Id like to talk about CALL RESPONSE in Jazz. 90% of Japanese musicians seem to have trouble with it... but it is a key element of what makes Jazz Jazz... By CALL RESPONSE Im not talking strictly about tunes like MINI THE MOOCHER, where Cab Calloway shouts Heidi Heidi Heidi Ho! and the audience responds (though this is a type) but a constant back and forth. In non-Jazz music, the goal is for instruments to play in unison as as much as possible... Classical orchestras may be wonderful, but theyre not syncopated... and arent so polyrhythmic. --If you listen to Jazz; however, Newtons Third Law is in motion. (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.) This means that anytime you hear something, youre going to hear a response. --A good Jazz band should be like a well oiled machine and every sound triggers another sound in the groove... So your goal as a musician isnt necessarily to lock in with the soloist and play notes with him at exactly the same time (this is white mentality), but rather, to understand where his feel is at and respond to it on the other side of the beat... Learning to do this; however, can be difficult for Japanese players, though we can think of a Matsuri. Anyone who has ever carried an omikoshi should know that there is a certain rhythm you must understand in order to avoid serious injury from the wood beam and you must never break this rhythm In addition, the leader might shout, Washoi and the people carrying respond Washoi -- *THIS* is the epitome of Jazz... constant back and forth over a fixed rhythm. Teaching it is difficult (I do, privately), but to begin to learn it, I suggest listening to some extremely exaggerated versions of layered groove. -- James Browns MOTHER POPCORN and Fela Kutis recordings of the late 60s and early 70s... Listen to one instrument at a time, then choose any other instrument, and analyse their relationship --Jazz, of course, is freer, but the mentality is the same. And in the end... No Newtons Third Law... no Jazz or groove.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 05:42:57 +0000
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