Under the covers with Jazz '65:Death or Resurrection?
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Track:Freedom Jazz Dance (vocal)
The cultural landscape in the US was shifting in '65. When folks saw the kinda money the Beatles could generate Rock and Roll just blew its way into the mainstream, leaving Jazz in its wake.Prior to the Beatles you might turn on a primetime TV show and see Thelonious Monk or Miles, but not so much after '65.Awhile back on MOG we tried to compile ►"an essential jazz list.":http://mog.com/Cody_B/blog_post/58179 ◄ You will not find too many post '65 records on that list.Some say around '65 is when jazz died (not me)and the number of closing jazz clubs, decreasing record sales, and withering of local scenes definitely showed something was up. Always out front, Miles Davis was headed in a new direction in '65, a path pundits would call post-bop. One of the songs the 40 year old Davis cut on 1965's Miles Smiles was Freedom Jazz Dance. This composition by 30 year old Eddie Harris, would become a jazz standard.At the time, it was a bold statement about breaking away from the past, and maybe that's why there are so many versions of the tune. That the versions work in so many different styles may be a hint (besides the Rock and Roll invasion)to the splintering of jazz and its commercial decline that continues to this day ( with a few spikes here and there). Is Jazz dead? No Way. Is freedom what the masses want to hear on wax? For the most part,No!Check out Bop Vocal master Eddie Jefferson's fusion-y take on Freedom ('74)here (Mr.Jefferson wrote the new lyrics). Please see the early versions by Miles and the author in comments, along with John Patton's B-3 take.Eddie Jefferson
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