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Me - piano and Hymnology.

Since you studied Composition, what do you think of jazz? I hate it. No structure.

Here’s where we differ. I love good jazz. It needs to be balanced and in tune. I had those jazz bands who seem to be in a perpetual contest to see which trumpet player can play the loudest and fastest and highest.

I find the rythmns can be straightforwards when based on a 4/4 beat or less often 3/4. They can also be complex such as in “Take Five” by Brubeck.

To be a good jazz player, you need to be very confident in scales and arpeggios as well as the chromatic (I heard someone call it the “charismatic”) scale. Then, you have to have a good ear and even intuition (but it is based on your knowledge of chord arragements and progressions) in order to improvise. It is, perforce, more spontaneous than classical music because there is so much improvisation.

I’ve found most good (although that can be a subjective ranking) music of all types is mathematically balanced. The pieces start and stop with a balanced metric composition. If there are pickup notes at the beginning, the last measure is shortened by that exact amount (holds can change that). The balanced mathematics comes in when determining which note comes next as it all fits precisely within the overtone series. This is true for everything, jazz, Balinese music, classical, etc. However, there is an infinite number of variations and embellishments.

I think jazz is my favorite genre. It gets into my bones and brings a physical response when it is done well.

I will step intentionally on a lot of toes when I say that I find most bands at football games are not really very musical. The musicians play mostly loud and fast. There isn’t much harmony or inner voices. The woodwind players, clarinet and flute are more often shuffled off to being in the flag line. I stopped participating in the alumni band when my part for one song was as complicated as shouting “Hey!” rest, rest, rest for several measures, “Hey!” rest, rest, rest for several measures, “Hey!” rest, rest, rest for several measures, “Gooooooo, Auburn!” Or some such silliness. I did not spend months and years practicing scales and arpeggios to not put the dang reed in my mouth and blow!

Not all jazz is like that. I learned to like some of it while in Japan in the 70's in coffee shops filled with albums. Some of the artist played beautiful melodies and soulfully, kind of got lost in them. Here's one with African tones I really like from Pharoah Sanders, very up tempo with layers of melodies and uplifting.

Thembi .