Jazz Music

Discuss the positive and problematic implications of the notion that jazz is ‘America’s classical music’. In your answer, consider discourses of listening, learning and politics. Refer also to Wynton Marsalis ' view on the subject.

“You could ask, 'what 's classical music? '. I couldn 't answer that. It 's not a thing that could be answered straight out. You have to tell it the long way. You have to tell about the people who make it, what they have inside of them, what they 're doing, what they 're waiting for. Then you can begin to have an understanding.” - Sidney Bechet

LEARNING

Ever since it gradually came into existence around 1900 jazz music and its musicians have received countless reviews, including a considerable amount of

Yet there are also jazz musicians who think differently. Pianist Jelly Roll Morton, for example, considered himself a composer and ridiculed musicians who could or would not read sheet music. He held onto the European classical tradition very much, possibly because of his European roots .

However, as mentioned above, improvisation is a very important part of the jazz tradition, and it cannot be learnt or taught in the way that classical playing is normally learnt and taught. There is not one agreed-upon way to learn how to improvise, and even a clear definition has yet to be phrased. It is more often described as what it is not: preparation . Therefore, learning how to improvise must be different from learning any classical technique, which are always carefully prepared REFERENCE.

An aspect of learning how to play jazz that might seem rather similar to learning how to play classical music is the use of written arrangements during performances. Against popular belief, many early jazz players did use written arrangements and lead sheets and many players continued to do so throughout the history of jazz . Also, according to Morton, it is better to write out arrangements in advance than to be unprepared and go wrong . Nonetheless, there is also the ‘problem of transcription’ in attempting to notate jazz arrangements. Bechet’s single Blue Horizon, for example, contains slow glissandi and other gestures that are extremely difficult if not impossible to be written down in notes. The sounds that are produced are often sonorities rather than stable pitches and some rhythms are also too complex to