Jazz is a genre of music that I always put off listening to because I just don't understand it intellectually.
I got into a YouTube hole last night and came across this album....
My mind was immediately blown. It's incredible and I think it's a good starting point for me Jazz-wise.
I have so many questions.
How much of Jazz is improvised? Is modern Jazz still improvised, or did that get left behind in a different era?
How can you even tell if it is improvised, or pre-planned, or a mix of both?
If it is improvised then how the heck do you record an album? Are tracks recorded in one take? Is every take vastly different?
How do you perform album tracks live?
You don't have to answer my questions exactly or even at all, you can chime in with anecdotes, perspectives, or just links.
Post whatever you think might help with "Jazz 101"
1) Jazz solos are improvised over what is known as a "form". One of my the most common is a 12 bar blues.
Tenor Madness by Sonny Rollins At the start of the song, they play an established melody, then close the song out with it at the end.
Start off by rewinding that melody over a few times until you can sing along with it. Once you are able to, listen to the rest of the track BUT KEEP SINGING the melody aloud. The soloists (Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers) solo around the melody. You should notice that some of the improvisation they are playing fits perfectly with the melody of the track. Halfway through the track, the sax and drums (Philly Joe Jones) "trade 4's". Meaning the sax plays 4 bars of solo, then the drummer responds with 4 bars of solo. Again, keep singing the melody and you'll notice how they play around the melody.
2) Jazz is largely improvised, but most musicians will have a bag of tricks they'll pull some stuff out of. If you listen to a lot of one musician, you'll start to notice they play figures that sound very familiar. I can post some links of drummers later because it's easiest to hear rhythmically. Often times before a group plays a song, they'll go over what they want to do. For example, the sax player might play 2 complete chorus's (a chorus means once through the form) then the trumpet might play 2 chorus's, then they might quiet down and let the bass player play a chorus, then they might have the pianist play 2 chorus's as they get louder in volume, finally they might trade 4's with the drummer.
In conclusion, they'll have a blueprint of what they want to do then fill it up with soloing.
3) Unless someone really messes up, they'll record a song start to finish. If everyone likes the solos, they might keep that one take. If they aren't happy with the finished product, they might do another few takes until everyone is happy with their solos. Sometimes when you play you feel like your solo wasn't all that great and you can do better.
So yeah, a lot of what you are asking basically all comes down to form. There are jazz "standards" that everyone plays with different forms (the other big form is AABA, 32 bars). Check out
So What by Miles Davis It starts off with a piano intro, but then the melody is the bass playing a figure and the horns and piano responding with a figure (you can sing So What as the figure). A A means they play the same melody figure twice in a row, B means they play a different figure (in this case, the chord changes from a D minor to an E flat minor, making the pitch go slightly higher), before returning to the A again. So playing AABA means they played one chorus. On this recording Miles takes 2 chorus's, John Coltrane takes 2 chorus's, then Canonball Adderly takes 2 chorus's. Again, try to sing the melody and you can follow along with what the soloist's are doing.
Might be a bit of a long explanation but I'm trying to keep it as simple as I can here. If anyone is interested we can delve deeper into this.
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(96)/discogs-images/R-7014389-1431704816-1655.jpeg.jpg)
