Night Music
I never understood Jazz. Some tunes appealed to me – like the soundtrack to Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi … Jazz in a melodic style, closer to the music I was accustomed to, what I had grown up with. Logically, I assumed my taste was a product of culture and nurture, that is, plain vanilla.
A few nights ago, I was driving into NY. I hit the Holland Tunnel from Jersey about 9pm. As I was going through the tunnel, the classic jazz tune” Take Five” by Dave Brubeck, queued up on my music stream. Like the Charlie Brown tunes, this one is tame, but it sounded particularly cool going through the tunnel. Something told me to find the source playlist. So, as I was driving (not smart, I know), I searched YouTube Music, found “100 Greatest Jazz Songs”, launched the shuffle, and it began just as I exited the tunnel.
It was a revelation. The first tune was “Freddie Freeloader” by Miles Davis, the second track on his classic album “Kind of Blue.” The tune was composed by Davis and this version includes solos by pianist Wynton Kelly, Sax players John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, and Davis himself. You can listen here.
As tune played, I turned out of the tunnel and headed for West Street, the lights of the city night began to unfold. Left on West towards the Battery, the towers of the financial district surrounding me. The tune, I realized, was the soundtrack of the city. It had many layers … rhythm, melody and a good dose of cacophony, just like the city sounds all around. The solos were like the passing of an ambulance, busting up the rhythm only to have it return as it passed. I headed for the FDR drive, passing under the tunnel beneath Battery Park, coming out to see a subway train pass over the bridge about me. As the train car lights flickered as it passed the supports of the bridge, the music seemed to me to keep perfect time. It was transcendent.
Classical music captures the soft edges of the natural world. Jazz has the hard angles of the unnatural, vertical city, particularly the city at night. Yet unlike, say, heavy metal, it returns to a pleasing melodic base, blending the rough and the refined. Revelation, in a moment, changes the way we look at things. After this experience I will never listen to Jazz, or the sounds of the city, in the same way. In some small measure, I get it.
