The Art of the Conversation:
for singers and instrumentalists in jazz, and then some!
by Mitos Andaya, Repertoire and Standards representative for Vocal Jazz
During his UGA residency last November, singer/saxophonist Darmon Meader of the Grammy award-winning ‘New York Voices’ worked with the university’s vocal jazz ensemble ‘Classic City Jazz,’ the Jazz Band, and five ensembles including a combo and vocal jazz groups from Brookwood, Starr’s Mill, Sequoyah and Chattahoochee High Schools. One of the comments he made to groups was to be ‘more conversational.’ Not only did he say this to vocalists, but also to instrumentalists. What does this mean exactly, especially when instrumentalists do not have text?
This sense of being less formal didn’t necessarily mean being lax in diction or precision. In fact, sometimes he was very picky about the diction and the way something should be pronounced or sung and whether or not it was executed together as an ensemble. Rather, it was the art of the conversation itself– the way in which the performers connect and communicate with listeners. It has more to do with a confident, relaxed sense of style, using the right tone of voice, and having a sense of direction of where we musicians are headed and knowing what it is that we want to ‘say’ as we take this opportunity to share something with the listener. To keep the listener engaged, one has say interesting things, have great ideas and imagination, or at least say things in a way that makes them sound interesting. (This may ring back to an article a few issues ago - ‘It’s how you say it’). Many vocal jazz charts are written in a big-band style with the head, a shout chorus, some scat syllables to imitate the sound of instruments. Of course, on the flip side of that, instrumentalists take their inspiration from the voice. Even so, it might do us vocalists some good to explore and re-visit the instrumental side of things.
Recently, the weekly radio show ‘Riverwalk Jazz’ recalled the playing of tenor saxophonist, Zoot Sims (1925-1985). As I was driving my car listening to his solo, I was smiling at just how good it was. He swung so effortlessly. I was relaxing and enjoying it, and yet remained involved and interested in what he had to say next. Even though his solo was created spontaneously, I felt comfortable as a listener because it all made sense – the solo development came naturally, yet he was able to take the listener to different places through, as the radio host called it, “storytelling.” The whole flow was organic. Nothing out of line, awkward or distracting. Nothing artificial or excessive. Just right. He was an artist who knew how to communicate to the listener.
‘Sure,’ you might say, ‘easier said than done.’ How do we get our jazz groups to not sound artificial or too formal when playing/singing a jazz arrangement or improvising a solo? Yes, practicing of course, and perhaps coaching from someone who knows the style, but even before that comes listening. It is unavoidable. The ‘language’ of the jazz has to seep in and settle. Like learning any language, we first learn by listening and imitating basic sounds, then words. We imitate common phrases, learn about grammar and syntax before we are able to think and form our own full, complex sentences and converse effortlessly. At this day in age, it just might be possible to get our students to put Sarah Vaughan or Stan Getz on their iPods, as well as Lassus, Handel, Brahms, Schönberg, Earth Wind and Fire, Paul Simon, Beyoncé, Britney Spears or (fill in the blank)! But we as educators have to get excited about it, before we can excite them.
We also know that one of the keys to having a great conversation is knowing how to be a good listener. Not only listening to recordings for research purposes, but listening to what actually happens in rehearsal and performance. The jazz conversation isn’t just one-way; not only do we have the listener (audience), but also the performer who must listen to other performers participating in the conversation. Rhythm section players need to be sensitive to solo instruments and vocalists as well as to the ensemble as a whole, in order to know when to interject, ask a question, give an answer, develop, embellish, make their case, reinforce what is being said, and complement what others are saying – not with words, but through music!
Good chamber music is a lot like a conversation as well. In a January Weekend Edition Sunday feature, cellist Yo-Yo Ma openly talked about his “humiliation” at one of the rehearsals on a new project. Appalachia Waltz, with bassist Edgar Meyer and violinist Mark O’Connor. Both Meyer and O’Connor are outstanding musicians in classical music as well as in vernacular styles. Here, however, was a case where Ma was fairly new to the bluegrass-folk idiom. At one of the early rehearsals, he said to his fellow musicians, ‘Gee, this is sounding pretty good!’ SILENCE. His colleagues didn’t say a word and just looked at him. It was obvious that Meyer and O’Connor did not agree, and that Ma was not quite hearing what they were hearing, because he didn’t know the language of the style well enough. They politely disclosed their assessment of the rehearsal of how the rhythm wasn’t very good in spots, and the vibrato was too much in others, and so on and so on. Ma was immediately humbled. As he put it, they proceeded ‘to clean out [his] ears’ and from there on, he became much better at listening for stylistic nuances. To quote Ma quoting Isaac Stern “In music it is not about the notes; it’s what happens between the notes.”
To become better conversationalists in jazz, it may take quite some time to get past the written notes and rhythms, and more to what is trying to be ‘said’ or expressed in the work, and also to whether or not our performers are actually achieving that. The more we grow accustomed to what is essentially an ‘aural’ and ‘oral’ art form, and realize what is needed to perform this music well, it is then a matter of calling upon technique, in all its multi-faceted glory, to make the music a direct line of communication to our listeners.
