jazz
I love jazz. I love the way the instruments interact with each other, the cool, laid back vibe they give off.
This weekend I heard NexLevel, a local 'smooth jazz' band.
I finally picked up a Medeski, Martin and Wood album this weekend, too, so I don't have to rely on downloads at the computer.
There's a distinct difference between jazz and any other type of music: rock, country, classical....
Other types of music are about telling a story. Rock and pop, blues and country, they wrap it into a 3-5 minute tale, the instruments and lyrics working collectively to tell the story in the most condensed version possible. Classical, opera, musicals, they have grander tales, bigger morals, stories for the ages. They take turns telling their part of the story, in the same way your friends relate their latest adventure by playing off of each others' words and embellishing their favorite parts. You hear if from the brass fanfares to the soaring soprano solos, to the quiet hum of the strings.
Jazz doesn't tell a story. Jazz is a conversation. It's a few friends sitting around in their favorite haunt, maybe a pub or lounge, debating philosophy equally with talking about nothing. Everyone gets their turn and sometimes your friends' ideas surprise you. Personalities are revealed; the shuffle of the snare and hihat, the consistent walking bass, the sporatic yet melodic melodies of the guitar or sax or trumpet. I love jazz. I love the way the instruments interact with each other, the cool, laid back vibe they give off.
This weekend I heard NexLevel, a local 'smooth jazz' band.
I finally picked up a Medeski, Martin and Wood album this weekend, too, so I don't have to rely on downloads at the computer.
There's a distinct difference between jazz and any other type of music: rock, country, classical....
Other types of music are about telling a story. Rock and pop, blues and country, they wrap it into a 3-5 minute tale, the instruments and lyrics working collectively to tell the story in the most condensed version possible. Classical, opera, musicals, they have grander tales, bigger morals, stories for the ages. They take turns telling their part of the story, in the same way your friends relate their latest adventure by playing off of each others' words and embellishing their favorite parts. You hear if from the brass fanfares to the soaring soprano solos, to the quiet hum of the strings.
Jazz doesn't tell a story. Jazz is a conversation. It's a few friends sitting around in their favorite haunt, maybe a pub or lounge, debating philosophy equally with talking about nothing. Everyone gets their turn and sometimes your friends' ideas surprise you. Personalities are revealed; the shuffle of the snare and hihat, the consistent walking bass, the sporatic yet melodic melodies of the guitar or sax or trumpet. I love jazz. I love the way the instruments interact with each other, the cool, laid back vibe they give off.
posted by Silver Turtle at
10:54 AM
4 Comments:
That's a great description of jazz. I was trying to explain how jazz was different to a friend of mine, and I just couldn't put it in the right context. I hope you don't mind if I use this analogy the next 100 times I talk about jazz.
By
acw, at 1:53 PM
I don't mind at all. At some point this weekend when I was listening to it that analogy sort of hit me. At least the part about the instruments having a conversation with each other. I love all kinds of music, but there's just something about jazz that I've always really dug.
By
Silver Turtle, at 8:23 PM
I'm trying to imagine a similar analogy for trance, but I'm afraid it's not very pretty. Trance is a a wild group at a rave, strung out on ecstasy and vicks. It feels pretty good, for awhile. The beat is the pounding in their heads that they feel the next morning, unsure of how they got home and whose pacifiers they have crammed in their ears. Too bad I can't stop listening. :(
By
Eric B., at 10:26 PM
At a previous job one of my coworkers was really into all kinds of techno/trance/dance/house/rave stuff. So was his girlfried, especially trance. He played it a lot at work. I was only familiar with the most mainstream artists -Moby, Paul Okenfold, etc. before that. I still don't recognize a lot of it, but I really enjoyed most of the stuff he played. Thanks for the link.
By
Silver Turtle, at 11:45 PM
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