Jazz mentors

“If you love jazz, you pass it down.” Stanley Clarke

My opening quote from bass supremo Stanley Clarke goes to the heart of one of the most endearing and enduring characteristics of the jazz life- the engagement of senior figures within the music in actively supporting and mentoring the upcoming generations of jazz musicians.

Stanley Clarke’s own career is a perfect example. Following his very early baptism with Miles Davis in the early 80’s the now 73 year old Clarke has, for the last thirty years led bands largely made up of young musicians many of whom used the experience to launch their own careers as leaders. Piano star Hiromi is a good example of life-after-Stanley-Clarke.

I can’t think of another major art form where mentoring is hardwired into its modus operandi to an equivalent degree as jazz. The spectacularly gruff and moody Miles Davis was a formative influence in the careers of numerous younger musicians for forty years. Miles was always demanding and brusque and almost never offered advice. Look up the testimonies of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter or John Coltrane among many others and you will encounter very precise recognition and appreciation of Miles’s pivotal role in their musical development.

In jazz mentoring is often practiced as a form of tough love. Young drummers needed to earn the right to be tutored by the great mainstream drummer Jo Jones. Literally scores of drummers passed the initiation test and benefitted from his insights. That included the very young Charlie Parker who was thrown off a Kansas City bandstand by Jo Jones and turned that experience into a major turning point in his short but spectacular career. Max Roach the incomparable bebop drummer learnt at the feet of Jo Jones and went on to play a key mentoring role in the lives of hundred of jazz musicians- not restricted to drummers.

Max’s indebtedness to “Papa” Jo Jones is exemplified by his following reflection,

“For every three beats a drummer plays, four of them belong to Jo Jones”.

Jazz literature and folklore is replete with stories of impactful influences on the early careers of jazz musicians. Mentors were fairly obscure, respected and long-forgotten teachers in cities like Philadelphia, Detroit, New Orleans or Houston who had established word-of-mouth mentorship credentials but had no particular interest in entering the national or international jazz stage. The pianist Ellis Marsalis father of Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason had a legendary reputation within his home city of New Orleans but recorded rarely and only occasionally performed outside of his home base. The same is true of saxophonist Von Freeman, a living legend in Chicago with an incomparable tenor sound and father of the more widely known Chico Freeman, also a tenor saxophonist.

And mentorship in jazz has taken many forms. Coleman Hawkins who can justly claim to have single handedly invented the tenor sax in the 1930’s hired Thelonious Monk in 1944 despite the view among contemporary cognoscenti that Monk couldn’t play. Needless to say, Monk proved them wrong.

The great trumpeter Clark Terry (1920-2015) had neither the time nor the inclination to join the faculty at a conservatoire but mentored hundreds of trumpeters with sessions often taking place in his apartment. Before his mental health issues took their toll the young piano genius Bud Powell played a similar role in New York in the 1940’s. Barry Harris (1929-2021) the last in the line of great bebop pianists devoted more time to teaching and mentoring than performing through his long life often, but not exclusively through his Barry Harris Institute of Jazz. YouTube is replete with clips of Barry Harris’s idiosyncratic mentoring method.

Once he had conquered his narcotics addition, alto star Jackie McLean (1931-2006) who I have referred to in an earlier chapter as “bebop royalty” devoted the last thirty years of his career to teaching at what is now rightly called the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz.

These days music colleges appoint acclaimed professional jazz musicians on faculty in order to provide a readymade mentoring role for aspiring students. In fact, the jazz departments in conservatoires around the world have now taken over from earlier, more informal, word-of-mouth mentorship models that benefitted earlier generations of musicians.

In the U.S.A. three bandleaders particularly exemplified the joint responsibility of leadership and mentorship.

The vocalist Betty Carter (1929-1998) best known for her unique improvisational style was an incredible spotter of young talent and helped launch the careers of such top talents as Benny Green, Cyrus Chestnut and Lewis Nash.

Elvin Jones (1927-2004) best known as John Coltrane’s drummer in his epic quartet devoted much of his subsequent career to leading the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine showcasing the talents of younger players particularly tenor saxists. Dave Liebman, Pat LaBarbera and Ravi Coltrane, John’s son, all owed their early grounding in jazz to Elvin.

Drummer Art Blakey (1919-1990) is the true exemplar of the bandleader/mentor. Following a ten year apprenticeship of his own Blakey founded the Jazz Messengers in the 1950’s. Initially co-led with pianist Horace Silver, following Silver’s departure the band became Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and continued to tour for forty weeks a year right up until his death. It would take a whole chapter to name check the roster of musicians who launched their careers with the Messengers. For now, let’s leave it at Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson, Lee Morgan, Joanne Brackeen, Wynton Marsalis, Bobby Timmons and Jean Toussaint. I was privileged to witness many iterations of the Messengers at Ronnie Scott’s over the years.

Saxophonist Bobby Watson nailed it when he said,

“I showed up in New York with a diploma but got my education with Art Blakey”.

In the UK drummer Clark Tracey whose baptism in jazz was as a seventeen year old tyro drummer in his father, Stan Tracey’s groups has gone on to lead a succession of bands showcasing a revolving cast of twentysomethings.  Ronnie Scott played a similar role through the booking policy of his eponymous jazz club in Soho and to a lesser extent within his own bands.

The Playlist

My playlist includes recordings from all the musicians name checked in this piece, both leaders and early career players.  The wonderful collectors’ item piece by Mary Lou Williams is included because it features Jo Jones on drums.