You were present for all the Village Vanguard recordings?
I was yes. Mopping backstage and generally keeping the place spick and span.
That must have been thrilling. They’re often held up as the greatest jazz recordings of all time.
Are they? Well, then I suppose I should consider myself fortunate. I have to confess they were something of an eye-opener for me, as they say.
In what way?
Well throughout one’s life in musical appreciation one has become accustomed to performers performing the actual piece they were performing when they were performing it, if you follow me.
I’m sorry, I don’t.
To my mind, if a musical group set out to play The Sun Has Got His Hat On then at some point they should actually play The Sun Has Got His Hat On. But this clearly wasn’t how Mr Evans and his trio chose to operate. They commenced playing despite the fact that the original composition wasn’t in any way discernible in amongst the notes they were performing.
And that bothered you?
Well yes, frankly it did. I know I’m just a humble cleaner and I’m a total duffer when it comes to musical performance, but do know that if I attend a Bach Piano Concerto then I expect the Concerto itself to make an appearance at some point during the course of the proceedings. If the pianist starts to amble off, led by whatever musical whims take them at the time, then I’d be liable to shout out “I say! I’m awfully sorry to interrupt but would you be so kind as to actually play the Bach at some point do you think? This improvisation lark is all very well but would a quick run through the actual concerto itself be too much to ask?” or at least I would if I wasn’t British. That sort of unseemly outburst is something an American would do, to be honest. But I would definitely agree with the sentiment, if not the method of its delivery.
So you felt slighted?
Well, that’s probably a harsh term for the feelings that stirred within. But I do recall wondering what Cole Porter would have felt if he’d discovered the quick three-minute tune he wrote for a musical had become an eight-minute meander with no melody in sight. My question is how do they actually know what they played afterwards? It might as well have been a Bach concerto or The Sun Has Got His Hat On for all the resemblance it bore to the piece they were allegedly performing. I wonder how frequently they listened to the master tapes and scratched their heads wondering what melody it was that they had been so studiously avoiding.
It’s almost a form of reverse plagiarism. Instead of copying a tune and claiming it’s their own, they make up their own tune and claim it was someone else’s.
Exactly. But that’s just jazz for you.
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