Meaning of Jazz Language

[Thumpalumpacus]

Well, music is the language of the ineffable, no? Just as some folks are glib, some pithy, some erudite, and some simply verbose, so too do musicians approach managing the expression of emotions differently. If I'm playing blues, happiness sounds different than when I'm playing rock and wanting to convey happiness ... or any other color on the emotional spectrum.

In that sense, each genre might be thought of as a dialect (if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor), perhaps, or even its own distinct language -- and each player might have his own accent, group of colloquialisms, and so on?

It's an interesting analogy -- or lens, for that matter.

[Boston Joe]

The language analogy is a good one, but you won't really get what that means until you at least begin speaking. That's different from playing or even sounding passable if not good. Speaking means that effective correlation between a thought, intention and being a part of your expression.

[...]

Trust me on this one. Make playing in a small group situation a part of your education and practice. See live music. Experience the world outside of your prescribed lessons and you'll start to speak. The meaning of it all will come to you.

David

Boy howdy, is this ever true! Starting with David's hangouts, and continuing into playing with my ensemble, I've probably done more playing with people in the past 18 months than I had in the ten years or so prior. My playing has improved, yes, but finding my place in the conversation has been just as valuable, if not moreso.

And I do think it helps to play with the same person or people fairly consistently. Jam sessions (unless they're pretty high-level sessions) are kind of like parties. All small talk. You pull out your cliches and flashy licks. When you play with specific people, you can start to dig into some deeper stuff.

[lammie200]

Wow, thank you for lots of insights in your responses, much appreciated.

I just stumbled upon a set of articles on fMRI brain scanning while improvising. The research happened several years ago.

"Brain areas linked to meaning shut down during improvisational jazz interactions. In other words, this music is syntactic, not semantic."

How Brains See Music as Language - The Atlantic

From the article: "What researchers found: The brains of jazz musicians who are engaged with other musicians in spontaneous improvisation show robust activation in the same brain areas traditionally associated with spoken language and syntax."

I always tend to think of my musical abilities as conversations. Either I am conversing with my instrument, it is conversing with itself, or it is conversing with others. When musicians say that it all goes back to the blues, I just see that as call and response which runs deep in practically all the kinds of music that I enjoy.

[destinytot]

I had a great Skype lesson a couple of days ago, and I had something pointed out which is perhaps relevant here.

(It's also something which perhaps should have been obvious to me, as I teach languages for a living. One of my favourite Spanish sayings goes "En casa de herrero, cuchillo de palo" , which I've seen translated as "Cobblers' children have no shoes" and "The shoemaker's wife goes barefoot" - a take on "Physician, heal thyself".)

Anyway, what was pointed out was that I'm (over-)monitoring my (musical) utterances and thinking at the equivalent (so to speak) of word level - thinking of each note in turn - and not at phrase level.

(To stretch the analogy,) prosody is for the fast lane; I'm not ready - yet.

[destinytot]

You can't really pull that off in English without sounding weasely and lawyerish.

Communication problems have a funny side - provided you spot the hazards in time. (Whoops Apocalypse!)

[EJGuitar]

ive been thinking the same question myself.

for me the language cant be separated from the context of style. if u ask what makes jazz in 1940's, that would be charlie parker. language is something that has been spread over and outspoken in large number of individuals of that community. of course prior to that a superimposed tritone triad is not considered jazz by many individuals. even they were not attuned to the rhythm as they call it undanceable. but jazz got developed and through every elements of harmony, rhythm, and melody (of course musical language is not just about melody) thus its never enough to define jazz language with just a couple words. you might probably ask, if its been developed over time, there should be atleast a characteristic thats preserved and we can define it right off the bat. or what it has something in common between louise armstrong and weather report? is it improvisation? but indian raga music is also improvise music. well i cant really answer that. theres could be a missing link between them. its rather disposable than continuous.

[fasstrack]

The blues and swing are the 'plasma'.

Even if they seem to temporarily recede somewhat like, say, in certain ballads, they are there 'lurking'.

Got to have the basics...