Ontmusic33. What is interaction in jazz?
Discussion[edit]
T[edit]
Interaction[edit]
Given ANY definition of interaction when a jazz musician is playing jazz by themselves all alone is this musician interacting jazzwise with him or herself? I bet the answer can be yes it is possible.
If the definition of interaction requires two different items that are mutually influencing each other and without the other item then the resulting output would have been different if the one item had done all of the musical output without the input from the other item. Then, on any definition of interaction that requires mutually influential causality with each interacting entity producing an effect in the other and the subsequent overall musical product, i.e., the music being played, is now different than the music would have been without the other entity being causally involved.
Now it is easy to prove that a single human female musician necessarily interacts with herself while playing jazz. All that is needed for the proof is to find the two entities that causally interact and influence each other where these two entities are distinctive components in themselves, and even this last might not be necessary.
Two interacting entities in one's mind are the conscious and the unconscious. If one had no conscious mind input the unconscious mind's music would be very different in what it causally would produce. Conversely, the conscious mind's music production may not even be possible without the unconscious mind being involved in music making, which it undoubtedly is because of the complexity of the operation and the need to have a lot of processing being done unconsciously or without the need for conscious attention, simply put it is at least what is known as muscle memory.
INSERT STORY OF PAUL MOTION who couldn't notice all that he was doing and also keep doing it. Three different rhythms at a time with feet hand cymbals and one implied 4th beat.
Any musician then would have this interaction, and it is not unique to jazz since any musician in any genre has this kind of interaction.
Therefore, we now require two persons and no sub-entities interacting within one person
Group Interaction[edit]
“He thought a jazz rhythm section’s primary obligation was to support a soloist with an inspiring, idiomatically appropriate musical environment—“we’ve got to raise our hands and uplift them to the sky” (Lyons 1983, 124); “when everything is cooking, the rhythm section is cohesive, everything is smooth, ... it’s like you’re sailing, floating around in space, there’s not no real effort to anything” (Gleason 2016, 221). But still, the role of ensemble interaction, to this end, is hardly clear; within the transcribed trumpet chorus from “Doxy” there are few obvious, specific instances of responsorial rhythmic or melodic exchange. Silver’s own piano solo later in the same performance (Example 2) likewise evinces fairly little, if any, readily identifiable motivic interaction between pianist, bassist, and drummer.”
➢ To what extent are these musicians interacting in these descriptions?
The author seems inclined to conclude that the rhythm section is not interacting 'that much' because the three rhythm section players do not change much what they are doing in response to the soloist. He seems to miss that the three rhythm players are having plenty of interaction amongst themselves because they are staying together in the groove and this requires/demands mutual interactivity and mutual listening.
Many times you do not want the rhythm section to respond to what the soloist is doing such as the drummer told the bass player not to follow Charlie Parker when he speeds up the time. Parker would go into double timing but the rhythm section should maintain its pace. The drummer would yell, "Don't follow him" and eventually Bird would re-alight back into the non-doubled time that had been maintained by the rhythm section.
NOTES[edit]