The Tempo and Tone of Jazz Music

Jazz Report: At the Mezzrow

This is a jazz performance report on the show by Aaron Parks with Ralph Alessi and John Hebert at the Mezzrow -- a Greenwich Village showplace. The show was performed on 23 July 2016. Aaron Parks played the piano, Ralph Alessi the trumpet and John Hebert the bass. This was an instrumental performance.

As is typical of most jazz, the instruments used were piano, trumpet and bass and the three combined to produce harmonious sounds that were rhythmically conducted by the bass rhythm and punctuated by the hammers of the piano and the bursts from the trumpet. The piano and the bass are chordophones and the trumpet is an aerophone, according to the classifications of the Sachs-Hornbostel system (Schmidt-Jones).

The timbre of the instruments is rich and poppy. The base drives the sounds but yields up energy to the horn and to the piano, letting the two duel and dance together; mostly the instruments align in a give and take kind of rapidity; the horn alternately leads with solo performances supported by the piano and bass and at times the piano leads the way. There a great fluctuations in the tones of the instruments. The trumpet will burst with rapid-fire like bullets of sounds while the piano issues out chord progressions before running up and down the keyboard in a virtuoso tear of energy and sound. The horn will then devolve into a mellow and melancholy, wistful performance while the piano regroups -- and then another burst of energy from the horn will follow. It is overall a very up and down type of timbre throughout the performances from the trio, which is typical of jazz, as it is rooted in a lively, spiritual kind of musical tradition in which various melodies contend with one another and yet participate in the same harmonious course, blending and competing simultaneously or sitting back and letting one instrument lead the way for a time while the others give space (Kubik 111).

There is no real form or structure to the performances as they are like free-flowing expressions of energy and mood. One piece literally picks up and goes and then stops, then another piece begins, moves around freely, and ends. The instruments essentially play off the mood of one another, like friends getting together and conversing -- one instrument starts a conversation, another joins, says a few words (makes a few sounds), and a third member chimes in; each participates and adds a little; then the conversation ends and a new one begins. They take various moods but are usually up-beat and confident and very relaxed overall.

The music is polyphonic with multiple notes and melodies occurring at once -- if indeed they can be called melodies; they are more like harmonic chords and progressions that either synch up or produce a discordant sound or variation on a main theme that is being produced by the horn or piano. The melodies are wide-ranging and very complex, with notes being repeated in different patterns and never or rarely being repeated in the same manner twice. The music is not really linear and could be described as heterophonic, as there is not a lot of point and counterpoint -- the instruments seem to exercise themselves on their own, independently of one another; yet they are all participating in the same discourse and supporting one another in a single direction: how this is so is somewhat complex, but possible through a kind of variation in melodic range, tempo and theme.

The time of the music is rapid but alternates, so that brief bursts of movement occur followed by stretches of slower meter and tempo. The pulse is steady overall but not without its exciting occurrences when energy leaps out of the instruments for a few moments of sound. The performance was essentially metrically free, with varying rhythms and tempos throughout.

The visual component of the performance was very relaxed: the club is like a lounge, so the listeners were reclining at small tables or chairs in the back, enjoying the music and drinking. There was no talking during the performances -- so it was not like it was background music: the people were there to see and hear. The audience applauded at the end of each piece and the performers appreciated their applause and would say a word or two in between pieces but there was not a lot of verbal interaction -- it was instead like an understood relationship of mutual appreciation and respect between the audience and the players. The clothing of the players was simple -- relaxed, unpretentious. They wore basic shirts, black or white and slacks. The audience was dressed similarly, but also showed more assortment and variety.