Teaching the “Unteachable”

Once thought of as “lowbrow” and “unsophisticated,” jazz has had a long and arduous road to “respectability.”  A truly American-made art form, jazz is now performed and enjoyed in clubs, at festivals, on cruise ships and on concert hall stages throughout the world.  As such, interest in learning and performing jazz is so widespread that there are countless jazz programs, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, to assist eager music students in acquiring the skills necessary to play this music.   However, this was not always the case.  What changed and how is it being taught in 2023?

Initially, jazz developed as African American musicians combined the technical virtuosity and harmonic sophistication of the Western European Art Music (read: Classical) tradition with the song structures (12-bar form) and inflections of the Blues, as well as syncopated rhythms of African and Caribbean musical styles, ragtime, work songs, and field hollers.  This spawned a new musical hybrid style that we now know as jazz. 

Early jazz performers centered in New Orleans in the 1910s combined many disparate musical languages such as brass band marches, French quadrilles, ragtime and blues with a heavy emphasis on collective improvisation.   Performers were tasked with creating their own parts-melodies and countermelodies- that complimented the total sound and, later, provided a background for the soloist.   

As these parts were improvised, the music was not written down.  Performers had to create their parts spontaneously, according to their understanding of the overall harmonic structure of the tunes.  In terms of education, this laid the foundation for an understanding of jazz as an “aural” tradition; that is to say, that the development of musical skills and language associated with jazz performance was passed on from performer to performer by ear.

As the music evolved, so did the various subgenres, offshoots, and categories of jazz.  After interest in New Orleans jazz spread throughout the United States (and globally), the so-called “Jazz Age” of the 1920’s spawned interest in larger ensembles whose emphasis was on performing music to accompany dancers.  This ushered in the golden age of big band music and the swing era of the 1920s-1940s.

The swing bands shifted the focus from collective polyphonic improvisation to tightly-controlled arrangements, often highlighted by repetitive riffs.   Initially, these riffs were improvised in what were known as “head arrangements”-unwritten parts played by specific sections of the band (trumpets, saxophones, etc.) at specific moments in the tune, often as a background to a soloist. 

Gradually, these parts became codified in written arrangements.  This meant that players had to develop music reading ability in addition to being able to improvise and to play as part of a section of like instruments.   The increasing complexity of big band arrangements elevated the musicianship of the players, demanding new skills of them.    

These skills- the ability to read music, the ability to sightread (play a piece, flawlessly, from the first reading of it), the ability to improvise over chord changes, the ability to blend and balance with other musicians-were honed, night after night, over many years.   Players and ensembles developed their craft and cultivated individual sounds in the process of playing nightly performances.

By the early 1940s and the entrance of the United States into World War II, musicians and audience members were conscripted into service.  This meant that there was a smaller pool of musicians to draw from for the big bands.  Also, the audience for their music waned.  The new economic reality forced many dance halls to close and many big bands to either scale down their membership or simply fold outright.

Into this environment, a new musical style was formulated called bebop.  This style featured smaller ensembles playing music that highlighted the virtuosity and dexterity of individual soloists over the formalized arrangements of the big bands.   The emphasis was on music for listening rather than specifically for dancing. 

Central to the development of bebop were the late-night jam sessions.  The tradition of the jam session predated the bebop era.   Major urban musical meccas such as Kansas City, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles drew musicians to jazz clubs for after-hours “cutting contests”: jam sessions that would start after the musicians’ gigs would end and stretch into the early hours of the morning.  Here, players would try to outdo each other with their musical prowess, their instrumental facility, and their overall dexterity- particularly at faster tempos.

Bebop’s crucible were the nightly jam sessions at Harlem nightclubs such as Monroe’s and Minton’s Playhouse.  Here, musicians such as saxophonists Charlie Parker and Don Byas, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Kenny Dorham, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, bassists Tommy Potter and Oscar Pettiford, and drummers such as Kenny Clarke and Max Roach all gave birth to the new bebop style. 

Bebop featured faster tempos than swing tunes, with intricate, new melodies superimposed over preexisting chord sequences from Great American Songbook standards like “How High The Moon,” “Cherokee,” and “I’ve Got Rhythm.”  These new melodies were heavily syncopated, with a much greater emphasis on rhythmic variety.  Players had to adjust their skill sets once again to keep up with the faster tempos or be left out in the cold.  How did they learn these skills?

For many, it was a case of learning on the bandstand.  Steady club work meant that aspiring musicians had opportunities to fine-tune their skills in front of live audiences.  Similarly, attendance at the jam sessions helped players to identify their musical deficiencies and then focus their individual practice time on these areas.

Another way that musicians learned the language of bebop was by listening to recordings.   Saxophonists like Jackie McLean and Sonny Rollins describe a process of practically “wearing out” the grooves on their Charlie Parker records as they played them over and over, often times at half-speed, so that they could exactly duplicate his solos.  In fact, Charlie Parker himself was reputed to have learned every one of his hero Lester Young’s solos, note-for-note, from listening to Lester recordings.  This process, known as transcription, is central to the development of jazz performance skills.

Here, then, we can start to see a pattern emerging of methods that are still in widespread use for learning jazz; attending live performances, participating in jam sessions, listening to recordings, transcribing solos.  

Today, in 2023, there are more resources available than ever before to learn jazz.  Summer jazz camps hold programs geared towards players of all ages and abilities, often with A-list players and recording artists as instructors.    One of the earliest examples of this was the Music Inn-Lenox School of Jazz in Lennox, Massachusetts.  Starting in the mid-1950’s, the Music Inn gave students the opportunity to hear and study with artists such as The Modern Jazz Quartet, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Ornette Coleman, and others.  

One of the longest-running jazz camps is the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop in Louisville, KY.  Over several decades, Jamey Aebersold’s name has become synonymous with jazz pedagogy.  He has an extensive line of jazz education materials, most famously including a series of musical play-along recordings that now numbers over 100 volumes.  These recordings-originally on vinyl LPs, then CDs, and now available digitally-give the player the chance to focus his or her practice on a specific skill set within the jazz idiom. 

Individual volumes feature backing tracks (a rhythm section of usually piano, bass, and drums) playing the chords to well-known jazz standards.  Some volumes target particular jazz elements such as ii-V-I chord progressions, blues forms in all 12 keys, Latin tunes, modal playing, and more.

The internet age has created new and different learning approaches for developing jazz proficiency.  Virtual meeting platforms like Zoom and Webex give players a chance to study with established players in real-time from the comfort of their own homes.  These sites were of vital importance during the Covid pandemic in keeping players connected and able to still perform and produce music while maintaining social distancing.

Similarly, the internet has a wealth of information available to aspiring jazz students in the form of websites like jazzednet.org, apassion4jazz.net, learnjazzstandards.com and others.  Sites like YouTube give players and listeners the opportunity to hear recordings and view live performances of jazz masters.  Also, YouTube abounds with countless backing tracks for jazz standards to further assist students in the cultivation of their skillset.

Jazz blogs, podcasts and websites such as Learn Jazz Standards, Open Studio, and Jazz Advice also offer content that targets essential elements of jazz performance.  Also, many jazz clubs such as Small’s (NYC) and the Keystone Korner (Baltimore) offer jazz fans and students the chance to view their performances online via live streaming.

And, of course, there are many university degree programs for jazz throughout the U.S. and worldwide.  Some of the best-known are Berklee College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, the New England Conservatory of Music, the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, University of North Texas College of Music. 

With all of the learning materials available to today’s jazz students, one may well wonder why there are so many different choices?  Is jazz a more difficult musical style to play than, say, classical or bluegrass?  Does it really need all of these specialized play-along tracks, workshops, blogs, and podcasts?

To this, I would say that jazz is a unique musical language.  And, like any spoken or written language, it has its own system of rules, guiding principles, and performance practice.  To learn jazz, one must approach it in this way; to understand it as a unique form of expression. 

For example, if one were to try to learn the concept of how to swing, one would first want to familiarize him or herself with recordings of those players or groups who have a very strong sense of swing.   Choose a recording that highlights the concept that you are focused on (in this case: swing) and listen to it repeatedly with hyper-vigilant attention to how the players articulate each note, how they emphasize certain notes and rhythms, and how they de-emphasize others.

Then, the next step would be to try to sing the listening example exactly as it is performed on the recording.  Capture every nuance, every phrase, every articulation, every intonation, every rhythm.  Going back to the spoken language analogy, imagine if you were learning Spanish.  Your first step might be to immerse yourself in the language, either by travelling to a Spanish-speaking country, or maybe watching a Spanish television program or listening to a Spanish-speaking radio station.  Then, you would want to exactly emulate the language-capturing the accent, the pronunciation, the grammar, and the syntax.  Learning jazz is no different.

Finally, after you have listened to the example and can sing it, faithfully and accurately, then (and only then) you would apply what you have learned to your instrument.

The interest in jazz education is particularly surprising considering that many jazz clubs have closed their doors over the last 40-50 years. Fickle public tastes have meant that interest in jazz has been superseded by other musical styles.  This has led modern jazz artists to encompass other musical styles within the context of jazz instrumentation and tradition.     This is why degree programs, jazz camps, online workshops, recorded play along tracks, and jazz education websites serve a vital role in teaching aspiring jazz musicians the skills necessary to perform jazz at the highest level.   The scarcity of club work, the dearth of travelling big bands, and the canceling and consolidation of public school music programs has all forced players to seek alternative methods to learn and develop their craft.