American Music War

No one in the band seems to know what swing is. They think that syncing to a machine is what music is all about. They don’t realize you can “loosen up,” have a drink, and relax when you play music. Instead the feeling is antagonistic. On the bandstand no one seems to want to cooperate. The drummer clearly says, “Don’t talk to me during the set.” Don’t talk to him when he is playing? You are playing a “pick up,” improvisatory, informal set of music, and the drummer says you can’t talk to him while we are playing the set. “It’s spiritual man. Like wow, Jesus is speaking to me through my music, and we wouldn’t want to interrupt Jesus.” Bullshit. This completely negates the entire purpose of jazz music, communication. It completely reinforces the inappropriate concept of ego. In the field of jazz music, the only way to create a coherent sound is to listen to one another. Unfortunately this is a lesson novice musicians don’t learn for years. “Let’s all stand on stage and scream at each other without listening to what the other person is saying.” Maybe in a slim definition of the Avant-Garde you could get away with this. In the intimate setting of acoustically realized art music, this is unacceptable. I learned how to be a good piano player by learning to listen. I stopped trying to think what to play with my brain and instead began listening to the music as it happened. This way you engage the part of your brain that is responsible for instinctual learning. If you listen to what is happening in context with a large arsenal of historical sonic knowledge, then you will know what to play. It will present itself to you. As the Boy Scouts say, “Be Prepared.” I was unpleasantly shocked when I began working on cruise ships. No one listened. No one cared what you played. They just want to get laid. Fuck you. It took many years to realize that I could no longer listen to the members of the band with which I was playing! Are you listening? Stop listening! Everything they play will be a hindrance or deterrent to the creation of viable jazz. Everything they play will be a challenge, a duel, or a threat to your own salvation. Welcome to the Wild West of Cruise Ship work. I had to stop drinking, because now if the music wasn’t in your brain and your fingers, you couldn’t play it. It didn’t matter that it was in your soul and psyche. Those things don’t exist working on a cruise ship. Slowly I learned to expect the worst. The bands wouldn’t swing. No one knew tunes. No one could improvise over chord changes. Worst of everyone seemed to think the concept of “styles of music” was passé. It became music war, and that is what it has been every since.