"Jazz": A bad word?

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Read David Adler's post on pop music crossing over into jazz territory. Adler brings up a trend that interests me. I touched on the idea of the "new standards" way back in December, and this article treads close to my point. I must admit that I'm often surprised when untrained ("pop"?) musicians don't know their seventh and ninth chords, but I've always assumed this as a result from a lack of formal musical training. While I think this is sometimes the case, I also understand that most pop music rarely ventures into "extended" or "chromatic" harmony to the extent that jazz music does. Although, after reading this, I guess I'm half right. Why?

The main point that interests me in Adler's article is the mention of the session musicians that played on many recordings of the late 1970s and early 80s. An accomplished jazz musician can play anything. Literally anything. That explains all the great Motown recordings and Philly soul recordings, but what about rock music? It seems like the word "jazz" is instantaneously synonymous with "prog" or "smooth" rock/pop music of this era (also known as "yacht rock"). Yuck. Jazz has become a bad word. And for this, I am deeply shamed.

Allow me to demonstrate: I'm in my late twenties. I (clearly) do not like Steely Dan, but I (obviously) love Stevie Wonder. While both are incredibly similar in terms of harmony and song construction, they stand apart in terms of aesthetics and taste. Both use jazz chords and unusual progressions, but how often do you hear a Stevie Wonder song song played across all genres of music as compared to Steely Dan? Who speaks to a larger audience? Who will continue to do so?

Some artists use their knowledge and musical ability to write tasteful pop music that crosses over to a more general audience. This idea is no different from the Tin Pan Alley writers in the early 20th century. Simply put, popular music gets played. This is what I consider to be a significant quality of the "new standards": communication.

UH Jazz News: Trip to Colorado and 12th Annual MSM Jazz Festival

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What's going on with Ryan in the new year?  2010 holds a very busy schedule, especially for the University of Houston Jazz Orchestra.  The group traveled to Colorado from January 26-30 to perform at the Colorado Music Educators Association Convention/Clinic.

UHJO in Colorado

The band did great in both their performances, one at the convention (held at the historic Broadmoor Hotel) and another at the Air Academy High School.  I'm pleased to report that reviews were more than favorable and the University of Houston was represented well by the Jazz Orchestra and Wind Ensemble!  All this, PLUS a day of skiing at Breckenridge!  It was an excellent trip!

The 12th Annual MSM Jazz Festival, featuring Brian Lynch

Another year, another jazz festival... But I can guarantee that it won't be business as usual.  The 12th Annual Moores School of Music Jazz Festival looks to be a weekend full of musical excitement and energy at the University of Houston.  The festival takes place February 19 and 20, 2010 as two all-day events, featuring performances from local and visiting middle and high schools in an adjudicated setting.  Each evening will feature a concert showcasing new and old compositions of big band music; Friday evening’s concert (2/19) is the Texas Music Festival Jazz Project, featuring professional Texas musicians, and Saturday evening’s concert (2/20) is a performance by The University of Houston Jazz Orchestra with guest artist, Brian Lynch.

Brian Lynch is a Grammy Award-winning trumpeter with many albums and accolades to his name.  An active performer, composer and educator, Lynch’s presence will be an experience that any jazz lover or student will not want to miss!  He will be playing his own compositions and arrangements, ranging from straight-ahead swing to Afro-Cuban styles.  In addition to his Saturday evening performance, he will be giving free clinics to the general public each day at 12pm.  If you appreciate music at all, you will not want to miss this weekend of jazz madness!

Looking back at Terry Riley's "In C"

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After listening to this RadioLab podcast on the anniversary of Terry Riley's minimalist work, "In C," my mind began to wander on the true purpose of music. You see, the whole point of "In C" (at least, to me) was the notion of inclusion. They point out in the podcast how difficult and dissonant classical music had become by 1964, making "In C" sound like a breath of fresh air. Now, I'll admit that I like minimalist music, but only to a certain point.  There's only so much repetitive patterns that I can stand.  Eventually, one longs for an actual chord progression.  And I'm not even the big fan of Terry Riley's work, but there's a concept and an execution about "In C" that I can get behind.  First of all, it isn't just a minimalist piece in the strict definition of that sub-genre of contemporary art music, it is also aleatoric.  To me, music should not be pretentious and exclusive, and aleatoricism seeks to destroy the conventions (and perceived stuffiness) of Western art music by adding in improvisational elements and (sometimes) audience participation.  John Cage's '4'33"' is a perfect example of this.

The impact and influence of "In C" is clearly far-reaching.  Just look at the work of Brian Eno and pretty much the entire electronic music constituency (especially dance music).  However, this really matters very little to me, the reason I like it so much is because it thrives on audience participation.  It's not even written for musicians!  Anyone can play a single note or two, or three. To most people, "In C" may now seem like an outdated notion of peace, love and understanding from the 1960s, but I truly think that in order to make a statement or get your voice heard, this is a key element to your development as an artist.  The truly greatest works of music (or art in general) usually communicate with their audience on a higher level than their contemporaries. This hasn't changed, either.  Look at today's technological breakthroughs in communication and the attempts of businesses to become more conversational with their clients.  It's the same motto and message: "Everyone is welcome, and everyone has a voice that should be heard.  We're listening."  This is the true achievement of "In C".  Once the concept is in your head, you won't forget it, and you're always welcome to participate.

Now, about those "serious" composers with their serious and difficult pieces of music: How many times do you think they're actually heard on a regular basis?  I don't mean to downplay the importance of composers like Schoenberg and Webern, they are very important to history and I personally enjoy certain pieces of theirs.

But I forget, how does the melody to "Pierrot Lunaire" go?  You can't remember, either?  Oh, who cares...

Improvisation

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This is the definition of a great musician, jazz or otherwise.  Thanks, Seth.

It's far easier to mix up a Rubik's cube than to solve one.

People are often paid to enforce compliance. The job is to ensure that everything is in its place, that errors are zero, that things are delivered on time and as expected. The random event is a problem, something to be feared and extinguished.

A few people (not many) get paid to create a ruckus, to insert the random, to yell 'fire' and to shake things up.

Most people, though, the ones with great jobs, are in the business of dancing with entropy, not creating it. Take what comes, sort it, leverage it, improvise and make something worthwhile out of it.

The secret of dancing is that you must respect and admire your partner. Thus, entropy isn't the enemy, and the goal isn't for "everything to be all right."

Without random events, there is no dance.

There is no good, there is no bad, there's just what happened. Dance with it.

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