Jazz Journey Blues

". . . you cannot participate in any of the playing activities in class" came the unexpected words of a jazz professor whom I had placed much of my hope in for  my future improvisation skills. Thump thump thump went my heart, my throat retracted and my head felt as if it were being compressed by a thousand pounds of books, a hot shiver went up my body and before I knew it I was in tears. The brave musician inside of me retracted into a hole of darkness.

How appropriate that my Blues journey should begin with the BLUES! 

This expedition began in response to a conclusion I have built up over many years of being a classical violinist: it is important for ALL musicians to learn how to improvise in diverse styles, and this skill should be taught in classical training.

At gigs my employers would inevitably ask my string quartet, do you know the tune "____" (fill in the blank) and I would say, "We know that tune, but unfortunately we don't have that in our collection music." Occasionally, our group would give a last ditch effort to play something that sounds remotely similar to the person's request. OR, if the request were made prior to the event, one of us would spend about four hours dictating the piece onto Sibelius (a music writing program) . . . what a waste of time. What if we could all listen to music that we know well and be able to just play it?

It is no coincidence that first class orchestras are integrating diverse styles into their repertoire and collaborating with artists who specialize in popular genres in order to draw in larger audiences. Nor is it a fluke that Hillary Hahn, Joshua Bell, Yoyo Ma, Han Bin, and other famous and upcoming stars are dabbling in bluegrass, jazz, and other cross-over music. It is fun to listen to and has a more casual feeling than classical concerts usually have. In this day and age, that is just what we need. In fact, even in the olden days, improvising and playing in current styles (often in more casual settings) was extremely popular.

Take these guys:

J.S. Bach

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Ludwig von Beethoven

Each of these amazing musicians improvised and played music that was current and popular during the time in which they lived, and it was of their own making. Only during Beethoven's time was the public concert hall used due to the rise of the bourgeoisie (the middle class), and even then, concerts were more interactive than the usual concert today. People would yell "encore!" at the end of a movement they loved or wanted to better understand, and the movement or piece would be played again.

This is not to suggest that I feel we should no longer play these artists' compositions, which are a part of our culture and inheritance, but that I feel we should rather model ourselves after these composers. Why should not we play popular music and improvise on it? There has become too much of a distinction between the classical and the popular, the formal and informal, the violinist and the fiddler, the instrumentalist and the composer. We need to be versitile in today's environment, especially with the incredibly tough job market.

Because I have come so much to believe in this topic, I have dedicated this semester to learning to improvise in the style of the Blues. My intention is to eventually learn many styles of music - jazz, fiddling, South-American music, and learn to improvise in them. However, one step at a time, and the Blues are first.

So, back to my panic attack . . . 

This feeling started when I finished my solo recital last Friday and reality hit home that I had relatively little time to embark on this escapade to learn a completely new style and try and improvise in it for my final lecture-recital as a doctoral student.

I began to think about what I know about improvisation . . . nada. And, where to start (no clue). So I ended up listening to Billie Holiday's "Good Morning Heartbreak"Good Morning Heartache, which was totally appropriate. I remembered that I had asked a fellow violinist friend, and wonderful improviser, for book references this summer. From his suggestion, I ended up buying Jamey Aebersold's Jazz Ear Training, Vol. 42, Blues in all Keys, Jazz: Anyone Can Improvise (DVD), and Vol. 1, How to Play Jazz and Improvise. Then I met with one of my supervising professors and found out that he felt Martin Norgaard's Jazz Fiddle Wizard books might be a better fit for me. Hello, Amazon Prime.

While speaking to one of my friends about this project, I learned that she was taking a beginning improvisation class offered through the jazz department. How did I not know about this? For a person who has a relatively high GPA and IQ, I certainly do not meet my own expectations sometimes. I frantically e-mailed the Jazz professors to ask for help - perhaps I could audit the beginning class, or at least get some guidance. The response I got was what you read above. It was not what I was hoping for, but at least I get to sit in on the class. 

All I can say is, the Blues I have surely do not match up to those of Billie Holiday, 

Billie Holiday

who as a young girl of 11 was raped, blamed for her own rape, and made to sleep by a corpse as punishment by the nuns who were in charge of her. She tells us of this in her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues.

Yes, my Blues are those of first world problems in the year 2013.