Take Care of the Music and It Will Take Care of You

“Teaching music absent of context is noise”

Working with the rhythm section at West Ottawa High School

A recurring theme throughout my masterclasses in Michigan was encouraging students and their teachers to examine the context of the music they’re playing.

Simple, right?

Well, it’s not really as simple as I had hoped.

Given that much of the music that we play and teach, particularly in the realm of the big band, was written in the 1940’s-1980’s (or based on jazz standard repertoire that was written around the same time), students in college and high school in 2023 are so far removed from life in that era.

To be fair, I wasn’t alive during those times either, so I have done my best to seek out mentorship from musicians who played with great jazz ensembles, including the Count Basie Orchestra, the Thad Jones Mel Lewis Orchestra (now known as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra), the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra, and more.

Context is our most powerful teaching tool, because it drops students directly into an era which they have not lived. However, it’s also the most difficult to utilize because unless we have a direct source, it can often be based on legend, myth, or worse—conjecture.

Here’s an example of the power of context. When you play Duke Ellington’s music, you have to understand that Duke Ellington didn’t write music for instruments, he wrote music for people. He wrote for the specific musicians in his band and to emphasize their strengths and sounds.

Baritone saxophone solo? You’re playing music specifically written for Harry Carney. The vibrato and resonance in the baritone saxophone tone in the beginning of Ellington’s landmark composition, Ko-Ko — a key part of Carney’s signature sound on the baritone saxophone. The pull on the string of the walking bass line solo two minutes in? That’s the iconic Jimmy Blanton, one of the first great jazz double bass virtuosos who paved the way for all other jazz double bass players who followed him. Knowing the context is a powerful tool that helps us to fully understand the music through the lens of the humans who created it and its importance cannot be overstated.

But are you supposed to just know all of this? No, this is all learned information and nobody inherently knows this — however it IS part of what we must seek out as musicians.

If you don’t know, ask. If you don’t know who to ask, feel free to ask me! There are plenty of friendly people who are happy to answer questions such as these that deepen our understanding of the music and therefore make our performances better and more informed.

Educators, students, musicians — no matter what the music is, don’t forget the context when you hit the rehearsal room.