The Unquestioned Answer
October 17 2010

And the answer is: Jazz.

What's the question?

A popular American television game show, cleverly named Jeopardy (an etymological play on the French root jeu, game) takes its game-ness from a linguistic reversal: the contestants' question is an answer; the answer must be formed as a question.

In the jazz world, we have answers. I don't know that we have the question.

I play jazz. I say I play jazz. People who play jazz, play with me. Jazz media write about me. Jazz radio spins me.

What kind of music do you play?

Jazz, answers the Pianobabbler.

But, what question am I really answering?

Uh oh. The Pianobabbler is wandering into the antique What is Jazz? room. Many have lost themselves in there. Few have emerged. Of those who have, the supernal Whitney Balliet- as the Pianobabbler has acknowledged before -brought with him the most eloquent answer: The sound of surprise.

Roll in the commonplaces, at this point. Saint Augustine couldn't answer 'What is time?', yet he knew what it was. Justice Potter Stewart couldn't answer 'What is obscenity?', but he knew what it was when he saw it. And so with 'What is Jazz?' Now, roll out the commonplaces.

What does the Pianobabbler mean when he answers: jazz?

I use the word jazz by default. I use the word jazz as a differentiator. Whatever it is I am playing, one cannot call it pop, rock , classical or some other pre-processed descriptor.

What positive meaning do I have in mind, though, when I use the word? Many alternatives come to mind.

Jazz is a verb, not a noun. Many verbs. Search, think, feel, plan, decide, groove, swoon, leap, fall, spice up, play safe, play loose, recall, invent, reuse, experiment, listen, focus, connect, detach, lead, follow, guess, command, ask, tell, please, demand, hope, panic, disdain, love. And more.

Jazz is a mood, not a verb. It varies, depending on the day, the song, the atmosphere, the audience, the musicians, the weather, the instrument, the room, the time, the drink I had, the drink I didn't have, the look you gave me, the pain in my neck, the good news, the bad news, the smell, the lights, whether you kissed me, whether you didn't. And more.

Jazz is a process, not a mood. When the Pianobabbler does what he does, when he does jazz, he draws from within a storehouse of music ingredients. He mixes them to taste. He blends. He simmers, stews, chops, fries, dices, boils, crushes, peels, sears, slathers, distills, salts, peppers, shakes, stirs, heats, cools. He serves.

(Music as food. Shakespearean image. How apt that we use the word cooking for jazz musicians who are sounding good. He's cookin' tonight, man.)

Many more descriptions come to mind of what I mean when I answer: Jazz. None would get to the essence of what is truly going on. None would be exhaustive.

We have no definitive answer to What is Jazz? So, rather than prolong a futile quest for one, perhaps we should alter the question.

We should agree on a new question. Or questions.

What do you feel when you play jazz? What do you hear when you listen to jazz? Why do you identify certain music as jazz, and not other music?

Would this approach change anything in jazz, or about jazz? I think not. The Pianobabbler would continue doing what he does, playing what he plays. Others would do the same.

An altered approach might enhance our experience of jazz, however. Enrich it. Deepen it. It might get us beyond the label, to the music.

I believe this. But I can't claim to have all the answers. And those answers I do claim to have- you may well question them.

The Pianobabbler has babbled.

The Pianobabbler is a RonDavisMusic production. The Pianobabbler's blog posts appear weekly at pianobabbler.com. Please remember to leave your comments and thoughts below. Subscribe to the RSS feed. And subscribe to RonDavisNews by clicking on the Mailing List link, above right. And follow us on Twitter.

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