Let’s Hear It for the Jazz Underdogs

by Russ Davis
Program Director, Beyond Jazz – XM 72

At last the “Downtown New York Scene” gets its just rewards with two, count ‘em two, Grammy Nominations for a couple of hard-working bands! Nominated this year are Sex Mob, with their “Sexotica” CD and Groove Collective with “People, People, Music, Music.” Throw in the great guitarist Mike Stern, a permanent fixture at the Greenwich Village club 55 Bar on Christopher Street, then you’ve got 3 out of the 5 slots in the “Best Contemporary Jazz Album” category represented by the musical voices of the downtown scene. They have all carried the banner for the creative artists who have slaved away in the funky little clubs like Tonic, Smalls, The Knitting Factory, Wetlands and the other places out of the spotlight of the “established” jazz clubs like the Blue Note, Vanguard & Birdland. They can all hold their heads high and say…”there’s a place in the world for the underdog!”

In the 1970’s when New York City was nearly bankrupt there wasn’t a lot of extra cash going around for the starving artist. Many of the unemployed musicians began playing in what was called “The Loft Scene,” where many people just set up their gear and played in the large downtown lofts, oftentimes in people’s homes, and charged a little money for people to hear them play. These places were not legal clubs but the city kind of turned it’s back on trying to bust them, recognizing that it had other problems to take care of rather than stopping people from making a couple of bucks making music. And the music…it was freewheeling and totally adventurous and it spawned the kind of music now honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences as some of the best, up for awards in the 49th annual awards!

Artists like John Zorn, John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards (who helped foster the career of nominee Steven Bernstein of Sex Mob), Steve Coleman, the various artists of the Brooklyn-based M-Base Collective, and the traveling party that was the Giant Steps movement (from which Groove Collective sprang), and many more started the ball rolling for today’s nominees. We can only hope that since the Academy has now “thrown us a bone” they will follow that with a little meat in the future, by inviting us to the BIG PARTY…by placing artists like Sex Mob, Groove Collective and Mike Stern ON THE TV SHOW. They will BLOW PEOPLE’S MINDS!!! HEY…CAN YOU HEAR ME?!!!! I’m talking to YOU NARAS!!!!

We’re in a catch 22 here…you don’t get the promotion you need as a jazz artist because you aren’t popular enough and you’re not popular enough because you don’t get the exposure. It was nice to see Chick Corea get some TV time, but he had to suffer through an “oil & water” situation when he was placed on stage with The Foo Fighters. Not too many years ago Herbie Hancock was thrown on the show with Stevie Wonder and Thomas Dolby in a segment that saluted the synthesizer. How about a segment that salutes HERBIE HANCOCK?!!!!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T…find out what it means to me! Now that you’ve decided to right a little wrong let’s have the whole enchilada NARAS! Thanks for recognizing those struggling downtowners, those underdogs, those brilliant musicians in the groups Sex Mob and Groove Collective. Now put them in a place where the whole world will have a chance to REALLY RECOGNIZE THEM…on the FREAKIN’ TV SHOW! Thanks…I’ll go sit down and relax now…and put on XM 72…BEYOND JAZZ, the home of Modern Jazz on XM…and the home of GRAMMY NOMINEES…SEX MOB, GROOVE COLLECTIVE & MIKE STERN!!!!!!!