(To any sax players out there: yes, my fingers should never be that far from the keys – one of many bad habits I’m trying to break)
Last week I gratefully received, from my friendly postman, the book of tunes for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Jazz saxophone grade 3 exam. Despite my doubts about jazz education – about its usefulness in producing spirited jazz players, and also about the usefulness for me in particular of an exclusive focus on jazz – I think I can still benefit from it hugely. What I want, and what it promises to give me, is an objective measure of progress; some structure and discipline; and goals.
And besides, the program is excellent, and seems to have been put together in the right spirit. Improvisation is the central skill being assessed, as well as one’s understanding – one’s feel for – the jazz idiom. I need to play three tunes in the exam, one from each of the three categories of Blues & Roots, Standards, and Contemporary, each of which with five to choose from. Here are my choices, respectively:
All Blues (Miles Davis)
Autumn Leaves (Joseph Kosma)
Mopti (Don Cherry)
All Blues has been a favourite of mine since I began discovering jazz, and will be familiar to many. It’s one of the tracks on the triple-platinum album Kind of Blue, the sublime co-creation of Miles, Julian Adderley, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb. Part of the beauty of All Blues to me is its extended, timeless, cyclical quality – a quality that requires a long track-length. On the album it’s 11 minutes and 33 seconds. The exam version is, of necessity, severely curtailed, but it contains enough of the essence of the original to make it worthwhile. I wonder how I’ll be marked in the exam if I quote Miles, John or Julian in my solo. Quite well, I imagine, as long as it’s a only a phrase or two. Jazz educators always stress the importance of listening. I can sing along to all those solos, so I know them pretty well, and if they heard evidence of that they would be more likely to mark me up than down, I think. (Of course, I’m an improviser at heart so I would want to incorporate any quotes in my own musical construction.)
Autumn Leaves has more chord changes than the others, which is why it’s a good choice: Chez, my teacher, suggested I introduce some variety. Who knows, maybe I’ll come to love it. It’s a nice tune.
Mopti – I’m very excited about playing this piece, which I’d never heard before. Last night I learned it by ear from memory, then realised I’d learned it in the wrong key, and so I then worked it out in the right one (E minor). Then I played it for a while before comparing it with the CD (the book comes with a CD). I had it just about right, and I found the rhythm quite easy to feel without thinking about it. It’s in 12/8 time, African-style. However, it starts off in a very nineteen-sixties free jazz style, with a Coltrane/Elvin Jones-like swirling intensity in free time. I’ll have to track down one of the real versions, because it’s an exciting, intense piece with an exquisitely satisfying melody. It reminds me of the South African pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim.
And there are no chord changes in the solo!
Well, it’s great to be able to play the kind of music I’ve always wanted to play. Not so long ago one associated music education, especially at the beginner level, with the playing of the most clichéd, childish, old-fashioned tunes. Now you can play Don Cherry, one of the originators of free jazz.
They have exams in February/March, and again in June/July. February feels far too soon, but let’s see how it goes.