Spontaneity
The main characteristic that defines Jazz is spontaneity. You can’t have Jazz without at least some level of improvisation. That’s really the big difference between playing in a Jazz band and playing in an orchestra. In an orchestra, you play exactly what’s written, whereas in a Jazz band you can play what you like.
But it is impossible to have spontaneity without also having mistakes. The former implies the latter. If you’re making stuff up on the spot, you will occasionally hit a wrong note. And that’s ok. If fact, that’s desirable. You cannot have Jazz without mistakes.
Mistakes on Record
There are hundred of examples of professional Jazz musicians absolutely stuffing it up and making countless mistakes on recordings. Now, the band could have recorded another take to get it right the next time, but that defeats the purpose of Jazz. Some notable recorded mistakes are:
- Louis Armstrong (allegedly) created scatting when he dropped the lyrics to ‘Heebie Jeebies’ on the floor, thus requiring him to improvise.
- Ella Fitzgerald (allegedly) forget the lyrics to ‘Mack the Knife’ (Ella in Berlin, 1960) – so made up some lyrics and started scatting.
- Pianist Tommy Flanagan famously stuffed up the solo on Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’. He had to resort to just playing chords again in the end
- Bud Powell plays the wrong chords during the fourth chorus of ‘Tempus Fugue-it’ (before correcting himself). It’s an AABA form, but he begins the second A section with the chords to part B.
Miles Davis in particular had a reputation for being a ‘one-take’ musician. He would intentionally not give his fellow band members the songs they would be performing until the day of the recording, so that their performance would be completely spontaneous and so that there would intentionally be mistakes. Davis loved the unpolished, rough around the edges, live-sounding aesthetic, even when recording an album.
- Miles Davis returns to the melody one bar early after Herbie Hancock’s solo on ‘Prince of Darkness’ (Sorcerer, 1967).
- In the song ‘Right Off’ (A Tribute to Jack Johnson, 1971) begins in the key of E. The guitarist (John McLaughlin) then modulates to Bb, but the bassist (Michael Henderson) doesn’t notice so continues playing in E. Miles Davis DOES notices this and starts his solo on a note that fits both tonalities.
- In Miles Davis’ version of ‘In Your Own Sweet Way’ (Collectors’ Items, 1956). Miles continually plays an E instead of an F at the end of each A section, but the pianist Tommy Flanagan doesn’t notice this and continues to play an F. This forces Miles to being playing an F again at during the second chorus.
- The horns cut off Herbie Hancock’s solo early in ‘The Sorcerer'(Sorcerer, 1967), ‘Pinocchio’ (Nefertiti, 1968), and ‘Riot’ (Nefertiti, 1968).
- There’s a false start in ‘Freedom Jazz Dance’ (Miles Smiles, 1967).
Jazz Improvisation is about making Mistakes
So the moral of the story is: do not fear mistakes. In fact, seek out mistakes. Ornette Coleman once said that he knew he was on the right track only when he made mistakes. Jazz is about mistakes. Make them.
Mistake Recovery Strategies
Mistakes are inevitable, but the audience noticing you made a mistake is avoidable. Whenever you make a mistake, it’s better to play through it rather than stop and announce to your listener that you made a mistake. There are a number of simple mistake recovery strategies that you can employ to hide the fact that you just made a mistake. These are:
- Repeat the phrase & emphasise the mistake
- Repeat the phrase & correct the mistake to a ‘right note’
- Turn the mistake into a chromatic run and resolve it
- Turn the mistake into a cycled pattern and resolve it
- Continue playing wrong notes & eventually resolve it (and call it atonal/polytonal)
Making Mistakes
Mistake Recovery Strategies