[Dixielandjazz] Phrasing

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

Phrasing is as everyone has pointed out like a sentence.  Some people are
capable of writing long involved sentences and make perfect sense while
others just ramble.

Not everyone is capable of understanding complicated phrasing or even likes
it.  I may be one of those.  I have scratched my head more than once and
tried to figure out just what the hell someone was doing.  There is a guy
here in St. Louis that weaves very complicated solos and most of the time I
just walk away shaking my head.  Others think he is the greatest thing since
hamburgers.  Then there is my favorite sax player, Kim Park from KC, who
also weaves very complicated solos with sometimes non standard phrasing and
I understand everything he does.  Both players have incredible technique,
intonation, tone and all the other things I like but one I just don't
understand.  Are all the people that like him wrong?  I just don't know but
the guy just doesn't float my boat whereas Kim's work does.

Changing phrasing also tends to attack the old AABA structure of so many
OKOM tunes.

Phrasing seems to be a matter of taste and education.  You are right,
Armstrong was awesome.

Larry Walton
St. Louis


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 9:56 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Phrasing


> Tough subject.
>
> IMO the best, as someone said, was Armstrong.
>
> But as Jazz developed since the 1920s, the phrases have become much more
> complicated as have the musician's ideas.
>
> The more modern guys often think in 16 to 32 bar lines. They create a
> totally new melody. So the breath spots are very different from where a
> singer might put them. Guys like Davern, or Pee Wee Russell before him, or
> Thelonious Monk also changed the time to fit what they were saying.
>
> I think it depends upon what the player is trying to communicate that
> determines the phrasing.
>
> And what the listener hears regarding that communication is what gives us
> our opinions. So sometimes we might cut the player a break. Instead of
> saying "He Sucks", we might say "My ears aren't ready for him yet." :-)
VBG.
>
> For most of us, the solution is to breathe where the singer would, but
those
> creating on another level or two up, don't always do that.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
>
>
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