What’s beyond the classical

Usually all we know about an artist is the material he produces. Fortunately, the notorious jazz pianist Bill Evans recorded this conversation with his brother, the music teacher Harry Evans, in which they both divulge and discuss about the creative and self-teaching process in jazz music, and that lets us get a deep message about the philosophy hidden beyond the harmonies.

But, what is jazz? Bill Evans thinks people tend to have misconceptions about it. He defends the idea that jazz is not really a music style, as it is generally considered. He explains that in the XVII century there was a great development of improvisation, but there were no technological means to record it, so the only way to make it remain was musical notation. This technique progressively gained significance, and improvisation ended up being a lost art very seldom practiced by composers.

And jazz resurrected that process. The circumstances in which improvisation revived –the black America of the first 20^th century– made associate the jazz concept with the music style that was developing it, but jazz is really “a process of making one minute’s music in one minute’s time”. Namely, a composer of classical music can take three months to compose one minute’s song, whereas in jazz the creative process is spontaneous.

Evans brothers are very suggestive when they talk about the lack of restrictions in jazz improvisation. No matter how far the musician gets from the original harmonic structure, Bill Evans insists on the fact that there’s no freedom without being in reference to the rules. To be far from something, there must exist something that has to be understood, assimilated and respected.

Only when the theory is deeply understood and combined with an exhaustive practice, it goes to the subconscious part of the brain, and the conscious portion can concentrate in the instantaneous creative process. If you think about it, that is actually similar to learning how to drive a car. At first you have to put your five senses in how you’re driving, but after some months you can talk or listen to the radio while you’re driving.

The Evans are talking about jazz music creation, but if you want they’re also talking about the relation between tradition and innovation, the power of hard training and what freedom is. Their message is deeply inspirational applicable to other disciplines and that’s what make it powerful. That’s actually what makes music powerful. 

Marina Hernández