The 6 Elements of Great Jazz Music
Everyone seems to love jazz music but often times the styles of jazz are confused and blurred. To further complicate matters, listeners (and dancers) often ask "What is great jazz?" or "How do I know if what I'm listening to is 'great jazz'"?
It's difficult to put in words, but let's give it a try. Remember jazz legend Louis Armstrong says: "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know." While jazz can be broken into elements and much has been written on jazz theory, the most important thing to keep in mind is that the spirit that characterizes truly great music can't be dissected. The first rule of thumb of identifying great jazz music is that if you like it, if it touches your soul, then it's great. Think of it this way, it's like walking into a museum or art gallery and asking to see great paintings or sculptures. Or worse, ask an artist to explain his or her painting to you. If the artist despises you, he/she may offer you some words by way of explanation, but great art is not meant to be explained. It either hits you, or it doesn't. It bypasses the part of the brain that analyzes and seeks to categorize or logically explain things and goes straight from the eyes to the "Ah Ha!" of your heart and soul. Music speaks to you in the same way. Now as for the technicality of what you're hearing, that's a bit different. Jazz can be broken into many styles, including traditional jazz, contemporary jazz, progressive jazz, modern jazz, dixieland jazz. Nevertheless, there are still six elements that really comprise all great jazz music, and we've named them Improvisation, Syncopation, Blue Notes, Freedom, Interaction, and Feeling.
IMPROVISATION is truly the heart of all jazz music. When a performer forgets what is written on the page by the composer and begins to speak with his instrument from his head and heart, you know that you are now seeing a real conversation on stage. The musicians are conversing within a set structure, the language of music. And when you see musicians who play together regularly or are good enough to find that connection instantaneously, you can see that they are truly speaking to each other, listening and receiving, through a musical dialogue.
SYNCOPATION is the part of jazz that really deals with rhythm. In our universe of space and time, it all comes down to vibrations. Vibrations are either on or off. This constant cycle of crests and troughs, expressed through time, causes us to experience the universe. In music, when you fool with these vibrations in a rigid form (strict rhythm), it can be slower or faster - but when you really start to play with rhythm and put variety into this structure you get what's called "Syncopation." This is what you're relating to instinctively as you dance, and what really MOVES you in jazz music.
BLUE NOTES are an important part of a jazz musician's vocabulary in the musical conversation. Within scales and keys can be certain altered notes, some of which are called "Blue Notes." Blue notes are key to creating dissonance and harmony, tension and resolution.
The next three elements are less of a function of music but more of a function of the musicians spirit. It is how the following three functions affect the first three that should interest you. FREEDOM: Within the ensemble framework, musicians may take solos. Or you may hear a vocalist interpreting a melody - a vocalist version of a solo or improv. This freedom within the language of music is what lead to defining the genre of jazz. It's the talent and skill of a musician to express the feelings so genuinely and purely that make really great jazz. The old saying "Live Free or Die" applies in jazz as much as anywhere! INTERACTION: No man is an island, and that's also true in jazz as much as anywhere else. Not to say that there aren't great jazz soloists (can be any instrument from piano, harp, guitar to any other instrument), but the overwhelming majority of jazz music ranges from duos to ensembles of 20 musicians (such as big band jazz). This ensemble work is an important part of what you're hearing that defines the genre and helps great jazz really stand out. For the finale, so to speak: FEELING. Feeling is a key element because when all is said and done, feeling is really the heart of it all. How the musician feels about what he's playing and how you feel about what you're listening to are both important elements, as well as the feelings that are being expressed from moment to moment. In the end, great jazz music is about expressing (for the musician) and hearing (for the audience) the great range of human emotion.
Finally, a definition of great jazz? Let's say it's the interaction between performer and listener. And if that interaction communicates feelings that you can't express as words, if you feel as though the music speaks to you, if you can feel the performers emotions he's trying to express thru his instrument, then the only words left are "That's GREAT jazz"!
About the Author
Jimmy Maxwell is a New Orleans jazz musician with over 35 years of experience playing the music of all the jazz greats! As founder and Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong Society Jazz Band, he proudly promotes Louis Armstrong songs in New Orleans and across the south, as well as plays pianos and hires other bands to play jazz music throughout the Big Easy. Find out more at http://larmstrongsoc.org/new-orleans-jazz
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