When scrutinising whisky and jazz some interesting comparisons may be made. Both the suppression of a ity that looked down upon the craft as well as the craftsmen. The illicit stills in the Highlands paradoxically flourished due to the English suppression and eventually produced the most appreciated, most powerful expression – the single malt. Jazz was born out of traditional folk music brought by African slaves to the Americas and first considered a raw and uneducated form of “noise” by the majority of the white population in the US, only decades later to be embraced by that same crowd.
Where Jazz and Whisky blend
There’s something very specific about jazz and whisky. The one has swing and the other has grain at its base. Lack thereof does not deliver the true product. Different rhythms occur and different streams run. How to assemble them is the true art. A bad solo can ruin the piece whereas a bad cask can do the same with the whisky inside. The same applies to the opposite: a good solo and a good dram create true pleasure to the ear and the palate. However, they do not exist solely by themselves. Solos have to be welded into the song, blended with the other instruments on the stage.
Both whisky and jazz are acquired tastes, both products created by professional and dedicated craftsmen. On a micro-level it’s about a single malt whisky blended with an individual musicians’ performance. A deeper dive into the life and times of those great individuals might deliver even more comparisons and show a true blend of music(ian) and whisky.
The musician
He was an artist that defied (and despised) categorisation, yet he was the forerunner and innovator of many distinct and important musical movements. At the age of 13, Miles Davis took lessons with a local trumpet player who happened to hate vibrato. Every time his young pupil would use this technique distinctively, the teacher would slap his knuckles with a ruler and can therefore be credited with pressing Miles to play the clear notes that would become his signature throughout his entire career. In 1944, Miles moved to the Big Apple (the moniker actually invented by jazz musicians in the 1920s), and ran into Charlie Parker who invited him to play in his bebop quartet. Three years later Miles formed his own band, experimenting with new instruments to jazz at the time: the tuba and the French horn. Miles used the stage to launch aspiring young musicians and was one of the first to advocate playing in a racially mixed ensemble. In 1959 he recorded a truly historic album when he set out to create a new style, called modal jazz.
The result was Kind of Blue – the best selling jazz record worldwide to date. Collaborations with Gil Evans around 1960 led to a mixture of classical music, jazz and film scores, of which l’Ascenseur sur l’echafaud is one of the best known. On Sketches of Spain, Miles’s trumpet may be heard against an orchestra performing the classical piece Concerto d’Aranjuez, originally written for guitar and orchestra. At the end of the 1960s, he would spearhead the evolution of jazz rock fusion and invited musicians like Chick Corea, Billy Cobham and John McLaughlin to the bandstand. The cooperation resulted among other recordings in the famous double album Bitches Brew. In the late 1960s Miles would become fully immersed in electronic music using wah-wah and other distortion techniques on his trumpet. He also ventured into the pop realm, in the 1980s. He continued to re-invent himself with Tutu, a record with samples and synthesizer, described as the modern counterpart of Sketches of Spain. Miles also kept composing film scores and even played a little role in two movies, Scrooged (1988) and Dingo (1991). The latter movie would be his swan song. He died on September 28 that year.
The distillery
With money from his late brother William III, Barnett Harvey set out to build a distillery for the legal heirs, his three nephews William IV, Robert and John. Most distilleries at the time were extensions of farm buildings, but not Bruichladdich, which was purpose built, as can be seen in its current layout. The Harveys would own Bruichladdich Distillery until 1938. A takeover by a small consortium started a merry-go- round of owners coming and going until Murray McDavid acquired Bruichladdich in 2000. They meant business and appointed Mark Reynier as CEO and Jim McEwan, formerly at Bowmore, as production director. The latter is known as one of the true living legends in the Scottish whisky industry and an indefatigable ambassador for Islay and its whiskies. Together the pair was responsible for releasing an astounding series of different, often innovative expressions of this elegant Islay single malt. Bruichladdich is proud to show its working environment and has installed several web cams throughout the distillery. Once the Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) was browsing the web for terrorist activities and, encountering the distillery web cams, thought they had discovered a chemical weapons plant. The reports of this story show that Bruichladdich knows how to create rumour around the brand. In 2012 the French Drinks Company Rémy Martin took over. ‘The Laddie’ still keeps pouring out interesting editions at a dazzling speed! Innovation remains the keyword with the distillery that styles itself with the moniker Progressive Hebridean Distillers.
The blend
Miles Davis will always be remembered as not shying away from musical styles, finding his own interpretation of jazz, not necessarily always appreciated by his audience. His output of recordings is stunning.
Bruichladdich Distillery has been led by men who are as inventive in making whisky and marketing their product as Miles Davis was in jazz. Bruichladdich though never forgets its primary concern: making whisky, regardless the fact that not all of its product launches were met appreciatively.
Both whisky and jazz have proven to be survivors, no matter what drink or what style of music became the fad of the day. And these two survivors met, time and again, since whisky was and will probably always stay a favourite drink among many musicians.
Recommended listening: So What from the album Kind of Blue? Recommended dram:
Bruichladdich 10 Years Old.
