Mother’s Day Lessons from Our Elders

JAZZ IMPROVISATION ACROSS TRADITIONAL AND MODERN STYLES: ASSESSMENTS IN A SIX-WEEK UNIT WITHIN A UNIVERSITY-LEVEL JAZZ IMPROVISATION COURSE

Ray P. Zepeda

Happy Mother’s Day to all! While we spend this special day honoring our good mothers for their unconditional love, wisdom, and guidance, allow me to offer this introduction to my upcoming four-part educational blog on how to impart the wisdom and guidance of the masters to turn your students into bad mothers in their own right, if you know what I mean!

It is often said that, early in life, our peers are our most influential teachers, and that it is only later in life that we discover our parents, especially our mothers, had all the real answers. So too is it with our development as jazz improvisers. Content to study the artists of our own age, we often fail to reach deeper levels of expression due to our lack of understanding of where our contemporary mentors derived their influences from. It is only after this investigation into the improvisational styles of the masters of previous generations that our solos can exhibit maturity, authenticity, and range. The premise of the Unit is that such investigation must not stop at listening. Assimilation of the past must necessarily involve tactile reinforcement and must also engage both the eye and the ear. (Yes, I am talking about, dare I say, emulation.) The learning activities set forth in this Unit are designed to do just that. Contemporary players who continue to eschew such study are doomed to sound out of place in traditional jazz and swing settings thereby limiting their employability.

Unit Overview and Objectives for Jazz Improvisation Across Traditional and Modern Styles

Unit Objectives, Description, and Content Standards

Objective

The objective of this unit is for the student to achieve fluency across jazz styles, experiencing and gaining a deeper understanding of the lineage of the jazz language through introspection and assimilation. The student will be able to improvise convincingly and authentically in one modern and one traditional jazz style.

Content Standards

Responding:

The student will transcribe one chorus of an improvised jazz solo in a Traditional style and one in a Modern style of their choosing using appropriate notation for melody, rhythms, and articulations.

Connecting:

The student will be able to compare features of both jazz styles as they evolved through time and discuss the sociopolitical climate existing during each period.

Performing:

The student will perform both transcriptions.

Creating:

The student will improvise a solo in both styles on tunes of their choosing.

Desired Outcomes

Overarching Understandings to be Gained:

There are specific nuances peculiar to each historical style of jazz. Deliberately playing earlier styles with a modern conception is not only unprofessional but indicative of narcissism.

Improvisation and “swing” are learned skills buoyed by attitude, dogged persistence, constant listening, an open heart, and a humble spirit.

Misconceptions to Disavow:

Learning older styles connotes an adherence to the past and treats jazz as a museum. Introducing Third Stream elements is not so much an innovation but rather an “anti-jazz” Europeanization of the art form. The transition of jazz from a low-brow dancer’s music to a listener’s music elevated the art form to its rightful place in elite society.

It is pedagogically sufficient and valid to just say “go listen to Charlie Parker!”

Knowledge:

The student will know the “A” section, Bridge, AABA and other forms, all chords with stylistically-appropriate extensions/tensions, the historical context of each tune, voice-leading resolutions.

Skills to Acquire or Further Develop:

Playing, creating, improvising, listening, leadership behaviors, comparing, analyzing, researching, emulating while defining one’s own voice and artistic vision.

Essential Questions to Ponder and Reflect Upon:

Comparing swing-era soloists to those of the bebop and modern eras, how is it that the former were able to be so impactful with so little? Or, is what they were doing, in fact, “little”, given how “out of place” most modern artists sound when attempting to “cop” earlier styles?

Much has been written about how jazz has shaped popular culture. In what ways has popular culture shaped jazz?

Assessment Description: Performance Task

Goal:

Fluency and understanding across jazz styles.

Audience:

University/Conservatory students – primarily Music majors most of whom are Jazz Studies majors, some “non-traditional” community professionals.

Product/Performance:

Two (2) partial transcriptions and performances, two (2) improvised solos. Student to discuss reasoning for choices.

Standards:

A successful result will exhibit mastery in and internalization of two established jazz styles.

Learning Plan

Where do we go from here?:

To experience and gain a deeper understanding of the lineage of the jazz language, how it is transferred from generation to generation, the students will be asked the following: “Who did your favorite player study? Who did that player study? And so on back the birth of jazz. Then, describe your own style within this historical context. Who are your influences and what did you take from each of them? How will you continue to develop your own voice and, once you do, how would future generations describe you? An essay question assessing this understanding could appear on the Unit Exam.”

As students take gigs in either of the two chosen styles, encourage them to record themselves on that gig and objectively assess at least a day later how “authentic” they sound in that context.

Hooking the students in at the outset:

Jamming to original recordings of different jazz styles – creating while emulating established artists – rather than with Aebersold play-alongs. Students will enjoy playing along with and interacting (using fills and call-and-response) with the original soloist.

Experience/Explore:

In-class performances, historical jazz videos, independent research.

Exhibit/Self-Evaluate:

The student’s selection of the two styles and the artists whose solos they choose to transcribe will require introspection and an inventory of their pre-existing skill set and propensities. Feedback in Formative Assessments, particularly in the Comments section, will include actionable suggestions against which the student can self-monitor their progress. Moreover, the student will be encouraged to record their practice sessions to assess themselves objectively as they progress.

Tailoring:

The students will self-tailor it by choosing the styles, transcription sources, and tunes germane to themselves.

Learning Activities for Jazz Improvisation Across Traditional and Modern Styles

Learning Timeline

Learning Objective

Methods

The primary vehicle for this Styles unit is jamming to original recordings of different jazz styles – creating while emulating established artists. This class will not involve Jamey Aebersold play-alongs. Rather, students will play along with and interacting (using fills and call-and-response) with the actual original soloist.

Unit Timeframe

This Styles unit within a semester-long Jazz Improvisation course will take six (6) weeks ending with a Unit Final Exam in Week 6.

Unit Schedule

Week 1:

Introduction / Unit Overview
Student selection of two jazz styles – one Traditional and one Modern
Guidelines/Rubric for Transcriptions
Guidelines/Rubric for Performance Assessments
View portions of historical jazz videos. Style-related class discussion.
Individual practice with recordings from YouTube using students’ individual devices with Professor walking around listening and providing formative feedback and suggestions on how to practice Styles. Original recording should be ambiently audible at low volume.
Assigned reading and listening. Unit Final Exam in part will draw from these.

Week 2:

Survey the class on Student selections of jazz styles
Round-robin improvisations on each of the styles using recordings that students bring in, 1 to 3 choruses each.
Instructor and Peer Feedback
View portions of historical jazz videos. Style-related class discussion.
Individual practice with recordings of student-selected styles from YouTube or recordings using students’ individual devices with Professor walking around listening and providing formative feedback. Original recording should be ambiently audible at low volume.
Assigned reading and listening

Week 3:

Class discussion on Styles chosen and artists whose solos students have selected to transcribe. Be prepared to discuss reasons for selections and historical context. What can you say about your two artists’ styles?
Round-robin improvisations on each students two styles using recordings that students bring in, 1 to 3 choruses each.
Instructor and Peer Feedback
View portions of historical jazz videos, Style-related class discussion.
Individual practice with recordings from YouTube with Professor walking around listening and providing formative feedback. Original recording should be ambiently audible at low volume.
Assigned reading and listening

Week 4:

Class discussion on tunes chosen. Be prepared to discuss reasons for selections and historical context
Round-robin warm-up improvisations on each student’s two styles using recordings that students bring in – 1 to 3 choruses each.
Instructor and Peer Feedback
Summative Assessments of student performances of 3 choruses of each of his/her two styles on tunes of their choosing using either a recording with the original artist’s solo muted or a rhythm section from within the class. For the latter option have lead sheets available to distribute if not a common standard tune.
Instructor and Peer Feedback
Assigned reading and listening

Week 5:

Class presentations/performances of solo transcriptions of one chorus in each of the two styles. Each student will:
Have their handwritten transcription on the overhead for the class to see
Discuss with the class their artist and their style highlighting details about the original recording and technical details in transcription.
Play the original recording for the class
Perform the solo transcription a cappella or with the original recording at low volume
Repeat for Style #2
Assigned reading and listening

Week 6: Unit Final Exam (90 minutes)

10 multiple choice questions (1 point each)
10 fill-in-the-blank questions (1point each)
10 True-False questions (1 point each)
8 Matching questions (1 point each)
1 half-page essay question (12 points)
2 full-page essay questions (25 points each)