[Dixielandjazz] Jazz is Alive and Well - In the Classroom Anyway

Sun Jan 7 13:28:17 PST 2007

In the 50's all the rock bands had a sax.  Great for me.  They wanted the 
sax solos just like the records so I got the records and learned them. 
There wasn't anything wrong with that but I think of it as a transitional 
phase.  Memorizing what other people have done isn't necessarily bad but 
leads to sounding memorized and what if something changes like someone hits 
the wrong chorus or the bridge in the wrong order?  Many have practiced 
licks that could be put in various tunes where appropriate but that should 
be considered IMHO transitional.

It's only when you can hear a sound in your head and it comes out the other 
end of the horn without thinking or even feeling the horn is when smooth 
improvisation which some call jazz can take place.  It's total control of 
the instrument and the ability to compose on the fly that is the heart of 
jazz.  Jazz musicians also have to be able to arrange on the fly also.  For 
most people listening is the key - if you don't know what jazz is how can 
you play it?  Almost everyone I have talked to or heard says that you have 
to listen to others.

I agree with that unless you have good jazzers to play with or be around. 
This was my case and I learned from them but most don't have that close 
contact.  I got that contact and experience from being in the AF band

I wish I had them around when I was in H.S.  Even though I was playing 
professionally at that time I wasn't around anyone I could call a jazzer.  I 
have friends who did have jazzers to model themselves after early and it 
made a big difference.  I should say that recordings and the media weren't 
as big an influence on me at that time because  I got my first phono at age 
16 and I didn't have a big jazz collection nor was I around any jazzers. 
Who you are around is valuable.

Lacking that I think the  recordings are very good.  Another help is Band in 
a Box.  PG Music also has a bunch of add on's and disks that let you 
practice riffs and along with jazz and blues in any key you want.  It's also 
great if you play in a big band to put the chords to a solo in and practice 
the solos.  I would have killed for such a thing when I was young.  I use it 
a lot.  It's the best stand alone jazz aid I know.  It will even compose 
things for sight reading and ear training.  It keeps getting better.

I use painting as an example a lot because any artist would get very tired 
of painting the same picture over and over exactly like someone else painted 
it.  So why do we do it in music?  This was a hang-up when I was in college. 
I played Oboe in the band, orchestra and woodwind quintet.  The first oboe 
player is the soloist and I got so irritated at playing the solos over and 
over exactly the same.  That permanently alienated me from being a classical 
musician.  I found it to be mindless and at the same time being subservient 
to a conductor who thought he was God and dictated every thing you did was 
more than I could tolerate for very long.  I find jazzers to be people who 
don't like to be told how to play or style music.

When I was in school my professors looked down their noses at pop and jazz 
too.  They wouldn't know jazz if it came up and bit them.  They gave me a 
very hard way to go but I had to make a living and playing was the only way 
I could do it.  I thought that what I did when I left the campus was my 
business and how I made a living was also none of their business but they 
didn't see it that way.  They also took a semi dim view of my being in the 
Military - this was the 60's and I was what some of them disliked a lot. 
They used to harp on me how playing sax would ruin my Oboe chops.  Hell I 
never made a dime playing Oboe.  What was I supposed to do?  It's tough to 
learn the classics when your mind is in the club across the river and 
mundane things like the rent and a wife and kid who like to eat.  It's also 
hard to get with the program when people are paying you to play something 
else.  What's a jazzer to do?

Good luck in your studies and with Jazz.  It's the most fun you can have 
with your cloths on.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike" <mike at railroadstjazzwest.com>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 12:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz is Alive and Well - In the Classroom 
Anyway

> Speaking as a student in a "jazz school" I have seen a lot of
> professors that do not know how to play jazz much less teach it.
> The Jamey Abersold's are very helpful; most students on my
> campus are into buying transcriptions books and memorizing those
> solos. It would be better to transcribe themselves that way they
> have the solo plus the practice in ear training. On my campus I
> also think that students don't listen nearly enough to jazz. You
> can't know the language if you don't expose yourself to it. My
> personal goals are to listen daily and to transribe a minimum of
> one solo per week in addition to practice.
>
> Mike
>

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