Extra
JAZZ TODAY
FROM ROBERT GLASPER TO STEAM DOWN
featuring
Thelonious Monk, Robert Glasper, Makaya McCraven, Steam Down, Ezra Collective, Gorillaz, Pharoah Sanders, Floating Points, Tomorrow’s Warriors, Shabaka Hutchings
Questlove and Sons of Kemet record a new version of Thelonious Monk’s jazz standard ‘Round Midnight’.
Whilst, telling this story of today’s thriving new wave jazz scene…
The 2020’s and there’s a new wave of jazz.
A generation of young jazz musicians has now grown up with hip-hop in its blood. The result is, the much-needed, thrilling reinvention of jazz, that has too often been guilty of fixating on its past.
“We’ve now got a whole generation of jazz musicians who have grown up alongside rappers and DJs, we’ve heard this music all our life. We are as fluent in J Dilla and Dr. Dre as we are in Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane.”
saxophonist, Kamasi Washington
The new wave is made up of a reimagining of classic jazz, new tracks created via innovative crossovers and collaborations between young new jazz artists and leading figures from other genres such as rap, grime, hip-hop, and even orchestral, and finally, but most importantly, a thrilling live scene.
Jazz is once again, THE cool live music scene for young music fans.
Reimagining classic jazz for the 21st century.
Across numerous acclaimed albums and mixtapes, Makaya McCraven is a Chicago-based drummer, producer, and beat scientist, who has proven his mastery of the loop, akin to hip-hop’s most celebrated beatmakers like J Dilla and Madlib, both of whom also found inspiration in the Blue Note back catalogue.
On his latest album ‘Deciphering the Message’ McCraven improvises, edits, samples, and remixes old skool hard bop tracks from the Blue Note label. The album also connects the past to the present by featuring new contributions from a stellar cast of jazz artists from the new wave.
“I always want to make music that will connect with people, make them feel something or transport them somewhere. I also hope this makes them check out the source of this music. The music that we’re making now is part of the same route and is connected.”
WATCH: How Makaya creates new jazz tracks by remixing and reimagining tracks from legends such as Art Blakey and Hank Mobley. (5.34min).
The musician bringing every aspect together
Robert Glasper, American pianist, record producer, songwriter and musical arranger is the biggest name in the new wave jazz scene. Glasper’s mother sang jazz professionally and used to take him with her to club dates rather than leave him with babysitters. In the first fifteen years of his career, he’s collaborated with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def), Erykah Badu, Mac Miller, Anderson Paak, QTip, Common, and Talib Kweli.
He’s also covered tracks by the likes of Radiohead, J Dilla, Nirvana, and Herbie Hancock and reimagined a whole album by Miles Davis!
His first album was the first album in history to debut in the top 10 of 4 different genre charts simultaneously: Hip Hop, R&B, Urban and Contemporary Jazz, and he’s so far won four Grammys.
Late in 2021, he played two sets a day, for 33 consecutive days, as a residency at The Blue Note Club in New York.
WATCH: Glasper’s live tribute to hip hop legend J.Dilla (6.03min)
Glasper has been described as a modern-day Thelonious Monk. Monk is one of Glasper’s heroes and a totally individual creative inspiration to many in the new wave scene.
“Thelonious Monk, was to me, the first hip-hop artist. He was such an individual, with attitude. He didn’t care what anyone else thought.”
WATCH: Robert Glasper with a cover of Monks, Thelonius. (0.45min)
Thelonious Monk
Monk was an American pianist, who in the 1950-60s, wrote and performed some of the most famous jazz music. He is the second-most recorded jazz musician ever and one of only five to appear on the cover of Time Magazine. He always wore a suit and hat, and always looked really cool!
He can sometimes be hard to listen to though, he had a unique, unorthodox approach to the piano, that featured highly percussive attacks with abrupt, dramatic switches, silences, and hesitations. In performances, he would often stand up, move around and then just sit down and play another amazing, improvised piece.
WATCH: Thelonious Monk live at the Palais des Beaux 1963 (50min)
Monk started playing piano at the age of 6, was largely self-taught, struggled to be understood, listen to him talking in the documentary below. He began to suffer undiagnosed mental illnesses that resulted in him spending days pacing around, not recognising even his own son and relying on his wife to do everything for him, but even then, just sitting back down at the piano and playing long improvised pieces of genius jazz.
He had enough of writing and playing piano at 54 and on his last tour he didn’t say a word to anyone. He never recorded anything for the last ten years of his life, dying of a stroke at 65. Doctors arguing about what had caused his mental decline.
WATCH: Trailer to ‘Straight no chaser’ (1.20min). The film to watch, from the jazz-loving film director and actor, Clint Eastwood, with amazing backstage studio and on-tour footage.
The new wave scene is being led from London.
Tomorrow’s Warriors is a thirty-year-old London-based, organisation that provides free artist development to young, budding jazz musicians. It’s behind the emergence of a number of musicians who are now leading the London scene. A scene built on collaboration, community and integration. WATCH: BBC feature on the Tomorrow’s Warriors-inspired scene. (4.15min)
One of the leading figures of Tomorrow’s Warriors (featured in the video) is Shabaka Hutchings. Shabaka also leads the new wave jazz band ‘Sons of Kemet’, which features Tom Skinner on drums. Tom is also a member of The Smile, alongside Tom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead.
As well as the modal jazz-influenced Radiohead tracks we heard in episode five, Jonny also creates amazing jazz tracks for his solo material but especially as a way of getting across characters feelings in the film soundtracks he composes for - from free jazz to show Princess Diana’s feelings in the movie ‘Spencer’ to a duet with Ella Fitzgerald for the movie ‘The Master’. LISTEN: A Jonny Greenwood jazz playlist.
The exciting new live scene
At the forefront of the London live scene is the Steam Down collective. Born from their weekly Deptford jam sessions, they are one of the most exciting collectives in UK jazz right now. A weekly jam club night, that is turning into a movement. They were recently asked by Sony Playstation to launch the soundtrack for the FIFA 2021 game and have now released their first singles and are taking their club nights on a national UK tour. WATCH: Steam Down, first single, ‘Free my skin’. (4.43min)
Ezra Collective is another act at the forefront of the live scene. Their gigs fusing jazz with elements of afro-beat, hip-hop and soul and frequently featuring collaborations with fellow jazz musicians such as Nubya Garcia and Moses Boyd.
WATCH: Ezra Collective backstage (1.53min)
The new wave is becoming a global movement
Brownswood Recordings, an independent London jazz label, founded by highly influential and globetrotting DJ Gilles Peterson, has released an eclectic range of music, reflecting Peterson's diverse musical taste. It is leading the way in releasing tracks from around the world. One of their best-selling albums is ‘Indaba Is’, a compilation of artists from South Africa.
WATCH: a short film on Indaba, a new wave jazz collective in Johannesburg. (14.25min)
The word is getting out, that new wave jazz is cool…
…And everyone is invited; old, new, reimaginers, new collaborators, artists from other genres. It’s all about positivity through jazz.
Earlier in the series, we heard about the jazz influences on eclectic songwriter and performer Damon Albarn. With his Gorillaz act, he has teamed up with jazz legend George Benson in LA and WATCH: in Harlem with Ike Turner on jazz keyboards. (at 3.40min)
The biggest jazz crossover album of 2021
Regularly voted one of the best five albums of 2021 by critics, is ‘Promises’ by electronic artist, Floating Points, together with the London Symphony Orchestra and American jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders.
Saunders was a member of John Coltrane's groups of the mid-1960s (playing on the legendary ‘A Love Supreme’). He has released over 30 albums as a leader and collaborated extensively with Alice Coltrane, among others.
Saxophonist Ornette Coleman described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world”. Sanders' way of playing has been called "spiritual jazz"
The now 80-year-old first became aware of Sam Sanders's (Floating Points) work in 2015 when he was impressed by his debut album. He later befriended Shepherd, who is 40 years his junior and proposed that the two of them produce a collaborative album. The resulting ‘Promises’ has been compared to Sanders's 1971 album Black Unity, which similarly consists of a single musical composition
WATCH: The first moment Pharoah ever heard the Promises composition, and his first take on playing. It became Movement 1 and the opening of the album. (2.47min)
