balance in style(s)

[trumpity]

Hey PH,

While utilizing Mr Adam's rouine/concepts, what do you recommend for balancing out and smoothing out jazz lines vs classical type music. Mr Adam would say hear it and play it, but what's your take on this critical issue, i.e. playing classic type styles and then having to go to a Donna Lee style environment and not sounding stife or too ta ta..any exercises? ..your book ?

[PH]

Of course, I always feel that the perfect answers are in my books!

I would have to agree with Mr. Adam. It is simply a matter of hearing it and playing it.

I think the best example of this that I can find in one place is Charlie Davis playing on the old Bach Sterling Silver Bell demo CD where he plays legit, lead, and jazz on the same horn and only makes a very slight mouthpiece adjustment (cup depth 3C to 3B). He gets great sounds for all the styles by simply changing the way he imagines the music.

If you are a good trumpet player who has a harmonious relationship with the instrument (i.e. chops, technique, tone) then it is totally a matter of mentally shifting gears and imagining the way the music you are playing now should sound. You need to be able to imagine that music vividly and WITHOUT A FOREIGN ACCENT!

I have a little article on this in the most recent ITG Journal (pp.53-55).

I am convinced that for most people who have style problems the root cause is insufficient or unfocused listening. You have to listen just as much and with just as much energy as you practice. Most people don't.

"Legit" guys sound stiff playing jazz because they don't invest the energy learning the sound of jazz. A jazzer like me can make all the notes in the Kennan Sonata and still sound like an idiot because I don't really hear the style. I just haven't spent nearly enough time listening to it. It's not my chops that don't work that way. It's the guidance system.

Another culprit is listening to less than the best possible role models. If you want to sound like a jazz player you need to know that that won't be learned from a Boston Pops recording or from Doc, or Vizzuti, or Arturo. You'll learn lots of other beneficial things from listening to those artists (they're all great players) but you won't learn jazz style because they aren't the mother tongue speakers of the jazz language.

There are a lot of people who would be horrified if I learned to play the Haydn Concerto from the Al Hirt recording plus hearing a live performance of a high school first chair player. Somehow, those same people don't find it odd to learn jazz style from comparable sources. In the business we call this cranial/rectal inversion!

It is also important to practice changing your mental picture. I know that it took me a long time to learn to play in a big band. I found that the sound that worked best and blended well with the trumpet section wasn't my jazz soloist sound. If I played my jazzbo sound in the section I stuck out. If I played an improvised solo with the good section sound, I sounded stiff and "white" (Sorry, I couldn't find a better word after a lot of searching). I had to actually practice mentally changing the way I pictured my tone and articulation. I found that I didn't need to change my gear and I didn't need to consciously change my physical approach. If I change the details of the way I am imagining the phrases the physical changes happen naturally.

Questions? Comments?

[ This Message was edited by: PH on 2002-06-27 11:47 ]

[Pat]

To PH: I thoroughly enjoyed your article in the latest ITG journal. I don't think there is any doubt that you have to really listen in order to learn to play in the style you want. ---I do mostly legit playing and I can hear in my head as a measure of my playing the sounds of Gerard Schwarz and more recently Phillip Smith for solo playing and Herseth for big ensemble playing.

I am trying to take a stab at jazz style and bought Jimmy Maxwell's book to try and learn some of the technique. In your article you mention several trumpet players to listen to. When you have the chance can you suggest specific pieces or albums for these artists that you would recommend I buy and listen to. (I mean, I know I won't learn jazz style from Louis Armstrong's rendition of Hello Dolly) I think it helps to listen to pieces chronologically so one can hear styles develop, so a chronological list would be helpful, if possible.
Thanks.

BTW, that Al Hirt rendition of the Haydn, which I still have, was the first one I ever heard. I'm glad I didn't stop there, although the jazz shakes he substitutes for the trills, among other things, make it a unique performance. Pat

[mc]

I have a problem with soloing in big bands, in that while I'm happy to leave plenty of space in a small group, I tend to (try) to play something more busy when I solo over a big band, and often end up sounding rather garbled as a result. Do you think this is related to your point about the different sound concepts? Is there any particular way you approach a big band solo?

Thanks

Martin