0:00:02 > 0:00:08In 1959, four major jazz albums were made that changed music forever.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13Miles Davis, Kind Of Blue.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16Dave Brubeck's Time Out.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23And Ornette Coleman's The Shape Of Jazz To Come.
0:00:23 > 0:00:281959 was a very important jazz year for me in my own development,
0:00:28 > 0:00:33and the evolution of jazz up until now and beyond.
0:00:35 > 0:00:41It was the year that saw the biggest selling jazz album, and single, of all time.
0:00:44 > 0:00:49Time Out was going where I envisioned jazz should go.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54I said, "Boy, this is fine. This is gonna work."
0:00:56 > 0:01:02Jazz was pushed to new heights of innovation, beauty, and groove.
0:01:05 > 0:01:10You know, the things would swing. He'd lift you right out of your seat.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16It was the end of the Eisenhower era, 2.5 children,
0:01:16 > 0:01:22and the white picket fence, in 1959 jazz is reaching white America in a big way.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26# Why are they so sick and ridiculous?
0:01:26 > 0:01:30# Two four six eight! They brainwash and teach you hate... #
0:01:30 > 0:01:37Jazz musicians didn't really, like, join the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement joined them.
0:01:41 > 0:01:48And with Ornette Coleman's The Shape Of Jazz To Come, 1959 saw the birth of a whole new free jazz movement.
0:01:48 > 0:01:54When you talk about somebody speaking through their instrument,
0:01:54 > 0:01:58like actually hear it as a human, that's Ornette.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01He changed everything.
0:02:01 > 0:02:081959 was a phenomenon. It was on another level, that's all you can say.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22'The machine's on. Miles, where you gonna work now?
0:02:22 > 0:02:23'Right here.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26'OK, cos if you move back, we don't get you.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28'When I play I'm gonna raise my horn a little bit.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31'OK, just you four guys on this, right, Miles?
0:02:33 > 0:02:34'Ready?'
0:02:43 > 0:02:49Miles Davis, Kind Of Blue, is the biggest selling jazz album ever made.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51Shifting over five million copies.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54It regularly tops best jazz album polls,
0:02:54 > 0:03:00as well as featuring high in lists of the greatest albums of any category.
0:03:00 > 0:03:06Kind of Blue continues to convert more people to jazz than any other recording.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09All this 50 years after it was released.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13- 'Yeah.- Let's hear a little bit of it.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15'Right, OK.'
0:03:15 > 0:03:17MUSIC PLAYS
0:03:19 > 0:03:26When they walked into the studio, they did not see this as their ultimate statement.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29They did not see this as the birth of a classic.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32It was a session that was scheduled for that day.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35'At the cannonball, you play again and we'll come in and end it.'
0:03:35 > 0:03:38They go over by the piano and he's giving them instructions
0:03:38 > 0:03:42about the tunes they're gonna play, you know.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45So there wasn't a whole lot of music, I didn't have any music.
0:03:45 > 0:03:50You know, just a piece of manuscript paper with some chords scribbled on it.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54Miles tells me, uh, "Make this sound like it's floating."
0:03:54 > 0:03:58'Here we go. No title.'
0:03:58 > 0:04:00MUSIC PLAYS
0:04:02 > 0:04:09'Start again, please. Sorry, we gotta watch it because there's noises all the way through, this is so quiet.'
0:04:09 > 0:04:13First time I did it, engineer said, "The drums are makin' like a surface noise,"
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Miles hollered back it him, says, "That's part of it!"
0:04:18 > 0:04:23- 'That goes with it.- What? - All that goes with it.- All right.'
0:04:23 > 0:04:30Amazingly, Miles and his band spent a total of just seven hours recording Kind Of Blue.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33All but one of the tracks are first takes.
0:04:33 > 0:04:39Any time they completed a tune, that's what they were gonna stick with.
0:04:39 > 0:04:45You know, it really is propelled by the idea that first thought is best thought.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47Try it again, Irvine.
0:04:56 > 0:05:02We would be hard pressed to find any album opener that could compare to the opening of So What.
0:05:03 > 0:05:09This misty, unclear idea of where is the music going, where are we?
0:05:14 > 0:05:20The intro from So What was totally improvised.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24Had no time reference, no beat yet.
0:05:36 > 0:05:42It's the piano and the bass sort of having this little conversation,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46and out of this musical cloud comes the riff.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50The grand riff, the one that says, "So what?"
0:05:51 > 0:05:53Baum ba do ba do baum...
0:05:58 > 0:06:05And then just when the energy is sort of getting to the point where it needs to be kicked up a notch,
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Jimmy Cobb comes in with this incredible cymbal crash.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14When we got to the place where the solos were supposed to start,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18I hit the cymbal, and I thought I had over-played it for the room,
0:06:18 > 0:06:22- I thought I had hit it too hard.- But bang. It hits.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30You know, you can't plan on stuff like that happening.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35Miles' solo kicks off. So simple.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39Almost like a whispered confession.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43You know, by someone very intimate to you.
0:07:06 > 0:07:11When Miles did Kind Of Blue, it opened up a whole new direction in jazz.
0:07:11 > 0:07:19More introspective, a new way of thinking about the creation of jazz
0:07:19 > 0:07:23and the creation of jazz compositions.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30Part of Kind Of Blue's enormous influence on music is the legacy of the band members.
0:07:30 > 0:07:37Many of them went on to become leaders in their own right, like saxophone virtuoso,
0:07:37 > 0:07:38John Coltrane.
0:07:44 > 0:07:50But Kind Of Blue is defined by Miles' incredibly hip trumpet sound.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00He had this sound that was kind of like, um...
0:08:03 > 0:08:05haunting kind of voice.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12It was really individual. Very unique, very special.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17The way he plays sometimes, it makes you feel life so deeply,
0:08:17 > 0:08:21that you could almost cry, you know?
0:08:22 > 0:08:26And it didn't really sound like a trumpet any more.
0:08:48 > 0:08:54Miles' trumpet technique on Kind Of Blue was something he'd painstakingly developed
0:08:54 > 0:08:57since he first hit the scene in the late 1940s.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00Back then, the music had been changing.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11In the 1940s, if you were a player, if you were an instrumentalist
0:09:11 > 0:09:16who was really starting to make the move, be-bop was the music.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30Be-bop was a fast and frenetic style of jazz.
0:09:30 > 0:09:37It reflected jazz musicians' desire to be accepted as virtuoso artists, masters of their instruments.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41Be-bop's greatest exponent was Charlie Parker.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55Miles Davis is a very precocious, musical youngster.
0:09:55 > 0:10:01What he really wants to learn is be-bop, and where he's gonna learn it is on 52nd Street,
0:10:01 > 0:10:07up at Minton's, up in Harlem, playing with the be-bop leader of that time, Charlie Parker.
0:10:21 > 0:10:27Aged only 18, Miles became a member of Charlie Parker's band.
0:10:38 > 0:10:45As Miles traded solos with his hero, he was learning about be-bop from the source.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54Miles is not gonna be a side band for long.
0:10:56 > 0:11:02Miles, like many other musicians of that day were trying to deal with the language of be-bop.
0:11:02 > 0:11:03"Where do we take be-bop?"
0:11:06 > 0:11:09Miles said, "The music has become cluttered."
0:11:15 > 0:11:21Part of his genius as a musician was that he edited what he heard Charlie Parker play.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24So if Charlie, for instance, used ten notes
0:11:24 > 0:11:27to make a certain kind of statement,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Miles Davis might figure out how to use three.
0:11:33 > 0:11:40Miles used what they call the harmonic bomb, you hit this note that nobody expects you to hit,
0:11:40 > 0:11:47and it has a great weight of power than just running up through the notes another kind of a way.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56There's a connection, a connective between these four artists.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman,
0:12:00 > 0:12:05in that they're all dealing with be-bop. The continuation of be-bop.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Where do we take this language, what do we do with it?
0:12:21 > 0:12:29Another direction jazz took in 1959 was the rhythmic experimentation of pianist Dave Brubeck's Time Out.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39A highly unusual record, each track is in a different tempo and time signature.
0:12:43 > 0:12:49The single Take Five is in 5/4 time, and built around a drum solo.
0:12:52 > 0:12:58Yet it rose up the pop charts, becoming the best selling jazz 45 ever released.
0:13:02 > 0:13:08Brubeck had spent years building the line-up of his quartet that would go on to record Time Out.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16I put together gradually this dream group,
0:13:16 > 0:13:18cos some bass players and some drummers
0:13:18 > 0:13:23didn't wanna play in different time signatures,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26didn't wanna follow where it went.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32But Take Five drummer Joe Morello was originally unhappy
0:13:32 > 0:13:38coming into a band dominated by Brubeck and saxophonist Paul Desmond.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41On the marquis, on any kind of sign, it was,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44"The Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring Paul Desmond",
0:13:44 > 0:13:47and the other guys were nothing, you could have been zilch.
0:13:47 > 0:13:55I said, "Joe, I'll feature you," so the first night he joined, I gave him a drum solo.
0:14:17 > 0:14:24I did the drum solo and the place went wild and people just stood up and clapped and all this nonsense.
0:14:24 > 0:14:31Paul Desmond, it's the end of the song, he just walks off the stand and runs in the dressing room.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35And Paul said, "Either he goes, or I go,"
0:14:35 > 0:14:39and I said, "Paul, he's not going."
0:14:39 > 0:14:45Which was a shock you know. Because he was the star in the group, not Dave, it was Paul.
0:14:45 > 0:14:47Well, he felt that way, anyway!
0:14:49 > 0:14:51He never talked to be for about five months.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01OK, now we gotta work on the ending.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03Did I play too many things for you?
0:15:04 > 0:15:09I sat in the crossfire between these two wonderful players,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12keeping everything going.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14Giving in or not giving in.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23That quartet just started making real headway.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36By the time they signed to Columbia Records in the mid-'50s,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40the Dave Brubeck quartet were one of America's top jazz bands.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45His music was easily accessible to the average person,
0:15:45 > 0:15:47it was not too complicated.
0:15:47 > 0:15:52And the group was quite appealing because here you had
0:15:52 > 0:15:56four all-American young boys to watch as well as to listen to.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03Dave was quite easy to sell to middle-America because he LOOKED like middle-America,
0:16:03 > 0:16:09he talked like middle-America. He was a nice guy that you were glad your daughter was going out with.
0:16:26 > 0:16:33As Brubeck's success widened, parts of the jazz community accused him of being not only a sell-out,
0:16:33 > 0:16:40but effectively a racist who diluted black music for mass consumption.
0:16:43 > 0:16:51Jazz came out of black America. Later of course, white America catches up, it always does.
0:16:53 > 0:16:59But there definitely was a resentment amongst black musicians regarding Dave Brubeck.
0:17:03 > 0:17:10In the '50s, the people who got successful from cool jazz were primarily white musicians.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15He had broken in to another audience that nobody really had.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18That's when people started gettin' mad at him.
0:17:20 > 0:17:27The thing about Dave, it's kind of strange for a guy who is light-years away from a racist, right,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31who is light-years away from a commercial guy...
0:17:32 > 0:17:39who doesn't make recordings with any intention of pandering to the public, but the public likes HIM!
0:17:46 > 0:17:52Brubeck himself was more concerned with fine-tuning the rhythm section of his quartet,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55and tackling his ideas about where jazz should be headed.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00And then Eugene Wright joined us
0:18:00 > 0:18:05and finally I had this dream group.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12But the addition of bassist Eugene Wright didn't pass unnoticed
0:18:12 > 0:18:16when they toured universities in the southern states of America.
0:18:18 > 0:18:26We were playing in a university and they said, "You can't go on stage with an African-American."
0:18:28 > 0:18:31I said, "Well, we're not going on stage."
0:18:31 > 0:18:38And then the students were stamping on the floor up above the dressing room,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41and the louder and wilder it got,
0:18:41 > 0:18:46the more concerned the president of the college was getting.
0:18:46 > 0:18:47So he told me,
0:18:47 > 0:18:53"You can go on, but you have to put your bass player way in the back
0:18:53 > 0:18:56"where he won't be too noticeable."
0:18:59 > 0:19:07When we walked on stage, the audience just went wild, they were so happy.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11The second tune, I told Eugene,
0:19:11 > 0:19:15"Your microphone's broke, come out here and play your solo
0:19:15 > 0:19:20"and use my speaker's mic, in front of the band."
0:19:20 > 0:19:23Gene didn't know how I was plotting all this.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27He came out and we tore that place up.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29Oh, it was so wonderful.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31Yeah, oh...
0:19:34 > 0:19:41The classic line-up of the Dave Brubeck Quartet that would go on to record Time Out, was now in place.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Bass player and composer, Charles Mingus,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17saw the question of how to take jazz forward in a different way.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22Mingus had risen throught the ranks, playing in the bands of jazz legends
0:20:22 > 0:20:26like Louie Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker.
0:20:26 > 0:20:31But for the notoriously opinionated and hot-tempered Mingus,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34jazz wasn't a calendar history of styles,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37so much as an ever-present "now".
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Charles Mingus had a very strong sense that there was no past,
0:20:46 > 0:20:50there was no present, there was no future.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54All of the time was alive at the same moment.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03He was a great, great thinker about music.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07He didn't buy anything about that, you know,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11a style lasted from 1920 to 1930, Mingus didn't buy that.
0:21:11 > 0:21:17His thing was that, if it was good then, it's good now.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20He wanted the freedom to play in, to write in,
0:21:20 > 0:21:26to encourage his musicians to know how to improvise in every style.
0:21:36 > 0:21:43In 1959, Mingus recorded and released Mingus Ah Um.
0:21:43 > 0:21:49It was one of four albums he made that year, not unusual in this prolific artist's long career.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54But Mingus Ah Um was a tightly focused master work.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08The title of the album sounds like a stutter,
0:22:08 > 0:22:12while he's getting himself together to make his grand statement.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14Ah Um? You know, what's that about?!
0:22:17 > 0:22:22What's really, really devastating about Ah Um, is the consistency.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Tune by tune by tune.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26I mean, it's Mingus at his best.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Mingus was diggin' deep into that roots thing
0:22:30 > 0:22:34with that incredible opening track, Better Git It In Your Soul.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39It's like a gospel choir. It's like a pentacostal performance on a Wednesday night prayer meeting.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56But the incredible magic of it is not just the influences,
0:22:56 > 0:23:01it's how Mingus works it all together and makes it into its own new thing.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, remember no applause and keep it down.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30Don't rattle the ice in your glasses and don't ring the cash register.
0:23:30 > 0:23:31You got it covered? All right.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47He had these enormous hands, and that made it possible
0:23:47 > 0:23:50for him to do certain things technically
0:23:50 > 0:23:52that other bass players just couldn't do.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55In fact, he was one of the greatest bassists in jazz,
0:23:55 > 0:23:59well, he was one of the greatest players of the bass, period.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05I can hear him now!
0:24:05 > 0:24:08He was powerful, powerful.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10You shut up when he played.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17APPLAUSE
0:24:19 > 0:24:25Charlie Mingus was a big man, with a big talent and a big temper.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30And if people bugged him in the audience for some reason,
0:24:30 > 0:24:35someone did, he got very angry, took his bass, and he smashed it through the light up there,
0:24:35 > 0:24:41and broke it. The light's still there, the Mingus Light, that's what it's become.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49He ripped the front door off once,
0:24:49 > 0:24:53and some little gal, this big, dragged it home, as I recall!
0:25:02 > 0:25:05They say a lot of musicians never played better in their life
0:25:05 > 0:25:08than when they play with Mingus because he was SO demanding.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11And he used everything, he used anger,
0:25:11 > 0:25:13he used insults, he used flattery.
0:25:13 > 0:25:19Whatever he could use. He would fire musicians and hire them back, you know, 20 minutes later.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21Nothing was out of bounds.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27He wanted you to understand his,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30play his music and be yourself in it.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34So often, on a nightclub stand he would stop and say to somebody,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38"You're not playing yourself, you're playing notes."
0:25:38 > 0:25:41I knew that Mingus was playing in this little club on West 4th Street,
0:25:41 > 0:25:46and I went into the club, there was an argument on the bandstand, they weren't even playing,
0:25:46 > 0:25:50and I heard Mingus yelling at somebody, and it turned out to be the piano player.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54Mingus put his arm inside the piano,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58and he grabbed the strings and pulled them out.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02With one fist.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05I said, "Man, it's time for me to get out of here."
0:26:05 > 0:26:08I never seen anything like that in my life.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11Well, I'm gonna shoot it.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13GUNSHOT
0:26:15 > 0:26:16A gun.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21People are always telling me stories I don't wanna hear,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25about moments of Charles's volatility or things that took place,
0:26:25 > 0:26:29and take place they did. And Charles created scenes,
0:26:29 > 0:26:32he was called jazz's angry man,
0:26:32 > 0:26:34and he had plenty to be angry about.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37He had a lot to confront in those days
0:26:37 > 0:26:42for a man of his sensitivity and his sensibility and his talent,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45and unrecognised in many places,
0:26:45 > 0:26:49merely because he had the wrong skin colour.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54He wasn't dark enough and he wasn't light enough.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57He called himself a mongrel, or a mutt.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10Like many jazz artists, Mingus was an extraordinary player and improvisor,
0:27:10 > 0:27:17but with Mingus Ah Um, he began to assume his position as one of jazz's greatest composers.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20I love Self Portrait In Three Colours.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23A little through composed piece without any solos,
0:27:23 > 0:27:30just a little jam, beatiful, this multi-faceted, um, composition.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45Charles once said that he was,
0:27:45 > 0:27:50through his music, trying to express who he was.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54And he said the reason it was difficult was because he was changing all the time.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57But through his music you hear every...
0:27:57 > 0:28:03You hear the fear, you hear the spirituality, the tenderness, the passion,
0:28:03 > 0:28:06everything that he was comes out in his music.
0:28:14 > 0:28:19In 1959, Ornette Coleman made his spectacular musical statement
0:28:19 > 0:28:25in one quantum leap with the audaciously titled The Shape Of Jazz To Come.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33But before he formed his quartet,
0:28:33 > 0:28:35Coleman, based in Los Angeles,
0:28:35 > 0:28:40had trouble finding anyone who was interested in his wildly unorthodox music.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57Went over to this club by MacArthur Park on Wiltshire
0:28:57 > 0:29:01and Gerry Mulligan was playing there.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04They started their first set, and after they begin to play,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08a guy came in and asked if he could sit in.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14He got up on the band stand, and proceeded to take out his horn,
0:29:14 > 0:29:17and the horn was white, it was plastic.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21I'd never seen a plastic horn before.
0:29:23 > 0:29:25When this gut started to play,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28it was like the heavens opened up for me.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32Because I saw, and I heard, something that I'd been feeling.
0:29:39 > 0:29:44To me, they were playing as if the music was written,
0:29:44 > 0:29:47like, when they was improvising, it sounded to me like, oh,
0:29:47 > 0:29:50they've already learned that. You know?
0:29:50 > 0:29:51So I said, I wanna play like that,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54I wanna play directly from something that inspired me.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58And they said, "What are you doing?" And I said, "I'm improvising."
0:29:58 > 0:30:00They said, "You ain't playing shit.
0:30:00 > 0:30:01"You can't play like that,"
0:30:01 > 0:30:04I said, "Play like what?" "The way you playing."
0:30:07 > 0:30:11And all of a sudden, Gerry Mulligan asked him to stop.
0:30:11 > 0:30:17So, he stopped, and got off the band stand and went to the back door.
0:30:17 > 0:30:21So I rushed through the crowd, trying to reach him,
0:30:21 > 0:30:25and by the time I got to the back door, he'd disappeared down the alley. He was gone.
0:30:27 > 0:30:32Blown away by Ornette's playing, Charlie Haden soon tracked him down.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38I said, "I heard you play the other night, man. You sounded so brilliant."
0:30:38 > 0:30:42He said, "Thank you, not many people tell me that."
0:30:42 > 0:30:45I said, "Man, I just wish that we could play music together sometime."
0:30:45 > 0:30:48And he said, "Well, what about now?"
0:30:48 > 0:30:52And so we went to his apartment.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55That's how I met him. And we played, and played and played.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58We maybe stayed in there three or four days, I don't know.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01So, that's when the quartet started.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08They're a bunch of young players, players who are just starting to break out,
0:31:08 > 0:31:14and whose minds and approaches are still flexible enough that Ornette can work with them.
0:31:30 > 0:31:36I never worried about chords, melodies or keys. Only sound.
0:31:36 > 0:31:43And the thing about it, there's only 12 notes that satisfy in the whole world.
0:31:43 > 0:31:4612 notes that satisfy in the whole world.
0:31:46 > 0:31:52And I said, "Oh, man." And then I realised that this note don't have a style.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55Either you make something out of it, or you don't.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03Ornette Coleman's The Shape Of Jazz To Come
0:32:03 > 0:32:09didn't initially make the bold impression it has done in the years since 1959.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18At first I didn't know what to make of it. I didn't know which pocket to put it in.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21Because I hadn't heard anything quite like that.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34It was a new, far-out approach.
0:32:37 > 0:32:42The Shape Of Jazz To Come is definitely an audacious title, you know?
0:32:42 > 0:32:46It's putting yourself out there and saying, you know, this is where jazz is going.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57Lonely Woman has been a favourite song of mine,
0:32:57 > 0:33:01and Willner, ever since I heard it when it first came out.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07It was one of the greatest compositions ever.
0:33:07 > 0:33:14I mean, combined with the way his quartet and Ornette played it,
0:33:14 > 0:33:16everything music could be.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19And not a day goes by when I'm not humming that.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28HE HUMS "LONELY WOMAN"
0:33:35 > 0:33:40It's not your standard jazz thing where this guy solos and this one solos and this one solos,
0:33:40 > 0:33:43this is a real composition,
0:33:43 > 0:33:50that brings all of them together, and they're all such staggeringly great players.
0:34:07 > 0:34:13Born from oppression, jazz is, at its heart, political,
0:34:13 > 0:34:15and throughout his career,
0:34:15 > 0:34:19Charles Mingus often integrated his political beliefs with his music.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23Charles used his band stand as a soap box at all times.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27He spoke out about his beliefs, about racism,
0:34:27 > 0:34:31about the iniquities in society and the record industry.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34Whatever was on his mind, he expressed.
0:34:34 > 0:34:39The most timely, and influencial track on Mingus Ah Um,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42Fables Of Faubus, was no exception.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47The track spoke of events that took place after the outlawing of segregation,
0:34:47 > 0:34:51two years earlier, in 1957.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55'President Eisenhower, signing the Civil Rights Bill.
0:34:55 > 0:35:00'It was Monday morning, ten past eight. Kids going to school all over the country as the President signs.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03'And in Little Rock at ten past eight,
0:35:03 > 0:35:08'Arkansas National Guardsmen, under orders of Governor Faubus, challenging the law of the land,
0:35:08 > 0:35:13'preventing nine negro youngsters from attending the Central High School in Little Rock.'
0:35:13 > 0:35:17There was an attempt to intergrate a high school
0:35:17 > 0:35:18in Little Rock, Arkansas,
0:35:18 > 0:35:23according to the law, according to the Supreme Court Of The United States.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27Governor Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas,
0:35:27 > 0:35:29would not allow integration.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33CROWD CHANT: Two, four, six, eight! We don't want to integrate!
0:35:33 > 0:35:37Two, four, six, eight! We don't want to integrate!
0:36:19 > 0:36:25Mingus was outraged by what he saw happening to people.
0:36:25 > 0:36:31And the irony of The Fables Of Faubus, is that it's kind of a comic tune.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40It has a theatrical quality, you know,
0:36:40 > 0:36:43you're expecting this character that's going to be...
0:36:43 > 0:36:48um, well, not very fit for public display.
0:36:48 > 0:36:55And that's certainly the way he felt about this white supremacist governor of Arkansas.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04'Then came the Eisenhower-Faubus meeting.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06'Finally, Faubus withdrew the guardsmen
0:37:06 > 0:37:09'and the negroes entered the hitherto forbidden white school.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11'A riot started.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14'Confronted with what he called anarchy,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17'the President ordered United States soldiers into Little Rock.
0:37:17 > 0:37:23'The regular army troops, para troops, escorted the negro children to and from school,
0:37:23 > 0:37:26'gave them full protection from the threatening crowds.'
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Charles wrote some smokin' lyrics about this,
0:37:30 > 0:37:37and Columbia Records would not let Charles include these political words on the album.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42"Tell me someone who's ridiculous," and then his drummer would respond, "Governor Faubus,"
0:37:42 > 0:37:45and Charles would say, "Why is he so sick and ridiculous?"
0:37:45 > 0:37:49And Danny would say, "Two, four, six, eight, brainwash and teach you hate."
0:37:49 > 0:37:51# Oh, Lord! No more Klu Klux Klan!
0:37:51 > 0:37:55# Name someone who's ridiculous, Danny
0:37:55 > 0:37:59# Governor Faubus!
0:37:59 > 0:38:03# Oh why are they so sick And ridiculous?
0:38:03 > 0:38:09# Two, four, six, eight, They brainwash and teach you hate. #
0:38:09 > 0:38:14Fables Of Faubus, even without the lyric, just the fact that he's using the name Faubus,
0:38:14 > 0:38:16is gonna have a very strong message
0:38:16 > 0:38:21to many of the people who were listening to that album in 1959.
0:38:21 > 0:38:26Fables Of Faubus opened up a lot of the pent-up feelings
0:38:26 > 0:38:30we all had as African-American musicians
0:38:30 > 0:38:33against racism in America.
0:38:33 > 0:38:40Kind of, set the stage for each of our own individual expression of that opposition to racism.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49BARACK OBAMA'S VOICE: Three words - yes, we can.
0:38:52 > 0:38:54Barack Obama may not know it,
0:38:54 > 0:39:00but jazz was one of the reaons he was elected president.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04and Charles Mingus, and all of these musicians,
0:39:04 > 0:39:10they helped to create the atmosphere that led to people
0:39:10 > 0:39:13respecting a person beyond the distinctions of colour.
0:39:18 > 0:39:20In the years leading up to Kind Of Blue,
0:39:20 > 0:39:25Miles Davis had begun to make an impact with his own defiant demands for respect,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28both as a black man, and as an artist.
0:39:28 > 0:39:33I remember seeing him in Los Angeles, at the club.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37People who turned up were gamblers,
0:39:37 > 0:39:39pimps, drug dealers,
0:39:39 > 0:39:41hustling-type guys.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45Bragging about who got the most hos and who got the prettiest hos,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48and your hos should be picked up by the dog catcher,
0:39:48 > 0:39:50and just all that kind of stuff.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59Now, when Miles Davis came on the bandstand, though, they shut up.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02They didn't make any noise after he came out there.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04See, I'd never seen that before,
0:40:04 > 0:40:08because these are not the kind of people you can just shut up.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12They knew if they got loud and irritated him,
0:40:12 > 0:40:16he would turn round and leave and that would be it. He wouldn't come back.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20Nobody was gonna entreat him. "Oh, Miles, but you won't get paid!"
0:40:21 > 0:40:24"I'm not broke."
0:40:24 > 0:40:28He always made his point that when I come in here,
0:40:28 > 0:40:32I have some kind of artistic goals I'm trying to accomplish
0:40:32 > 0:40:37and they do not include you talking while we're playing.
0:40:42 > 0:40:47Miles struck me as somebody who would sell a lot of records
0:40:47 > 0:40:52because his cool, almost disdainful, demeanour on stage
0:40:52 > 0:40:56worked absolutely in his favour to become a talked-about artist.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04Columbia had a very powerful publicity department.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08They realised what we have to do is we have to create this image
0:41:08 > 0:41:14of the distant, remote jazz musician who's not available to everybody.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16We're gonna sell them that!
0:41:20 > 0:41:27And of course being remote and unavailable just made everyone dig Miles all the more.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31Miles was not just a musical pioneer,
0:41:31 > 0:41:34he was a pioneer as far as American culture in general.
0:41:34 > 0:41:41He was an important black figure who made it within this American system.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44He's reaching white America in a big way.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55Freddie Hubbard said, when he was in the Village Vanguard,
0:41:55 > 0:42:00he noticed this repeatedly, that when Miles David would play a ballad
0:42:00 > 0:42:06and put the Harmon mute in the bell of the horn and play in the lower register,
0:42:06 > 0:42:09he said every woman's legs in the club opened.
0:42:11 > 0:42:16And he said first time he thought he was hallucinating, that it was not really happening.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20He said that he'd look and they all... They didn't even know they were doing it.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22He said they would all just open up.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36He was a dude, man! A dude! But beautiful.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41So sexy, if you really want to know the truth!
0:42:41 > 0:42:45He's got a very elegant, low-key sound.
0:42:45 > 0:42:50Women liked him a lot, look at all the wives he had!
0:42:51 > 0:42:56While 1959 saw America beginning to find its groove...
0:42:58 > 0:43:03..beneath the shiny surface lay deep fears brought about by the Cold War with Russia.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09As part of a programme of cultural detente,
0:43:09 > 0:43:16the American government asked Dave Brubeck to take jazz and its American values to the East.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20Our government wanted to impress people
0:43:20 > 0:43:25that were right on the border of Russia about our culture.
0:43:25 > 0:43:31President Eisenhower wanted us to go along the perimeter of Russia
0:43:31 > 0:43:38and we opened in Poland and then went to Turkey, Afghanistan,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42Pakistan, India, Iran, Iraq.
0:43:49 > 0:43:54We were gonna represent our country and we talked about how difficult it is
0:43:54 > 0:44:01to go and be the voice of freedom when you don't really have freedom yet,
0:44:01 > 0:44:06because of the old unwritten laws of segregation.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15A great thing jazz has done for our country
0:44:15 > 0:44:20and here we're being sent out to do it for the world.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25The tour was to begin in Poland,
0:44:25 > 0:44:28but this meant travelling through East Germany.
0:44:28 > 0:44:33East Berlin was not recognised by the United States.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37so they assigned a woman
0:44:37 > 0:44:41that for some reason could go through the Brandenburg Gate.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46The whole scene was like a spy movie.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51She told me to get in the trunk of her car.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55I said I won't get in the trunk of her car,
0:44:55 > 0:45:00I'll get in the back seat and if I get questioned, I'm gonna tell them the truth.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03But she got through.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11She brought us to a police station...
0:45:13 > 0:45:21..and this man walked into the room and said, "You are Mr Coolu,"
0:45:21 > 0:45:24and I said, "No, I'm Mr Brubeck."
0:45:24 > 0:45:26And he said, "No, you're Coolu."
0:45:29 > 0:45:35Then he pulled out a Polish paper with a picture of me
0:45:35 > 0:45:43and the caption said Mr Coolu and I realised I was Mr Cool
0:45:43 > 0:45:45and that was my name.
0:45:50 > 0:45:55Many of the ideas that we developed for Time Out
0:45:55 > 0:45:58came from touring in these countries.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01Like Blue Rondo A La Turk,
0:46:01 > 0:46:07- that's a Turkish folk beat. - HE TAPS AND SINGS THE RHYTHM
0:46:07 > 0:46:09HE PLAYS THE PIANO
0:46:16 > 0:46:18And then it goes into a blues.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38Brubeck returned to the US with a complete vision
0:46:38 > 0:46:42of the time signature experiments for Time Out.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02For his album of cool rhythmic innovation,
0:47:02 > 0:47:07Brubeck decided that drummer Joe Morello was to be given a showcase.
0:47:09 > 0:47:14I heard Joe playing this beat backstage...
0:47:14 > 0:47:16HE TAPS THE BEAT
0:47:18 > 0:47:23..and I said, well, I have something in 5/4.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25One, two, three, four, five...
0:47:41 > 0:47:455/4, that's right up my alley, man, you know?
0:47:48 > 0:47:54It's just spontaneous. I was looking for more colours, you know, different textures of sound.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14APPLAUSE
0:48:19 > 0:48:24I said, "Boy, this is fine. This is gonna work."
0:48:24 > 0:48:30Time Out was going where I envisioned Jazz should go.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40Jazz history had been written in 4/4 time
0:48:40 > 0:48:46and you get Dave Brubeck doing a whole album with the idea of using different time signatures.
0:48:50 > 0:48:56Columbia told me, "All these crazy time signatures, that'll never sell."
0:49:01 > 0:49:06But the disc jockeys started playing us. We had a big hit.
0:49:07 > 0:49:14The idea that jazz could actually make it on to pop radio in America in the late '50s -
0:49:14 > 0:49:17that was totally unheard of.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27What really works well with Time Out is that it provides
0:49:27 > 0:49:32an easy introduction for mainstream America to deal with new musical ideas.
0:49:47 > 0:49:53Towards the end of 1959, the Ornette Coleman Quartet came to New York for the very first time,
0:49:53 > 0:49:57with the prophetically titled The Shape of Jazz To Come.
0:49:57 > 0:49:59They were all but unknown,
0:49:59 > 0:50:06but those who were hip to the scene were there to check out the band's New York debut at the Five Spot.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11We couldn't wait. We went down to the Five Spot
0:50:11 > 0:50:15and had a rehearsal one afternoon and then we opened up.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20There were lines around the block, the place was packed with people, so it was quite a deal.
0:50:23 > 0:50:28Opening night, they had everybody, everybody was there.
0:50:28 > 0:50:33So he was, he was kind of on auditory trial so to speak.
0:50:33 > 0:50:38We couldn't wait to get to work and play because the music was so great and new and fresh.
0:50:38 > 0:50:44And that's when The Shape of Jazz to Come is dropped on the New York jazz scene.
0:50:54 > 0:51:00That first night of Ornette's was a "socko!" impact,
0:51:00 > 0:51:02and unforgettable. Unforgettable.
0:51:02 > 0:51:09I don't think I ever heard four musicians who gave me the impression of surrounding me,
0:51:09 > 0:51:12I was in the middle of it. Bang.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21'We all know the atomic bomb is very dangerous. We must get ready for it
0:51:21 > 0:51:25'Duck and cover! Attaboy, Tony, act fast!'
0:51:39 > 0:51:46Coleman spoke the paranoia that existed in the nuclear age.
0:51:49 > 0:51:56The reaction that many people had just to this idea that the entire world could be blown up.
0:52:08 > 0:52:16To play music with this urgency, this desperate urgency to make something that's never been before,
0:52:16 > 0:52:21as if you're on the frontline and you're risking your life for every note you play.
0:52:24 > 0:52:30I was there the opening night and I was really unprepared for the hostility!
0:52:32 > 0:52:37I was sitting next to Roy Eldridge, and Roy was a warm generous guy,
0:52:37 > 0:52:44and he was listening to Ornette and he said "He's just jiving, man, that's not music!"
0:52:44 > 0:52:48People will say it was random, it was chaotic, it was this and that.
0:52:48 > 0:52:55There were people who became angry at the music and let it be known that they hated it.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04'In New York, everything was under suspicion,
0:53:04 > 0:53:07'and I didn't know about being under suspicion,'
0:53:07 > 0:53:10I just thought about picking up my horn
0:53:10 > 0:53:14and activating the idea that's going through my nervous system.
0:53:16 > 0:53:23This guy had extreme nerve. The things that Ornette would play, even today,
0:53:23 > 0:53:30you actually can not believe that he played some of them. Just the sheer audacity of it.
0:53:33 > 0:53:40In New York, Ornette Coleman playing his white plastic sax was considered pretty out there too.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45It looked kind of funny because people said,
0:53:45 > 0:53:49"What happened to the candy that was inside it when you bought it?"
0:53:49 > 0:53:55He got a great sound out of this instrument. You wouldn't think it was plastic. I'd say,
0:53:55 > 0:54:00"Oh my God I hope this horn don't melt, this cat's playin'." It was heavy stuff, you know?
0:54:17 > 0:54:21It's hard to understand a negative reaction to that.
0:54:22 > 0:54:30Something so fabulous. I mean, what would people object to in it? I can't even imagine it.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39He changed everything. He changed everything.
0:54:39 > 0:54:44The whole approach, the way of looking at it, the style of it, the sound.
0:54:44 > 0:54:50He influenced people that don't even know he influenced them. Like, think they hated the music,
0:54:50 > 0:54:56you know. It gets into you, you can't help it. Maybe that's what upset them so much.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03I'm not trying to prove anything to anybody,
0:55:03 > 0:55:06I want to be as human as I can get. Believe me.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09And I know there's nothing I'm trying to hide,
0:55:09 > 0:55:12there's nothing I'm trying to climb above,
0:55:12 > 0:55:15there's nothing I'm trying to destroy.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21No one is going to suffer from what the human race does,
0:55:21 > 0:55:23because it's not going to destroy itself.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27It's gonna improve itself.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32Music is something that, to me,
0:55:32 > 0:55:37is nothing but the sound of your emotions.
0:55:37 > 0:55:41It's your heart, it's your feelings,
0:55:41 > 0:55:46it's your belief, it's your ability, and, most of all, it's your love.
0:55:46 > 0:55:51And what's so beautiful about it is that it's not destructive.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54It's always something that gets better.
0:56:06 > 0:56:091959 was a really important year in jazz,
0:56:09 > 0:56:15because you had some of the greatest musicians in the world playing
0:56:15 > 0:56:20a response to what had been played, but was also a response to what COULD be played.
0:56:20 > 0:56:27The art was advanced in 1959, another set of choices were provided for everybody.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34Miles Davis, Kind Of Blue,
0:56:34 > 0:56:37has become jazz's best selling album,
0:56:37 > 0:56:43hugely influential from its 1959 release right up until today.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47Kind Of Blue difinitely changed music, it just kind of opened up
0:56:47 > 0:56:50the horizon for jazz expression.
0:56:53 > 0:56:58Miles would go on to influence the course of jazz many more times.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05Dave Brubeck still continues to follow his own groove
0:57:05 > 0:57:09and Time Out remains a high point of jazz innovation.
0:57:09 > 0:57:15With Time Out, it finally happened the way we all dreamt of it.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19It stood the test of time, this one
0:57:21 > 0:57:24Charles Mingus, a political as well as musical force,
0:57:24 > 0:57:30is now recognised as being amongst the 20th century's most important composers.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35Mingus Ah Um remains a prime work by the unpredictable genius.
0:57:35 > 0:57:41He was sharing his emotions about life.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44The message he always said to his side-men was "Play yourself",
0:57:44 > 0:57:49and you could extend that to all of us, "Play yourself, be who you are."
0:57:50 > 0:57:54But the record that has most changed jazz this last half-century
0:57:54 > 0:57:58is Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come.
0:57:58 > 0:58:03It came out of nowhere and fired a starting gun on new forms of music.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06The LP still sounds radical.
0:58:09 > 0:58:16He's divisive even to this day. Being divisive is a defining element almost to Ornette Coleman's music.
0:58:17 > 0:58:22The legacy of The Shape of Jazz to Come will be to create no boundaries,
0:58:22 > 0:58:27to play new music as much as you can, not to be satisfied with the status quo.
0:58:45 > 0:58:48Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:48 > 0:58:52Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk