e I am)@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> (11/21/84)
Yes, jazz and country music have a fair amount of overlap. That's been
true for quite a long time, for several reasons. The biggest single such
reason is that the two musics, and the people who made/make them, do coexist
in the same general geographic area. It's easy today to forget that much of
the south and midwest of the US is the birthplace of jazz, because of that
area's affiliation with country and western music. I'm not just thinking of
New Orleans, either; Kansas City is a very critical town in jazz history, for
instance. Also, in the early part of the century, when radio was the major
mechanism for musical transmission, it was the midwestern stations that were
major supporters of both forms of music, especially the various clear-channel
stations in the Chicago area (the WLS Barn Dance, and, later, the Ralston
Purina Checkerboard Square Dance were, for a long time, heard by far more
households than either the WWVA Country Jamboree or the Grand Ol' Opry).
Another factor is that both have been strongly influenced by African
native musics. Take the banjo, for instance. Ethnomusicologists are pretty
certain that its roots are in such African instruments as the kora. Until
the mid-thirties, at the earliest, the banjo was viewed as both a jazz and a
folk instrument, as was the mandolin. (Listen to recordings by Martin, Bogan
and Armstrong, on Flying Fish, for examples of this stuff.) It's only recently,
with the "newgrass" and "dawg" music revivals, that these stylings are coming
back into popularity.
If there's any single reason why present-day jazz musicians don't bother
covering country music, it's because the latter doesn't offer much of a place
for the sort of improvisation that's common to present-day jazz, whereas show
tunes and individual compositions do provide this. Note, please, that I'm not
suggesting that country music is 'simple'; rather, that the areas in which it
offers space for flexibility and improvisation are not the same as those in
jazz. Another reason for this, however, is that many current jazz musicians are
city-born and city-bred, and have been brought up to think of country music as
something appropriate only to lower- and middle-class white farmers. Given the
other cultural stereotypes often applied to the listeners of country music, and
given the cultural heritage of many jazz musicians, it's not surprising that
many of the latter want as little to do with the former as possible. (Sad,
perhaps, but not surprising...).
From my own listening experiences, I've noticed that, in general , the
jazz musicians who do get involved with country and western music are white.
For example, listen to the album (untitled) that bassist Dave Holland recorded
about ten years ago with Jethro Burns, Vassar Clements, Tut Taylor, and other
bluegrass/old-timey luminaries. Or, check out the "dawg" music material coming
from NewGrass Revival and the various bands headed by David Grisman.
For a really intriguing mix of cultural influences, though, I suggest
checking out some of the recent recordings of klezmer music on labels like
Flying Fish, Yazoo, and Arhoolie. Here's a mixture of Eastern European Jewish
traditional music with acoustic jazz and country swing. Very different stuff,
indeed.
--Dave