Neil Carson Jazz Saxophone Performance - Essay Example

Insert of Jazz saxophone performance Jazz music has enormously succeeded in drawing the attention of a large number of music lovers from across the globe. Jazz is one of the oldest forms of music plays that have evolved to a high degree of sophistication bearing it a very large audience. Most jazz lovers are fond of it due to its thrilling and smoothly soothing appeal which takes people into foreign and imaginary lands forgetting their sorrows and worries of daily lives only to ravel in a new world of hopes and fulfillment most jazz lovers are people of the high class in terms of economic standing or people in professions which require much concentration and making such specialists to use a lo of their mental applications to tap the necessary success expected of them. Jazz therefore provides a relaxed atmosphere and a soothing comfort after running highly tasking errands. Jazz performances are carried out in relaxed and highly regarded atmosphere accorded to the periods of deep soul searching. Like any other form of music, jazz music has been constantly changing over time. Staunch jazz fanatics have therefore been in a constant flux with their beloved music type in order to keep with the rapidly changing pace in the music industry. Over the last seventy years, jazz has greatly changed and to date, the music is still on transition. Given the long history of the jazz music and the changing generation of players and fans, each generation has brought in tremendous changes in jazz performance making it one of the most diverse and revered music performances around the globe. Each generation comes in the jazz music industry with their own feelings, emotions and ideas which they aim to express. These aspects have tremendously changed the sound systems to the b jazz music completely revolutionizing its performance and interests based on the changing thematic concerns it bears. In this paper, I will illustrate of jazz saxophone performance tracing its salient features based on the thematic concerns, type of audience and the performance variability. Jazz saxophone is the musical instrument that is used in performing the jazz music. The instrument has a complex structure consisting of various keys through which the players switch to generate the necessary tunes constituting the musicality and rhythms related to the music. The jazz band is the name used to refer to those performing music on the jazz saxophone. The most common jazz band in the world is the jazz orchestra, also referred to as the Big Band. A typical Jazz orchestra is constituted of five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones and a rhythm section that is composed of piano, base, guitar and drums. In some instances, the jazz orchestra adds on other accompaniments such as the vibraphone, (a component of the xylophone family), darinet, violin and singers into the group. The most beneficial factor associated with the jazz orchestra is that it allows the performers to display the type of music that is improvised within the team. These improvised tunes and techniques enables them to play the music in a big and powerful manner with one musician often taking the solo part while the rest of the band playing the exciting background sections of the music. This gives a complex blend of the music making it nice and soothing at all times. Jazz performances are liked by a number of people and are currently attracting audience from far and a wide across the globe. Most fanatics of the blues music make relevant fans for the jazz performances. This liking is derived from the various components of the performance referred to by the jazz specialists as the elements of a jazz music performance. The jazz music is a combination of several components brought out together to form a complete whole. As has been mentioned above, the various components of the band attacks and join the band at different points during performance. In the same manner, different jazz band member has a different role to play in the band depending on the type of musical instrument he or she is playing. These roles are determined by the various elements forming the entire band and on which the aesthesis of the performance lies. I will discuss these sections in the succeeding sections. The first element we are going to study in this paper is the melody of a jazz saxophone performance. This is the capital theme in jazz performances. Jazz saxophone performance does not operate without the melody. The melody is the key component which comes out distinctively. The melody is the part of the performance that one can listen to and sing along as the players do it on their instruments. The jazz guitarists refer to this as the chord memory which describes the manner in which they play certain songs on their instruments. A good jazz saxophone performer must first memorize and be able to play the melody of the song in a performance. The melody must be learned inside out regarding the ability to play it, sing it and even just humming it as this gives the key component and musicality of the performance. The melody in a jazz saxophone performance as (Teal 1963) notes is often the leading way. It begins the music, maintains the aesthesis in the music and maintains its position in the entire performance keeping every audience alive and deeply engrossed into the performance. As (Teal 1963) notes the melody in a jazz saxophone performance is the head of the performance/music without which the performance loses aesthesis. This theme always lead the way as the rest of the music follows in close connection to give it an intended accompaniment to accomplish the intended means. (Teal 1963) compares the melody of the jazz saxophone performance to the first component of the song played by a musician and one finds it easy to hum, whistle or just sing the whole system along. An accurate knowledge of the melody of a jazz music involves the ability to maintain the beats of the song, actively avoiding the aspect of delay and hesitation between various lapses. For good performances, the melody is often played on the highest keys possible. Most players prefer playing the melody on the first and the second keys. This helps greatly when the elements are harmonized together with the other chords on the lower strings. Some players as well prefer paying the memory in an octave higher note than is given for the song so as to come out distinctively in a performance. The mastery of the melody on a jazz saxophone can help the players in coming up with several unique renditions for the same song just by simply manipulating the melodic line, the rhythm of the song as well as the phrasing systems of the song’s wordings. This aspect if often achieved by simply manipulating the rhythm while at the same time adding a few auxiliary tones on the played music. The auxiliary tones in a jazz performance consist of the neighbor tones, passing tones, as well as appoggiaturas. These can appear as diatonic, chromatic leading tones, the neighbor code tones or in chord tone pitches. The figure below illustrates a diatonic tone as sits appears on a jazz saxophone (Rousseau 1978) uses an illustration with the song All The Things You Are by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II to illustrate how the melody would appear on the jazz saxophone. The figure below illustrates the tonal variations on the different keys banged on the instrument. The second element that I will illustrate in this paper is the harmony. The harmony according to (Rousseau 1978) in a jazz saxophone performance is made up of the chords. The harmony in these performances supports the melody. The harmony fulfills the entire song and makes the performance lively and involving making it sound full. The chords in this case are usually made up of two or more notes and are usually play, all at once by most musicians. The purpose of this is actually to make the melody stand out significantly by providing a warm and full sound. It is the harmony in conjunction with the melody that stands out in any jazz saxophone performance. As (Teal 1963) notes, playing the harmony involve the memorization of the chords as well as the sequence in which these chords appear. The jazz saxophone player must be able to know exactly where such chords are found on each chord. The two elements, the melody and the harmony, often complement each other in a jazz saxophone performance in such a way that the musicality of the entire performance is generated without any ambiguity. According to (Rousseau 1978), where the melody note is on a chord tone, the harmony note should as well be on the chord tone. If the melody is on the passing note or on the extension, the harmony in such cases should as well be a passing note or alternatively an extension. In order to achieve a good harmony on a saxophone performance, the weaker intervals should be used together with the weaker beats as this helps in avoiding the leaps into the lower parts. The sixth note on the chords is often considered as the harmony note. This chords functions to add the thickness and coloration in a four part harmony. The same can as well be used in a two part harmony to imply a different chord. In this respect therefore, long passages which contain all the thirds as well as the sixths chords should be avoided if one wants to achieve a lively jazz saxophone performance. On the contrary, a constant alternating of the thirds and the sixths chords can only be used when one want to achieve a better melodic harmony line. In order for the players to effectively harmonize the melody, the following must be taken into consideration: 1) one has to make sure that for all the chords, there must be a third and seventh apart from when the lead is the root of the major seven. In such cases, the third and the sixth chords must be included. 2) In some cases, the perfect fifths can often be omitted in the chords played. The same can as well happen to the roots as long as there is a base instrument playing alongside the entire system. This will compensate for the omissions but help achieve the best results suitable for the musicality of the events giving the best melodic harmony in the performance. 3) In cases where the chord requires the use of an altered fifth note, then this should be provided while at the same time omitting the roots as the use of such a combination alters the melodic harmony of the performance. Apart from the melody and the harmony in musical varieties we listen to, the other thing that many people find themselves greatly engrossed upon is the rhythm of the music. This is what distinguishes the various players in a jazz saxophone band as well as one song from another. By listening to the various rhythms produced by different players, one is able to recognize the various roles played by various players in the band. For instance, one can recognize each layer depending on the musical instrument he or she plays. The rhythm is as well another very dear element of the jazz saxophone performance which needs a lot of attention and expertise to achieve. (Teal 1963) defines the rhythm of the music as the beat. He says that for one to clearly realize and be able to recognize the various rhythmic streams, they have to listen to the drum beats. This happens to both the players as well as the listeners. In order for the players to be at the same pace with one another during the performance, they must consider the rhythm of the songs tey is doing. The rhythm of the songs determines the interludes between the various beats. Sometimes, the songs are sang very fast, rough and curly such as in reggae music while sometimes, these songs are very slow bringing in the soothing and thrilling system which comes with all. Such changes occurring in the course of playing different songs on different Musical instruments is what is referred to as the tempo of the song. While some songs have a high tempo, are sung very fast, i.e. the interludes between the various beats changes fast, others have a very low tempo brought about by the slow changes in the beats characterized by long interludes. These changes are all brought about by the changes in the rhythmic patterns in the songs played in each case. The rhythm of the song works in connection with the melody and the harmony in order to keep the pace of the music enabling the other musicians to keep playing the harmony and the melody in a more consistent manner. The rhythm in a jazz music is a key component in the play. The rhythmic patterns have to be maintained by all players in the band in order to create harmony and the melody. There are different techniques used by different players to derive flavor from a jazz saxophone band. This fact is pegged on the basis that different songs have different properties depending on the composers and the events associated with them. Different performance techniques therefore have been adopted by different players in order to come up with a suitable music appealing to the listeners. As has been mentioned earlier in this text, the jazz saxophone performance is among the most volatile and rapidly changing system in the current world since its invention. Depending on the level of expertise a jazz saxophonist exhibits different playing habits which makes them more competitive compared to the others. The level of competence for different jazz saxophonists depend much on the way in which they are able to manipulate the various keys and components of the saxophone in order to come up with a complete set of elements used to describe a good music played on a jazz saxophone. The different types of jazz saxophones enable different players to use different techniques used in playing the instrument. There are a wide variety of jazz saxophones depending on the quality of music one wants to derive. The following are some of the various types of jazz saxophones and their functions during the performance session. The soprano saxophone is most revered and important type which plays a very key role during performance. It is the topmost among the saxophones found in the market today. The soprano saxophones are mainly suitable for raising and lowering the intonation of the songs being performed. The current soprano saxophones have a wide variety of tones enabling them to give a wide range of intonations suitable for the performance systems and giving the musicality of the songs played. It is also known for its high-pitched notes. The alto saxophone is the most common among all the others and with a lot of literature so far. Its tone is mostly compared to that tone frequently produced by a horn, so its horn-like kind of a tone. It produces a very rich tone which sounds like a blend of horn, bassoon and cello. It is noted that the E saxophone sounds a major sixth lower than written. The tenor saxophone has a long and association with jazz as well as the popular music. When its tone is compared to that of alto, the tenor saxophone sounds more aggressive. Just a as the alto saxophone is considered horn-like, the same way, one would consider the tenor saxophone to be organ-like. It is also known for its B sounding a major ninth lower than it is written. The baritone saxophone in E is considered the most mellow of all the saxophones. This is normally pitched an octave below the alto and is the most commonly utilized when the bass family is to be considered. The writing for the baritone saxophone is basically the traditional bass-line writing due to the shortage of the low-pitched woodwinds. It is amazing the excellent solo voice that is much like a reedy euphonium in its quality. All saxophones can be articulated clearly, although, the baritone saxophone is most evident in articulation as it is unexcelled in the delineation of marcato and staccato figures. The baritone saxophone is known for sounding an octave and a sixth an octave lower than written. Unlike the other saxophones, the bass saxophone is not heard as often as the other members of the saxophone family. When it is being played, it usually matches the baritone quality for quality, but in addition, it can add 4 to 5 more semitones downward in range, this gives it an advantage over the baritone saxophone. When its tone is compared to that of the baritone, its tone is more gravelly than that of the baritone a part from the fact that its articulation is a little less rapid. These are the most common saxophones among the other existing saxophones. Works Cited Rousseau, Eugene. Saxophone Hightones. Shell Lake: Etoile Music, Inc., 1978. Teal, Larry. The Art of Saxophone Playing. Princeton: Summy-Birchard Music, 1963. Read More