On Feb 11, 2005, at 10:56 AM, John Howell wrote:
The academic approach is exemplified by the curriculum at Berklee, which emphasized (and may still do so) transcribing from recordings of "Golden Age" be-boppers. Terrific ear training, no question about it, but memorizing Charlie Parker solos is only the beginning, not the eventual goal, for a jazz player or singer.
I think most jazz practitioners realize that.
The be-bop greats themselves weren't imitating anybody else,
Absolutely not true. Bird himself was trying to simultaneously channel Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, with the technique of Jimmy Dorsey. Like all music, bebop grew out of trying to sound unique while building on what came before. There isn't one jazz musician of note that wasn't, at some point, trying to sound like some other musician who came before them.
and the market for imitation Charlie Parkers is somewhat limited.
Hmm, tell that to Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Bob Mover, heck, why restrict the list to alto saxophonists, include almost any saxophonist formed after 1950, and a whole cartload of musicians playing other instruments as well. That being said, there were often great strides made by musicians imitating players of instruments OTHER than their own, which would seem to support the kernel of your statement, that we don't need another Bird, but we DO need to know what he did and how he did it.
Disclaimer: While I've worked with some really fine jazz players over the years, it isn't my field and I'm not up to date on what the really creative people are doing these days. I'm just looking at it from inside academia.
Musicians who want to play some of the music that the really creative guys are playing have only one choice – transcribe it from a recording. There is a huge time lag between jazz being performed and the written music being generally available, unlike most non-pop. (A few recent exceptions like Bob Brookmeyer, Steve Swallow, Dave Douglas, who have made their written music available almost immediately, and sometimes right there in the CD, underline this phenomenon rather than disprove it.)
Rather than being a drawback in the field, it actually works out rather well, as only the musicians who REALLY love it and have sensitive enough ears to hear it are going to go to the trouble of transcribing new jazz music, and in the process they are going to absorb it very effectively into their style. Half-formed musicians who only ever got as far as their university transcription assignments probably won't have the drive to keep growing, and will stay resolutely in the middle of the pack.
Christopher
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