I don't get it.
I don't get it
Jazz is a big umbrella. What sort of jazz are you currently listening to? I know when I first got into it I went right for the avant-garde free jazz stuff to show how I cool and eclectic I was. But I think it's better to start with some vocal jazz (e.g. Nina Simone or Sinatra), find some songs you like and learn them well, and then see how different musicians interpret them differently.
I've listened to a lot of stuff that is mainstream nowadays like Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Grover Washington, Coltrane etc and it's pleasant enough to listen to but I don't connect with it at all. My dad always listened to stuff like The Rippingtons and Return to forever when I was younger so I'll listen to that here and there too. I feel there's this huge disconnect between what fans of this genre get out of it and what I do. Like I either have to be a musician or really invest 10 times more time into it than other genres to get it.
not starting with dixieland/swing jazz
ngmi
No soul
Nina simone and Sinatra are bad recommendations. Better to go for ella fitzgerald or billie holiday.
It's like any music. You need to learn the tropes and idioms before you can enjoy it. Jazz even more so because the whole point of a solo is to communicate with a melodic line. Tons of motifs will be flying at you constantly, it's hard to process at first. They will do stuff like break a common motif early and end it in a surprising way, which can actually make you laugh if you understand what's happening. Also, musical quotations are very common. If you can't catch these things you will but enjoy it as much.
If you really want to get into Jazz, listen to older stuff. In many ways it's less interesting (slower, less advanced harmonically) but it's just as valuable in turns of emotional impact. Louis Armstrong, County Basid, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins etc. Get to know them first.
Then take a look at Thelonios Monk, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Cannonball Adderly, etc.
THEN try to revisit the hard bop, post bop and fusion.
Also, ella fitzgerald is hard not to like. "Duke Ellington songbook," "Birthday Concert in Rome," "live at Mr kellys" all incredible performances
retard
Like I either have to be a musician or really invest 10 times more time into it than other genres to get it.
I hear people say this all the time about classical or jazz and it must be meme cope. I was like you with both of them for a short time but once I found the artist or recording I truly connected with, it felt like love at first sight. Absolutely no need for training or theory or whatever. It ultimately doesn't matter, it's only a matter of time before some future generation talks the exact same way about rock, rap, metal or whatever else.
Look up the big names mentioned in the thread. The first one you like, that is your preference. Piano-heavy? Bass-heavy? Trumpet-heavy? Guitar-heavy? Drum-heavy? Everybody is different. Some prefer energetic and animated, some prefer mellow and grooving. That applies to any music, and jazz is no exception.
I like
- George Benson for incredible guitar lines
- Thelonious Monk for "true" jazz feel
- Sun Ra for creative trippy vocal melodies
You are mostly right, but at the same time it is true that you need to invest some time in order to "get" it. It's harder to understand than pop music. There's also the fact that more mainstream music is always being played in the background of your life, so you get accustomed to it without even knowing it.
With that being said - you are right that it's not hard to learn to understand it. When people say you need to put effort, they mean actually listen to a song the whole way through, and maybe play it 2-5 times. Most people don't have the attention span to even manage that
It is unironically more fun to play than listen to, but that might be because it's so damn fun to play. When you're in a small combo where everyone's locked in together, it's some of the greatest shit. For listening I do think it works best with live performances. Watch something like Roy Hargrove's Strasbourg St. Denis on youtube for a good entry to the vibe
A lot of people pretend to like it to seem like they are anti-racism, and to pretend they think blacks are intellectual/intellectualized.
I only enjoy vocal jazz written like pop
I wasn’t saying jazz has no soul, I was saying OP has no soul
I listened to her album Esperanza and I could not finish it. Its more like annoying art pop that rips off Milton Nascimento than actual jazz.
tonal dissonance to ease the cognitive dissonance
Do you have an instrument preference? For example, do you want piano driven or brass driven? If you have trouble with the jazz canon and standards. Try the fusion and pop takes on the genre. There is no shame on that, they have introduced jazz to younger fans, and some have gained a greater appreciation through them. Some people might only listen to fusion or pop side of jazz, but some eventually find the way to explore and dig into other genres. I personally got interested in jazz through the fusion of hip hop, r&b, soul, funk, pop, and electronic artists. Believe or not, your sound tracks are a good entry, because a lot of them keep their pieces short and do the heavy lifting in making them stand out because they are meant to impress you. I am by no means a fan of sub genres like smooth jazz, but I believe there is a jazz sub genre for every one. I will keep your thread bumped (to my best ability) until you tell us more about your preferences.
it's alright, you'll grow up one day and realize world isn't black and white
A lot of people pretend to like it to seem like they are anti-racism, and to pretend they think blacks are intellectual/intellectualized.
Oh shit my bad anon, I take it back
All music is more fun to play than listen to, it just happens to go double when everyone is improvising with good chemistry
Honestly, most of my musical experience is with classical music, but I am a jazz enthusiast. In classical music, a person can think differently when interpreting the music (usually, this varies from author to author), but I still don't know if jazz reaches that level of complexity and, besides, this musical genre is extremely diverse. Man, keep listening until you find something that you like.
Personally, I think this song is really cool.
I wanna like the Taxi Driver soundtrack because I understand the general mood it's TRYING to go for but some of the improvisation devolves into that shitty cheesy 1980's pop tonality I can't fucking stand. Thank god noir jazz ended up branching far away from the whole Twin Peaks vibes, even though I generally like that soundtrack too, but it does sound flat, plastic and cliché at times.
Why don't modern blacks bring back jazz and r&be instead of desperately trying to peddle rap after its died out
some of the improvisation devolves into that shitty cheesy 1980's pop tonality
So it was ahead of its time (1976) in the worst possible way.
Making real music is a lot harder than making baboon noises over beats that took 20 seconds to conjure with a $60,000 DAW
I mean it's a very influential soundtrack from a very popular film. But my problem is that the music doesn't know if it wants to be noir jazz or smooth jazz, and IMO those genres don't blend well at all.
Don't talk about my wife like that
True. But note that what I said doesn't imply that I'm pro-prejudice/discrimination or that I think no blacks are intellectual.
I think the idea that "a lot" of people do it is just typical folk wisdom people need to tell themselves so they don't feel FOMO for listening to a style of music that doesn't neatly fit into the major/minor scale binary or isn't downstream from the pop/rock tonality and rhythms that dominates nearly everything mainstream. Most people who listen to jazz just get bitchy and whiny about it, not pretend to enjoy it.
Some people do this for jazz/blues and anything adjacent, but A LOT do for rap/hip hop.
a person can think differently when interpreting the music (usually, this varies from author to author), but I still don't know if jazz reaches that level of complexity
I'm not sure if I understand what you're saying correctly. Have you never heard Coltrane's version of My Favorite Things or the various covers of standards like A Night in Tunisia? "Thinking differently when interpreting the music" is a prerequisite for most jazz improvisation, you would think a so-called enthusiast would know something this basic. Or am I misunderstanding something?
this might unironically be good advice. a lot of jazz is about building upon what came before, so some people can't into bop if they never got into swing or big band
i agree billie and ella are superior but wtf is wrong with simone and sinatra, they're based too
They will do stuff like break a common motif early and end it in a surprising way, which can actually make you laugh if you understand what's happening.
This is totally true but I find it interesting to see how some tourists overreact to this. They seethe over not "being in on the joke" or something and it's so weird but amusing lmao. Reminds me of this based video of Chick playing some McCoy lines, and it's genuinely really fun, but imagining some soulless tard getting angry at it is even more fun kek
Most people don't have the attention span to even manage that
God normies are so depressing, can't even care anymoire if this makes me sound too R9K
Listen to her album with Milton Nascimento then, you should appreciate the rearrangements of his classic pieces
just listen to persona 5 and laufey, they LITERALLY saved jazz
they LITERALLY saved jazz
Holy tourism.
This was actually a force for good but then the CIA invented rap to stop black people from entering the middle class
rap "music" is unironically one of the biggest psyops of all time
It’s all good
Damn she looks fucking good for 40 years old, I thought she would've wall'd by now.