From the looks of eager anticipation in the packed Regattabar before veteran Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko’s first set on April 20, 2010, one might have been tempted to conclude that — after years of lukewarm receptions, aborted cross-country tours, and critical ire — European jazz had finally “arrived” in the United States.  Ironically enough, it must have been something of an empty victory for the Europeans, for their American audience seemed swayed less by any intricate musical and social relationships that played out on the bandstand than by the pendulum of transatlantic hype which has currently swung in Europe’s favor.  Watching the blithe reactions to the group conjuring jazz atmosphere after atmosphere got me wondering whether those war-weary European audiences who eagerly embraced everything American in the 40s and 50s had anything in common with this American audience, which seemed only to appreciate the European group in proportion to its ability to transport one away from America’s relatively depressing here-and-now.

And it is probably wise to end audience comparisons there.  Americans are, when all is said and done, notoriously myopic, gifted with little of the worldiness that has long made Europeans some of the savviest jazz consumers on the planet.  Was anyone in the Regattabar aware of Stanko’s formative experiences hearing Willis Connover’s “Voice of America” jazz broadcasts in communist Poland?  His politically avant-gardist, free-jazz roots?  His work with Alexander von Schlippenbach’s seminal Globe Unity Orchestra? Or with Cecil Taylor’s Big Band on Europe’s FMP label?  Had anyone heard the clear echoes of Polish countryman Kryzsztof Komeda’s legendary album Astigmatic (1966) in Stanko’s melodic and programming choices?  Or of Edward Vesala, the iconic Finnish drummer whose influence would prepare the way for Stanko’s own mentorship of Alexi Tuomarila, the young Finnish piano phenom who that night played circles around everyone on the bandstand?

In a word, no.

What they did know was likely gleaned from listening to Stanko’s recent, relatively well-received and well-publicized ECM albums, or by reading recent American press releases, Down Beat polls and critical plaudits for Stanko — which have not been hard to come by.  In 2002, The New Yorker was hailing him as “one of the world’s most original and inventive jazz trumpeters … known for deeply expressive horn work, parcelled out in judicious amounts of long held notes and darting phrasing.”   In 2009, Dusted Reviews hit par for the course in proclaiming the quintet’s album Dark Eyes “beautifully simple and simply beautiful.”  By the time of the concert in April of 2010, the Americans may not have known much about Stanko, but they at least expected this: that although he would be unlikely to bowl anyone over with the trumpet, he was very likely to divulge some of Europe’s vaunted jazz beauty secrets.

But did the group deliver?  Stay tuned for audience reactions in part II.

An innovative event, already twelve years in the making: invited guests from all over the world mingled with the movers and shakers of the Dutch jazz scene for three consecutive nights at the BIMhuis in Amsterdam.

photo credit: wot nxt

This was world-meets-Dutch Jazz, short attention span-style.  Young up-and-comers, and some stalwarts, were slotted 25 minutes to put on their best show for distinguished guests, festival promoters, venue owners, journalists, and event coordinators.  Some of the older players seemed to have difficulty adjusting to this format, but for those doing the shopping this was ample time to get a feel for each of the eighteen featured bands.

The international visitors were all put up in the same hotel, and were schlepped by bus to and from the BIMhuis and to various day trips cooked up by Paul Gompes and Susanna von Canon, the exceptionally friendly hosts of the event.  For my own purposes, the trips to the Dutch Jazz Archive and to Amsterdam’s resplendent music Conservatory and Concertgebouw were reason enough to visit Amsterdam. Getting to know some of jazz’s international businesspeople was icing on the cake.

The music was uneven; some groups sounded like they had just stepped out of the conservatory, others, like the normally engaging STriCat, simply had an off night. Wolfert Brederode’s quartet sounded like an ECM band should, while trumpeter Rik Mol and singer Wouter Hamel played unimpeachable commercial jazz, if you’re into that sort of thing.

On the other hand, Michael Moore’s “Fragile” on Thursday night was spellbinding, as was Jeroen van Vliet’s trio on Saturday.  Composer/pianist Martin Fondse’s “Starvinsky Orkestar” showed signs of promise.  The arrangements and instrumentation (four strings, four horns, plus rhtyhm section) held my interest despite weak soloing from some of the sidemen. And Friday’s “fringe” meeting for experimentalists supplied some of the most interesting music of the whole meeting.  So interesting, in fact, that some wondered openly why this group was cordoned off from the main event.

Like the music itself, the visit overall was a strangely swinging affair.  Whatever you may have thought about the jazz musicians onstage, the ones behind the scenes were true characters.  We all had a ball getting to know one another, though we could have used a hotel that keeps the bar open late, especially in such cold, rainy weather. The topic of Dutch jazz is fine social lubricant but more heart-warming Grolsch couldn’t have hurt, either.

If jazz criticism has a Hemingway, it may well be University of Kansas English professor and veteran American jazz journalist, Kevin Whitehead. Those of us who came to his work via NPR’s Fresh Air, Downbeat, or the Village Voice are already familiar with his gripping writing style, which entices with jazz-shaped prose, modernist understatement, poetic economy and insight.  A less obvious connection, however, is his experience as a foreign correspondent in Europe.

New Dutch Swing, product of Whitehead’s four years of work in the Netherlands, brims with Hemingwayesque reportage.  This is an optimistic, no-nonsense American book, embracing all that seems vital in Dutch jazz while consigning the rest to silence.  As the author explains in the introduction: “If the tone of the book does seem overwhelmingly positive–well I wouldn’t waste your time dwelling on dull music of which Holland like everyplace has plenty.”

For all his fascination with Dutch culture (and there is plenty to be fascinated and perplexed by), don’t think that Whitehead checks his critical instincts at the European door. Taking in a few concerts with Mr. Whitehead at Amsterdam’s BIMhuis during the 2008 Dutch Jazz Meeting was a lesson in visceral listening,  a faculty which my years of objective social-scientific observation have dulled considerably.  Whitehead fully inhabits own perspective and wears it confidently, as one who not only knows what he likes, but knows that he knows what he likes.

We don’t see eye-to-eye on everything.  I chalk some of this up to experience.  During the closing concert, I found piano phenom Michiel Borstlap and band so rocking I had to dial down my analytical brain and move to the back of the room to allow my body to get its groove on.  Whitehead left in the middle of the first tune.  When pushed afterward he reminded me that he’d seen Miles at the Fillmore.

I know his inspiration for the book was not Hemingway but someone far more esoteric and hip (your secret is safe with me, Kevin).  Still, I prefer to think Hemingway because too few American jazz writers make the jump across pond and return to tell the tale with such engaging perspective.  A seminal work in the study of transatlantic jazz, New Dutch Swing asks us to listen, not just to the deep cultural dramas encoded in musical activity, but to the nitty-gritty that reaches the gut directly through the ears.

So you have your European jazz street cred, you have your American jazz street cred, and then you have your rare transatlantic musicians who can lay claim to both.  I thought it might be interesting to come up with a list of European jazz musicians who have become household names for Americans.  Whether or not they are/were true “innovators” is open to question, but their American successes have clearly made them heroes in their respective countries. Think of them as the Dirk Nowitskis and Vlade Divacs of jazz.

photo credit: bobtravis

Note that there are plenty of young Europeans currently living in America who seem to be vying for spots on the list.  Norwegian guitarist Lage Lund or French pianist Jean-Michel Pilc spring to mind.  Also vying are European stars like Gianluca Petrella, Erika Stucky and Esbjorn Svensson (r.i.p.), who have made significant inroads in the United States in recent years.  Not to be forgotten are European avant-gardists like Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Irene Schweitzer, Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennik, Gunter Hampel, Alex von Schlippenbach and plenty of others who are well known to American free jazz and experimental communities.  And of course Norma Winstone, Bobo Stenson, Tomacz Stanko, Arild Anderson, Eberhard Weber and many, many others would have made the list were I more confident that Americans were familiar with ECM’s jazz catalog.  Without further ado:

1. Django Reinhardt
2. Joe Zawinul
3. George Shearing
4. John McLaughlin
5. Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
6. Dave Holland
7. Toots Theilemans
8. Michel Petrucciani
9. Stéphane Grappelli
10. Jan Garbarek
11. Miroslav Vitous
12. Marian McPartland
13. Kenny Wheeler (via Canada)
14. George Mraz
15. Jean-Luc Ponty
16. Kai Winding
17. Dusko Goykovich
18. Mino Cinelu
19. Marilyn Mazur
20. Victor Feldman
21. Bireli Lagrene
22. John Tchicai
23. Cleo Laine
24. Albert Mangelsdorff
25. Gábor Szabó
26. Tete Montoliu
27. Alan Holdsworth
28. Martial Solal
29. Enrico Rava
30. George Gruntz
31. Django Bates
32. Courtney Pine
33. Jacques Loussier
34. The Real Group
35. Dado Moroni

Rhythm section players dominate this list.  For interesting speculation as to why this may be the case, check out Mike Heffley’s book, Northern Sun, Southern Moon: Europe’s Reinvention of Jazz.

I am asked periodically by acquaintances who know little about jazz to recommend a list of top albums to get them started.  Now that  I am involved in writing a dissertation/book based on research in Europe, I get the same questions about European jazz, this time from fellow music scholars: what does it sound like? who are its key players and innovators? what are its canonic recordings?

My stock answer is that as an ethnomusicologist I am less interested in canon than in broader social phenomena that make a wide range of music possible.  However, I must confess that collecting so-called “essential” European jazz recordings has been a pet project of mine for a number of years now.  This work dovetails with my theoretical interests: how does one reconcile a massive history and a huge stylistic range of avant-garde, folk- and commercially- oriented jazz recordings with the idea of Europe?

I am lucky enough to be able to rely on the opinions of the many European jazz musicians and critics who have spoken to me about their musical preferences and influences.  Here are fifty jazz recordings that have helped “European jazz” to coalesce, however associated with one particular country, region, label or era each album may be.   Think of these as albums that Europeans (and plenty of Americans) tend to rally around.

Note that the list below is not necessarily a list of the “best” albums, nor does it represent the “whole” of European jazz, although I try to canvas a wide range of styles, countries and historical periods in the interest of exposing the reader to as many artists as possible.  In this spirit I have also avoided listing more than one album by any single musician.  I intend to expand this list to 100 in due time.

Lists such as these are interesting precisely for the debates they stir.  As with all of the lists on this site, I would greatly appreciate knowledgeable feedback. Many of these albums will be covered in detail in separate posts.

1. Django Reinhardt: The Classic Early Recordings (1934-1939) JSP Records
2. Keith Jarrett: Belonging (1974) ECM
3. Jan Johannson: Jazz på Svenska (1962) Verve
4. Globe Unity Orchestra and Guests: Pearls (1977) FMP
5. John McLaughlin: Extrapolation (1969) Polydor
6. Peter Brötzmann: Machine Gun (1968) FMP
7. EST: Tuesday Wonderland (2006) ACT/Emarcy
8. Eric Dolphy, Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennik: Eric Dolphy’s Last Date (1964) Polygram
9. Masqualero: Masqualero (1983) Odin
10. Lars Gullin: Lars Gullin Vol 1-9 (from 1955) Dragon Records
11. Ganelin Trio: Poco a Poco (1978) LEO Records
12. Bengt-Arne Wallin: Old Folklore in Swedish Modern (1962) (re-release on ACT as The Birth and Re-Birth of Swedish Folk Jazz)
13. George Russell et. al: Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature (1980) Strata-East
14. Azimuth: Azimuth/Touchstone/Depart (1994) ECM
15. Kenny Wheeler: Song for Someone (1973) PSI
16. Jan Garbarek: Witchi-Tai-To (1973) ECM
17. Vienna Art Orchestra: European Songbook (1995) BMG
18. Albert Mangelsdorff Quintet: Tension/Now Jazz Ramwong (1963-4) CBS
19. The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band: Sax No End (1967) MPS
20. Tomacz Stanko Quartet: Suspended Night (2004) ECM
21. Manfred Schoof: European Echoes (1969) FMP
22. Gunter Hampel Group: Music From Europe (1966) ESP
23. Kryzsztof Komeda: Astigmatic (1965) Power Brothers
24. Italian Instabile Orchestra: Skies of Europe (1994) ECM
25. Michael Gibbs, et al: Europeana (1991) ACT
26. Edward Vesala: Ode to the Death of Jazz (1989) ECM
27. Tubby Hayes: Mexican Green (1967) Fontana
28. George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band: The Band Recorded Live (1976) MPS
29. Lionel Hampton, Tete Montoliu et al: Jazz Flamenco (1956) RCA
30. Enrico Rava: The Pilgrim and the Stars (1975) ECM
31. Mezzoforte: Anniversary Edition (2007) BHM Productions
32. Henri Texier/Louis Sclavis/Aldo Romano: African Flashback (2006) Label Bleu
33. Gianluigi Trovesi: Round About a Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999) Enja
34. Schweizer/Lewis/Leandre/Nicols/Sommer: The Storming of the Winter Palace (1988) Intakt
35. Bugge Wesseltoft: New Conceptions of Jazz (1996) Jazzland/Verve
36. St. Germain: Tourist (2000) Blue Note
37. Pierre Favre Trio: Santana (1972) FMP
38. Django Bates: Like Life (1998) Storyville
39. Ericka Stucky: Suicidal Yodels (2007) Traumton
40. Nils Landgren Funk Unit: Paint it Blue (1997) ACT
41. Bojan Zulfikarpasic: Xenophonia (2006) Label Bleu
42. Rudd/Lacy/Mengelberg/Carter/Bennik: Regeneration (1982) Soul Note
43. Till Brönner: Blue-Eyed Soul (2002) Verve
44. Stefano Bollani: Concertone (2005) Label Bleu
45. Willem Breuker Kollektief: Live at the Donaueschingen Music Festival The European Scene (1977) MPS
46. Grapelli/Petrucciani/Mraz/Haynes: Flamingo (1996) Dreyfus
47. Supersilent: 6 (2003) Rune Grammophon
48. Ornette Coleman and Joachim Kühn: Colors: Live from Leipzig (1997) Polygram
49. Julien Lourau: Gambit (2000) WMA
50. Solveig Slettahjell: Good Rain (2006) ACT

I spent the weekend in Cambridge at the Crosscurrents conference co-sponsored by Harvard University and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich.

Its aim was to enrich a developing discourse of transatlantic music exchange (and foster a little of its own) by bringing together scholars from different disciplines, persuasions and nationalities, first in Boston (focusing on the years 1900-1950) and later this academic year for part II in Munich (1951-2000).  Excepting what I perceived to be a slight overemphasis on composers, the conference succeeded admirably.

Michael Denning’s keynote speech set the tone by focusing on the role of recordings in de-colonizing the ear in the former Western colonies.  This project struck some as too ambitious; for others it fulfilled the primary function of a keynote address, which is to cast a broad enough net to interest everybody.  Unfortunately Denning broke the Adorno seal, an unwritten taboo at music-oriented conferences like these, provoking heated reactions from anyone with an opinion on Adorno, which was–everybody.

There were several standouts among the presenters. Brigid Cohen used the case of Stephan Wolpe to describe a cosmopolitan (nationless) musicality. This bold step involved a virtuosic fusing of historical data with music- and social-theoretical insight.  The world needs to watch out for Cohen; she just began her professional career at Chapel Hill but is poised to make big contributions to transatlantic music scholarship.

Celia Appelgate, on the other hand, is a senior scholar and a well-regarded authority on German musical nationalism.  At the conference she staked out new territory in her paper on the presence (or non-presence) of Europeans at turn-of the century American expos.  Among other things her research shed light on the fascinating history of “big organs” at these events.  And yes, she was all over the double entendre.  I look forward to following the progress of her work.

If you happen to be in Munich this May I would highly recommend checking out the second half of the conference.