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Music Outside

By Ian Carr

Northway (220pp., £15.99)

First published in 1973, and reprinted unamended but with a Postscript by Roger Cotterrell, trumpeter/writer Ian Carr's study of jazz in the UK was written, in its author's words, to 'demonstrate why þ jazz is a music outside, a perpetual Cinderalla of the arts in Britain'.

Over thirty years later, it is somewhat disheartening to report, despite the occasional somewhat contrived resurgence of public interest in the music Ç generally centred on its supposed compatibility with some ephemeral fashion, sartorial or sociocultural Ç jazz could still reasonably be described in this way.

True, the touchstone Carr uses to demonstrate his thesis, the long-term unemployment experienced by Stan Tracey in the early 1970s, no longer applies, since the pianist is now acknowledged as one of Europe's most accomplished musicians, but the fact remains that, compared with British practitioners of similar status in other arts Ç David Hockney, say, or Harold Pinter Ç Tracey, along with the other (living) musicians dealt with chapter by chapter in this book (Mike Westbrook, Trevor Watts, Jon Hiseman, Evan Parker, Mike Gibbs and Carr himself), is cruelly undervalued by the general public, indeed unknown outside the jazz world.

In part, this relative neglect has its source in the still widespread idea Ç most recently promulgated by Ken Burns in his documentary series about the music Ç that jazz is essentially an American artform, a musical language spoken in pure form only in that country and in inelegant and inauthentic, crudely imitative dialects elsewhere.

The value of this book lies in its scrupulous documentation of its interviewees' spirited refusal to acknowledge this received 'truth': the post-bop generation of British jazz musicians, after all, had seen another supposedly exclusive US artform, rock and roll, assimilated, modified and re-exported worldwide with spectacularly successful results by the likes of the Beatles, Cream and the Rolling Stones; it therefore had the confidence to look inwards rather than outwards for inspiration, thus laying the foundations upon which, initially, the so-called UK jazz renaissance of the 1980s, then the solider constructions of later years, were built.

Consequently, in musical terms at least, if not in the public perception, UK jazz is now a flourishing, multi-faceted artform, constantly producing fresh and original talents. To return to Carr's central metaphor, however, it still awaits a fairy godmother (and here you can insert your own candidate for this position, from the BBC and the Arts Council, to the arts media etc. etc.) to usher it to the ball so that it can take up its rightful position alongside the other arts.

Such generalities aside, this is a fascinating book in its particulars: the roots of Mike Westbrook's rousingly eclectic originality; the sheer integrity of the late John Stevens and Trevor Watts; the determination and shrewdness of Jon Hiseman; the perseverance and philosophic subtlety of Evan Parker; the crucial influence of Chris McGregor and the unassuming energy and enthusiasm of Mike Gibbs are all skilfully drawn out by Carr from the respective interviews conducted with these seminal figures, and the book thus remains as relevant and important today as it was when it was first issued.