School’s Out, Graduations with new seasons beginning. This time of year, I realize how intimately connected to the pace of the academic year my life has become. I didn’t start out seeking to become a teacher but understanding the Tao of Jazz, compelled me to fully appreciate the value of great mentors regardless of discipline.
I was very fortunate to learn from a variety of men and women who were consistent in their attention and wise in their advice. More than my time onstage, it was the time spent in developing and refining my own melodic and rhythmic ideas that helped everything else fall into place.
After almost 5 decades, It’s apparent to me that making this music has to come from the most authentic part of yourself. It mirrors the place from which my writing springs. They’re really co-elements giving range and nuance to my voice.
I was born into a family that understood the WHY of music.
Music is not just here for your entertainment. It is here because the trials and tribulations of this life demand that you speak up, speak out, speak low, speak love speak to the world in which you exist.
It’s vitally important to speak from a position of knowledge and study. (In Jazz parlance, If you don’t know the song, stay off the stage until you do…)
Like rings on a tree or geological eras which reveal themselves on excavation, the music of improvisors reflects evolution. The music has always been affected by stimuli social, political, economic, and technological. The improvising musician faces the daunting task of discerning the “tones of the times” in order to produce music worthy of the traditions from which it springs.
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I began teaching (or really just sharing my process of Jazz improvisation with students) in 1979. In 1973, I was introduced to teaching sessions they called clinics. Watching my then-boss Bill Chase conducting these workshops in the afternoon before the evening show was something that seemed like a good thing. 1. because having the knowledge down well enough to play it and demonstrate it for others was good and 2. People also paid you to do it.
Jazz improvisation, while not a trivial pursuit, does adhere to foundational components which make it easier understand how it all fits together. Once I understood how chords and scales work together to make melody it became fun, not daunting to keep listening and learning. It became a journey to find the sounds I could hear in my mind.
A BIG, FAT ASTERISK HERE…!
Yes, I’ve been describing my process of learning music from an American Jazz point of reference but what I’ve been describing is not the exclusive domain of the Jazz musician. Country and Western or Samba or any music for that matter rely on realtime decision making from the player. He or she must be sensitive to a whole range of considerations for making great music. Regardless of style or culture of origin, improvisation is the prime mover for learning to play music. You make music because its inside you and it wants, no, needs to get out into the world. You may just sing in the shower or you may go to Juilliard to chase the muse that beckons but the point is that it does beckon. A blessed thing.
Thanks to Ellsworth Brown, Ernest Redd and Dr. Robert Weast, G.T. Clinton and Sam Salomone modeling for me the basics of time, tone and texture.
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My friend and colleague Phil Aaberg and I appreciated the fact that our sons could play music and also strive to be good teachers and mentors to their next generation. Both Jaimeo and Michael continue to embody the best of traditions where inspiration might be harnessed by those who put in prodigious amounts of perspiration in the practice room.
I’m extremely gratified to present for you pianist Michael Aaberg, drummer Jaimeo Brown, Tenor Saxophonist Dayna Stephens and yours truly on the electric bass guitar. We’re playing a composition, written by Dayna entitled “Teeth.” This performance which took place at the Ozark Club in Great Falls was the culminating event of a week of Jazz Workshops produced by Phil in the early 2000’s.
A Night At The Ozark Club Fathers and Sons - Phil and Michael Aaberg - Dartanyan and Jaimeo R. Brown with Dayna Stephens (composer and friend to all)
This is not “easy listening” music. It is, however, a tribute to the next generation of improvising musicians. “Teeth”, the title of Dayna’s pensive, challenging composition contains intriguing harmonic territory for the improvisor while also offering an incredibly open rhythmic palette which Jaimeo takes full advantage of.
Dayna Stephens has emerged as one of the best of a new generation of composers and Saxophonists. Fortunately, Dayna, Michael and Jaimeo served as literal sounding boards for each other during their ‘formative years’ in San Francisco creating a strong bond which will be apparent here.
This performance was adventurous, searching, and bracing in it’s audacity. I was fortunate to be the ‘old guy’ on the stage with this newest incarnation of Young Lions. They’re ferocious, their claws are sharp and they are not here just to entertain you….but you will be ….if you have an ear for the truth.
Phil Aaberg and Sonny Rollins We’ll Miss You….
This performance was recorded, edited, and prepared by Dartanyan for Dartanyan Brown Music. If you’d like to license anything for your own purposes, we make it easy. Simply click the Message button and you’re in!
