{"id":7600,"date":"2016-06-17T15:30:58","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T22:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=7600"},"modified":"2016-06-17T15:30:58","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T22:30:58","slug":"jam-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2016\/06\/jam-sessions\/","title":{"rendered":"Jam Sessions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jam sessions are not exclusive to jazz. They happen in virtually every genre of music\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfolk, bluegrass, rock, Indian, Afro-Cuban, freestyle rap, sometimes even among highly trained and disciplined classical musicians, when they think they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get caught. In classical music, attitudes toward improvisation have softened a bit.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7601\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Andre-Previn-Ray-Brown.jpg\" alt=\"Andre Previn, Ray Brown\" width=\"271\" height=\"186\" \/>Andr\u00c3\u00a9 Previn told me a story about touring in Europe in the 1990s with his trio that included bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Mundell Lowe (pictured, Previn and Brown). One of their performances was in Vienna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s venerable Musikverein, where Previn had often been guest conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic. Some of the members of the orchestra attended the concert. Afterward, he said, the lead player of one of the Philharmonic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sections visited him in the green room backstage.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Maestro,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the man said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153it was wonderful, but how did you memorize so much music?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t memorize,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Andr\u00c3\u00a9 told him. We were improvising.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In disbelief, the lifelong classical musician said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You improvised <strong> in public?<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Richard Michael doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind improvising in public. The pianist, educator and founder of the Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra found himself in a pub in Orkney where a group of local folk musicians were jamming on a typical Scottish chord sequence. A <em>YouTube<\/em> contributor who identifies himself as Keep Turning Left was there with his video camera. He posted,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I was in a bar in Kirkwall when this happened &#8211; the locals were sawing and plucking away when this bloke joined them\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwell I thought it was an astonishing thing to witness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Following the jam, Professor Michael stayed around to socialize.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e9dtUmlXXkg?rel=0\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Richard Michael was a friend and associate of the late Joe Temperley. To see his extensive comment about the great Scot, baritone saxophonist and stalwart of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, who died in May, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2016\/05\/joe-temperley-1929-2016.html\">go here<\/a>&#8221;\u00a0and scroll down.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jam sessions are not exclusive to jazz. They happen in virtually every genre of music\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfolk, bluegrass, rock, Indian, Afro-Cuban, freestyle rap, sometimes even among highly trained and disciplined classical musicians, when they think they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get caught. In classical music, attitudes toward improvisation have softened a bit. Andr\u00c3\u00a9 Previn told me a story about touring [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}