The ever growing love that I have for Jazz was started because a friend told me to buy a John Chlorate CD the summer before my freshman year in college. For as long as I have known my friend he has always been Interested In music and has played drums for the majority of his life. He had a few albums of Chlorate’s and would always tell me I would love them. I remember the first time I heard that piercing voice that Chlorate gets out of his tenor saxophone. I took a trip out to Amoeba records with some friends and the first place I went was into the jazz room to find a John Chlorate album.
Not knowing anything about him except that I liked his sound I bought the album The Art of John Chlorate. I got home and put it in my CD player and Just sat in amazement as I listened to the album. I absolutely fell in love with the first song on that album and that is why I chose it to be the first on the CD I made to accompany this paper. The song is titled “Moment’s Notice” and appeared originally on the album Blue Train. It Just grabs you right from the start of the song and I also Just absolutely love Ethel guess you could call It the chorus In the song because they keep going back to It throughout the piece.
My friend let me borrow his Chlorate CDC over the summer and the pleasure that I received from hearing Chlorate play only grew. One of the albums that he gave me was Newport ’63 one of Chlorate’s live albums that was released. The CD has only four tracks on it but it is just about an hour of mind blowing jazz. John William Chlorate was born in Hamlet, North Carolina on the twenty third of September in 1926. He started playing the Clarinet but soon fell in love with Jazz and decided to switch over to the alto saxophone (Wisped). He played the alto saxophone until about 1950 when he decided to switch over to the tenor saxophone.
It was with the tenor saxophone that he made his name known to the masses. Chlorate was In small groups here and there until he began playing for Dizzy Gillespie and then later some other well known Jazz musicians. He received his first real big role when he was offered a spot In a quintet by Males Davis. Davis Is obviously an extremely Influential Jazz musicals and Is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians ever. He allowed John Chlorate to basically do what he wanted in his solos and allowed for Chlorate to explore and experiment.
Chlorate Joined Miles Davis’ quintet sometime during 1955. Interestingly enough it is said that when Davis was looking to form a new quintet his usual tenor saxophonist went missing so that Chlorate would be assured the spot (Wisped). Sadly, like most musicians, Chlorate developed a heroine addiction and that is considered to be one of the reasons for the breaking up of the Mile’ quintet. Mils Davis was once himself a heroine addict and so chances are that he saw what was happening to Chlorate and did not want to have to deal with everything that goes along with a heroine addict.
However, Chlorate had already made a name for himself ruing the two years that he played with Males Davis. As If playing with the legendary Males Davis was not enough, John Chlorate played alongside Theologies Monk at the famous New Work’s Five Spot. It was in 1957 when album Chlorate would continue on and make many different recordings, some of Inch were not released until years after his death. A new live recording of John Chlorate was Just released earlier this year. After Chlorate’s gigs with Theologies Monk he was able to overcome his heroine addiction and reached a turning point in his life. Within a week, he relinquished his drinking, smoking, and drug habits although the smoking habit returned at times). These dramatic changes symbolized his rededicating to God–the God whom he had learned to trust and obey as a young Child. Chlorate believed that by bettering himself and rededicating himself to God, his music would also benefit, for it was the sinful, secular activities and lifestyle that caused his music to suffer and him to be fired from one of the best bands of the day” (Price). The best band that Price refers to is obviously the Miles Davis quintet.
Ninth the new changes in Chlorate’s life he rejoined Miles Davis and really developed Neat would be his voice in Jazz. John Chlorate developed his fast, flowing, and compressed sound within his solos Nile playing with Davis. In this group he was able to create an almost constant wall of sound being directed at the listeners. Air Gaiter coined the term “sheets of sound” that is used to describe Chlorate’s sound (Larson 188). Personally I feel as though it is the perfect term to use when talking about what it sounds like when Chlorate is blistering through his solos.
Often times you lose track of time when listening to one of his solos because of the speed and the “sheets of sound. Soon after recording Ninth Davis on the album Kind of Blue, Chlorate went on to record his own landmark album titled Giant Steps. In an article online Quince Troupe feels that is the album that really established Chlorate as master of the tenor saxophone. This album really sets the bar for improvisation. Chlorate uses unconventional chord changes that blow the mind because of the speed at which they are done throughout this album.
Chlorate would leave Miles Davis’ group shortly after Giant Steps and would form his own quartet in which he used much of what he had learned from Davis to lead he band. The band consisted of bassist Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones, and pianist McCoy Toner. One of the best connections in the group was the pairing of Toner and Chlorate. The reason the two worked so well together is because of the Nay that Toner played the piano. He is able to recreate Chlorate’s “sheets of sound” on the piano and also developed a style of playing that is copied by many different players today.
Within this group Chlorate also began to use influences from India in his compositions and theories. He was one of the first to incorporate Indian themes onto music and was later followed by the more televised visits of the British band The tattles. Free Jazz was growing in popularity which allowed the free Jazz musicians to not have to worry with the small amounts of rules that there were in Jazz. It did not hold back the musicians so they were free to experiment with and use a much wider range than they could have before.
Being a classification it is hard to define because music cannot really be put into a genre, especially Jazz because it is the voice and feelings of each individual player. However critics were down playing Chlorate and o quite possibly in an attempt to show his versatility Chlorate recorded the album leads. This album was written in a very lyrical way Just to prove how talented off Supreme. The album had a very spiritual theme drawing from all different religions. Ere album is supposed to represent Chlorate’s struggle to find his love or purity.
I think a majority of people would say that whatever he was looking for he definitely found something with the recording of this album. After the releasing of A Love Supreme Chlorate began to stretch the musical limits and recorded some interesting albums. The albums however were not received very Nell but he continued to push the confines further and further. He last and final recording before his early death at the age of forty was called Interstellar Space. This album went further than Ascension towards the idea of musical freedom (Larson 191). There is a lot of speculation as to what might have come next had Chlorate not died.
It is tragic that such a wonderful musician was taken at a young age and Just as he was taking his music to an entirely new level. Forty years old does not seem that pun but Chlorate did not really reach his musical maturity and talent until he was thirty one years old. He really only got nine years at which he had control over his desires and was trying to take his music further. And yet in that short amount of time he was able to release a large number of albums and live recordings. Some are still held in a file somewhere waiting to be released.
John Chlorate had such an impact on one man that he founded a church in Chlorate’s honor and then later the church adopted Chlorate as their patron (Myers). Ere church is called Church of Saint John Chlorate. The story about the man, Franz Nanny King, is that upon hearing about the death of Chlorate, Franz read the linear totes from the album A Love Supreme and was so moved by them that he founded the church in San Francisco (Myers). It would definitely be an interesting ceremony to be singing hymns too Chlorate solo. Perhaps this church is on to something. Chlorate was married to a woman by the name of Anima Grubs.
They would later have problems resulting in a divorce. Chlorate would then marry and have three children with the pianist Alice McLeod. The three children were all boys; John Chlorate Jar. , Rave, and Roan. John Jar. Who played alto saxophone died in a car crash in 1982. Rave has made quite a name for himself within the Jazz world. He plays none other than the tenor saxophone that his father before him took to a new level. Rave doesn’t let the fact that his father revolutionized the saxophone or quite possibly even Jazz get in the way of showing his own expressions on the instrument.
Chlorate’s wife, Alice, has recently gotten back into the business, mainly because of Rave’s influence. Rave is Just trying to create his form of art which is of course Jazz. He appears to be doing it and is really finding his own place within the Jazz world plume). John Chlorate will always be remembered as the man with the tenor saxophone. It is almost too easy to find out whether or not it is Chlorate playing the saxophone because of his unique voice and style. He was able to do things with that instrument that no one else before him had done.
Because of that he has influenced probably everyone saxophone player since his time. His albums have almost all been re- released and remembered because there is obviously still a demand for them. Also recording keep being released like the most recent one One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note. And l, like many before me, have fallen in love with the playing of NH I Chose the Songs I Did Moment’s Notice” – Earlier in the paper I discussed this song a little bit. The song really Jumps out at you from the get go. It was second track on the album Blue Train in 1957. I love the short pauses early on during the song.
I love quick breaks like that Never it’s done right in a song. Sometimes the lack of sounds can itself be beautiful and add something to the song. Like most Jazz bass lines it is an obvious Nailing bass line. The drums are very splashy and quick. In Jazz I really enjoy the drums the way that they are played in this song. “Pursuance” 0 My friend sent me his song one night because of the drum solo at the beginning. The reaction I have to this song every time I hear it is the same each and every time. I Just sit here for the ten minutes or so with my mouth open and my knee bouncing to the quick beat.
Chlorate really uses the many different sounds that he could get out of his saxophone well in this song. This song is also a really good example of what I was talking about with the pianist McCoy Toner because he really sounds like Chlorate but on a piano. At several points they sort of have a little duet which Just blows the mind. I Just absolutely love how upbeat the entire song is. I also really enjoy how strained the sound coming from his saxophone is, often times it is said to be the musicians voice and in this case it really does sound like a voice.
And sometimes he tries to sing so hard that it reaches its limit causing it to go somewhat hoarse. Of course it is always fun to listen to a bass solo because of the nature of the instrument and they don’t happen often. “My Favorite Things (Live)” 0 One of the more famous songs by the Chlorate Quartet. This particular recording is from the Newport ’63 album. The song originally from The Sound of Music, is a wonderful song to begin Ninth. But there is something about the way that Chlorate delivers the notes that Just make it extraordinary.
He is really able to make the entire song Just flow from one note to the next with such ease and style all his own. It also amazes me Just how long they are able to continue playing. I mean the song is about 17 minutes long and it’s pretty much a constant Jam each knowing where the other is going and when they’re coming back. Simply amazing. “Blue Train” 0 The main reason I chose this song is because of the intro. I Just love that horn and rhythm section thing that they do. I Just can’t help but imitate the pianist during the intro. This song, along with “A Moment’s Notice,” was on the album I purchased The Art of John Chlorate.