The Michigan Daily - W e4, 4t. - Thursday, February 1, 1996-- 98 tertainment news lor jazz artists, the classroom's not the club By James P. Miller Daily Arts Writer Jazz is unique in music in that it is controlled by the individual performer more than the composer or director. For that reason,jazz is influenced by perfor- mance and performers more than the printed page. Consequently, trends that changethe waymusiciansplay canchange the entire landscape of the music. Over the past 20 years,jazz has seen a funda- mental change in its musicians. It is the rise of the conservatoty sound. In its infancy and adolescence,jazz was a wild and forbidden form. Con- demned by intellectuals as gutter music played by talentless loons, it was very much an underground mu- sic. Like the African oral tradition that spawned it,jazz was handed down from artist to artist, either by one-on- one teaching or by ear. Miles Davis learned volumes on jazz by following Bird around New York, listening to and learning from other musicians; not from his classes at Julliard. Even compositional geniuses like Charles Mingus and Ron Carter learned their craft by ear, playing in groups. The club was the classroom. Through the '70s and '80s,jazz began to earn its rightful place as a serious and meritous art form. Colleges and high schools began toteachjazzas they would any other kind of music. Knowledge that formerly could only be gained by living the life of a starving itinerant musician couldnowbegleanedbyattendingclasses. The classroom is now the club. This is not entirely a bad thing. Much ofearly jazz (and especially the blues) suffers from technical holes and substandard musicianship. With- out a doubt, today's player is, on the average, better equipped technically. Besides, many jazz musicians with mountains of soul had classical back- grounds, like Nina Simone (another Julliard alum), Keith Jarrett, Marcus Roberts, Wynton Marsalis and Bill Evans. But this education was tempered with practical experiences. Jazz cannot be learned in a vacuum, as these musicians prove. No matter how sterile their train- ing seems, the fire of the blues is never absent from the music. There is always a pursuit of the knowledge and skills that cannot be learned anywhere else but on the battlefields. A musician who goes right from college to a recording career is missing half the recipe. He may have the hands, but the heart is more important. You know when you're listening to the lifeless conservatory music. It has no motion, no purpose. It isn't saying anything. Even the most silly, old school Louis Armstrong pop tune has feeling and depth. Conservatory jazz consists mostly of flabby lines of eighth notes that have no purpose other than following the changes. It's crammed full of so many influences that it cannot express the vision of any of them: no blues, no gospel, no Latin. It's musically overeducated. In fact it's rare to hear that blues flour- ish. Many conservators regard it as too common and stilted to be a serious well of inspiration. Jazz is the music of life. A life half lived will produce music half played. Jazz is music unlike any other in that your development as a person has more of an influence on your music" than any other single force. The Miles Davis of the '50s is worlds away from the Davis of the late'70s. People who learn jazz as a totally cerebral art are missing out on its most powerful as- set. No other form allows for such devastating personal expression. It is the music of each individual player. The most profound learning does not take place in the classroom. Marcus Roberts, noted for his jazz recordings, also has a classical background. 'Homicide' star as dedicated as his character The Washington Post WhenyoufirstmeetAndre Braugher, it's difficult to figure out where his character, Detective Frank Pembleton, stops and Braugher begins. Both actor and character are men not quickly forgotten. They speak in subtle, hypnotic, yet powerful tones. Both are passionate about their beliefs and cer- tain of what they have to say. Braugher, however, is somuchmore. To some, hesaidswith a smile,he might be dismissed as "that bald black guy" on NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street." The baldness was his own idea;"I got tired of going to the barber to keep my fade together," he said, "so I just cut it all off." To thosewhowatchtheseries closely, he's a multifaceted, Juilliard-traited ac- tor whose talents transcend the world of television. But to Braugher himself, he's a dedi- cated family man doing a job he loves, hoping to serve a purpose higher than pure entertainment. "My goal is to broaden and deepen the range of African American charac- ters on television, so I always try to show human beings' Braugher said. "I've grown tired of characters w ho are window dressing, or hipster pimps. and drug dealers and shadowy under- world figures. I want to bringt a man to the screen. Uttfortunately, in teles ision today thereare very few African Ameri- can characters who are human heitgs. They are typically two-dimensional ste- reotypes, cookie-cutter types." As Pembleton on riday night's lo- micide" -which this week has cross- overepisodes with anotherNBC drama, "I.as & Order" --Braugher appar- ently has found a character who meets his standard. "I was alwvays attracted to the part. the reason I committed myself to the show was because I could not discern lPemhletott's race by the sides (script prcs tiesoted to a single character), and I stid to myself, 'I'm going to take a chance on it.' because this might actu- aly be i character rather than a auote- utquote black character." The character Braugher plays is not necess rilyetndearingtoeveryone. He's tough, cynical aind not easy to get to know. It's a character sho is changing. though., especiatly this season, since Poimileton and his wife Mary are ex- pecting a baby. "Already lie (Pembleton) is respon- sible for mrec lives than simply his own, Irgher said,"sothere's asense of vulnri ability in Pembleton's posi- tion. 'A ics I tsed to be a lone wolf' and solitary investigator, now I have a lot of allcginces." Mari' 'P ibleton is played by Bratugher's real-life wife, Ami Brabson. Acting with his wife is a pleasant experieicc for Braugher. "I think she's atinectress.Wealready haveahistory icgethiratidweunderstandcactiother, so cetcommunicate very easily. We have sitmilar tastes about what is good and bad in the course of a scene, and we agree about the complexities of each of our characters, and things seem to go quite well and I enjoy it a lot." Pembleton's allegiances aren't only familial; they are also with the people he works with. "The relationship between Tim Bayliss (played by Kyle Secor) and Pembleton has become one of mutual resnect and consideration. and I believe they actually care for each other, whereas three years ago when we first met, I (Pembleton) couldn'tstandhim," Braugher said. Braugher explained how the dynam- ics of "Homicide" have changed since the show premiered following the Su- per Bowl in 1993. "In the firstyear... ourstoriesseemed to be separate - concurrent, but sepa- rate," lie said. "In the second year, that was where we started mixing and shift- ing and talking to each other more. "Our story lines began to involve more about what we were like and the office politics. I think that's where the chemistry developed. We've got a fine cast, very talented, very dedicated, and we've come together." This week's episode adds the cast of "Law & Order" to the mix. In a cross- over story line that begins on "Law & Order" (Wednesday night) and con- cludes on "Homicide" (Friday night), detectives and attorneys from both shows travel back and forth between Baltimore and New York to catch a killer responsible for gas bombings. The interchange between the Balti- niore and New York detectives is an explosive one. Each set of detectives vehemently disagrees with the other's investigative tactics . F C e literary world lost a veteran of the New York scene last week. arold Brodkey, author of "The Runaway Soul" and a staff writer at The New YorkerdiedofAIDS complications last Friday at 65. Brodkey's novel is an 835-page autobiographical, free-form work ftll of both concrete detail and abstract impressionism. He spent some 30 years working on the project. When the novel was finally published in 1991, Brodkey said the labor of writing it just about isolated him from reality. "From the time I was 28 until I was 58, silence," he said in a 1991 interview. "New York City had seven newspapers when 1 started. - Hemingway was alive. Faulkner was alive. Pearl Buck was still kicking around. I get some letters and I don't recognize the world the letters are oming from." That world certainly recognized him, however, and just as certainly will miss him. Producer Don Simpson died of unknown causes in Los Angeles last week. During his long creative partnership with director Jerry Bruckheimer, Simpsonproducedsuchboxofficehitsasthefilms"TopGun,""Flashdance, "Dangerous Minds" and "Beverly Hills Cop" series. 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