Posted by Joe Baker on February 09, 2004 at 22:34:26:
In Reply to: Re: How can you improve your jazz playing? posted by ... on February 09, 2004 at 21:08:56:
My .02:
Learn it in the order in which it evolved: Start with Scott Joplin rags, WC Handy stuff (Louis Armstrong has a great album of WC Handy). Then listen to Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway. Listen to Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, then BB King, Ray Charles, James Brown and Aretha Franklin (yeah, I know, those last couple aren't jazz per se, but they are the pinacle of soul, the offspring of jazz). Learn to sing their songs, learn to play the changes. That knowledge will NEVER cease to be of value to you. Listen to as much blues
When you can play the changes, try to ad lib on the simpler melodies and standards. You'll either find that you have the inventive spark it takes to ad lib solos, or you don't. If you do, great; if you don't (I don't, btw), you'll at least have the foundation to play the bass lines behind that kind of music.
From there, you can pick up with Brubeck, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, etc. if you're interested, but the role of tuba in -- and, IN MY OPINION, the appeal of -- newer jazz is limited (the obvious talent found in Dave Bargeron and the members of Gravity, etc. notwithstanding).
Joe Baker, who prefers men who made music to boys who make noise.