Unbridled talent
Peter Phillips on jazz
Although I spend my time working with counterpoint, and know jazz is as capable as any other sort of music at yielding the greatest delight in it, how jazz musicians organise their ‘compositions’ remains a complete mystery to me. I could more easily write a symphony than join in with a jam session. Are they improvising or aren’t they? If they are, how is it they all seem to agree on what the next chord should be? If they are not — and copies of notated music are regularly in use — how is it that the soloist of the moment is always applauded as if he or she has just invented the most amazing break ever heard? And what causes that peculiar combination of loose-limbed counterpoint underpinned by awkward, jarring, shapeless harmonies which nonetheless never come anywhere near being as awkward, jarring, shapeless and dissonant as those of much contemporary classical music?
Obviously the training is different. I can do nothing without the written note. To be asked to sit at a piano and improvise fills me with absolute dread. I clam up and become pathetic. Jazz musicians, on the other hand, don’t want the notes to be too precise. Ray Charles said that when he was being taught to play Beethoven he ‘would always add something to the written work. I would always change, modify, embellish what I was given to play. Naturally, my teacher couldn’t stand it. In a classical music class, you must play exactly what’s written but that was way too strict for me. I wanted to give my own version of it and I wasn’t allowed to. I thought I ought to free myself of these shackles to make a career.’ Conversely, I want to give my version of the notes I think the composer wrote; and make a career out of that.
More articles from: Peter Phillips | this section
Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
Advertisement
A perfect cadence
Stephen PettittThis year, on 11 December — and I wish more people knew about it than actually do — the American composer Elliott Carter celebrates his 100th birthday.
Forgotten wonders
Andrew LambirthByzantium 330-1454
Royal Academy, until 22 March 2009
Out of the ordinary
Carolyn BartholomewCarolyn Bartholomew talks to Tilda Swinton, an actor who has made a career out of being unconventional
Life lessons
Kate ChisholmTalking to my dentist, as one does, we discover a mutual enthusiasm for Radio Three’s Composer of the Week (Monday to Friday) and especially its presenter, Donald Macleod.
Apocalypse now
James DelingpoleThe TV programmes you watched as a child are like acid flashbacks.
How I became Bulgaria’s etiquette guru
Dylan JonesDylan Jones is astonished to find in Sofia that the former communist country has embraced his guide to the mores of modern life — and that not everybody looks like Borat
Rudd has lurched from indecision to phoney war
Matthew CastrayMatthew Castray looks back on the Australian Prime Minister’s first year in office and audits an administration which has reviewed much and done very little
Sting in its tale
Deborah RossChangeling
15, Nationwide
Power struggle
Michael TannerBoris Godunov
English National Opera
La rencontre imprévue
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
And Another Thing
Paul Johnson
Books do furnish a room; overfurnish it too
Latest blog posts
sponsored links
Sky - Official Site
Build your own Sky package online. Sky TV, Broadband & Talk only £16.
Sky TV, Broadband & Talk from £16 a Month
Sky TV & free broadband packages available from £16 a month. Choose from a standard free sky box, sky plus or sky hd.
Sky - Official Site
Build your own Sky package online. Sky TV, Broadband & Talk only £16.
Sky TV, Broadband & Talk from £16 a Month
Sky TV & free broadband packages available from £16 a month. Choose from a standard free sky box, sky plus...
ROME CENTRE
PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique
City Breaks. ROME and PARIS
ROME and PARIS: over 350 holiday rentals apartments listed: visit www.romanreference.com and www.parisreference.com or call +39 0648 903612.
Jewellery. RUFFS (Estd. 1904).
Goldsmiths by Design Welcome to Ruffs! You have found a company of Goldsmiths that specialises in the manufacture, amongst other
Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine
Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms
Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP
All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved
Martin Berridge
September 13th, 2008 2:56amI am suprised at the usually erudite Peter Philips ignorance on this subject.
Even in the 1920s, there were with few Jazz musicians who were not highly musically literate and many pianists had conservetoire training. Tatum, being blind was the exception. Wind players were nearly all trained by playing in high school marching bands and Jazz owes as much to Sousa as it does to Afican music.
Didn`t he get the time to skim Groves before he submitted his piece? I recommend Ken Burns documentary, "Jazz" if he has a few spare afternoons.
Donald Clarke
September 14th, 2008 12:51pmI don't think Peter Philips was implying that jazz musicians are or were musically illiterate. They were simply not going to have the opportunity to play in concert halls. His last line is very much to the point: We are the more fortunate that Duke Ellington did not disband, go to Juilliard and learn how to write symphonies, because then we would not have had the Duke we know. And in any case Burns's TV series about jazz is his weakest work; Alan Shipton's book "A New History of Jazz" (2001) would be a better recommendation.