Jazz on the Decay

Wadada Leo Smith and Anthony Braxton

A friend of mine who really displays terrible smells (I can bash him all I want because he's given up using his laptop for lent. Hows that going for you Brent?), told me that I was a bit off on my critique of the new Bloc Party album in that I really shouldn't be critical of groups for not living up to the genre they're trying to fit in. While I don't necessarily agree (bands who want to call themselves post-punk need to take into consideration Throbbing Gristle, Lydia Lunch etc...), I feel I should make it clear first of all that this wasn't a sweeping critique of Bloc Party(Silent Alarm had some great stuff on it). Nor is it a claim that nothing happening today is on par with early post-punk (much of the early post-punk stuff fails in the same way Bloc Party does. Take Depeche Mode or even moreso U2 for example). It's more of a 'I heard this which made me miss this' kind of thing.

One such example of music that is carrying with it the revolutionary potentialities of bands like Pere Ubu, Gang of Four and Scritti Politti, is Jazz. A genre that has suffered as much as any (smooth jazz and vocal jazz are arguably two of the worst sounding creations I can think of), seems to be relishing in such suffering, as numerous jazz musicians are currently doing some amazing stuff. As such, my show this week is going to be all jazz (I may even try to start sounding like Ross Porter, but that might be asking too much). Hopefully I'll have a longer write up to follow on the weekend.