The Day Jazz became Classical - Pt. 1
March 02 2009

Pianobabbler was talking to a late-teen saxophone player not long ago. He had applied to get into a university jazz program. He was nervous. He had to audition. He needed to play one standard, one bebop tune, and one blues. He'd been practising plenty.

Pianobabbler looked at his young colleague-to-be, truly a terrific player, and started thinking, post-anxiety, post-audition, what will he face if and when he's accepted? What would university life be like for this blooming flower of jazz?

Then it dawned on Pianobabbler: young saxman would be doing just what any classical musician would be doing, except it would be jazz, not classical. Instead of Bach there would be Louis Armstrong. Instead of Beethoven there would be Charlie Parker. But the framework he'd be in would resemble the classical one.

And then the deeper insight hit Pianobabbler: Jazz has become classical music.

Jazz music underwent a core transformation sometime in the 1980's. Having begun its life as the rebel sound of current invention looking to the future, jazz became an establishment orthodoxy re-playing music and sounds of the past.

For some, those would be fighting words. Pianobabbler is not picking a fight. So bear with me. And remember- Pianobabbler is a jazz pianist himself. And not of the self-loathing or -deprecating kind.

What is classical music? Bach, Brahms, Bartok and the gang, of course. But what is classical music? What are its unique characteristics?

Some partial answers: classical music is re-creative. It is interpretive. It is minimally improvisational. Classical musicians play music today written beyond yesterday.

What is jazz? A loaded question, often asked, and never fully answered. My own favourite response is the late critic and writer Whitney Balliett's: the sound of surprise. But that is a wee bit vague, to say the least.

Others, more earthbound, define jazz as purely improvised music; or as swing; or as a loose and ever-changing American, largely African-American, music. All true. But none is enough on its own.

We see this often in the arts: the definition that has not caught up with the reality. We know there is classical music. We know there is jazz. But, as Saint Augustine said of time, if you ask us to say just what they are, we can't.

But fractious definitions are not Pianobabbler's focus here. I want to shine a light on the music. I want to look at how the music that was the gangsta rap of its day became the let's-dress-up-honey-and-go-out music it is today.

Pianobabbler will explore the theme further in his next post.

Please subscribe to Pianobabbler's RSS feed to stay up to date. And send your friends to pianobabbler.com, and rondavismusic.com!

blog comments powered by Disqus