How to Listen to Jazz
/
Friends. Let’s talk about JAZZ. As you probably know by now, I listen to a ton of classical music (as a former classical musician myself, it’s really my happy place). However, in terms of actual time spent, I have a secret… I probably listen to more jazz than classical. WHAT THE WHAT! You heard (read?) right – this classical music nerd spends a lot of time listening to jazz. Why? Because, in my opinion, it’s THE perfect genre of music to listen to while working (especially if you spend a lot of time reading and writing like I do). But, a lot of people don’t know how to get past the “background music”-level understanding and appreciation of jazz, which is such a shame because (1) there is an ever-loving crapton of incredible jazz to listen to, (2) despite my love of working to jazz, there is SO much more to it than good background music, and (3) because becoming a jazz aficionado is a very approachable, fun, and hella classy hobby (especially if you already love collecting vinyl). So let’s dive in and I’ll teach you all about how to listen to jazz!
So you want to listen to jazz? Here’s where you start
First, just let it wash over you. Immersion is one of the best methods for getting into any genre of music. Jazz is my favourite type of music to put on when we have friends over (I love that it adds to my allure as “cultured and classy”, but what I actually really like is the warm and cozy ambiance it gives to the room without any noisy lyrics). As I mentioned, it’s also something I listen to a lot while working. I cannot tell you how many times I listened to the old Songza (remember Songza?!) classic jazz playlists during law school. Hundreds each? Oh lord, at least. Jazz is like coffee – it’s comforting, it keeps you going, and you can drink it all day. Er, listen to it all day. Close enough.
Once you’re “in the groove” (jazz joke!) of listening to jazz, the second step is to know that jazz has rules, just like classical music. The artistry and innovation from era to era in jazz history (just like in classical history and, frankly, any kind of arts history) is about how the rules are adhered to and how they’re broken. So, as you move through the different eras of jazz, how musicians treat the “rules” is different. Before we get to ways the rules can be broken, let’s look at the bare bones basics. This is how you can ground your ear and quickly “get” what you’re listening to. It’s actually super simple.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW AND LISTEN FOR IN JAZZ
First, just like with classical music, there is a relatively small number of pieces that are performed wayyy more than all others. So even though the total number of works/pieces/recordings is really enormous, you can be extremely knowledgeable about the genre by knowing a very small subset. Think of it as the Pareto Principle (aka, the 80-20 rule) at work: you get 80% of the results by knowing only 20% of the total number of pieces. Extra good news is that you probably already know some of this 20%! These are called jazz standards… can you guess why? Because they’re the standard pieces all jazz musicians know, and that jazz fans also know. People often think of standards as songs that jazz crooners sing, and they aren’t far off. Heck, you might even know some of these already – songs like “My Funny Valentine”, “Fly Me To The Moon”, and “The Girl from Ipanema” are all considered jazz standards.
Here’s the next thing you need to know: jazz is not like classical music. Every jazz band doesn’t take a piece of jazz music – like, say, “My Funny Valentine”, and perform it the same. Even if you listen to the same jazz band or combo play the same tune two times in a row, each version would be slightly different. And if you listened to two different bands play it back to back, it would be even more different. And if you listened to two soloists from two different decades play it – you see where I’m going with this – you would have even more variation. The reason is because classical music is much more “prescriptive” than jazz: the notes on the page tell the musician(s) just about all of the information needed to perform the piece, so different interpretations are fairly close together (at least, to most people’s ears). In jazz, the musical information on the page is pretty sparse – often just two things: the basic tune, and the chords. The rest is up to the performers (even though they usually follow a couple of conventions, aka, standard ways of doing things). So let’s walk through how a jazz ensemble or soloist would take that information and turn it into a whole performance of a piece.
Starting things off: the Head
So you’ve got a jazz standard tune like “Autumn Leaves” (one of the perennial classics and most beloved standards). What does our hypothetical jazz band, soloist, or combo do with it? Well, first off, most pieces/performances/recordings of jazz are based around a single tune, called the “head”. This is the main melody – what you would whistle if you were asked to whistle the song, and it’s called the head because you play it at the beginning. So let’s imagine a version of “Autumn Leaves” performed by a big band (that’s a standard jazz band: four trumpets, four trombones, four saxes/sometimes a clarinet, plus bass, drums, and piano). The band might plan ahead of time how they’re going to play a bit of an intro (this can be written by an arranger and actually be on the printed music, or it can be done by ear during rehearsals, which is more common for smaller groups of musicians called “combos”). Then, the default is for the band to play the head together. Basically, this is the band saying to you, the listener, “here’s the song we’re working with.”
So to start, listen for the head tune if there is one (some eras of jazz divert from this model, so don’t feel like you’re doing it wrong if you don’t hear it – just roll with it!). The music will sound like it has more form and more structure at this point than it will sound like later (i.e., no one is improvising… there’s no “noodling about” yet). You’ll hear the tune a couple times through, and you’ll also hear the chords the melody runs overtop of. You don’t need to know anything about these chords – hell, you don’t even have to think about them. But just like a pop song you learn on guitar, there is a series of chords happening underneath the tune, and some of the members of our imaginary big band will be playing the chords to make the whole thing sound lush and polished. Each time through the chords – melody or no melody on top – is called a chorus. Which brings us to…
Up next: Improvisation
Once the band finishes playing through the head tune, they will inevitably break out and start riffing on that tune and its chords through improvisation. Even if you know nothing about jazz, you probably know that jazz players make up a lot of what they play, but you might not know how they do it. What’s amazing about jazz is that it’s like elite athletics or great cooking – if you explain it, it sounds simple. In execution, it’s unreal difficult, nuanced, and fascinating. Musicians in our big band will take turns “taking solos”. That means, one musician gets to stand up for one chorus (or, if they’re really feelin’ it, maybe a few choruses) while the rest of the band either plays the chords or takes a break. The person standing up has an opportunity to improvise music overtop of the chords. What the hell does that mean? Well, you’ve got the set series of chords that the band just played under the melody, right? Each chord has a handful of notes in it (if you were to play the chord on the piano, think of the three or four keys you would press down). The improvising soloist will use those notes to make up new melodies on the spot. They also use other tools like jazz scales (patterns of notes that they’ve memorized and practiced a bazillion times) that “fit” the given chords (aka, that sound good with those specific chords in that order). The result is the noodly, kind of meandering, but really exciting and fun sound of an improvised jazz solo.
The standard pattern is for a couple members of the band in a row to “take solos” like this, and if you’re watching jazz live, the audience will clap for each soloist after each solo ends (yes, right in the middle of the song). If a soloist does something really exciting, the audience might even hoot and holler mid-solo (may as well show them you love it!). You also might hear or see two soloists (one of which is often the drummer) do something called “trading fours.” That’s when they shorten the length of the solo (to four bars – hence, trading fours) and the two soloists basically duel back and forth/riff off what one another do back and forth, which is always a total treat.
Time to whoop it up: the Shout Chorus
While the soloists are almost done taking turns, the “chart” (that’s the written music the players are playing off) might change a bit under the solos, building tension and excitement. Or, if the band is going full improv (no printed music, or just the head and the chords), the rhythm section might start amping things up (that’s the drums, bass, and piano). Maybe there are more notes happening. Maybe the instruments who were taking a break start to come back in. Maybe the drum part really starts to ramp up. This is all to build tension to, often, the shout chorus. Just like in a lot of classical music (and a lot of pop music!), the music takes us away from the main melody, then satisfyingly returns us to it in epic fashion. That’s the shout chorus: the whole band plays the head tune again, usually in spectacularly loud and thrilling fashion. The trumpet players might really let it rip into the high range here. There might be “shouting” (playing bits of the melody) back and forth between the saxes and the brass. Basically, it’s the climax of the piece, and it’s what we really think of as classic big band, especially. Usually, this leads into the epic ending of the piece.
Yay! Now you’re ready to start listening to jazz!
Once you know that basic outline, your ears are way more ready to listen to jazz. Basically, all you really need to know is that some of what the musicians are playing is written/composed/pre-planned, and some of it is made up. And the made-up stuff is based on the written stuff, much of which is “standard.” Then, across eras of jazz or unique performers or groups, you’ll hear interesting takes on that general format (for example, you might hear some improvisation right off the top, or you might have a soloist rocking out over the shout chorus, or you might be in a much more avant garde era of jazz that TOTALLY departs from that format for the sake of expression, experimentation, and boundary pushing). It. Is. All. Good.
And, of course, there are both fast and slow jazz pieces. In a ballad (a slow, lyrical song), you will still see/hear the basic form I’ve outlined above, it will just sound less raucous and more cool/tender/chill/whatever vibe the band is going for.
So where should you start listening to jazz? In case you haven’t guessed, I’m a huge fan of big band, so I usually tell people to start listening to some of the greatest big bands of all time. It’s a great way to hear all the standard jazz instruments, learn the big jazz standards, and get used to the general flow of a jazz performance outlined above. That way, when you’re ready to get deeper into listening to later eras, your ears are ready. So here are a few classic examples for you to test you new knowledge on. Then, grab a “big band” playlist on your streaming service of choice and let ‘er roll!
