George & Patti in Manila: Baffling & bedazzling jazz inspirations

MANILA, Philippines - The Big Dome concert of two jazz child prodigies, George Benson with special guest Patti Austin (both had their debut performances before they went to nursery school), was perhaps the foot- note to the epiphany that was our quest when my husband and I made a trip to New Orleans recently. It is chroni- cled that small bands mixing self-taught and well-educated African-American musicians, many of whom came from the funeral-procession tradi- tion of New Orleans, had a pioneering role in the devel- opment and dissemination of early jazz as they played for Black communities in the Deep South. Thus, we scoured the brothels and bars of the red- light district of Storyville, two blocks inland from the French Quarters with its wrought iron balconies, trying to make sense of the genre which Louis Armstrong, during a guesting in Bing Crosby’s radio show, traced as having evolved from syncopation, ragtime, blues, jazz, then swing. We watched with awe as a footloose pair of dancers, with a CD player in tow, im- provised a street jazz number on the pier of Bourbon St., be- fore our authentic steamboat with a calliope, the Natchez, sailed us off to a cruise of the Mississippi, with a jazz quartet serenading our cajun dinner capped by unforgetta- ble pudding for dessert. Yet, we left the heart of Dixieland music still quizzical of what all that jazz is about.

The Smart Araneta gig is part of an ongoing world tour to promote George’s latest album, Inspiration: A Tribute To Nat King Cole, which was released last June 4. Patti herself will have her solo concert in Manila this month, but true to her generous nature, did not mind be- ing the front act for George. Indeed, such is the lady’s magnanimity of spirit, that inspired by the song Over My Shoulder (which Patti and her mentee, Lianna Gutierrez recorded), she spearheaded an eponymous foundation meant to foster mentoring, a catchphrase for cultivat- ing positive relationships to counter poverty, ignorance and hatred.

In an interview, Patti ex- plains: “Our goal is to break down barriers that separate generations of people and cultures. Through mentor- ing, we all are increasingly interdependent on each other, rather than independent individuals. And, because of people’s interdependency, the foundation hopes to foster re- spect, diversity, culture, and individuality.” We remember too that Patti is co-producer and one of over 70 artists who sang for We Are the World: 25 for Haiti, a charity single in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

In her shimmering silvery gown, she opened with Do You Love me (her first No. 1 in 1981), then gave a dazzling display of her inimitable vocal range with other hits like Every Home Should Have One, Baby Come To Me, This Masquerade and How Do You Keep The Music Playing, the last one best remembered as a duet with James Ingram. Rhythm of the Street was

her intro to the special solo performance of Joe Pizzulo’s plaintive Sergio Mendes number What Do We Mean To Each Other? Patti’s voice has not lost its luster since the day she was crowned Queen of the Jingles, having sung so many commercials for TV. Despite her health problems, she can still weave magic, vindicated by her first Grammy Award in 2008, 53 years after getting her first record contract, winning Best Jazz Vocal Album for Avant Gershwin after her ninth nomination in that category.

George, recipient of 10 Grammy awards and rec- ognized by the National Endowment of the Arts as a Jazz Master in 2009, opened with the intimate I Feel Like Making Love, then progressed to standards like Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You, until he brought the house down with the dance- able Give Me The Night, bringing to mind Krin Gab- bard’s argument that “jazz is a construct” that, while artificial, still is useful to des- ignate “a number of music with enough in common to be understood as part of a coherent tradition.”

While jazz musicians themselves are reluctant to define their music, they agree that improvisation is one of its key elements. In its early form of the blues — folk music, which evolved from the work songs and field hol- lers of the African-American workers on the plantations, it was structured around a repetitive call-and-response pattern.

In contrast to European classical music, which is said to be a composer’s medium in which the performer’s primary aim is to play the composition as it was writ- ten, jazz is often character- ized as the product of group creativity, interaction and collaboration, that places varying degrees of value on the variations of the compos-ers and performers. Duke Ellington, one of jazz’s most famous figures, summed up this perspective by saying, “It’s all music,” as the jazz artist will interpret a tune in his indefatigable way, never essaying the same composition in exactly the same way twice, his rendition depending upon mood, inter- actions with other musicians, even members of the audience.

This is precisely what George showcased in his instrumental numbers with his electric guitar — alter- ing melodies, harmonies and time signature, with his genius that has not been dimmed by age and the rav- ages of time.

In George and Patti’s much-applauded duets, they do scat singing and its derivative, bebop — under- scoring what trombonist J. J. Johnson once remarked: “Jazz is restless. It won’t stay put and it never will.”

In 1987, the US House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill designating jazz as a rare and valuable national treasure to which Americans should devote their atten- tion, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated. The way they have taken

their music by the horns, two national treasures by their own rights — George Benson and Patti Austin — assure that jazz will continue to baffle and bedazzle the pop world.