It’s been said that sharks like jazz more than they like classical. Jazz is the sound of modernity. In a sense it is not classical, because that is premodern. It is the soundtrack of a modern age, a faster age, a not necessarily chaotic age, but certainly less orderly than antiquity age. It was when communications and transportation was going to conquer the world.
In a way, jazz is shark-like. First and foremost in its perpetual restlessness. It is the music of an explorer, a perpetual traveller forever seeing new ground (or water) to cover. Like the shark, it simply has to keep on moving.
Jazz is not as deep and deliberated as classical. The deep structure of the music is not improvised, and it is simple to the point of absurdity. All the improvisation takes place on the uppermost, perhaps more superficial levels, otherwise the thing wouldn’t work. Jazz doesn’t work unless all the players are on the same page with regards to certain aspects of the music. Likewise, the shark in a way does not premeditate more than a few steps in advance. In a way its motion is rather predictable, it behaves like a chaos equation, completely unpredictable in certain ways, if you demand a high enough level of precision, but predictable in that all the unpredictability is limited to certain parameters and no other. So in a certain way, it is “all that jazz”, the same shit over and over.
It is endlessly curious. It’s always looking for something, always poking their nose into something, and yet things are same-y.
It’s been said that rock and roll is the music of the highway, of automobiles. Maybe jazz existed since before the spread of the model T, but it certainly isn’t the music of horse drawn carriages. It portends bright lights, big cities and bustling crowds. It’s the music of velocity, of an endless stream of thrills.
Wayne Shorter says that “Jazz is a fighter. The word jazz means to me, ‘I dare you. Let’s jump into the unknown!'” Jazz is tough, like sharks are tough. Possibly jazz is robust. It’s like taking a gymnastics leap and believing that you will somehow land feet first, as opposed to other forms of music where you’re perpetually in mortal fear of making a mistake and shattering into a million pieces.
You know what… I’m not really into writing about composition anymore. Maybe this blog will change to one where I put out all my thoughts about art related topics.
Music Composition 