I wrote this article years ago for a website that is unfortunately now offline. Luckily, I had a back-up copy in my archives. It will probably seem a very simplistic explanation to a serious jazz lover, yet I think it might be a good start for a person who knows nothing about jazz and is interested in dipping his toe in the water. Hope to post a few other “lost essays” from that website in the future, as the fresh content seems to be decreasing lately here at the Spiddlement office while we work on a few unrelated projects.

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How To Understand Jazz Music

For much of my life, I was needlessly intimidated by jazz music. A lot of people who come from a pop music background are. I mean, I liked jazz music a lot, thought it sounded great, but I never understood it.

Whenever I would see a live jazz band playing in the park, it was easy to enjoy the groove and notice the proficiency of the musicians. But what kind of structure were they using? It certainly wasn’t the “verse-chorus-verse” structure of pop tunes like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “Be My Baby”, or even the Tin Pan Alley structure of early pop and show tunes like “Come Fly With Me” and “‘Til There Was You”.

Sometimes I heard songs that I recognized played by jazz bands, songs like “Night and Day”, “Stella By Starlight”, “Georgia On My Mind”, or “Midnight At The Oasis”. I could relate to the great melodies, but was amazed at the way the players would totally deconstruct these songs and create new interpretations on the spot. How the heck did they do that? I finally decided that I would try to solve the mystery of jazz music.

Traditional Structure of Jazz Music

You don’t have to know how jazz music works to enjoy it, but it certainly makes things a lot more fun. The explanation I will offer here is probably not technical enough for some jazz lovers; that’s OK, I am writing this for newbies as a stepping stone to get further into jazz.

OK, down to brass tacks: The most important part of a jazz song is the beginning. A jazz song is like a newspaper story; the band gives you all the important information in the “first paragraph”, and then expands on the information and reveals more details if you decide to “keep reading”.

A traditional jazz song opens with the whole band playing the melody first. Sometimes this is called the “theme”. If a band does a cover of “Georgia On My Mind”, for example, they would start by playing the main melody (the part of the song that the singer would usually sing) together. If you are seeing a live jazz band, listen for the beginning to hear the theme – during the rest of the performance, the musicians will be expanding and improvising around that theme. Also, some jazz songs feature a short introductory riff played just before the main theme.

Improvisation: What Makes Jazz So Cool

After the main melody is finished, here comes the fun part. The rest of the song features each of the individual players improvising around the theme. This involves playing their own original melodies, usually created live as you hear them, around the notes and chords in the melody. This is where jazz musicians really have a chance to shine and show their chops. This is why no two jazz performances are ever totally the same.

For example, after the beginning of the song is concluded, the guitarist might play a solo. He will take some of the elements of the song’s melody and rearrange them in his own way. This takes a lot of skill and is really fun to watch. Next, the saxophone player might do the same thing. Then, the organ player, the bass player, and sometimes even the drummer will take a solo.

While each member of the band is soloing and improvising, the other members of the jazz band will continue playing, but will be more in the background. Mostly they are playing chords, rhythms, fills, etc. This is called “comping”, short for accompanying. It may seem like they are not doing as much as the soloist, but their contributions are very important to hold the structure of the song together. It takes a lot of skill to stay in the background, not drawing attention to themselves, while still being creative and adding little flourishes that make the song more interesting.

If a member of the band plays a really good solo, the audience will often clap after their part in the song. One of the fun parts of jazz is hearing each player’s interpretation of the melody, as well as how the individual instruments sound both alone and together. A typical jazz band usually consists of guitar; piano, organ, or keyboard; bass guitar; drums; and brass (saxophone, trumpet, trombone, etc.), but may have almost any instrument you could imagine (marimbas, jazz banjo, flute, clarinet, etc.)

Now For The Big Finish

At the end of the song, when all the players have shown their stuff, the band will usually return to the main theme and play it again, often exactly as they did at the beginning of the song. It’s always fun to hear the original melody repeated after they have played it in many different ways. The band might also repeat the introductory riff. When you hear the main melody again, you know that the song has come to an end. At this point, you can applaud loudly and know that you have not only enjoyed a jazz song but also understood its structure.

Jazz is not just limited to the traditional structure, of course. There are many variations. A lot of “vocal jazz” or “jazz pop” has a structure similar to a regular pop song, but uses more complex jazz chords, jazz-style melodies, or jazz chord voicings. Jazz pop is even easier to understand than the traditional jazz structure, so it is a natural entryway into jazz for a lot of people. One of the first jazz pop bands I really liked was Steely Dan, who practically invented the genre. Other kinds of jazz may have different structures or no structure at all (and these can be fun too, once you get over your initial fear of jazz!), but most jazz will follow the structure I have described above.

With A Twist of Lime

Jazz originated in New Orleans at around the start of the 20^th century. It was originally a musical form played by and enjoyed by regular people, mostly blues musicians inspired by African musical traditions. It’s funny that so many people are intimidated by jazz today and think it’s so complicated. It is complicated to play and requires talent, but it’s fun, fun, fun to listen to and easy to appreciate.

Now that you understand the basic structure, go enjoy some jazz music! Be sure to get a table in the front row of the jazz club, where you can really hear the band. Order a Cuba Libre to sip while you’re enjoying the music – and I recommend ordering one with Malibu rum since you’re cool.