I've been going to these Sunday evening jazz jam sessions at Twins on U street, thanks to David R, who turned me on to them. For now, I'm just going to listen. Maybe someday I'll play, but I'm going to need to practice quite a bit first.

To me, these sessions embody the spirit of jazz music, the raw energy, the dizzying improvisation and play. Here's a typical scenario: Five guys on stage - piano, guitar, bass, drums, sax. They've never met each other. Most of the time, they don't even know each other's names. One guy calls out a tune. Another nods. Somebody counts off. And, like that, they're playing together as if they had rehearsed the song a hundred times. And it sounds incredible. This is jazz: an improvised conversation where the players are all fluent in the same language. Their understanding of the rules and conventions of that language is what keeps the conversation going. But it's the way they break those same rules and conventions that keeps the conversation interesting. They follow certain chord structures. They repeat certain themes. But then they take those and turn them upside down in order to bring the whole exchange to a new level.

In my last post, I talked about communication without words. What better example of this than music? And the thing I love about this sort of communication is that it occurs on so many levels and is based on reciprocity: player to player, players to audience, and audience to players (in the form of shouts and applause.) Several layers of exchange. Several layers of meaning.

link to this | comments (0) | File:  Music