What is Jazz?

[phishtaper]

jazz is everything between this ...

and this ...

but jazz definately aint this ...

[The Chameleon]

Not that there is a one-size fits all definition but to me Jazz means a few key things:

1. Part of the music must contain improvisation.

2. There is an element of swing in th rhythm, real or implied.

3. The chords structure/harmony uses at least 4 part chords predominantly.

4. Songs and melodies are interpreted and embellished

.

[MarcO]

I think people take jazz too lightly, like they can just start "improvising" and it's jazz.

Jazz is a language, a mode of musical conversation that takes years of humble and focused study to master. Bob Moses is bang fucking on as far as I'm concerned.

[Booche]

I think people take jazz too lightly, like they can just start "improvising" and it's jazz.

Bravo.

[The Chameleon]

I think people take jazz too lightly, like they can just start "improvising" and it's jazz.

Jazz is a language, a mode of musical conversation that takes years of humble and focused study to master. Bob Moses is bang fucking on as far as I'm concerned.

I agree 100%. Jazz is a language and it is fuckin' hard to learn. I've devoted 14 yrs of my life to it so far and I am just beginning to get inside the music...

[Blurry]

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.

Brilliant!

[Tricky]

It's a different form/style of music that you either like or don't. why define genius?

[djmelbatoast]

I just don't buy that argument at all.

If you didn't personally get driven to soccer practice by an artist you shouldn't play their music. It is such a pompous and arrogant premise.

I don't know if this guy he is mainly talking about was a hack or not, but he also lumps in anyone who plays anothers material as being a piece of crap. Surprise Me Mr.Davis I think do really interesting interpretations and the Sister's Euclid's cover of Mingus' 'Slop' is great, and then there's Garcia, Grisman and Rice's version of 'So What'. Even Medeski Martin and Wood, who he seems to see as purity of music personified, cover Coltrane and Monk tunes on their albums. To this guy they're all just talentless hacks dancing on the grave of the geniuses who went before, and I call bullshit on that.

[phorbesie]

he loves to talk about his relationship with mingus.

as for mmw, it's because he teaches at the new england conservatory in boston and both medeski and wood were proteges of his (as was billy martin although not at NEC), so that's why he doesn't mind them doing it.

he's an angry man.

[MasterShake]

I believe Bob Moses was taking issue with artists like Merenda and Kenny G(who I believe should be taken out back and shot with a ball of his own poop) that are exploiting the names of these jazz giants for their own ends.

Covering tunes happens all the time in jazz. In fact, it happens so much that these tunes become "standards". Any working jazz musician worth his salt is expected to know a great number of these "standards". The language of jazz is highly sophisicated and complex to say the least, and it can take a lifetime to understand(I've been in college for three years now studying it and i've only begun to scratch the surface)

The years of study devoted to understanding the fundamental aspects of jazz(like chord/scale relationships, the ability to listen and react to harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic ideas etc.) are only tools to get you to what jazz really is about...

and that,(in my most humble opinion) is INTERPRETATION. You could get 10 different groups of jazz musicians to play, say, "autumn leaves" and I guarantee no two versions would sound alike.

So yes, it's great that bands like Sister's Euclid, MMW, Garcia/Grisman, cover the likes of Mingus, Miles etc. because they are honestly following the jazz spirit of interpretation, not just shamelessly using another artist's name as a promotional tool to sell more albums/tickets.

P.S. Kenny G should apologize to everyone, everywhere for ever picking up a horn. Seriously.

[djmelbatoast]

I would agree that is what he is saying, Master Shake, if he hadn't specifically called out the Slip for their Miles Davis side project. Which is also in the same spirit as the others I mentioned.

[MarcO]

what I got from Moses' letter is that jazz is more than just a musical genre but an all-encompassing WAY OF LIFE that makes no distinction between sleeping, eating, driving, reading and playing your instrument. It's also rooted in respect and tradition and the search for an individual voice. So if that's his take - and I think he's right to have it - then he is right to be dismayed by a lot of what he hears and sees. When he speaks of musicians coming to blows with each other because they cut each other off mid-solo, he's really suggesting that it's a serious game and if you don't want to LIVE it, get the fuck off the bandstand.

[\/\/illy]

Who is Joe Pass? Who is jazz!

[Deeps]

“If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.â€

Charlie Parker