1968 - no more suits and ties when performing at a concert

[jeffcrom]

Lookin' sharp, Billy.

[BillF]

Now this was the style.

[Steve Reynolds]

I got some GREAT pictures of current day JAZZ musicians ON STAGE from the last couple of years.

I was going to share one of Edward "Kidd" Jordan with Dave Burrell, William Parker and Hamid Drake. June 15th last month in Brooklyn. Stunning sounds and as always, stunning to see these brilliant musicians up close and personal.

The coolest dudes in the room.

Imagine those guys wearing suits?

Maybe some of you all need to get out more often

GIANTS walk the earth TODAY

Edited July 30, 2014 by Steve Reynolds

[duaneiac]

The MJQ tried -- I'm sure they tried -- to fit in with the times back then. They did manage to ditch the ties, but they just could not bring themselves to abandon suits entirely. This was their groovy, flower power, compromise solution --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoqCrHuFbFs

[ArtSalt]

Now this was the style.

Aye, that was where it was at!

[ArtSalt]

Imagine those guys wearing suits?

The suit is still a powerful weapon in a man's sartorial armoury, it still conveys, at least in the common culture of our media - if not the workplace in most industries - the status of authority and power. It can also be a tool of subterfuge, Miles dressing like an Ivy Leaguer at the Andover Shop and then shooting-up backstage at the Newport Jazz Festival.

It doesn't have to be a suit for me, but that style in America after WWI up until the Vietnam era, incorporating the soft shouldered collegiate to the zuit suit and beyond, reaching it's pinnacle and classical perfection in the oxford cloth button-down shirt and all to the soundtrack of American jazz is absolutey intoxicating to me.

[danasgoodstuff]

"Indifferency" i'm not sure that this is even a word, but it's exactly how I feel about how musicians dress. I wear ties and sports coats to work, which colleagues and customers invaribly misdecribe as "suits" - unless the jacket and pants match, it's not a suit. Band uniforms and similar attire were not a badge of power and authority, but of servitude - like a welldressed waiter or butler.

Edited July 31, 2014 by danasgoodstuff

[king ubu]

Funny - but yeah, sure Hendrix knew better from his early days.

I don't care much what someone's wearing when the entire picture fits. Randy Weston in wide African clothes can look as nice as someone who knows how to wear a suit. And no, all those smartass conservative young jazzers wearing them don't necessarily make a better impression on me than ... oh, wait, poor Tony Malaby

Seriouslsy, it's the whole that counts. Also, that "suit as sign of male power" thing* can and pretty often does give the creeps - and sometimes the urge to not stick my shirt into the trousers -

*) weapons are even worse of course, I loathe metaphorical usage of war expressions - though they've crept so far into daily language usage, it's really hard to omit them

Edited July 31, 2014 by king ubu

[Rooster_Ties]

So, who were among the first to ditch the suit and/or tie in the early to mid 60's (having previously been more conservatively dressed, like everyone else).

NOT who never wore a suit and/or tie in the first place -- but were there any notable early-adopters of the trend that became pervasive by '68?

[JSngry]

Charles Lloyd immediately comes to mind.

Here's his former employer in 1967, getting there:

His former employer, and the one you'd tend to think of as fashion-forward, didn't really hippen up the attire until the second Quintet, allegedly at the instigation of Betty Mabry/Davis.

Truth this - nobody rocks a tie like Roscoe Mitchell. I've said it before, but it bears repeating.

Although, I am in total agreement with the "ain't what you wear, it's the way that you wear it" crowd.

[l p]

Charles Lloyd immediately comes to mind.

Here's his former employer in 1967, getting there:

His former employer, and the one you'd tend to think of as fashion-forward, didn't really hippen up the attire until the second Quintet, allegedly at the instigation of Betty Mabry/Davis.

Truth this - nobody rocks a tie like Roscoe Mitchell. I've said it before, but it bears repeating.

Although, I am in total agreement with the "ain't what you wear, it's the way that you wear it" crowd.

i don't think we can tell for sure that the photo was taken in 1967.

http://www.mcrfb.com/?p=17857

[JSngry]

Not even with the cufflinks?

[JSngry]

Looks so wrong, sounds so pissed off.

Gotta love it. Either that or be repelled by it, perhaps even scared.

Or all of the above. Yeah, all of the above.

[MomsMobley]

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

In 1967, the Parliaments (Clinton's first band) looked like this.

Anti-suit suits!

MG

[JSngry]

With hair like that, you gotta have suits to match.

[ArtSalt]

Seriouslsy, it's the whole that counts. Also, that "suit as sign of male power" thing* can and pretty often does give the creeps - and sometimes the urge to not stick my shirt into the trousers -

*) weapons are even worse of course, I loathe metaphorical usage of war expressions - though they've crept so far into daily language usage, it's really hard to omit them

The whole is what counts, but image inevitably comes into, especially for performers and when you are considering the whole entity.

Armour can be worn in defense of course, it is not specifically a war expression in terms of uniforms and we all dress, or at least have had to, in a uniform, be it a suit, sunday's best, or a boy's scout uniform.

How one dresses can be a powerful tool and indeed, weapon. So the military terminology is apt. But so many men are frightened of wielding this power, it strikes me as oddity. And I don't mean power as in control over others, it's about walking into a room, bar, restaurant, or meeting place and commanding respect, just by the way you look. What's so bad with that?

[Teasing the Korean]

what happened here. did the union tell the musicians that it was ok to wear clothes other than suits and ties? it seems that everyone, all at once, started wearing clothes of their choice after 1967.

You're either with us or against us. Which is it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNxUMiunrX8

Edited August 7, 2014 by Teasing the Korean