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What is Jazz?


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What does it mean for a rock band to have jazz influence? Is this a consious decision by musicians to be "jazz"? What is a jazz element?

Sorry about all the questions, I've listened to a fair amount of jazz and it seems to me to be a fine line between Rock and Jazz. At least improvisational Rock music anyway (Otherwise known to me as real Rock as opposed to Pop).

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I've listened to a fair amount of jazz and it seems to me to be a fine line between Rock and Jazz. At least improvisational Rock music anyway (Otherwise known to me as real Rock as opposed to Pop).

A fine line eh? Phish sounds nothing like Eric Dolphy or Charlie Parker. However, fusion jazz has a lot more in common with rock since that genre at its core is jazz fused with rock.

Jazz has more in common with blues as does rock and blues.

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Yogi Berra has always had the best interpretation of jazz, imho:

Interviewer: Can you explain jazz?

Yogi: I can't, but I will. 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong.

Interviewer: I don't understand.

Yogi: Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can't understand it. It's too complicated. That's whats so simple about it.

Interviewer: Do you understand it?

Yogi: No. That's why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldnt know anything about it.

Interviewer: Are there any great jazz players alive today?

Yogi: No. All the great jazz players alive today are dead. Except for the ones that are still alive. But so many of them are dead, that the ones that are still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead. Some would kill for it.

Interviewer: What is syncopation?

Yogi: That's when the note that you should hear now happens either before or after you hear it. In jazz, you don't hear notes when they happen because that would be some other type of music. Other types of music can be jazz, but only if they're the same as something different from those other kinds.

Interviewer: Now I really don't understand.

Yogi: I haven't taught you enough for you to not understand jazz that well.

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You have to disagree with Canned Beats in order to agree with him. If you understood him, you wouldnt know anything about him. He's too complicated. That's whats so simple about him.

I think I understand what you intended to mean. Whether that means I agree with you or not is a mystery to me.

Aloha,

Brad

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