Straight-ahead Jazz

Question

WBGO-FM, 88.3 in Newark, NJ , (is YJ listening?) claims to be the best Jazz station in the US. Since it is the only Jazz station I listen to, I couldn't judge. In its promos it tells us that it "play Jazz the way you like it straight-ahead." In my playing days, in the 60s and 70s, straight-ahead Jazz was in 4/4 time and had a conventional theme-solos-theme form. The statement that we were going to do something straight-ahead meant no playing around with time-signatures, no off-beat drumming, nothing "free-form", and probably sticking to 12-bar blues form. That's fine, except it would seem that the statement that a station played everything straight-ahead should alert us that it might turn boring. Has "straight-ahead" acquired a meaning that is wholly positive; has it become a feel-good noise?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]WBGO-FM, 88.3 in Newark, NJ , (is YJ listening?) claims to be the best Jazz station in the US. Since ... that it might turn boring. Has "straight-ahead" acquired a meaning that is wholly positive; has it become a feel-good noise?[/nq]
I posted something about this usage a while back. I don't entirely understand how "straight ahead" is used in jazz, but I get the sense that the term is used at its broadest to describe anything from about 1960 on that isn't free jazz and isn't 'fusion' and isn't any other sort of style that sounds hopelessly dated now (I'm thinking, for example, of McCoy Tyner's middle period '70s stuff, which I used to like), and maybe isn't any other special genre like Latin jazz, and, I suppose, is more of a direct descendant of the hard bop and modal jazz stuff of the late 'Fifties. That sounds somewhat consistent with your earlier understanding, though not entirely (I see no evidence that "straightahead" implies 12-bar blues necessarily).
WBGO is a relatively conservative jazz station in some respects. It was the station I initially listened to when I discovered jazz (23 years ago or so), but I sort of outgrew it pretty quickly. I have a good sense of the range of music they play, but I don't see it as being consistent with the more narrow way that I've heard jazz musicians/jazz fans use "straightahead". Some "straightahead" stuff (the way I understand the term, and I don't understand it too well) I would expect WBGO to be too fearful to play, which tells you something. The best jazz station is WKCR, even though they only play jazz some of the time. Unless things have changed, WBGO would be the second-best jazz station in the New York area (LBMIA), despite what I said above.

I wonder whether the WBGO usage of "straightahead" is a term that's being employed to combat the "smooth jazz" radio format. "Smooth jazz" is a very odd sort of music that essentially seems to be a merger of Muzak(R), Easy Listening, and a cheap imitation of fourth-rate mid-'Seventies fusion, with an emphasis on the Muzak(R). Although clearly it has some remote roots in jazz, most if not all jazz musicians would agree, I think, that it is not jazz or even a pseudo-jazz. However, it seems that the "smooth jazz" radio format must be somewhat commercially successful. I can see WBGO using "straightahead" as a way of saying "we play real jazz here, so listen to us, not those other stations that pretend to be playing jazz".

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]The best jazz station is WKCR, even though they only play jazz some of the time. Unless things have changed, WBGO would be the second-best jazz station in the New York area (LBMIA), despite what I said above.[/nq]
I was overstating when I said I WBGO was the only Jazz station I listened to. My presets, which reflect my listening pattern, are WLIB, WBGO, WKCR, WNYC, WQSR, WNYE, and WBAI, in that order. So I often migrate to WKCR when WBGO starts to grate. It is a fine station, indeed.
[nq:1]I wonder whether the WBGO usage of "straightahead" is a term that's being employed to combat the "smooth jazz" radio format.[/nq]
I think you're right. Some day I'll want to hear Kenny G, Richard Elliot, or David Sanborn, but not in the foreseeable future. And I think they're among the best of the lot.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]WBGO-FM, 88.3 in Newark, NJ , (is YJ listening?) claims to be the best Jazz station in the US. Since ... that it might turn boring. Has "straight-ahead" acquired a meaning that is wholly positive; has it become a feel-good noise?[/nq]
I don't know about that, but I find it interesting that M-W dates it to 1836:
Main Entry: straight-ahead
Function: adjective
Date: 1836
relating to or being music performed in an
unembellished manner typical of a given idiom or
performer; broadly : STRAIGHTFORWARD
I wonder what musical style was described such at the time. That's the time of the "minstrel shows" craze...

Best Donna Richoux

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[nq:2]WBGO-FM, 88.3 in Newark, NJ , (is YJ listening?) claims ... that is wholly positive; has it become a feel-good noise?[/nq]
[nq:1]I don't know about that, but I find it interesting that M-W dates it to 1836: Main Entry: straight-ahead Function: ... STRAIGHTFORWARD I wonder what musical style was described such at the time. That's the time of the "minstrel shows" craze...[/nq]
This is in line with the OED meaning
straight-ahead, simple, straightforward; (spec. (orig. U.S.) with reference to popular music), pure, unadorned;
However, I find the MW "unembellished" and the OED "unadorned" a bit over the top here. Straight-ahead jazz could always be embellished or adorned; the question becomes how far one can embellish or adorn before it ceases to be "straight-ahead." The OED's "simple" may be a bit overstated, too. The MW "typical of a given ... performer" seems to divest the term of any meaning. Consider straight-ahead Glenn Gould.

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[nq:2]I don't know about that, but I find it interesting ... the time. That's the time of the "minstrel shows" craze...[/nq]
[nq:1]This is in line with the OED meaning straight-ahead, simple, straightforward; (spec. (orig. U.S.) with reference to popular music), pure, ... The MW "typical of a given ... performer" seems to divest the term of any meaning. Consider straight-ahead Glenn Gould.[/nq]
Did OED give an 1836 citation, or anything pre-jazz?

Curious Donna Richoux

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[nq:1]Did OED give an 1836 citation, or anything pre-jazz?[/nq]
adjs. (when attrib. they are usually hyphened), as ... straight-ahead, simple, straightforward; spec. (orig. U.S.) with reference to popular music, pure, unadorned; ...
1836 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. xxxvi, No strong-minded,*straight-a-head, right up and down man does that.
1895 Outing XXVII. 200/1 A plain, straight-ahead skater.
1911 Marett Anthropol. iv. 95 On the other hand, to improve thephysical environment is fairly straight-ahead work, once we can (etc.).

1964 Down Beat 17 Dec. 30 ?McSplivens? is a straight-ahead blues.
1977 It May 27/2 Just high energy, straight ahead rock 'n roll of theseventies.

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Unlike some recording musicians, Stitt doesn't need special mike treatment to sound bigger than he is; actually, few recording sessions have fully capture his emotional height.
This, I feel, is one that has. It's straightaway blowing all the way the kind of jazz at which Stitt is most himself. There are very few other Stitt records that communicate his "in person" intensity and vigor as effectively as this one..
I wonder whether this usage of "straightaway" (a word I think of as BrE for AmE "right away") is related to "straightahead".

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Unlike some recording musicians, Stitt doesn't need special mike treatment to sound bigger than he is; actually, few recording sessions have fully capture his emotional height.[/nq]
In fairness to Nat, the liner notes had "captured".

Straight-ahead Jazz

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