Jazz, seen as an encounter of european and african musical cultures

It is certainly no exaggeration to say that the most important event in the field of music in the twentieth century was the meeting of the european and the african musical culture. This event took place first in the countries of North- and South-America, where people of african and european origin live together. Here the jazz and latin american musical styles came into existence, and from there on originated the different forms of rock- and pop-music, that have spread out worldwide.

The characteristic of the european music is the high developement of harmonic and melodic structures. The music is written down in notes and scores. This method made possible the invention of various highly complex forms, as the fugue, the sonate or the twelve note serial technic. But this also embarrasses improvisation and spontaneous changes of the music. Music, as art as a whole, is seen very much as a value in itself (“Lárt pour lárt”). It doesn´t adress to a distinct audience and, in it´s highest form, doesn´t have a social function. The musician or composer is expected very much to create new and novel compositions, he has to be “creative”.

In african music, the rhythm is the dominating element. The music results from a layering of different rhythms, that integrate into a complex texture. Every player has the possibility to change his rhythmic pattern and so to change the overall sound and to lead the music into a new direction. Instead of a dramatic form with a pre-known process it comes to an epic structure, that is indetermined an that can go on for a long time. Having time is no problem in Africa! In a music with this kind of structure it is impossible to notate or to repeat a musical piece. As a consequence, the role of the composer, that is so important in Europe, doesn´t exist here. African music is connected closely with everyday culture, it is always related with the village and it´s events. Celebrations, religious rituals, healing processes and common works have their distinct musical repertoire. (In Europe, this is known only in church music, where the various feasts during the year are related to appropriate songs). For the evaluation of music it is important for africans in the first place, that it is played well and that it fits into the situation. Novelty and creativety is not out of the question, but it is also not expected.

In jazz music, there is a connection of elements out of both cultures. From Europe was taken the functional harmony and most of the commonly used instruments. A lot of jazz musicians are using also the technic of score-writing. From the african tradition stems the interest in rhythm, the voice-like treatment of the instruments and the ability to let the music flow with the stream of improvisation. Like in Europe, jazz musicians indentify themselves as independent artists, wheareas like in african music, they strive for contact with their audience and change their music depending to the playing situation. The amazing aspect is, that in jazz both sources join to a harmonious result, that resembles only slightly to his both “parents”.

The different relations of european and african elements has stimulated the development of jazz, and helped to create a multitude of differing styles. An orchestral work like “Miles Ahead” by Gil Evans is related closely to the european form of the solo concert, whereas the late works of Miles Davis owe a lot to african music, with it´s layering of textures and rhythms. The tension between these two poles, out of that jazz originated, ist a main source for the fascination of jazz, and makes possible a further development that is unforseeable.

Of course, nobody can know, what music in fifty or hundred years will sound like. But the encounter of african and european music, that is described above, is irreversible in my opinion. It is impossible for me to imagine, that the creative and talented among european (and also worldwide) musicians will ever give up the possibilities, that go along with improvisation, the intensity of rhythm and the individual sound. By all respect and love I feel for the masterworks of european classic and for some efforts of the composers of “New Music”, all this belongs in my eyes and ears to the achievements of an historical period, that is already bygone.

Matthias Petzold, February 2000

Composition and Improvisation

Beeing a jazz musician in Europe means, to make music in the tension between (at least) two different musical traditions. A big part of this tension comes from the two poles of improvisation and composition.

For jazz, improvisation is one of the fundamental characteristics. In improvisation, the interest lies in the spontaneous flow of ideas that doesn´t follow a determined plan, and in the communication between the musicians. Every jazz musician sees himself as an creative artist, who contributes his own part to the overall sound of the band. This attitude has important influences not only on the music, but also on spheres that seem to be far away, like opinions about man and society or the sense of time.

In the classical european music, the composer ist the most important person. The working technic of notating music in scores is the common characteristic of all european music styles from baroque to the twentieth century.

If jazz music in Europe doesn´t want to be superficial, it has to deal with this tradition and the masterworks, that were created that way. The problem is, that the technic of score-writing leads automaically to a form of music, that is contrary to the principles of jazz: in a written composition the time is, so to speak, frozen. It is possible to repeat processes over and over and to take them out of the organic and continual flow of time, as it is felt by the improviser. Also, the playing musicians aren´t allowed to be creative by themselves. They are just tools of the composer, who alone has the right to be an artist. To make possible a repeatable performance, that is true to the ideas of the composer, it is necessary to obtain a strict hierarchy, that sets severe borders to the freedom of the musicians. This disdvantages stand against the enormous possibilities in the fields of form, harmony and orchestration, that can only be used by score-writing.

For the described disadvantages it is possible to have a radical point of view, and to use only improvisation as a musical technic. But experiences with this kind of music show, that clichés are also found here, and that patterns and repeated structures come into existence unwillingly. So I think it is useful to integrate the possibilities of composing into jazz music.

Some jazz composers, for example Klaus König, tried to integrate the improvisational styles of their musicians into the written parts of their pieces. For me, the problem with this is, that the music sounds improvised without actually beeing it. Also rises the problem of the parentage of this kind of compositions. Is it a work of the composer or does it belong to the musician, whose style is used? Finally it is a practical problem, that every performance of the piece has to be played by the same musicians.

So my own concept leads into the opposite direction. In the written parts of my suites “ä”Psalmen und Lobgesnge (“Psalms and Hymns”) ang “ä”Panga I strive for a dense and clear musical statement, that represents only my own style. In this parts, the musicians have indeed a role that is similar to that of musicians in a classic orchestra. Between this notated parts are extendend places for improvisation. This places are connected with the composition through the groove and the chord changes of the piece, but let the soloist total freedom to create his improvisation. The composed backgrounds behind the solo function as a dialogue between composer and improviser.

This technic of composion allows performances with different musicians, that can be very variable. As a composer I can make full use of the possibilities of writing and develop my own style of composing. In terms of form, a flowing, epic structure is created, in which the different parts of composition and improvisation alternate. This corresponds better with the feeling for form in jazz music than very complex and dramatic structures.

The integration of the european composing tradition into the jazz idiom is clearly one of the most interesting problems for the european jazz scene. Enjoy composing, improvising, and of course listening to all forms of music!

Matthias Petzold, February 2000

Jazz musicians and their audience

The origin of jazz from african and european sources did not only influence it´s stylistic character, but also the self-identification of the musicians. As in the european culture, they see themselves as autonomous artists. At the same time, depending to the african tradition, they need the contact to their audience, and shape their music according to the playing situation.

Because of this wide range o in self-identification, jazz music could succeed in various social situations. In the first half of the 20th century, jazz in America was part of the so-called “entertainment buisiness”. Musicians like Louis Armstrong and Count Basie have seen themselves as entertainers and made music in this context. When after the second world war, jazz music was perceived in Europe more and more as serious art, this influenced the musicians of the Bebop- and the Cool Jazz-era. They shaped jazz following to the european cultural ideal as a new and original art form. From that on descended, mainly in Europe, a musical avantgarde, that looked for contacts to the composers of “New Music” and to modern arts. The resulting free music styles adressed mainly to the intellectual art scene in the bigger cities. Since the seventies, finally, there exists with the Jazz-Rock and Fusion-styles also a broad stream in jazz, that tries to find it´s place in the context of pop-music and youth subculture. This again puts an accent on the “entertaining” qualities of the music.

For a long time, european (and especially german) jazz musicians strived for the ideal of “Lárt pour lárt”, and were orientated at the model of the european-american avantgarde in music and arts. This certainly helped to create an independent european form of jazz and a lot of exiting music. On the other hand, this kind of music abandoned the contact to the audience and neglected the principle of african culture, in which music should always help to create community. In my opinion, it is important to find a new balance between european and african elements. A music, that accentuates the rhythmic and communicative elements of jazz would have the possibility to reach a bigger audience, and also to have more presence in public. Finally, to create exiting and professional music, you need enough places to play and to present your music.

It is not necessary, that a new kind of jazz should adress only to the subcultures of the big cities, where a lot of jazz musicians live. In the last decades jazz found it´s place in the music education scene also in smaller towns. From there on, it could adress to all kind of cultural interested people. For a lot of jazz musicians it is reality, that they make their living by teaching. This is not only an expedient for the less successful, but opens a lot of possibilities to create new kinds of music.

My own projects “ä”Panga and “ä”Psalmen und Lobgesnge (psalms and hymns) originate from such a situation. Premieres and CD-recordings were made by ensembles, that mixed amateur and professional musicians. In “Pangäa”, a part of the performing Bigband consisted of advanced students of the local music school, whereas the solo- and lead parts were played by professional musicians. In “Psalmen und Lobgesänge” the professional band worked with a church choir. Both works are composed in a way, that allows that kind of handling and leads to good musical results. Both events were interesting for the whole cultural life of the city and attracted also people, who never before attended a jazz concert.

It is part of the jazz tradition, to take the audience serious and to integrate it into the style of the musical performances. If jazz musicians do not only complain, but consequently use the possibilities they have, we can hope not only to create new kinds of music, but also to improve our working and living conditions.

Matthias Petzold, February 2000

The Perception of Time in Jazz Music

If you ask people that don´t like jazz for the reasons of their rejection, you often get the answer: “The improvisations are always too long!” It´s interesting, that they don´t critisize the harmonic or rhythmic tension, or the complexity of the music, but it´s formal structure and it´s developement in the flow of time. So the difficulties that many people have in hearing jazz are not based in an intellectual misunderstanding of the music, but in a different way to experience time. For me that was a reason to think a bit about this phenomenon.

The european classical music is written down in scores. This had the consequence, that the european composers developed a strong interest in the formal aspects of music. The composers spent a lot of their creative energy in creating interesting courses for their musical pieces. During the centuries, they invented dramatic forms with planned progressions like the sonata, the symphony, or the opera, which deeply influenced the hearing conventions of european audiences. This can be called a dramatic time perception.

In an often flat and trivial way also hit-songs and pop-music follow this kind of time structure. Here too the compositions have different formal parts and a simple tension curve, that holds the song together for three minutes.(An exeption is Hip-Hop with it´s often unstructured flow of groove and lyrics, but this is surely a very “black” form of pop-music.)

In Jazz, the musical progression is left to the flow of improvisation. The simple arrangements (theme, solo order, theme) have more practical than artistical reasons, and neither have the ability nor the intention to create interest for an audience. The crucial points for the consistency of the music are aspects, that are not so closely related to the time course: the individual sound of the musicians; the balance of the timing in the band; the energy created by the interplay of the musicians. So, each moment of an improvisation is equally important. Therefore, an improvised piece of Jazz music can last very long without important formal cuts. It is true that in an improvisation there are also developements, ups and downs of tension, and musical motives, that are used for a while. But all of this doesn´t follow a detailed plan. It can happen or not and has a right in itself at every moment of the piece. This can be called an epic perception of time.

A listener that is used to music with a dramatic time perception will expect from artistic valuable music primarily a complex formal structure. So probably he will be disappointed by a jazz improvisation. This is of course in the first place the problem of the listener, not the musician´s. Since in Jazz the relation between musician and audience has an important role (see “”Jazz Musicians and their Audience ), it seems to be important for me to realise the reasons for this disappointment. Only then Jazz musicians can explain, that the epic, flowing time perception and the long periods belong to the essence of Jazz. And they can emphasize to the elements, that are really the base of this music: sound, individual timing and improvisational interplay within the band.

Matthias Petzold (September 2000)

Critic of the “New Music”

“Atonal Revolution”, Emancipation of the Dissonance”, “Serialism”, “Aleatorik” ... There is no end with the slogans in the so-called “New Music”. Driven by the wish to create new and never-before-heard music, thousands of composers of the musical avantgarde have explored the farest regions of imagenable sounds. But the theories, on which this music is based, content some doubious estimations, that arise the question, if the New Music isn´t cought in a dead end street.

The abolition of tonality and of the metric rhythms in the New Music was founded by the argument, that these musical elements were worn out. This opinion went along with the expectation, that the audience would get used to the new sounds, and was often connected with a disdain of those, who didn´t like the resulting music. Meanwhile it is very clear, that this expectation didn´t come true. In spite of the fact that hearing conventions surely were expanded by atonal composition, a dissonance is still felt as a tension, and a consonance as a release. Still metric rhythms have an intensity, that moves the listening people. This situation arises the question, if it makes sense to give up musical elements, that are rooted so deeply in the collective consciousness, if not in the physical conditions of man.

The popular, african-influenced music was undervaluated with the argument, that the success of this music would be only short-term and superficial. Meanwhile it has come out, that the music for example of Duke Ellington is still very influential after more than seventy years, and that also pop-musicians like Lennon/McCartney or Mick Jagger still fascinate after almost forty years. On the other hand we see, that the valuation of the composers of european classic by no means is unchangeable. The adoration of the classisal music scene for Beethoven, for example, decreased a lot during the last fifty years.

With unbelievable energy most of the composers of the New Music defend the “Werkcharakter” (work quality?) of a composition. According to this, the so-called “work” exists independently of it´s performances in the empty space and has it´s real value there. This theory repeats and radicalizes an old problem of the european cultural history: the seperation between body and spirit, material and spiritual reality. The “Werk an sich” (work for itself) is identified with the spirit and is the real value, whereas the performance has only the less important material function. Of course, this opinion misses the reality of the human person as an inseperatable unity of body and spirit. As a musical piece, the composition exists only in the actual performance. The fascination of music clearly lies in the intense bodily-spiritual reception in the flow of time. So, the composers of the New Music missed the chance to overcome the european dualism between body and spirit. In comparison to the music of the 18th and 19th century it was even deepened.

For jazz musicians, this dualism was never a problem. Because of the african influences in jazz and the importance of improvisation, the natural unity of the human person was always maintained. In regard to this facts it is evident, that a music that creates solutions for the future problems of the european society cannot descend from the common principles of the New Music. (See also: Composition and Improvisation; Jazz seen as an encounter of african and european musical traditions).

Matthias Petzold, April 2000

Perspectives of contemporary Arts

The story of the european arts since the middle ages is a story of the fight for independence. In the medieval society, the artist had the position of a craftsman. In service of the church he had to create artworks, whose contents were determined by the church. After a while, the artists gained more freedom to create different forms of expression, for example the polyphonic church music in the 13th century, or the development of the central perspective in renaiessance paintings. But still the artists depended on their commissioners.

The rise of the civil society in th 19th century went along with the idea of the independence of arts, especially of music. The “Geniekult” (veneration of the genius) proclaimed the right of the artist to create independent works of art with the single purpose to express his individuality. In the 20th century the idea of “Lárt pour lárt” (the art exists for itself) was radicalized even more. The artists created for themselves a role completely outside the society, where freedom and individuality were the highest values.

With the achievement of the complete freedom for the artist it is impossible and also not reasonable to continue this way. In contrary, the question rises, how artists can handle this freedom responsible. For centuries, art was valuated mainly after the quality of being “new” and after agreeing to the laws of “Materialfortschritt” (progress of artistic material, Adorno). Now, in my opinion, it is time to start different questions.

The main question cannot be: “Is this new?” It is more important, that person and work of an artist harmonize, that the artwork speaks to different people in their living situations and that it is convincing with regard to it´s contents and it´s emotional message. The questions should be: “What happens to people that encounter that work of art? Does it help them with the problems they have? Opens it up perspectives for a better reality? Does it improve communication in the society or ist it isolated in a self-constructed secret language?”

Of course it doesn´t make sense to abandon the artistical freedom and look only for public acclaim. Critic and provocation still are an essential part of a responsible form of art. But it is important, that the artist sees himself as a part of the society that he can improve by his work.

This change of view, that is described above, relates to living streams of tradition in european and especially african art. In the 20th century, artists like Bertholt Brecht or Joseph Beuys tried to influence society and politics with their work. This kind of artisic statement is of course vulnerable not only in terms of esthetic and creativity, but also for it´s contents and opinions. This is obvious with Brecht, whose work lost a lot of it´s importance with the failure of the socialist experiment.

From earlier centuries J.S. Bach springs to mind, whose compositions are inseperately linked with the christian religion. Also the religious messages of medieval artists are not only caused by their dependence on their commissioners, but also by their own convictions.

In the african society, the transmission of religious, moral or political messages is one of the fundamental qualities of art. The value of a piece of music, a mask or a poem is judged by it´s success in fulfilling this mission. The political and religious statements of black jazz- and pop-musicians like Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, to name just a few, are rooted in this tradition.

I think, that it is necessary to change the view to art as a whole, and to redefine the relation between artist and socoety. It is important to stop the fruitless self-fixation of the art scene, and to develop a strong connection to the people outside this narrow circle, that would be useful for both sides. (See also Jazz musicians and their audience; Jazz seen as an encounter of african and european musical traditions)

Matthias Petzold, March 2000