Why is Jazz Unique?
by David Hills
Jazz is different from all other forms of music. Yes, you can
mindlessly jig around to it, tap your foot in time with it, talk
through it, or shout over the top of it - lots of people do.
But is this why jazz musicians all over the world study for years,
and stress themselves to the limit every time they play?
For people to shout over what they do, or mindlessly jig around
to their music?
No, of course they don't. They deserve more respect than that.
What most people don't realise is that jazz musicians have to
create their music instantly, there and then. They're given a
framework, a structure - the chords of a popular song or of a
specially-written jazz composition - and on that basis, they
create music on the spot, making their music up as they go
along. They improvise, in the great tradition of the Bachs,
Mozart, Beethoven and others, all of whom were brilliant at
improvising on that basis. To this day, French organists are
judged on how well they can improvise - just like jazz musicians.
It's a unique music, because it is a complex blend of music
from so many cultures - several African tribes; English hymns;
German, Spanish and French instruments; Irish folksongs;
gypsy music and more.
Also, it could only have started in New Orleans - in the mid-
1800s, the second biggest port in the US - a melting-pot of all
the cultures and races of the world. Although every form of
music arrived there, jazz happened through slaves from Africa.
African traditions used music at all times - working in the fields,
cooking meals, going to church and in church, for celebrations,
at births and deaths - music at all times and for every reason.
At the end of the American Civil War, band instruments were
readily available in the Southern states of the USA from the
former Confederate armies and were picked up and learned.
Instruments from France, the clarinet and saxophone; from
Germany, trumpet and trombone; from Spain, the guitar; from
Africa, the banjo and drums. And pianos were everywhere. The
blacks danced to complex African rhythms - hitting notes just
before or just after the beat. Often self-taught, they forced the
instruments to play 'blue notes' - notes in the African scale that
can't be played naturally on most European instruments. And
they played with the extra zest, pulse, impetus, rhythm that
comes from Africa.
In theatres, in dance halls, in the fields, in the 'sporting houses',
on the streets, the new music gradually found its own strict
structures - ragtime, and the 12-bar and 16-bar blues (the
blues is really a form, not necessarily a feeling!), popular tunes
like 'I Got Rhythm'. Dances like the cakewalk were invented. And
as wars came and went, as slavery supposedly ended, as time
passed, the music settled down.
Big bands played in the street marches - and they could all read
music - the idea that they couldn't read is a myth. Smaller
groups played in the nightclubs. Instead of several
percussionists, the drum kit evolved, with the drummer using his
feet as well as his hands. The sousaphone made way for the
double bass, the banjo for the guitar, the violin for the
saxophone. As dance halls grew bigger, dance bands also
needed to get bigger, finally settling down into a 15 or 16 piece
band with selected soloists - the swing music of the 1930s.
However, jazz has always relied on small groups, where everyone
can take solos, can express themselves in their own unique way.
As long as you can improvise, you can play jazz on any
instrument - or sing. And it will be 'your' music, bringing your
unique personality to what you're creating, doing it to a firm
musical foundation, with swinging rhythm. Your music will be
'unique'. And this is the reason why, when we're broadcasting,
we tell you who the musicians are. Each of them is 'unique',
each has their own unique sound, and unique approach to
the music.
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