An entry at David Valdez’s jazz blog alerted me to a recent post by trumpet player Dave Douglas on the use of popular music as jazz repertoire.  Douglas’ thoughts sprang from several critics’ reactions to The Bad Plus, whose original arrangements include modern pop songs such as “Iron Man,” “Tom Sawyer,” and “Every Breath You Take.”  While many critics saw the inclusion of these songs among jazz repertoire as a joke, Douglas offered several reasons to validate the use of these songs.   He discussed the antiquity of traditional standards, the statement a song choice makes about a musician, and the possibility of building new standards through performance of contemporary music.  In many ways, Douglas made a strong argument for experimentation and the exploration of new music to expand the jazz repertoire.

The Bad Plus did not appear out of thin air though; jazz musicians have long been integrating popular music to varying degrees of success.  Miles Davis recorded Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” and Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” in the 1980s.  Herbie Hancock released The New Standard in 1996, which included jazz interpretations of Stevie Wonder’s “You’ve Got It Bad Girl” and Nirvana’s “All Apologies.”  Hancock has continued this trend, a trail well documented by Howard Mandel in a recent Jazz Beyond Jazz blog post.  Brazilian singer Luciana Sousa re-imagined Joni Mitchell’s “Down To You” and James Taylor’s “Never Die Young” on her album The New Bossa Nova.  The search for new repertoire lives and as Douglas states “this is the music in the air.”

While considering the use of current popular music in Latin Jazz, I noticed an interesting trend - some songs simply work in this context and others fail.  Cal Tjader’s use of “Theme from M.A.S.H. (Suicide Is Painless)” on The Shining Sea utilizes a rich melody and contains strong improvisations, but it displays a contrived sound.  On the other hand, Ray Barretto takes “Fever” a song with limited chords and a cliché melody and turns it into a memorable moment.  Poncho Sanchez’s album Raise Your Hand contains Latin versions of three classic soul songs, and each one reflects an unimaginative crossover attempt.  Bobby Sanabria pulls Frank Zappa’s “The Grand Wazoo” through a variety of Latin rhythms and emerges with a song full of interest and integrity.  Despite the fact that each of these artists took music from the popular realm, they were not all successful.

After some serious thought, I came up with several necessities for the successful inclusion of modern pop music in the Latin Jazz world. 

An Even Aesthetic Balance Between Styles
This may be the hardest, but most important part of the process; finding the crossroads between Latin, jazz, and popular music.  A recording with a heavy funk backbeat and the faint echo of congas and timbales in the background will sound more like a funk song than a Latin Jazz piece.  An overindulgence of complex jazz harmony will often loose the simplistic beauty of a popular song.  An unstructured descarga with a minor reference to the song will result in a novelty piece.  All three parts of the equation need to be evenly represented.

The Rhythmic Foundation Needs to Relate Naturally to the Song
Hastily slapping a Latin rhythm beneath a melody generally garners chaotic results - the choice of rhythmic structures determines the piece’s character, so it needs to make sense.  Some choices are obvious - you wouldn’t match an up-tempo song with a bolero rhythm . . . but there would be several choices left. The artist needs to decide whether the pop song can hold the strength of a salsa rhythm without sounding corny. If the song demands a more contemporary approach, perhaps the artist can use a songo or pilon rhythm coupled with a funky timba montuno. The song’s melody may lean towards folk music, which would call for a rumba guaguanco. Several approaches can work, but the artist needs to find a concrete connection.

Arrangements Need to be Well-Constructed
There needs to be extensive thought into how the song will be performed.  Simply playing the melody and chord changes over a Latin rhythm will not suffice; artists need to dig deeply in order to find the connection between the styles.  Melodies need to be altered to fit into clave and the rhythm section needs to develop breaks and emphasis points.  Chords may need to be re-harmonized to serves as inspiring improvisational foundations.  Moñas or mambos may need to be developed in order to fully express the song.  This process defines the connection between styles, so it needs to be detailed.

The Songs Need to be Treated as Serious Repertoire
Just as The Bad Plus state in their blog post about the subject, repertoire needs to be taken seriously, regardless of the source material.  Jazz artists tend to get stuck on the “art” piece of the equation and forget that jazz was born on the streets. Since popular music never evolved artistically with jazz, it becomes less relevant to some artists. Latin Jazz musicians tend to remember their dance roots too well and get caught in the party. Both approaches disregard the true art of bringing new music into the repertoire, which leads the genre one step closer to extinction. It takes a group of highly focused individuals to bring these musical worlds together.

Creative Reinvention
Latin Jazz will need to constantly reinvent itself to survive over the long haul. New rhythmic styles and dance trends will propel the music forward and keep the Latin element strong. Original compositions from musicians with a complete knowledge of both jazz and Latin rhythms will bring more standards into the repertoire. New twists on jazz standards will provide unique angles on both traditions. Most likely, the meaningful integration of American popular music will become more commonplace in Latin Jazz. All these factors will determine the music’s future and each one needs to be treated with careful deliberation.

The prospect of popular music melding with Latin Jazz bring many issues to mind . . . I’d be curious to hear your thoughts!

Stumble it!