The Modern? Jazz Band.

Photos by Luis Andrade / Mariano Nante.


Ever since I started playing jazz professionally, first as a “traditional” pianist and later as “modern”, I have always been sorry about the sad division between “traditionalists” and “modernists”.

Don’t “purists” realize that today’s traditional music was once modern… and it was welcomed with the same prejudices they themselves show to what is today trying to be new?

Don’t “modernists” realize that their music will be traditional only tomorrow? And who will despise it? They will? Or the next “modernists”?

This destructive vicious circle does not help anybody, it is also moving the opposite way in the universal and natural evolution of all art forms, and, even worse, pulls audiences away from the simple experience of enjoying and feeling emotions when listening to music.

When I go to concerts of classical music, I always see the people leaving with a smile and humming the melodies.

People leave tango shows with a smile.

After listening to folk, rock, pop or romantic music, people leave with a smile.

What happens in some jazz concerts? People just leave.

If this situation were described by a football commentator, he could say that the match between St. Purist Boys and Modernists United has been going on for almost 100 years and it’s still 0-0…

And most of the supporters left for other matches!

If we want to talk about modern musicians, let’s take Alexander Scriabin; long before jazz had been born, he was composing and playing with a language that has not yet been explored in jazz…

And how about the “traditional” Johann Sebastian Bach, who laid the foundation stone of everything that has been happening after him?

Prejudices? Always and everywhere…

One of the most beautiful albums recorded by Chick Corea, “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs”, one of the best jazz trio recordings of all time, got upon its release the lowest possible rating on a leading jazz magazine.

What an enlightened genius was that reviewer who wrote that “Mister Giuseppe Verdi does not know how to write a melody”!

And poor Ravel, who was categorized by another expert as a “low rate composer of cabaret music”!

However, it is really sad when this kind of ignorant prejudice is shown by musicians themselves.

Many jazz musicians look down on “standard” songs, and then they write their own “modern” songs with the same or very similar harmony. Some “modernists” mock classic songs like Autumn Leaves, closing their eyes to the fact that it is one of the tunes most recorded by Bill Evans, or, even more recently, Keith Jarrett.

And then we have those “traditionalists” who hate playing songs like When The Saints Go Marchin’ In, whose harmony is different to any other jazz tune, but on the other hand they enjoy playing blues songs, whose harmony is always the same (Beware! I love the blues!).

Sweet Georgia Brown has one of the most attractive chord changes to improvise on, but a number of “modernists” have “desguised” it under different names by changing the name and melody to play it without “embarrassment”.

Fortunately, audiences have been putting things in order throughout the years.

For many years I have put myself in the shoes of those listeners who just enjoy music, without any limitations of genres or styles, and I have come to realize that in the jazz world, only in rare ocasions have we musicians taken into account that huge number of listeners who have no prejudices and who love Miles Davis and Louie Armstrong at the same time.

Why, Miles himself loved Armstrong!

If I had been one of those listeners, I would have hardly ever had the chance of enjoying different styles in one concert alone.

Some months ago I was once again thinking about this stupidity, typical of the dark side of our human nature, when suddenly I found and email from Mora Juárez, who is luckily organizing the shows at the “new” Notorious Club, suggesting me to set up a jazz orchestra.

Mora’s email was like a challenge and and an opportunity, because thanks to her suggestion I had in my hands the possibility of making my ideas come true, and what is more, to share such a project with a lot of musicians.

And thus, the Modern? Jazz Band was born.

What would happen if a jazz group started by playing “modern”, and little by little changing styles back to New Olreans jazz... during the same show? Wouldn’t it be a superb way to show that music is only one?

That accounts for the question mark after “Modern”. Tell me... what does “modern” mean in music?

To me it does not mean anything relevant.

One of the most important recordings of “modern” jazz in history, Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue, is based on the language of modal music, which was in vogue... during the Middle Ages!

Bill Evans described this situation very clearly: “only the man who can see furthest into the past can see furthest into the future”.

The Nature that surrounds us shows it too: the highest tree has the deepest roots.

Right after I got Mora’s email I got in touch with drummer Eloy Michelini, one of the most complete jazz musicians I know and admire for his exceptional stylistic variety, and we both organized the whole band. We called some of the best musicians of the younger generation.

When Eloy and I explained the idea to them, their answers came back immediately: “It’s going to be great!” “A joy!” “A real challenge!”

These are the members of the Modern? Jazz Band:

Sergio Wagner on trumpet and cornet.
Juan Ignacio Méndez on tenor and soprano saxophones and clarinet.
Joaquín de Francisco on trombone.
Manuel Fraga on piano, arrangements and coordination.
Tomás Fraga on jazz and acoustic guitars.
Pablo Motta on bass.

And "big band expert" Alejandro Beelmann, who replaced Eloy on drums.



It will be such a joy to share our performances with all kinds of people, audiences of any age and musical taste!

Our repertoire includes John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, George Gershwin and Jelly Roll Morton, among others.

Why not?

I am sure they are all playing together in Heaven with the Paradise Mozart’s Jazz Orchestra...!

Arrangements by Johann Sebastian Bach and Astor Piazzolla, of course...!

We invite you to our shows every Tuesday 10:00 PM at Notorious, Callao 966, Buenos Aires. Tel.: 4813-6888. www.notorious.fm