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240 |
ITS NATURE |
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there is a constant tendency to accent the highest note of each group of eighths. In Measure 1 there is a slight leaning on the three A Flats, which are spaced three eighth notes apart while the other notes descend chromatically from F to D Flat, thus combining a melodic impression of movement with the rhythmic insistence of the three repeated notes. That Christian was capable of unusually long phrases and an extraordinary degree of continuity between these phrases can be observed in Measure 4. Just when the first phrase seems to have ended on the third beat, he moves immediately to an anticipatory use of the E Flat 7th chord (G Natural and D Flat) and continues the phrase straight through into the sixth measure. The broad range of Christian's phrases also is important, as in bars 9-12, which rise with cumulative effectiveness from a low C to an E Flat more than two octaves higher. The simple repeated octave unison in 13 to 16 may be one of the ideas Christian found in the records of Django Rein-hardt, with whom this was a favorite climactic effect.
Several obvious conclusions may be drawn from an examination of the preceding improvisations. Most important is the remarkable variation, from one soloist to the next, of the degree to which the performer s tone, timbre and personal articulation may color his work. In some instances (notably GiUespie and Tatum) the soloist's identity could be guessed merely from a glance at the manuscript; in others positive identification would demand a hearing of the record. The differences are as subtle and sometimes as elusive as regional language accents.
Despite the impossibility of documenting these accents with complete precision, the reproduction of a jazz solo is no more hindered by this limitation than is a novelist or reporter from bringing human speech to life on paper. Just as the reader, in order to gain the full impact of the writer s dialogues, must himself be intelligently conversant with the language in which they are written, so must the jazz musician, student or fan, reading these pages, have a certain immanent understanding of the language of jazz. Given this prerequisite, he should find in the foregoing examples a helpful guide not only to the dialects of that |
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