Brian Blade v Tony Williams? Men of Eras

Brian Blade v Tony Williams? Men of Eras

One evening after showing my friend the full video of Jazz Crimes (live) featuring Joshua Redman, Sam Yahel and Brian Blade the following conversation happens.

Friend: I like this Brian Blade guy he is a tremendous drummer. Did he use to break dance in his youth?

Me: I don’t know about that. All I know is he can break beats any way he wants and it will come out perfect.

Friend: Why do you like jazz drummers so much?

Me: Do you like drum-less jazz?

Preamble

I am an Urhobo man. So what? You are right to ask that question. Yet, the Urhobo heritage includes the music of the total drum. The total drum is not one drum or one drummer, it is a system of drums that produces music without accompaniment. The drums stand alone and produce a self-contained music. Other percussion instruments are welcome to support and enrich the music and human vocals often completes it. Therefore, I understand jazz from a drum-centric angle.

Let me say what may shock most jazz fans. I feel jazz drummers are the greatest jazz artist there are. And for decades Tony Williams was the greatest jazz musician in the world. Yes, to me. Hear me out. I said in the opening paragraph I appreciate jazz through a drum-centric perspective. I have tried but am unable to change it.

To keep this nontechnical I will stick with the visceral sensibility of the music I so love and appreciate. When I listen to One Finger Slap on the Maiden Voyage album it is not to hear the virtuosity of Herbie Hancock or Freddie Hubbard. I play it to hear Tony Williams. When I Listen to Jazz Crimes (live) I do not do so to hear Joshua Redman or Sam Yahel. I play it to hear Brian Blade. I hear and enjoy the other musicians anyway but that’s a welcome bonus. A friend said that sounds like someone saying he drinks mojitos for the mint in it.

The drummer is the leading musician and the trumpeters, saxophonists, trombonist, pianists, xylophonists, bassists etc. are supporting musicians. Don’t blame me for this counterintuition. I am just expressing my cultural heritage through decades of my experience of jazz and other musical art forms. A friend said that sounds like someone saying he drinks mojitos for the mint in it.

The Archetype

Every art and science has its own archetype, jazz is no different. The archetype is that perception of the ideal that encourages those who dare to reach for and capture it. The archetype of jazz is perhaps traceable to Uhuoro’ojevwu of the Urhobos, an ancient African music form. This where the total drum originates from. This is that ideal people listen for while listening to jazz. And this ideal as expressed in America may not be purely African.

I hear the archetype when Tony Williams is playing. I hear the archetype when Brian Blade is playing. Elvin Jones, Art Blakely, Famoudou Don Moye, Billy Higgins, Jimmy Cobb, Louis Hayes, Jeff Tain Watts and many others. Their musicianship are all expressions of the same source like it is some holograph or fractal.

Apart from the archetype of the source, there are archetypes of eras and personalities. When we hear someone came before their time, it tells us the persons expressions art or otherwise did not match those of the time no matter how great. Imagine Miles Davis being a trumpeter in the 17rh century or Billie Holliday performing today.

The Drummers’ Eras

Tony Williams burst on the scene in the 1960s. Meanwhile, the 1960s is really 1957 to 1973. A lot of music cooked in the late 1950s came out in the 1960s and music brewed in the 1960s reached audiences in the 1970s. Bureaucracy and budgets are the main factors in those delays.

The archetype of the 1960s was one of distinctive rebellion and innovation. The counterculture was in full swing. This was challenging for artists. Established art was giving way to new approaches and art forms. The world was ready for Bossa Nova, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Boogaloo and Brown.

On the jazz front we had Association Advancement Creative Musicians and the New Thing. As much as Miles Davis hated and was an unflinching critic of this new approach to music members of his Second Quintet emerged from it. Williams had played in Avant Garde bands led by Eric Dolphy, Sam Rivers, Jackie MacClean and others who led the New Thing movement. This exposed Williams and encouraged him still a teenager to play in experimental contexts without deviating too far from the rhythmic expectations of jazz.

Nevertheless, I plead a counterfactual here. If Brian Blade had emerged in that era of the 1960s, he would have faced the same challenges and had similar grounds to break. Brian Blades personality on the drums in that era would have made him an instant superstar. Just as Miles Davis had dropped Philly Joe Jones for Jimmy Cobb or Red Garland for Wynton Kelly would he have dropped Tony Williams for Brian Blade if he was drummer for Art Ensemble of Chicago at the time?  Who knows?

The 1990s was an era of integrative innovation. I did hear on an internet radio show in the late 1990s that this was an era that would have favoured the drumming of Mel Lewis perhaps more than most others.  Brian Blade is not Mel Lewis but their focus was more on the musical integration with the band than individual distinction. If Tony Williams had emerged in the 1990s when the New Thing was almost effete, he would need to play in a more integrative style.

Conclusion

Finally, I conclude that greatness of Tony Williams and Brian Blade is a function of the eras of their emergence. No one denies their immeasurable talents and artists heights. Still, if you swap each player between the eras, you may get very similar results not necessarily in style and technique but in musical quality, output and performance.

Otherwise, who is the greatest among them both? Its like asking if you want $1 million worth of gold bars or $1 million worth of gold coins? It will depend on the advantages each option offers or a bias set in one’s thoughts. Gold is gold.

Grimot Nane