I Wish I Was At The MAC: MUV-ing Along

This weeks event is the Thursday Night Concert Series: The James Gaiters MUV-Ment. Like all our TNCS events it'll begin at 8pm and you can buy your tickets here or at the door.

Before I continue, I have a confession to make:

I know next to nothing about jazz music. Last month, I got the bright idea to post an interesting and fun jazz fact on our twitter page each day of Black History Month. It was difficult, not because there wasn't any interesting facts about jazz, but because there were too many.

You could say jazz to 100 individuals and they might all have a different idea of what that word means. As a fledgling listener, I can't define the entire genre for you; but thanks to a few of my jazz enthusiast friends, I can give you a better understanding of free jazz, which seems to be the kind The James Gaiters MUV-Ment plays.

One friend give me this:

"Telling a story is hard. We've all got that one friend who tells amazing stories! I mean about anything, getting groceries, eating potato salad, and POW normal stuff becomes out of f**king control. That's really all there is to jazz, besides practicing 7-8 hours per story."

Translation:

Being a good freestyle jazz musician is like storytelling in that you pluck out the notes of a song/chord/melody and use them to play the music the way only you would and it makes your listeners feel and understand you. Just like a good storyteller takes the instances of their day or knowledge and rearranges or reforms it in their voice to capture our attention and wonder.

You have to love what you do and practice a lot to tell a story in any form.


*disclaimer: Eddie Bayard (MUV-Ment member) is not featured in this video, sadly*

That's the music you can look forward to on Thursday.

From what I've read about the band, both James Gaiters and saxophonist, Edwin Bayard are influenced by saxophone legend, and free jazz pioneer, John Coltrane. Gaiters and Coltrane definitely share a similar musical background.

Both grew up in spiritual music homes. Gaiter's mother was a concert pianist and organist for the church where his father was a pastor. Coltrane's father played multiple instruments and both his grandfathers were leaders of a church. Both men submerged themselves in jazz, but connect their spirituality with their music.

While jazz may be their home, like most legendary Jazz musicians I read about last month, both men have played and written music for many other genres. James Gaiter Jr of The James Gaiter MUV-Ment has played gospel, classical, country, rock, folk, and blues.

It's hard to put a finger on Jazz. Even one of my friends who deemed it one of his favorite genres had a hard time telling me what it was that makes Jazz so different from other genres. He kept coming back to a word I've often scene connected to Jazz: Soul.

Not to say other genres of music don't also contain a piece of their composer or translate feeling. There's something in the way Jazz goes for the throat. There's just something about Jazz.