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What is Jazz? - Allan Walsh

Published on August 20, 2010 Allan Walsh

Hi Folks;

This is my first ever blog so I hope those of you passionately or mildly interested in jazz will read it and respond with your views and ideas about this fascinating genre of music that has become a big part of my life and now after many years is enjoying a prominent place in the cultural life of Sudbury. By writing about my musical experiences I hope to give some insight into the jazz world and how it has affected my career over the years. I will write about meeting and playing with various musicians over the years including some of the performers at this year’s Sudbury Jazz Festival.

 

To begin; What is Jazz?

Well, there are certainly many answers to that question depending on who you ask.  Jazz means different things to different people. One element that I have found to be a part of most jazz music is improvisation. Improvisation is a part of all our lives because we basically make up our lives each day upon waking. We decide moment by moment what we are going to do. Because of external conditions creativity plays a crucial role here and because of this we do not always do things exactly the same way every day.  The more creative we are in organizing our lives the more interesting and sometimes easier life can be for us and others. Imagination goes hand in hand in allowing us to develop our creativity. Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."  We can and do begin improvising at an early age with little or no knowledge.  All these things; improvisation, creativity, imagination along with intuition are important elements for the jazz musician because jazz is “music of the moment” created on the spot at the moment.

I gravitated to jazz primarily because of the element of improvisation. I, like countless others played clarinet in my school band. I was fascinated with the opportunity to have a musical instrument in my hands and be able to produce sounds from it that I controlled.  I was thrilled to be part of a large group in concert band and play all kinds of classical and popular music. I made up all kinds of songs and practiced hours and hours everyday.

As I furthered my musical studies in university I became interested in the saxophone and soon borrowed one from a friend and formed a rock band. We played everything; country, rock ’n roll, blues, and what we called ‘jazz’. We would play a rock song and then just take solos and grooves based on the song. My favourite was America’s, “Horse with No Name”. There was something about the groove and feel of that song that spurred me to improvise in a way that was joyous and free. I was ‘free’ to create my own musical ideas and it was this freedom that I liked the most. As a group we practiced and jammed more than we actually performed gigs but it was so exciting to just create music together and band practice was the most important thing in our lives at the time and we couldn’t wait to get to practice. That feeling remains with me and probably most musicians to this day.

So, because I liked improvising so much and I played saxophone it seems natural I would soon find out about jazz music. Saxophone happens to be one of the most important instruments in jazz and when jazz was most popular the bands were big had many saxophones. This was in the 1930’s & 1940’s in an era called “The Swing Era”. 

‘Swing’ is another important element of jazz music and I will write about that in my next blog. I’ll tell you about my experiences in jazz college and meeting some great musicians and playing in one of the greatest big bands that started in the ‘Swing Era’.

 

Till next time.

Allan

Allan J. Walsh

Jazz Sudbury

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