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Ted Curson - Searchin' For The Blues

Just as there are many ways to tell a musical story well, there are just as many ways to tell it badly. A grooving blues instrumental can be brilliant or lame, and so can a free jazz experiment. The difference... is that listeners feel more confident in dismissing a formulaic pop instrumental as a sell out than they do in snubbing an avant garde project filled with the apparent complexity of a million weird notes.

If you play music in a mannered way... it’s going to suck whether you’re imitating John Coltrane or David Fathead Newman. It’s just easier to bullshit when you’re imitating Trane, because you can run all those notes and impress some people. What it really comes down to, though, is, are you committed to the moment? You hear it with Coltrane, he’s so fucking committed to each moment. And so is Fathead.

Most music that doesn’t move people has an ulterior motive... People get together and make a game plan. They say, This is what’s hot, let’s make music like that, rather than saying, Let’s make music we like. Even great musicians stumble into that once in a while. It’s just as possible to make a bad jazz album as it is to make a bad R&B record. The genre or style doesn’t tell you anything. I’d much rather listen to a good rock ‘n roll or hip hop or R&B album than a bad jazz album.


Ted Curson - Searchin' For The Blues
  • Produced by: Alan Bates
  • Released in: 1977
  • Genre: Jazz

"Ted Curson spent time from the late '60s on in Europe (particularly Denmark) but had a lower profile than one would expect after returning to the U.S. in 1976."

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Location: United States

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