Dave Burrell Ditches the Amish to Play Jazz

Being born in Middletown, Ohio assures a person of one thing. If you’re not Amish, you’re going to be necessitated to move elsewhere in order to pursue just about anything in life. There’s nothing wrong with horse drawn buggies, cheese and well wrought furniture. But there’s not too much else to get into around that part of Ohio – especially if you’re interested in music and specifically jazz music.

Realizing all of that, pianist Dave Burrell high-tailed it out of town to attend school in Hawaii for a bit prior to transferring to Boston’s Berklee School of Music. It’s not surprising that an student from that latter institution would go on to work with some difficult musics. But before even that happened on a large school, Burrell would perform on any number of important free jazz dates and eventually met trombonist Grachan Moncur III.

Releasing his first date in 1965, Burrell and Moncur would found the 360 Degree Music Experience a few years later – just prior to recording an album based upon Puccini’s La Vie de Bohème. The resultant album of the same name made use of the opera’s scaffolding, but within that framework, Burrell, Moncur and the assembled players work out a languid and confident set of interpretations that might not exactly portray Puccini’s initial intent, but pushed jazz music in an interesting direction.

By 1968 there’d already been a fuss about jazz representing America’s classical music. Because of such posturing a few ensembles had worked to combine jazz and European forms, resulting in the much ignored concept of third-stream. The Modern Jazz Quartet’s album making use of the bastard child of these concepts wasn’t disregarded, but would basically prove a dead end to the idea. Others have trafficked in such territories, but none with great success.

It might be figured that Burrell’s attempt here too is a flop. And commercially, that’s probably true. But for a player – and his sidemen – so associated with the avant garde to utilize antiquated music as backing for a recording was and remains a brilliant idea.

Making one’s way through the compositions – four in all, mirroring Puccini’s work – there’s a not surprising uniformity to the proceedings. But it’s in the music’s drunken confidence and unassuming pace that listeners will find the genius behind this project. It’s not noisome. It’s not difficult listening, but Burrell’s La Vie de Bohème is an obtuse gesture. And perhaps too much so for the staid jazz world.