Bob Belden – HuffPost 11.2.11

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

Bob Belden: Do you mean the socially acceptable use of the word “artist” that is cliché and unproductive, mostly a marketing tool to transform the average into–the average?

MR: That depends, what are your thoughts on this?

BB: The concept of being an “artist” is more self-realization and actualization rather than a life from beginning to present that is steeped in the bohemian tradition of the free spirit and a vibrant intellectual curiosity. There are many musicians who play well–in today’s language “well” is now “amazing”–but are they “artists”? It does look great in a press release but it’s a word that never comes up in polite conversation. I prefer to use “cat” instead of “artist.” If indeed we have “new artists,” then everyone is an artist and one needs not grow from life but from internal gratification and visceral analogs. Art is in one part of the definition, expression. Not wanting to speak in absolutist terms so common in our modern discourse, I would instead offer an observation that jazz is a mix of self-expression and unification, unification being a conformity to a standard of performance (something painters and poets do not have as a hang up) set up by a mysterious consensus. This conformity can mute personal expression as one tends to “re-express” other emotions from other musicians, themselves being considered ‘artists’ by the cognoscenti. Many jazz “artists” are plagiarists in that they reconstruct literally ideas–”words”–of other artists. It is part of the education process, not learning and knowledge but the process of being educated.

If you are raised to be involved in an environment of ideas and actions, this would be the grounding for art to emerge. You can’t “become” an artist, you know it from the start. You wake up thinking about ways to create the world around you in the image you feel viable. Life is the greatest resource for ideas. Living a full unimpeded life gives one a perspective that opens up the wildest corners of the imagination. I think young musicians, having gone through the jazz education process, are wary of advice as this is interpreted as “continuing education.” I think once they get the idea into their head that they want to play then mistakes and poor judgment calls are part of the process.

As far as advice to younger musicians, replacing “new artists,” I am horrible at this concept. My own band, animation, is made up of young musicians–you would call them “New Artists.” Pete Clagett on trumpet, Jordan Gheen on keyboards. Jacob Smith on electric bass. Matt Young on drums. The rhythm section is aged 19-22. Jordan and Matt are students at the University of North Texas. Pete and Jacob are alum. I don’t give them advice. They are already bohemian. They know what to do. Natural musicians. They just have to grow as human beings. I just express the idea that music is an adventure with no script, filled with surprises and a lot of gratification. So if you feel the need to ‘give advice’ or ‘impart wisdom’ on the emerging cast of jazz musicians, just hire them in your band. If you are an older “new artist” then I can offer no advice as you are enjoying the fruits of labor that is meant for very special people.

Mike Ragogna: Where do you see Miles Davis’ place in history 50 years from now?

Bon Belden: I am more concerned with paying my rent today and making my own history. After all, obscurity has its place in the scheme of things. Since a corporation owns Miles Davis, he could live forever and even run for president if Mitt Romney becomes president. I fear that by lionizing in perpetuity corporate icons one comes close to admitting the ‘end of empire’ syndrome and suddenly we are celebrating Queens Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee of 1897 forever. The reliance on pure nostalgia and not a developmental form of expanding the progressive elements of a nostalgic context will stifle the presentation of music (all forms) to the point of becoming robotic and generic. As practiced today much of jazz is a form of intellectual commuting from the suburbs to the renovated inner city.

Miles Davis as a language will live forever as part of the genetic code of musicians. His relevance as a human being will be distorted by media and one caricature will endure. You have to assume in 50 years the idea of “history” will have a social relevance. With the possibility of virtual history one can create via holography any perceived form of history as one sees fit and those collective distortions of history will undue centuries of empirical research. Jazz is many aspects is a historical re-enactment in the same spirit as those who don blue coats and muskets and relive the winter at Valley Forge sipping coffee out of a thermos bottle. Its a time displacement that in some ways reflects a denial of progress and reality.