Listening in Jazz, an Exploration: Part One

Listening is probably the most important aspect of learning and understanding jazz, even more so than actually performing it. From listening, one can gauge tone, style, and even the overall shape of a jazz solo without even having to have the theoretical knowledge to transcribe it fully.

During the course of the summer, I have been listening to a number of contemporary jazz tenor saxophonists (by contemporary, I refer to artists and recordings following John Coltrane’s death in 1967). All of these I have in a “shuffle” mode on my iPod, so that I have to listen to determine who is playing and/or the composition. The saxophonists aren’t just limited to the most famous names either. Some of them are players from in and around my hometown, while others are performers whom I met during college, while in the military, or on cruise ships. Some of them are older, while others are still in high school. Over time, I have developed my preferences towards certain players and certain styles of playing. However, I’ve been curious to hear perspectives of others. So, the last couple of weeks, while I have been driving back and forth between Omaha and Lincoln, I subjected one of my passengers in the car to the playlist and was astounded by the results.

My passenger tended to prefer players who relied less on theatrics and more on space.

The passenger tended to prefer a tone that sounded darker vs. one that sounded more “nasal”. Players such as Chris Potter and Branford Marsalis were reviled while the later recordings of Joe Henderson and Stan Getz were praised for displaying a more “arcing” development in their solos.

The perceptions of my traveling companion have given me thought as to how I should approach my own solos as a trombonist. As far as this type of study, I’d like to give it more formal substance. I would propose using listening examples from a variety of artists from different backgrounds (and not necessarily familiar ones), and then gather a “control” group of listeners (with jazz backgrounds), and an “experimental” group (without jazz backgrounds, or even non-music backgrounds), and see what their preferences are. It would be an interesting study.

I'm in the process of putting it together. If anyone meeting the above descriptions are interested in participating, please contact me here.