so many twenty- and thirty-somethings packed the room that night, and I dream of being among the oldest in more jazz rooms here in LA. Hope springs eternal...
Insight #2 -- Crowd chatter is underrated. I've mentioned many times that I am not a fan of noisy jazz rooms (unless the noise is crowd appreciation of the music). In my normal "un-redefined" state, the constant chatter at The Bad Plus' show might have made me lose my mind. And I admit that it was hard for me to focus on the music given the crowded, noisy room. But I cannot deny that the energy in that room was contagious, and the band, instead of being drowned out by the din, fed off of it. The most remarkable part of it all was the silence that fell during the bass solos. It was wonderfully incongruous.
Insight #3 -- Being bipolar is underrated. Thinking back on the show, I remembered how much I enjoyed some of the rock covers that they performed, especially Nirvana's "Lithium." It was a total rock song. And it was a total free jazz song. AT. THE. SAME. TIME. Straight ahead jazz will always be the music I go to when I need comfort, the same way I run to homemade macaroni & cheese after a breakup. But now I realize that sometimes a girl needs some pop-bop too. And that's OK.
I'm hopeful that I will continue to have musical experiences that stretch my limits a little and help me to become a more dynamic listener. Granted, I've always liked The Bad Plus, so I'll need to do more to push my comfort zone and get closer to reinvention, but if these are the kinds of steps I need to take, bring it on!
90 percent of all jazz is half improvisation.
– Yogi Berra
Grace note: the I.O.U. you deposit in the church collection plate when you're out of cash.
