Jazz has always been a radical artform.
It is the music of immigrants, of Black America, of a new formulation of what music could be. The story of jazz is one of a unique group of artists dedicated to the sheer possibility and vitality of musical and artistic expression. But what is the future of this infinitely diverse, ever expansive artform? According to Melanie Charles, who is set to perform a double header with WhoAllGonBeThere in a highlight of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, jazz is more relevant than it ever has been.
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“In every era, there are two different types of jazz musicians. There is firstly the everyday working jazz practitioner, the musician that plays the upright bass, that plays the music, plays a certain era of jazz, whether it is the blues, or bebop or new jazz. Or there are musicians like Rahsaan Roland Kirk back in his day, or Theo Croker now, who say that they don’t want to compromise as a performer,” Charles tells me, talking from her New York apartment after a long day of the life of a working musician.
Of these two, she is very much the latter: “There have always been those two sorts of groups. I feel like right now in jazz, we are in a time when people are more open to more radical interpretations of what we call jazz or Black American music. There is so much tolerance and curiosity in the jazz world at the moment, and I am very grateful to be part of jazz at this time.”
Not only does she infuse a diverse range of soul, hip-hop, and Haitian musical heritage into her work, she also looks to the past of jazz, while looking ahead to its future.
“When I was studying the history of jazz, that was when I started learning about the cultural underbelly of music. I learned about rent parties and realised that jazz music was the real pop music of the time,” she says. “Over the years it became ‘respectable’. It became a spectacle rather than participatory, even though the music is all about the idea of call and response. That is the core of this kind of jazz.”
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The story of how jazz became divorced from these surroundings is part of what fuelled Melanie’s initial burst of creativity, creating work like Girl with the Green Shoes and her ambitious remix project Y’all Don’t (Really) Care About Black Women which celebrated famous female voices in jazz, R&B and soul, from Dinah Washington to Marlena Shaw.
“The whole intention of the project was to create a body of work that gave voice to the black jazz women that paved the way for me,” she tells me.
Her embrace of jazz’s history has always been a part of her rebellious nature as she has attempted to bring jazz back to its radical foundations.
“I was a rebel when I was younger. When you’re younger, you want to fight somebody.”
“I was interested in challenging the kind of jazz at places like the Lincoln Centre. It was such a north star for all of us young jazz kids in New York. But places like that and popular venues like the Coca Cola Club represented some of the more rigid jazz experiences out there. ”
Melanie is not only part of this modern movement in jazz, but is also one of its greatest advocates. She is not only a band leader, a flautist and a singer, but also a producer of the podcast/musical collaboration project Make Jazz Trill Again.
“I wanted to make a project called Make Jazz Trill Again where we could create a movement. It started off as a mantra, and then with time it evolved into a podcast. I am very proud of what we have done.”
Her coming down to Melbourne with jazz collective WhoAllGonBeThere is a unique event for jazz fans, given the opportunity for Melanie and the incredible range of talent to truly share their love of the art form.
“I was surprised at the curation for this event. We are all friends, and when I found out that we were all on the same bill I was like, ‘How did they even think of this? How is it that, even all of the ways over in Australia, they are so tapped into this specific community?’ Together we all create a really beautiful sound. I think the audience is really in for a treat.”
Melanie Charles + WhoAllGonBeThere will perform at Max Watt’s on 25 October.
