Jazz

I tend to forget, because I am an older man, “swinging” has always been something of an elusive art. Miles Davis said it. “You either have it or you don’t.” Duke Ellington said it. “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” Miles said, “Playing with a drummer that doesn’t swing is like death.” With all these things in mind it would be easy to understand why the gamut of cruise ship musicians don’t swing. There has always been a feud between the jazz and classical camps at music school. Even at major universities each aesthetic seems to battle for its own worthiness. That is ludicrous, because jazz music would not exist without its European counterpart. Because jazz is art music, and art music is complex it incorporates all of the things upon which European “classical” music are based. Form, harmony, melody, and rhythm are equally as important in both vernaculars. The difference is jazz music “swings.” What is this elusive thing? Swing is a feel. It is a definition of rhythm that feels good. It is not strict. It is not oppressive. Swing by nature infects rhythm with a feeling embodied in the human body and soul. Without the experiences and feelings of the human being, jazz would not exist. While it can be documented in manuscript, it cannot be composed. Not really. Charles Mingus, Fletcher Henderson, Oliver Nelson, and Gil Evans were pretty successful composing jazz music, but without the rhythmic interpretation provided by the jazz musician the music would not swing. Therefore it can’t be jazz. Many “new school” musicians would argue with that. They constantly ask, “What is jazz?” and usually clarify their opinion by saying it is “anything.” That is ridiculous. While labels in music can be discriminatory, labels are needed to define components of an aesthetic. There are many sciences. There are many languages. Hence it is logical to assume there are many styles of music. Calling jazz “anything and everything” relieves the musician of the responsibility of understanding and learning a specific style of music. Defining a style of music is not rocket science. First the shallow depiction of music on the radio and television today has to be dispelled. It might be easiest to use the major “style” periods of European orchestrs music. It would be difficult for a new school music pundit to dispute the history of Western music. Broadly defined there was Medieval Music, Renaissance Music, Baroque Music, Classical Music, Romantic Music, and 20th Century Music. Each of these types of music was different from the others, and they have to be classified according to some definitions. Form, phrasing, articulation, counterpoint, harmony, texture, color, mood, and tempo are a few. Why cannot we use the same definitions for jazz music? I like to think of jazz music as, “A swing-based improvisatory music based upon the 32 bar A-A-B-A form American popular song and the 12 bar blues.” While there are symphonic types of jazz (such as Charles Mingus’s Epitaph) and many big band repertoires, this describes what jazz musicians play in a small group. They must learn the melody and chord changes of a song, then learn to “improvise” a new melody over the existing chord changes. This “solo” has the capability to be a work of art in itself as John Coltrane showed in his music. A “solo” in jazz music can be akin to telling a story. That is an easy way to describe it. Dexter Gordon was good at doing this. While Miles Davis did push the boundaries of this definition, it is a good place to start. To understand the gamut of jazz music you must start from the beginning in the l920’s and move forward. There isn’t an easy way to jump in. Like any art form you must have a clear understanding of what came first to be able to understand what comes later. Miles shaped jazz music in three distinct ways pushing its boundaries. He like many jazz musicians got tired of playing “tunes.” He conceived the “Cool School” where jazz music takes on a reflective refined state. (Some say this was a reaction to the boisterous rhythms of Charlie Parker’s, Dizzy Gillespie’s, and Thelonious Monk’s bebop) Miles also brought “modality” into the harmonic spectrum. This superimposed one scaler sound over what would normally be a progression of differing chord changes. Again this creates a type of pastoral soothing Eastern vibration. Further Miles dispensed with “swing” rhythm all together and created “fusion.” Fusion was a type of rock jazz that used elements of music that began to be popular with the inception of Rock ‘n’ Roll. He liked Sly and the Family Stone and Jimi Hendrix and often credits them with influencing his music. Obviously these influences change the early definition of jazz music. Like any good thing it needs to expand and evolve. For novice musicians they often find the burden of learning standard tunes unmerited. “Why can’t I just go out on stage and play?” The answer is without some substance in your playing, who is going to want to listen to you? Young, dumb, and full of c-m is not really enough in a vocation as complex as music. While there is an improvisational and therefore spiritual component of jazz music, it is not enough to carry a musician through a successful journey of jazz music. Using the earlier definition of jazz makes the jazz players job more clear. He is a singer of songs. Just like a vocalist would try to communicate the message and feeling of a particular song through their singing, an instrumentalist attempts to do the same thing except with no words. To be a successful jazz musician you have to know songs, lots of songs. You must KNOW the songs, therefore have memorized or learned the songs by heart. You cannot create authentic jazz music when you are reading music out of a book, because there are too many obstacles in the way of your own communication. You must learn the fundamentals first and well to be free enough to express your own opinion in music. With all of this definition the notion of “swing” rhythm still is obscure. It might be one reason why jazz is an art form. You can’t necessarily to to music school to learn to play jazz music. You must experience it first hand. Seeing as jazz music developed in the brothels and on the streets of New Orleans, how is a modern jazz student going to learn his craft? It has always been listening to the recordings. Luckily the recording industry began in the l920’s in America, and someone thought jazz music was worthy enough to be documented aurally. Quintessentially it is the only true way to document jazz music because of the swing feeling. Many people believe jazz music is the music of the devil. Both Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia felt jazz music represented some heathen culture. They were not acquainted with the raw, primitive, tribal custom of Africa. The feeling of jazz or its rhythmic feel came from the tribal heritage of African drumming. Gunther Schuller, a past president of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, was the first to notate the rhythm of this African drumming. It is notable because it is the first known-to-be-documented example of polyrhythm. That simply means that although the drummers are playing together, they are playing in differing time signatures. The magic that all of these feels work at the same time is what creates one type of magic in jazz music. Now that we have defined jazz music somewhat it can be easily understood a musician with a ‘traditional’ university music education may have no clue how to play jazz music. The aesthetic is completely different from the art form of playing orchestral-based music. Because American popular music recognizes jazz as a major component of its heritage, it equally should be taught in our nation’s music schools. Without that education modern commercial musicians severely are lacking in the skills they need to be successful. A traditional orchestra music education fails greatly teaching the variety of necessary styles inherent in American commercial music. Cruise lines should draw a line in the sand and require a comprehensive and diverse knowledge of musical styles stemming from the jazz experiences. Otherwise, like the rest of America, the oppressive front of the Extreme Right will continue to brainwash our senses with tight ass, conservative, unfeeling propaganda.