The quiet innovations of Chamber Jazz

So what exactly is chamber jazz? The big hint is in the name with this quieter type of jazz having certain qualities of chamber music performed during the renaissance era when classical composers wrote music for smaller ensembles that aristocrats could invite into their own rooms or ‘chambers’.

The emphasis on studious composition and intricate small group interplay rather than ensemble improvisation would set chamber jazz apart from Bebop and its descendants like free jazz, post bop and big band jazz. But that’s not to say that the quieter acoustic music found in chamber jazz doesn’t go down experimental, sometimes avant-garde, avenues.

So, where did chamber jazz begin? While jazz was born from the blues and gospel its musicians have long been drawn to classical and orchestral music.

As far back as the 1930s Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn were seeking inspiration from composers like Debussy and Ravel, but it was Benny Goodman who became the first real pioneer of chamber jazz with his small group recordings of the ’30s.

In an era when big dance bands like those of Goodman dominated, his paired back Trio, with Teddy Wilson on piano, Gene Krupa on drums and Benny on clarinet, made huge hit records with a small ensemble for the first time. Music for listening rather than dancing, the so called chamber jazz that emerged mixed complex ensemble interplay with technically brilliant solos.

By the 1940s industry publications like Billboard magazine were using the term “chamber jazz” for performances by small groups with a certain calmness in the music like those of the Goodman Trio and Fletcher Henderson’s bassist John Kirby’s sextet.

In the mid 1950s, pianist Ahmad Jamal released “Chamber Music of the New Jazz” with his trio for the Argo label, the first time the title had been used on a record. Drummer Chico Hamilton also launched a chamber quintet on the West Coast, with reeds player Buddy Collette, bassist Carson Smith, guitarist Jim Hall, and cellist Fred Katz.

But it was really another group from the mid ‘50s, Modern Jazz Quartet who came to epitomise the cool sophistication of chamber jazz through the elegant compositions and playing of pianist John Lewis and vibes man Milt Jackson. By 1960 they were exploring beyond the coolness of chamber jazz into its more avant-garde cousin Third Stream, a term coined by composer Gunther Schuller in 1957 (check MJQ’s 1960 album “Third Stream Music” next to “Django” from 1956).

In the ‘60s, chamber jazz also became a vehicle for post bop experimentation through records like Ron Carter’s debut album “Where?” featuring Carter on double bass and cello with Eric Dolphy on reeds and Mal Waldron on piano.

However, for most people chamber jazz is most closely identified with the European musicians on Germany’s ECM label whose pastoral soundscapes have the calm restraint of classical recordings, even when the music is challenging. And there lies the beauty of the quiet innovations of chamber jazz that continues to inspire jazz musicians today.