Part 2: Developing Craft: An interview with Australian/NZ Jazz pianist Judy Bailey ( 1979)
Jan: What about development of craft?
Judy: Do you mean that whole business of combining awareness of technique, awareness of phrasing, awareness of...the musical ways to move throughout a progression, rather than the clever ways, the overall architecture of the piece. To me that's a very important ingredient.
I think it's vital to be aware of and have your students become aware of the importance of looking at the overall structure rather than going along beat by beat, bar by bar, till you get to the end.
To try and develop a way of looking at a piece in its entirety, so that when you're improvising for instance, you can retain what you've already played, it's as 'though you've recorded it. You've got you've got your little tape recorder in the back of your head and you can retain a memory of what you've played, what you're playing now and where you're going to so that you're building from what you've started with and you bring it to hopefully a satisfactory conclusion, because you've used the principles of successful building techniques and those I think are pretty universal.
Jan: Do you think that comes from having had a Classical background?
Judy: I wonder if having been exposed to classical music earlier you instinctively learn something about structure, about the architecture of music or perhaps on the other hand it can be an instinctive thing that allows one to be able to stand in front of a painting, and one may have never studied painting, art, but you can stand in front of a certain painting and immediately have a feeling of the rightness of it.
I don't quite know what other words to use, and that's an instinctive thing or if you're looking at, I don't know, floral arrangements, sometimes you can see one that go 'Wow look at that' and why does it look good, because architecturally it's laid out in such a way that it's, (inverted commas) 'right' and yet that's a pretty funny thing to say because a lot of people will say, 'Come on, if that were so, people would end up liking the one thing and not liking another thing'.
Everyone's tastes are different, and then there's an emotional content in there too, something might appeal to a person purely on an emotional basis. I think it's possible to be able, to evaluate the architecture objectively and yet to be quite subjective when it comes to the emotional content.
Jan: I think that for me that is simply one of the most lacking elements and I think for younger musicians, whatever age, it's instinctive from an appreciation point of view, but that is an area where someone like yourself, could really share with other people that don't have that an as inherent thing.
We might have the appreciation but don't have the insight into it.
Judy: I think that perhaps with some people it's... something, I know it's happening more and more with me, the older I get, and hopefully the more mature, then my appreciation of and my, hopefully, ability to, to indicate that awareness and architecture in the music is growing.
So maybe it's just something that becomes honed and maybe in that sense being part of, working on a craft aspect of what one does, then maybe this too, is just part of a growing thing that tends to become more refined, more honed, more polished.
Jan: I know for myself, it wasn't until I attended the Jazz Clinics that I started to get a sense of the history of jazz. I was fortunate, I grew up in a house with brother who was 20 years older than me who was a very good jazz singer and had a great record collection but I missed out on Charlie Parker, Bebop and it's only now that I'm beginning to understand the architecture of that.
I missed out also on the 'Rag thing, I heard New Orleans jazz and Swing but I didn't hear many other things. A person like yourself has a great deal to offer us.
Judy. I agree entirely.
Jan: There's all this history out there and it's so dense and it's so magnificent!
Judy: All of those forms contain their own inherent architecture, (spoken softly)
don't they?
(To be continued!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Bailey_(pianist)
Judy Bailey Trio (Be Our Guest 1966). With John Sangster and Ed Gaston
https://youtu.be/PYfJy0dBLLg?si=p5JGd7BrVKUMTctK
Ivanhoe Wines present An intimate afternoon with Judy Bailey. Judy and her trio - Craig Scott- Bass and Tim Firth- Drums. Playing a goregeous rendition of My Romance for us last Sunday....ahhhh. ...just divine
https://youtu.be/qNU2YHTKEx8?si=jbs9PxPfDvdU-iB9
Judy Bailey & Chuck Yates: Soup Plus 1989.
Photo: Jane March
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