GregMeyerMusic 

Jazz as Art – Jan. 13, 2010.    Why is jazz important and why do people like it?When you ask most musicians why they play jazz you’ll likely get a vague answer concerning self expression.  The problem I have with this is it doesn’t do the music justice.  Any lunatic can rightfully claim the First Amendment right of free speech and blither a bunch of crap.  Jazz really does have something important to say and it behooves (neat word!) musicians to know what it is.  First I’ll explore a definition of “Art” and then I’ll look at what jazz brings to the table. It took me about 20 years to decide that art is more than “the product of human creativity.” We know that a craft is a skill (meaning it has to be learned and practiced) leading to the making of something. So what is the difference between an art and a craft? My answer is that art contains a message – a philosophy, (I’m not talking about 1500 pages by Kant but rather something more simple and direct.) usually, of how to live life.  When one looks at Guernica by Picasso one gets a huge message of the horrors of war. When one looks at Blue Poles by Pollack one gets the feeling the painter is striving to find some order in a crazy world.  There’s more examples but I’ll get to the point.   The craft of jazz is knowing the standard repertoire and being technically proficient on your instrument. The art of small group jazz is to be able to bring what you know to the bandstand and improvise your part according to some standard repertoire.  So it’s really the strongest message of teamwork I can think of.  An “…artistic model of individual expression and democratic cooperation within the creative process, thus fulfilling the highest ideals and aspirations of our republic,…” is how the honorable John Conyers put it i H.R. 57 declaring Jazz an American Treasure in 1987.    Another universal aspect of the message is that we favor addressing life in an improvised manner stemming from very disciplined preparation.   “Play Countdown in all 12 keys” so that when one plays one can draw freely from that concept.  A lot of it is muscle memory.  You can call it Bohemian and Zen like but it can cross over into all facets of life. On top of those two universal statements we start to add individual statements.  Scientists suggest that, since the brain is basically constructed in parts, all human endeavor happens in intellectual, emotional, and physical realms.  So it is with jazz.  Consider the robust energetic approach of Phil Woods and the laid back Paul Desmond.  Consider the aloofness of Miles Davis, the buoyancy of Cannonball Adderley, the intensity of Coltrane, the anger of Cecil Taylor.  Consider too the complexity of Coltrane’s “sheets of sound” which are adapted from a “classical music” theory as compared to the “I read music but not enough to hurt my playing” attitude some folks have.  To me these all represent variances in the intellectual, emotional, and physical realms of playing and they are the stamp the individual puts on jazz.   For me the key to deciphering the message is to describe the music (or whatever craft) in non-technical terms.  If we do that objectively we start to come close to clarifying what the artist is saying, consciously or unconsciously, about life.  Then you can make a judgment as to how it affects you.Finally some folks look at jazz from a historical view and try to put it under glass. That’s ok and there were some great events and personalities but the music lives on and evolves incorporating new ideas from new people and cultures.  It reacts instantly to new input.  Jazz is not swing or bebop. It is a process that crosses genres assimilating everything in its path.  It really is the music of the melting pot. It is America’s music and it is the World’s music.