Jazz at the Grammys

[MartyJazz]

Anyone see that all too brief tribute to Dave Brubeck last evening at the Grammys? Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Kenny Garrett - no drummer - performed a one minute medley of "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk". A brief wave of musicianship in an ocean of schlock.

[CJ Shearn]

Kenny had a great 8 bars and I liked Stanley's doublestops. Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band too was fine musicianship. I guess the keyword with other musicians in the various bands, is that it's not everybody's thing. Definite musicianship in the Levon Helm tribute but kind of super predictable and a bit lame. Travis Barker was absolutely horrible with LL Cool J, Tom Morello and Chuck D. Lack of subtlety, feel and groove.

[Aggie87]

I was glad to see Garrett on stage, but it would have been nice to get their whole performance.

[Christiern]

What I saw/heard during the first hour of the Grammys was predictably abysmal. What I saw for the next two hours was predictably exquisite: it was called "Downton Abbey."

Edited February 11, 2013 by Christiern

[ValerieB]

"Jazz at the Grammys" is an oxymoron!!!!!!!!!!!

[ejp626]

Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band too was fine musicianship.

I didn't think that worked at all -- their backing The Black Keys. Not that the song was horrible but what they played was generic horn comping and not at all representative of what they are about.

[jeffcrom]

Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band too was fine musicianship.

I didn't think that worked at all -- their backing The Black Keys. Not that the song was horrible but what they played was generic horn comping and not at all representative of what they are about.

I agree. I didn't watch the Grammys, but when I saw the mention of the PHJB in this thread I found the clip on the web. I only made it halfway through.

[CJ Shearn]

Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band too was fine musicianship.

I didn't think that worked at all -- their backing The Black Keys. Not that the song was horrible but what they played was generic horn comping and not at all representative of what they are about.

Yeah, that's true about what they played, but they are very good players indeed.

[ejp626]

Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band too was fine musicianship.

I didn't think that worked at all -- their backing The Black Keys. Not that the song was horrible but what they played was generic horn comping and not at all representative of what they are about.

Yeah, that's true about what they played, but they are very good players indeed.

I'm sure they are, but who would know that? It was a total waste of their time and talent. And anyone watching would say, hmm, PHJB -- almost as good as the DapTones but nowhere near as good as Tower of Power. Maybe I'll go check out one of their albums... In that super unlikely scenario, this unknowing viewer is probably going to be disappointed indeed when they hear their actual music. Which is why I really don't see how they benefit at all from backing The Black Keys.

[CJ Shearn]

I think what also contributes to the awfulness of music at the Grammies is that, even compared to the 80's, a lot of tunes harmonically are just bad. Theres nothing like say changes in "This Masquerade", "Broken Wings" or "Human" by the Human League that'd make you go, "hmm, ok, cool!" At least that sort of thing piques my interest as a listener,

[JSngry]

Re: Preservation Hall, apparently they've got relatively new product out through Sony/Legacy: http://www.amazon.com/Preservation-Hall-50th-Anniversary-Collection/dp/B008HLI4KW

So, that answers that.

[jeffcrom]

Re: Preservation Hall, apparently they've got relatively new product out through Sony/Legacy: http://www.amazon.co...n/dp/B008HLI4KW

So, that answers that.

The Grammy appearance is part of the "rebranding" of the PHJB undertaken by Ben Jaffe over the past few years. Jaffe is the son of the late Allan Jaffe, the longtime owner of Preservation Hall; Ben is the curly-haired tuba player with the band. (He's also a very fine upright bassist.) Jaffe has worked to make the band part of the contemporary music scene, not just a museum piece. It works sometimes, and it doesn't sometimes. The Grammy appearance was an example of Jaffe's efforts not working, in my opinion. The Gulf Aid All-Stars version of "It Ain't My Fault," which came out after the Gulf oil spill and which combined members of the PHJB with Lennie Kravitz and rapper Mos Def, worked fabulously. A prime example of what Jaffe's trying to do is the 2010 album Preservation, on which the PHJB is joined by guest artists from other musical worlds - pop, rock, country, folk, etc. It mostly works, although there are few tracks where I thought, "This person should never have been allowed near a microphone."

[ejp626]

Well, I guess it is all of a piece then and they went into the Grammys with their eyes wide open. It is a bit droll and more than a little sad but not unexpected that in the reviews of this "new product" (it's newness being far more important than the content), reviewers explictly single out all the material in the box set recorded since 2000 as being pretty crap. I guess in order to save the village, they had to flatten the village, as it were.