Sunday, May 22, 2005

Sounding witty

What sets jazz apart from other current musical genre is wit. No that other genres have no wit, but that it is a constitutive part of jazz. No other music not only allows but requires the musician to show off his or her wit structurally with improvisational solos. It is not enough that the playing is technically virtuoso in every way but must show wit. This is why great classical musicians in general embarrass themselves playing jazz. Classical musicians can be playful, charming, or even free, but wit is another thing. Wit is a special kind of humour, it brings not belly laughs but knowing smiles. It requires intelligence to execute and intelligence to receive. And above all, it is a humour of the language itself. With words, for example, their meanings are not changed so much as its usage slided slightly. In this 'slide', seemingly incongruous things are put together with humour. In music this often shows up by tweaking the rhythm and/or melodic lines to reference or introduce another piece of music. Like with verbal language, this feat requires a thorough knowledge and understand of the language (the jazz language) to accomplish. Jazz fails when it takes itself too seriously to allow for wit or references without intelligent humour. For then it become academic in the worst sense.

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