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Summary

The journey of the research on the softening of borders between comics and jazz is explored, starting with considerations and anecdotes from the past. Billie Holiday’s connection to comic books, the transformation of jazz and comics into accredited forms of art, and the evolving relationship between jazz and comics are key points of exploration in the research. The impact of recognition on these art forms and the representations of jazz in comics are also critical topics for discussion.

In 2017, I presented a paper at a communication conference in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, entitled On Comics and Jazz and, since then, I have been dedicating myself to the subject from both an academic and artistic point of view. In fact, one of the issues raised concerns precisely the softening of borders.

I would like to share with you the journey of this research, starting with some considerations that served as starting points. Enjoy!

In the Spring of 1948, the promoter Ernie Anderson met legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in midtown Manhattan. They discussed details of her much waited come-back to show-business in the Carnegie Hall stage the following night. After leaving the Federal Reformatory for Women at Alderston, Virginia, where she served 10 months for ‘receiving and concealing a narcotic drug’, Billie depended on that act to re-establish her career.

As Anderson prepared to leave, ‘Lady Day’ asked him for some comic books. In that crucial evening, comic books made company to the great artist.

Forty-five years later Billie herself would become a much praised graphic novel by the hands of Argentinean authors José Muñoz and Carlos Sampayo (1993) and much before, in 1927, the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian had published “Jazz and the Neo-Plasticism”, claiming that jazz and the new movement he helped to put up were nothing less than expressions of a new life and considered them revolutionary movements capable of dealing with the new time and space impositions of the metropolis.

In 2015 jazz performer Kamasi Washington released his debut album called The Epic, a three hour piece, comparable to an opera and deliberately inspired in comic art both musically and also in the art of the album. Washington revealed he was actually working on a graphic novel and album final structure was directly influenced by it.

Both considered during long time marginal forms of expression, comics and jazz proudly arrived in the twenty first century as accredited forms of art and a regular subject for thesis and dissertations. But does this recognition also have a price? Did it implicate in some sort of compromising?

How (far) did it change jazz and comics features? Since the links between both jazz and comics continue to develop, how are these two languages interacting, that is, what are the representations in comics about jazz?

These are some of the questions we will develop throughout this topic.

Be seeing you!

G. F.  

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And there they are once again, folks. We always knew the moment would come but, somehow, we expected it to be different this time. Somehow. Well, we were wrong and here they are: the end-of-year retrospectives. Yay!… or, is it?

I must confess those recaps make me usually a bit sad because, it does not matter how much I have reached, I always had bigger plans on my mind when the year started. So, recaps work for me as an (unasked) update on the items in the list of resolutions we all make at the beginning of the year. How many promises were fulfilled? How much progress in our lives?

Not that I have problems with reassessments, not at all! If you read me frequently, and I bet you do, you know that a good part of our meetings are dedicated to promoting strategies on how to deal with changes in the itinerary, unforeseen events and the like. My motto is: Life is like jazz: you have to know how to improvise!

So what is the problem with recaps? Sincerely, I do not know how to explain it, but there is an melancholy air in such compilations of “the best moments of the year”, that makes me blue. Besides, they tend to vary between condescending (“we are all victorious”), and hysterically euphoric (“people are sharing your music in X different countries!”).

I frankly like observing the numbers, the statistics, and finding out the number of playlists in which I was included always puts a smile on my face. In short: I enjoy having access to the amazing amount of data that retrospectives contain, but I do not like the idea of making a spectacle out of it.

Actualy, the end of the year awakens feelings of contemplation in me. Maybe because it is my birthday month, for me retrospectives fall into the big package of “rethink your new cycle”, and to reflect I need introspection, which does not always fit with the current social policy of constant content share.

At least in my astral hell I would like to have a little time to digest the results of a whole year of hard work. I want to celebrate my achievements and think about what can be done, so as not to make the same mistakes. I want to return to my metrics without fear, aware of the place I occupy, without comparisons or competitions.

Would it be too much to ask?

Be seeing you!

G.F.

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In the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, dir. Michel Gondry), Clementine, character of actress Kate Winslet, comments that she would like to have the job of naming hair dyes. “The job is taken!”, she complains.

I remembered the scene while choosing lipstick colors on sale. Among the nude tones alone, the variety was impressive: cookie nude, (just) nude, nude matte and my favourite one, naked nude. What could be this colour, so mysterious that needed two synonymous words to be described?

Of course, the marketing worked for me and I bought the naked nude lipstick. Given the package received and the pale beige color of the lipstick, this naked nude was nowhere near as glamorous and daring as its name promised. The job is definitely taken, dear Clem!

I have been thinking a lot about the current mainstream pop and I could not help thinking that if I had to add a colour to the scene, naked nude would be a great option. There is a lot of glamour and eccentric names written in capital letters, a lot of pleonasm in the song lyrics, a lot of repetition in the costumes, wigs, and stage mannerisms.

No doubt the result is very colorful and noisy, but at the same time pasteurized and the result sounds as stimulating as a pale beige palette. I do not agree with the theory tahys says this happens because people happen to like the same things. My point is that in order to like or dislike something, first of all, I must be aware that that thing exists.

And here is the problem: always playing the same songs (whether new releases or oldies), radio stations make it very difficult for you to get to know a whole new world of wonderful independent music, which by the way, will not reach the top spots on streaming platforms, because the algorithms suggest… guess what? Mainstream themes!

And what would be the way to break this vicious cycle? Sincerely? I do not know. The mainstream scene is a million-dollar business, which involves many things beyond music. There is always something to do though, and no matter where you are, there is certainly an independent local scene, no matter how small. A local scene that you can strengthen, whether by promoting or attending events.

After all, expanding your taste beyond the “top hit” lists is also up to you.

Be seeing you!

G.F.

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Jazzkantine is is a musical collective founded in 1993 in Braunschweig, Germany. Their first album, Jazzkantine , released in October 1994 won the “Echo Award” in 1996, the most important award for German music.I first heard them during dinner at the home of a member of another German band, TreSimul, quite sucessfull during the late 1990´s. It was love at first heard.

Just like Nouvelle Cuisine, Jazzkantine also uses gastronomic analogies to describe the sound proposal of Matthias Lanzer, owner of the Rap Nation label. The team includes rappers Aleksey, Cappuccino and Tachiles, and producers Ole Sander (DJ) and Christian Eitner (bassist). The result can be defined as a mix of fusion, jazz, funk and German rap. Their albums also featured partnerships with international jazz musicians.

In addition to their first album, I also have their follow-up work, Heiss und Fettig (1995). Awesome music, the kind that you have to check out, trust me.

It is noteworthy that as of 2016, the titles of the Jazzkantine albums no longer contain references to gastronomy, and their latest release, Discotheque (2022), moves even further towards a change of direction. The group embodied one of the strongest trends of the time in the world of music: collective projects, but as many similar projects, they needed to readapt with the arrival of the self-centered 2000s.

I am not talking here about the transition from physical music to digital format, but rather about something that has become a kind of collective mentality, consolidated through the expansion of the tools provided by the internet to produce and consume music.

Dazzled by the idea that we were now all living in a new era of equal conditions of production and dissemination, the musical community moved away from the modus operandi that characterized the collectives and embarked on projects that, although musically increasingly similar to each other, are now sold as “unique experiences”.

Well, it is (past) time to admit that the golden days of no gatekeepers (if they ever existed) are gone. Even if a few names raised and nourished their audiences on the early days of social networks by keeping a rather quantitative than qualitative production, these same names had to turn to some kind of “paid content” strategy in order to have their material visible.

After all, the gatekeepers have not disappeared! They just outsourced the service, and since then, they are stronger than ever. Our entire focus now is trying to understand and to please this new entity: the “almighty” algorithm.

Maybe that is why we no longer have time to collectively appreciate the fine products servend on the jazz canteens.

Be seeing you!

G.F.

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My Sunday feeling is one of my favorite Jethro Tull songs. The live version at the Isle Of Wight Festival, in 1970 has such an energy and expresses such a potency of what art has the power to do, that no matter how many times I watch it, it always impresses me tremendously. Same goes for ther virtuosity of Ian Anderson.

At first, it seemed curious to me that such a vibrant music would evoke a “Sunday feeling”, since that day is associated with the idea of rest. However, for several categories, including those working in entertainment, Sunday is one of the busiest days.

I believe that the lyrics of the song connect with this, say, “other side” of Sunday, with the idea of a perfect day to get out of the routine and do something really special. My last Sunday, for example, was quite lively. The chat about Jazz and Literature that I led in a traditional bookstore in the city was a success!

It is indeed a great to realize that there is a representative amount of people interested in leaving home on a Sunday afternoon to exchange ideas and talk about music and books. Who are those people?

Well, the audience was as varied as possible. It included, fo instance, a three-year-old girl who behaved exceptionally well and a white-haired gentleman who did not know how to turn off his cell phone, which, of course, kept on ringing, not only disturbing the audience, but also providing a very welcome comic relief.

What a lovely feeling to be there, joining in with the numerous events in 195 (hurray!) countries in order to celebrate International Jazz Day. And what a beautiful congregation!

Jazz is freedom, jazz is inclusion and a lot of other great things worth living for, like a lovely Sunday afternoon with friends.

Be seeing you!

G. F.

Some of my guests