A friend of mine was playing in his jazz quartet at a coffee shop the other day. Musicians especially jazz musicians seem to thrive on a combination of structure and improvisation that doesn’t exist in many other arts.
All the songs they played were well known jazz standards. But in the nature of jazz, the way they played it is probably unique. Just like other jazz artists play at their own unique way.
There are a couple of things that impressed me, as a non musician. I’m sure these are standard things, but they are impressive to those of us on the outside.
Passing solos, for example. A simple knot of the head or glance, and someone else takes a solo for 12 bars. All the players know when to start. But the ending can change, depending on how long the player wants to play or the leader wants to let them play. There seems to be a combination of glances and musical phrases that indicate when it’s going to end. And then it either passes on to someone else or everybody comes in.
During this session, the leader made a comment about playing off the beat. My ears are not good enough to truly understand what that means, even though I know what it means intellectually. But the piece felt different.
This was also true during a bossanova song. I’m not sure I could describe exactly what a bossanova song was, but it have a different feel. It’s set the tone and had everybody playing differently.
This was all about improvising on a framework. I’m sure this happens in other arts. Indeed, with my writing, I may be writing against a framework of plot or genre and improvise as I tell my story. But these musicians can play the same song a dozen times and it will come out a dozen unique ways.
Watching them play, it struck me that the music was enjoyable and thinking about the musicians as they play was just as interesting. I need to do it more often.