Jazz Notes Part II

As promised, here is the second part of my jazz notes. In this post I will try to touch the most important element of jazz called "improvisation". Being a characteristic mainly associated with jazz music, improvisation needs to be well understood in order to place jazz to its unique hierarchy among other types of music...

Miles Davis "So What"

What Is Improvisation?

"You've got to find some way of saying it, without saying it"

Duke Ellington

• In daily routine of life, people improvise all the time. When talking to someone you do not know what you will say next, when you are dancing you do not know what will be your next step or move (not pro dancing of course), when you hear some news you do not know what your reactions will be...These are all examples of improvisation, and your actions are purely shaped on many unknowns. Similarly jazz musicians do the same with their instruments, but rather than using words to communicate, they use music; it's kind of like musical conversation.
• Improvisation is inventing something on impulse and in response to a certain situation; in jazz, it is when musicians perform a different interpretation each time they play the same tune, i.e., a tune is never played the exact same way twice, whether played by the same musicians or an entirely different group; the improvisation becomes its own musical dialogue between band members without any preconceived notion of what the final outcome will be. It is re-inventing or re-composing a piece, or in more technical terms, it is the process of spontaneously creating fresh melodies over the continuously repeating cycle of chord changes of a tune.
• When jazz musicians improvise, they are playing the notes that they “hear” (imagine) in their minds; they “hear” these notes just a split second before they play them (just like when you are talking, you “hear” the words in your head just a split second before you say them).
• Jazz musicians learn how to improvise in a way that is similar to how kids learn how to talk. Young jazz musicians learning how to improvise listen to other jazz musicians improvise and try to imitate them; kids (even babies) learn how to talk by listening to others talk and trying to imitate them. Jazz musicians play their instruments a lot; kids learning how to talk, talk a lot.
  To play better, jazz musicians study instrumental technique (the physical mechanics of playing an instrument) and music theory (how notes and chords fit together); to speak better, kids study pronunciation and grammar.

Coleman Hawkins "Body and Soul"

• In my opinion, improvisation is a separate art within an art form. Someone can be a good jazz musician but his/her improvisation skills can be inferior compared to his/her musicianship. Many people, especially non-musicians, think that improvisation is simply playing what you feel or whatever comes to your mind. This is ultimately true and is the final goal of the improviser. However, that doesn’t mean that everyone picking an instrument and playing what they claim they “feel in the moment” is improvising! Improvisation is a language and, like any language, it has structure, rules, patterns, and clichés.

John Coltrane "Resolution"

• Normally improvisation can exist in all types of music. For example, Bach and Mozart were great improvisers of the classical music. However classical music transformed into a form where improvisation is extremely limited, sticking to play the score as written; but this led the performers to concentrate more on feelings and expressions while playing. One can also argue that rock solos are improvisations. This is partly true when you think of the licks (especially blues) of some great guitarists. Of course most of the real improvisation takes place in the jazz scene. Especially after the 1950s where jazz music has been elevated to a new level where it became a more mature, complex and a deeper form of music (obviously improvisation also existed heavily before the 50s but due to the fact that jazz being considered popular music of that period, the methods of improvisation like melody, harmony and rhythm were simpler).
• Advanced listeners say that the best improvisation sounds as composed and the best composed music sounds as improvised. There is a huge difference between composed music and improvised music but in jazz both merge into a magical mixture and that's the beauty of jazz.

"In fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds."

Steve Lacy

• As a final comment as I tried to explain, improvisation is the most vital element in jazz music. Can you call a music without improvisation jazz? In my opinion, hardly...Musicians play their instruments to play with the music. And this is unique to jazz...
• Don't forget, improvisation is: a wordless connection with the audience and the members of the group, it is some sort of meditation and a key component in jazz that makes this music form somewhat superior to listen to.

"Ahhh - those Jazz guys are just makin' that stuff up!"

Homer Simpson

Note: You can visit the links for fine examples of jazz improvisations