BANANACUE
REPUBLIC
Vol II, No. 03
Jan 19, 2005

 
  
 by Leoncio Olobia

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2005

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Leoncio

I Am Not Sure About Jazz


Jazz music has been around for ages and sure enough, many people have been influenced by its might not to mention the historical events that surrounded its evolution.

When I listen to live jazz performances, I am always confronted with mixed feelings as if I should like it even more when instrumentalists are taking solos. These solos can be really so long, stretched out to the limit sometimes I get lost. I often wonder if my classical influence is interfering because it really could be tiring after awhile. Then I manage to put aside this biases, yet there is still a pounding question I cannot simply ignore. Of course I cannot discredit the performer's technical expertise because the heart of improvisation, for which jazz is based on, requires mastery and creative imagination. They think in terms of lines, musical lines in this case, in terms of harmonic phrases and structures or that they play around the melody but not the melody. This can be intimidating because in-depth knowledge is required to execute effortlessly.

While the player is engrossed in a musical journey while playing, I sort of wonder what goes on in the mind of that person that allows him to play the notes as if he forgets them and still executes perfectly. I do appreciate it yet I am not totally convinced of its musical tributes. Maybe because when melody is altered, it might sound not pleasing or that extensive chordal invertions saturate the musical phrase. Maybe it looses its meaning. I could be wrong but my ear negates any laborious display of scales and patterns.

While Mozart's music cascades with abundant scales and arpeggios, they are well-organized and perfectly created. In other words, they are meant to be there. I think it is this sense of organization that jazz music tends to loosen up eventually degrading its power or something.

Jazz masters often need a lead sheet and the rest is imagination. Classical music, on the other hand, has so many pages and each one is just as important as the others. Interpretation is vital in both cases. I do not want to dwell on comparisons between these two genres because they come from different schools, but I am led to believe that jazz music, because of its inherent, improvisational style tends to be overdone sometimes and a disciplined ear can certainly point out the superfluous notes.

There is one great pianist in my workplace who has the level of jazz interpretation like Oscar Peterson or Art Tatum, the giants in the field. I listened to his playing and I must say he has superb finger-action and creative style in jazz playing. Even pop songs are re-interpreted with a bouncy style I almost felt like moving my hips as I listened. Then after a while I got burnt out with ghastly indulgence. He went down to the abyss of his playing that it almost sounded like he was in his own world. That's how I started asking myself how much I can endure myself listening to this form of music.

The heart of jazz as I said before is improvisation. This is one gift a musician could have that may not be attributed to others. When one has it, there is constant development of melodies and countermelodies in his interpretations. It's like building a maze that will ultimately lead to certainty. This finality ultimately puts him on a realm of serious jazz musicians even if the struggle of understanding the maze becomes a struggle in itself.

Posted 01/19/05.  Send your comment to bananacue_republic@yahoo.com

"I am led to believe that jazz music, because of its inherent, improvisational style tends to be overdone sometimes and a disciplined ear can certainly point out the superfluous notes."