M E D I C AL \ * 5- A CONTRADICTION |_gj|g| ggWJe amongst trumpet P'ayers,|_gj|gj. ggWJe was the most successful trumpeter of the avant- garde and at the same time the contemporary pTayer who was most happy when digging a b ot in the roots of iazz from the earlier parts of the By Steve Voce Considering the emerging trumpet irtuoso Wynten Marsalis, Bowie aid, 'W i th his chops and my brains could have been one of the greatest!'. century. Because he used mutes in the 'wah-wah' style that was a Duke Ellington speciality of the Twenties and Thirties, Bowie was sometimes known as 'the new Cootie Williams' after one of Ellington's more spectacular trumpeters. Bowie was happy to lift the growls and half-valved sounds of the earlier players and drag them into his experimental play- ing. Gospel music also figured in his plans and there was a vocal quality to his trumpet that was unfashionable but very effective. When he played, he swept from slashing, violent improvisations to themes of haunting beauty, often step- ping off in between to incorporate banal quotes from pop songs. He also delved sideways into contemporary black pop music, and one of his most famous recordings was a vivid 16-minute version of the Platters' hit 'The Great Pretender' recorded with his first wife, the singer Fontella Bass, in 1981. Was it sly humour or the wish to provide an easy access to his music that led him to follow up with long reworkings of 'I Only Have Eyes For You' (1985) and Louis Armstrong's 'Blueberry Hill' (1986) and 'Hello, Dolly' (1987)? His music covered the widest and most unpredictable spectrum, so that one had to absorb, next to 'Blueberry Hill' on the ascetic and dignified ECM label, his composi- tion 'No Shit' - words and arrangement by Lester Bowie. The lyrics consisted of two words repeated. Bowie's music was unfailingly exuberant and everybody went along with his wry humour and volcanic trumpet playing. Except that is, for some of the eminent younger musicians who fol- lowed and, as is the habit of the young, regarded him as either a traitor or a musical irrelevance. Neither was the case, for Bowie was one of a group of intelligent and committed musicians who combined their music with their fight for racial freedom. Considering the emerging trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis, Bowie said, 'With his chops and my brains I could have been one of the greatest!' Bowie was by no means in the Marsak league as a technician. He and his fellows in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and the sub- sequent Art Ensemble of Chicago (AEC), a band that they formed in 1968, brought pantomime to jazz, using face make-up and creating a travelling theatre from their bands. The only programme for their concerts was that there wasn't one and they happily mixed theatrical jokes with serious creative avant-garde music. Born in Maryland in 1941, Bowie grew up in St Louis at a time when musicians were still coming up from New Or- leans. He played first in local rhythm-and-blues bands led by Little Milton and Albert King, both soon to become fa- mous. He also worked with some of the young musicians in the city who, like him, were destined for fame. They in- cluded the saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman and the drummer Jack DeJohnette. Bowie moved to Chi- cago in 1965, where he met Fontella Bass and became her musical director. The same year, the pianist Muhal Richard Abrams formed the AACM as a jazz workshop and Bowie joined him. Their first recordings in 1967 show a group of un- known but very advanced musicians in completely sponta- neous but expert and intoxicating improvisations. From this point on Bowie and his friends were no strangers to odd instrumentation. He played trumpet and flugelhom but also anything exotic that seized his fancy, like bass drum or the mysterious cowhorn. Logs, bells, sirens, gongs, whistles and a zither also found their way into the armoury. h " band, finding no outlet at home, moved to France in 1968 and the following year recorded the LP A Jackson in Your House. Typically, the piece begins with a dignified and pompous overture which is punctured by the laughter of the band before it rocks info Dixieland ensemble complete with clarinet and then into an approxi- mation of the swing style. Although the music is unusually and intentionally funny, the direct social criticism of A Mes- sage to Our Folks done a couple of months later is much more serious. The two albums perhaps typified Bowie's > Selected essays on arts and literature... > > Reviews of books on Africa and diaspon > > Recommended book listings > > Current and rare releases on African an world music... > > Hot links to other interesting websites... > > and other exciting features Surf our killer interactive website from August 28, 2000.