I had a blast the other night speaking for a few moments at the DOCWEEK Middleburg Film Festival at the Community Center. The film that night was called Ronnie's, and the topic was a great Jazz club. After some wicked good food and wine from Neal Wavra's Field and Main, and some live jazz from some talented young musicians from Shenandoah Conservatory, I had a few moments to answer questions onstage with festival organizer Robert Dove. I thought I would expand on those remarks here this month, following up on my words last month about Jazz clubs.

When I was in High School, I played trombone in the jazz band and the school orchestra. In jazz band, which was actually called Dance Band back then, we played big band music from the forties, music some called sweet jazz. When I wasn't playing Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, or Maynard Ferguson, I was listening to groups like Elton John, The Allman Brothers Band, and Yes-- I arrogantly and ignorantly thought these bands were simply the best. How wrong I was.

In my senior year of high school, the school had a talent show and I got asked to play trombone with these guys that wanted to play songs by Larry Coryell, Herbie Hancock, and Weather Report. I had never heard of any of these guys before. So we went into the choir room, where they had this immense stereo, and a friend put on the tune "Birdland" by Weather Report. It blew my mind—music unlike anything I had ever heard--melodically, rhythmically, and the sheer technical ability of the musicians. My entire musical palate was transformed, guided by enlightened musician friends. Soon, bands like Weather Report, Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Frank Zappa became my daily musical fare. We won the talent show.

The summer after graduation, I parked cars for tickets at the Telluride Jazz Festival in Colorado, and had another musical revelation, this time under the stars in a box canyon at 9,700 feet. When I heard the Pat Metheny Group start their set with a tune called Phase Dance, and wrap with the best piano solo I had ever heard, on a tune called San Lorenzo, my musical palate was again transformed, and I could not get the sheer brilliance of Pat Metheny and Lyle May's music out of my head.

Soon, my musical explorations continued into a number of genres and musical communities- Canterbury progressive rock bands from the UK, Frank Zappa, the early bands of new wave music like XTC, the great compositions of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, the next generation of King Crimson, and Bill Bruford's amazing explorations in Fusion. But while my musical knowledge was expanding, but I still had a ways to go.

In my senior year of undergraduate school, I needed a history elective, and I was lucky enough to enroll in a Jazz History class, taught by the great alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. A protege of Charlie Parker, McLean played with all of the greats over the years, and he became a star in his own right. In every class, we were treated to stories of his times in Jazz, while exposing us to the great early Jazz pioneers--Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, James Reese Europe, James P. Johnson, Sydney Bechet, the great Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Charlie Christian, Lester Young, Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis. These early artists wove the foundational fabric of Jazz, setting the stage for the explosion of music in the 50s and sixties that Jackie had significant involvement in. The music increasingly reflected the complex nature of society at that time.

Pat Metheny, who became a commercially successful jazz guitarist and composer who has maintained his musical integrity, writing and playing sublime music for four decades, once spoke on the complexity of Jazz in a commencement speech :

"My contention has always been that Jazz is, and I hope will always be, a form of folk music, but a very, very serious and sophisticated, scientific folk music. When I say folk music," said Metheny, "I am talking about the tradition of musicians using every aspect, all the materials, all the sounds and moves and vibes and spirits of their time in a musical way."

So jazz mirrors culture--what society is doing at the time, decade by decade. Bebop reflected the rebellion from the norms of the thirties and the exuberance of post WWII years; cool jazz started in the mid-fifties to be overcome by Jazz fusion by the middle of the chaotic decade of the 1970s. And so it goes, year by year until today--it really is what Metheny says, Jazz is serious folk music where each artist, influenced by societal forces, finds their own sound and place in a wide-open genre only to inspire the next generation to find their own way.

The new generation who play music today--they all grew up listening to decades of jazz innovation and have their own way of looking at the music-- players like Aaron Parks, Joshua Redman, Kurt Rosenwinkle, James Francies, Savannah Harris, Antonio Sanchez, Linda May Han Oh, Tigran Hamasyan, Kamasi Washington. In each country or culture, they have their own complex folk music that is Jazz. Online, you can discover and listen to new Jazz talents and amazing jazz playlists from around the world, every hour of every day, and you will never hear the same track twice.

The Doc5 film tells the history of one of the world's great Jazz clubs, Ronnie Scotts. Scott was an accomplished British Jazz saxophonist who did something everyone told him not to do--he started a Jazz club. Ronnie Scott's became a community that focused on great music over profit, and over the years, it drew more and more of the world's great musicians to perform there. Ronnie once said it was easier to name artists who had not played at Ronnie's. The film serves as an important reminder of the essential role live performance plays, especially in jazz. For a couple of generations, jazz clubs have been in decline. While the reasons for this are multi-varied and debatable, this film is an important documentary of the role clubs such as Ronnie Scott's played in evolution of jazz and also a reminder of the importance of community and the human connection that is music. Many important live albums were also recorded at Ronnie Scott's-- artists like Wes Montgomery, Soft Machine, Brand X, Stan Getz, Ella Fitzgerald, and Buddy Rich. The film reveals the vision of a great musician and an even greater venue owner, who devoted his life to live music. Every night, even now, people are invited into this amazing club to gather with friends and listen to amazing music--The night of the screening, the great saxophonist Joe Lovano, who influence crosses generational lines from Charlie Parker to the Dave Mathews Band (Jeff Coffin mentor), played a few live sets. The next night, the outrageous and visionary George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic performed (ever hear the guitar solo on the title track of 1971's Maggot Brain?). I would expect nothing less at Ronnie's.

I highly recommend the film, and thank Tom Foster for his vision of film and community--everything screens better when a bunch of people from a community watch together.

Steve Chase is in Unison listening to Jackie McLean.