Roots

People can look at the same thing and see it differently; music is a bridge to see into another life or even another world.

Jazz must be understood as a music that derives, in its fundamental sense coming from Africa. African music is all about the raw rhythm’s, layered creating rhythmic contrast known as polyrhythm.  This organic feel can include call and response while usually, if not always accompanied by dancing or some kind of motion. Something about the way the beat grows awakens something inside you that just spills out into motion. 

You just can’t sit still.  Jazz is the same way.

“It should’ve Happened A Long Time Ago” by Paul Motian performed by the Trio-Tootie Heath, Ethan Iverson and Ben Street, was one of my favorites when listening to NPR’s “Live at the Village Vanguard”.  Tootie Heath enters in with some stellar African mallet patterns.  I loved it! Tootie puts down a foundation layer with his mallets using repetition to make a framework for the whole song. At first you don’t recognize the beat as African, the important thing is truly how the beat fit into the music.  African origins are all about the family participation and whatever you have to bring to the table is shared and appreciatively accepted. Tootie starts what seems like a random beat on drums yet when the melody floats over the mallet patterns the two are completely independent. Yet they have a unique marriage that is completely attuned to one another. This is common in African rhythm’s. It’s all about adding to the story the music is telling; layering acts as an enhancement to the music. The arrangement just seems to happen, as if you were starting a conversation. The drums and melody blend perfectly yet there actual relationship is a mystery.  The beauty in “It should’ve Happened A Long Time Ago” is the tension that is created and the way it blends into the trio grooving as one.  So many layers are added; you hear piano, bass yet what you feel is the drum. There is something so relational about the drumbeat that is deeply rooted in African music.  It becomes your heartbeat and lulls you into this state where your head and your heart connect simultaneously. This happens partially as a testament to the mystery of music and partially because of the attention to the syncopation and layers working to one goal. To portray the music’s story. Tootie does a phenomenal job of genuine showmanship as well as displaying independence in the drums but coexisting to reach a common ground with other instruments and their players. That’s when the magic happens and the jazz just spills over into our ears and creates an environment that delightfully brings us back to our African roots.  

http://www.npr.org/event/music/158904890/ethan-iverson-ben-street-tootie-heath-live-at-the-village-vanguard