How Deep Is Your Ocean? about:reader?url=http://www.melmartin.com/html_pages/Articles/de...

melmartin.com

How Deep Is Your Ocean?

12-15 minutes

by

Mel Martin

Dealing with jazz improvisation is akin to tightrope walking

without a net, jumping off a cliff without knowing how far you will
fall or working out on a trapeze and hoping your partner will catch
you. Ask your average classical musician to improvise and watch
the sheer terror come over his or her face. Obviously, there is a
tremendous fascination with the ability of jazz musicians to come
up with music on the spot that is swinging, memorable, exciting
and occasionally innovative. The truth is that it doesn't actually
happen on the spot but only seems like it. This is part of the
mystique of any music: to make it sound totally new and fresh. In
classical music this is done by interpreting the composer's
intentions and establishing a direct emotional connection with the
audience but not expounding on what was originally written. In
jazz, the performer must do all of this and be able to add
variations and new melodic ideas in an attractive and musically
appealing way that makes an immediate impact. This takes many
resources which is what this article pertains to.

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A jazz musician must be a master instrumentalist, composer,

orchestrator, arranger and many more things. In my first article
for Jazz Player, I listed Dizzy Gillespie's prerequisites for a jazz
musician and at the top of the list was mastery of your
instrument. we will refer to this as technical resources. This
begins from the point of picking up your instrument for the first
time and struggling to get a sound, find the fingerings, learn your
scales and the basic fundamentals that would enable you to play
something. This, of course, is not enough to play jazz although
many have tried at this level. I don't think Dizzy meant that you
had to completely master your instrument before you attempt to
play jazz or most of us would have a long wait. I think that
technique must be developed in the context of what you are
trying to achieve. Joe Henderson is known for teaching his
students by playing a complex Joe Henderson type of line on the
piano and having the student learn this line on the spot. This
forces the student to deal with the technical aspects of what he is
being asked to play. This is quite valid in that it makes the player
wed the technical concepts with the musical concepts. Many
players make the serious mistake of practicing their favorite licks
ad nauseam and playing them in every tune without actually
having a musical concept. So what do you practice to become a
great improviser? One must learn to be as flexible on their
instrument as possible. Practice playing things that are not
basically comfortable for you. A scale is a sequential string of
notes and absolutely necessary for your basic command of your
instrument. What about scales in 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths and 7ths?

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What about octaves, b9ths, 10ths and any other interval that you
have difficulty in executing? Nicholas Slonimsky in his famous
book Thesauruses of Scales and Melodic Patterns came up with
every possible mathematical combination of notes and intervals
and gave them all names as well as demonstrating how to
harmonize them. This book has been the basis for many fantastic
techniques including Bird, Diz, 'Trane, Bill Evans and pretty much
every great modern jazz musician. But it is not the book, per se,
that is responsible but the musical concepts behind it. There are
only twelve notes but a myriad number of ways of playing them
and the jazz musician must have these demanding technical
resources at his command. Don't practice what you are going to
play, practice what you have difficulty doing. Practice things that
will add to your flexibility and ability to play what you hear.

Another resource is based on your sound or tonal resources.

Horn players work diligently on their sound as do other
instrumentalists. In my article on melody, I stressed the
importance of having a sound that could stimulate the
imagination of the listener and the beauty to enhance a beautiful
melodic idea. I have heard players that actually went overboard
about this to the point where there sound became the most
important aspect of their playing. Some pianists feel that they can
only get their sound on the finest Steinway grand piano. Others
can make an upright sound great. The concept of sound must
come from the heart and mind and inner ear as opposed to the
perfect, idealized version. You hear a sound in your mind and
you strive to create it. This can evolve over a lifetime of playing.

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Coleman Hawkins' sound in 1922 was vastly different from his

sound in 1960. So was his musical concept. Again, you cannot
separate the technical or tonal resources from the music itself.
The jazz musician must strive to develop the broadest resources
to have at his command because the music may require it
immediately. The more music you know, the more musical you
can play. The more sounds you have at your disposal, the more
you can color your music and add an incalculable amount of
expression. A good concept is play to the sound. Try and
become a listener out in the audience as you are playing and
develop a sense of the total sound of the music and make your
sound fit. Or try to hear your sound as a totality such as a
drummer who has an instrument made up of many different parts
but must play with a unity of sound. Understand how the different
registers of your instrument affect the total sound of the music
and how you can make it all work together. For instance, the
tenor saxophone is actually a fairly low pitched instrument but
has the capability of a wide range. One must understand that if a
melody is played in the low register it won't have the same effect
as one played in the high register. This starts to fall into the
category of orchestration. The more a player knows how to use
his tonality, the better he can make the music sound.

I have thoroughly covered in previous articles the concepts of

rhythmic, melodic and harmonic resources and as these subjects
are infinite in their depths I will only comment that these are your
most important resources for development of musical concepts
and musical concepts are what we are really talking about.

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Another important resource is the collective sum of all our

musical experiences. One of the prime aspects of being a jazz
musician is developing your own identity and this occurs by
developing your perceptions. To be able to perceive yourself and
the abilities of others accurately requires a wealth of experience,
in both performing and dealing with others. Most jazz musicians
do a wide variety of musical tasks in order to survive and all of
these things contribute to overall maturity. When I was in my
teens, I would do casual work with all sorts of bands most of
which included musicians much older than me. I was in a position
where I had to "fake" tunes, many of which I had only heard. This
forced me to rely on my ears which to this day is the best training
I could have had. I have played shows of every possible type,
dance bands, rock bands as well as jazz bands. To a great
degree, this is what being a musician is about. After compiling
these types of experiences, one truly relishes playing music that
expresses an individual point of view while being able to rely on
these aquired resources. On a higher level, every time we have
the privilege of being around or playing with master musicians,
something seems to rub off. Perhaps a higher standard or a
certain level of inspiration as well as advanced musical
knowledge. This is derived from their experiences.

This brings us to the subject of our personal inspiration. Without

this resource, our music would be routine and, obviously,
uninspired. The word inspire has as it's root meaning the intake
of breath. This is what we mean by "air in the beat", "letting the
music breathe", "a floating feeling" and other such metaphors.

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Without breath, we die. The breath of life is the most singularly

important thing we need. Music is the same. The inspiration we
derive from various types of music, great players, the sunrise or
sunset, the moon and the stars all contribute to pushing us to a
higher level. The listener needs this as well. This is what uplifts
their lives and gives them cause to celebrate life through music.
The biggest compliment any musician can get is that they were
inspiring to listen to.

We all need role models or mentors. This is the resource that

shows us the way and offers a certain guidance. This starts by
emulating our favorite players. At some point we may even get to
meet or study with some of these people. On another level we
might form a close relationship with someone whose wisdom and
experiences are far greater than our own. This resource is more
difficult to pinpoint and requires a certain openness of attitude
and willingness to seek out. I have had the great pleasure to
have developed relationships, both professional and personal,
with among others, Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie. These are
the ultimate elder statesmen of our music and possess a wealth
of knowledge. There are still many great people, some well
known, some not that have many wonderful things to offer
others. We must never be so complacent that we stop seeking
these people out. Then we can hold in our hearts and minds the
things that they may impart to us.

Ultimately, we must rely on ourselves to achieve a higher level of

creativity and the two elements that we need most reside inside
our own being. Our imagination coupled with our emotional

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resources are the real drivers behind the creative imperative.

These are the parts of our psychological makeup that can help
us go deep inside ourselves to come up with art that is both
innovative and compelling. This goes way beyond the realm of
just playing notes. While recording with Dizzy Gillespie, I was
able to sense how deep inside himself he would go to come up
with some of the fantastic things he played. Even though his
technique was not what it once was, he was able to use his
imagination and feeling to play some wonderful things. Some
players seem to have a need to work themselves into a state of
psychological angst in order to do this while others seem to find a
certain peaceful center to work from. The results of either method
can be valid but the price one pays differ greatly. Finally, the
strongest resource we can develop is that of perseverance. The
story of the Tortoise and the Hare clearly demonstrates that
sticking to something clearly pays dividends. This extends from
someone simply getting through a solo to a musician sustaining a
career for seventy or more years. Your determination to do
something is the defining factor in what you actually accomplish.
Thelonious Monk advised musicians to "stick with their guns".
This is precisely what he did in his career by developing an
eclectic and unique sound and approach that eventually caught
the ears of the general public. To accomplish this, he had to
survive as a family man through vast periods of unemployment
and rejection. If he had decided to play music for commercial
purposes, then the world would have possibly been deprived of
some great art. Unfortunately, the price he paid took a great toll

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because once he felt he had given his all he could give no more.
We all have these types of choices and few have the guts to defy
all reason for the sake of art. But "where there is a will, there is a
way" and we must continually strive to find what will work for us
in our individual lives.

There are probably many other items that could be listed under
the category of resources but these are the ones that seem to
me that will determine the viability of a person seeking to play
jazz. It is like having that extra horsepower in an automobile. You
may not use it all of the time but when you really need it, it is
their. Do not underestimate the value of these things because
your survivalwill depend on it. In my next column I will discuss
some the organizational and business resources.

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