[Dixielandjazz] IAJE - TJEN - Some thoughts.

[Mike]

Yup.

You hit the nail on the head Harry. When I was in High School 
back in the 80s we read charts twice a week for about an hour at 
a time. No improv was ever taught. Explanation of the chord 
changes was to "play the scales".

No one ever taught us about listening to recordings and finding 
out what the pros did. I started buying my own recordings in 
high school. I bought about one CD a month(minimum) and have 
continued that practice to this day.

As far as arrangements goes, I'd personally like to see much 
more ear training utilized. Especially at the lower grade 
levels. It would also help if the teacher knew about jazz 
improvization. My former teachers did not.

Mike






hsalotti at aol.com wrote:
>  I agree with Steve's comments.
>  
>  I would like to comment on some relevant observations. Most public schools music teachers have a limited background in jazz. If they have any experience it is probably from playing in a big band at some point in their music career. In most high school big bands you might find only one or two members of each section that have the ability to improve and play by ear. (there are many players who can play over chord changes but can't play melodies by ear.) Most players first learned to read and play concert band music in public school and then were taught by their high school band director how to read the swing rhythms. The shame is that many of these students were taught by rote and not exposed to recording of bands like Basie, Ellington and Goodman. This resulted in hundreds of high school bands where you had over sixteen students in each band and maybe only four students in the group could improvise over a simple blues or rhythm changes. Very few of the improvisers were eve
r taught how to play an actual melody. Many band directors started playing rock based charts so the students wouldn't have to learn to swing.(many of the open solo sections are based on one to two modal scales, not any real chord progression.) You can find big band arrangements now that are written quite skillfully for junior high bands where the range and ability level of the individual parts are appropriate to the grade level. These charts require no improvising or a solo is written out.
>  
>  The problem as it relates to OKOM is that:
>  1.Most directors teach jazz from a reading music approach. Trad is based on improvisation and playing by ear.
>  2. Directors are expected to include large groups of students in their ensembles. Trad bands contain six or seven players at most.
>  3.Directors have a limited amount of rehearsal time for their jazz program, mostly one day after school or one night a week. It is easier and quicker to teach a group of fifteen students to read an easy arrangement of Watermelon Man than it is to teach six students The Original Dixieland One Step by ear. God forbid your trumpet player is sick on the night of the concert.
>  4. The priorities of most school boards and parents are marching band, concert band and large amounts of students in the program.
>     If your want directors to start introducing trad jazz into their programs they need:
>  1.Arrangements that include more than just one trumpet, clarinet and trombone. An arrangement could be based on the street bands of New Orleans such as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The best setting for these arrangements is for a smaller section of the marching band to play them in the stands at the football games. Riff based arrangements that contain two or three trumpets parts,clarinet,alto,tenor,and bari sax (bari could be used as a bass instrument ie. Adrian Rollini) trombone, tuba and snare, cymbals and bass drum. Since the music would be used as part of the marching band program, directors could justify using more rehearsal time to teach this style of music. Songs with simple three chord progressions could be used at first (yes, I mean The Saints Go Marching In) to teach basic improvisation by altering the melody(all instruments should learn to play the melody). A simple riff by alternating horn sections could supply the background for the soloist. This ensemble coul
d be brought inside after football session and developed into a great group. Possibly even broken into smaller groups based on ability level.
>  
>  If you really want to do something to help this music survive, sit down and write a simple arrangement and GIVE it to the high school band director in your home town.
>  If you give the directors the tools to teach this music we have a chance of preserving this style of jazz into the future and not only for our own lifetime. Harry Salotti