**** My point was that Carter can play GS anyway he wants to play it. That’s what Jazz is all about, individual freedom. Freedom from the written page. ****
Of course he can. And it can also not be very good, or may even suck, as a result. The whole idea of “individual freedom” at all cost has been used as a fallback position for justification of a whole lot of mediocre or even bad playing; just look a some of the “out” or avant garde stuff. Not saying that JC is mediocre at all, he’s a great player in many ways. Just saying that something like Giant Steps is not where he excels.
Honoring the changes of a tune is sacrosanct in Jazz and this is not just opinion. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be a lot of “personal freedom” within the confines of the tune’s structure (includes the changes). That is the whole idea behind what players like Trane strived for. He stretched the harmonic boundaries. However, that “stretching” is an organized and logical “extension” of the harmony; never a free for all. It is not that hard to tell when a player is “stretching the boundaries” and when he’s just doing what jazz players simply refer to as bullshi##!ng one’s way through the changes. The changes to GS are a bitch.
I must say that I find contradiction, and irony, in the fact that you can acknowledge that players “avoid GS like the plague”, but then you dismiss the importance of the very reason that they avoid the tune.... honoring the changes.
I think that nsp’s post on the matter is really on the money. Regards.
Of course he can. And it can also not be very good, or may even suck, as a result. The whole idea of “individual freedom” at all cost has been used as a fallback position for justification of a whole lot of mediocre or even bad playing; just look a some of the “out” or avant garde stuff. Not saying that JC is mediocre at all, he’s a great player in many ways. Just saying that something like Giant Steps is not where he excels.
Honoring the changes of a tune is sacrosanct in Jazz and this is not just opinion. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be a lot of “personal freedom” within the confines of the tune’s structure (includes the changes). That is the whole idea behind what players like Trane strived for. He stretched the harmonic boundaries. However, that “stretching” is an organized and logical “extension” of the harmony; never a free for all. It is not that hard to tell when a player is “stretching the boundaries” and when he’s just doing what jazz players simply refer to as bullshi##!ng one’s way through the changes. The changes to GS are a bitch.
I must say that I find contradiction, and irony, in the fact that you can acknowledge that players “avoid GS like the plague”, but then you dismiss the importance of the very reason that they avoid the tune.... honoring the changes.
I think that nsp’s post on the matter is really on the money. Regards.