check out: Malcolm Braff

While I really hope not to sound cheesy or too philosophical again, I would still like to share a jazz concert moment.
One shouldn't dare to try to summarize the beauty of a good concert in too few words, I guess. But tonight would make it easy for me.
We're playing workshop concerts this week, presenting what we (at least should have) practiced over the last three months with a group of other students, coached by musicians known nationally and internationally (like Jorge Rossy, Adrian Mears, or Wolfgang Muthspiel, just to name a few).

                               (just an example: Mr Braff with two other great swiss jazz  musicians)

One of these concerts tonight presented the music of Malcolm Braff. He's an incredible piano player, a rhythm wizard, and he plays the piano like a lion - as the listener, you're always a little scared that he might actually destroy the piano (and as a side note, he very successfully invents board games). His music is as down-to-earth as it's intellectual. The last piece of the concert was called "Together", the rhythm section playing "against" the horns, whose theme sounded like the salvation army playing after the invasion of spaceships leaving the earth sick and destroyed (maybe Cormac McCarthy comes to mind). At the end, instead of playing a ritardando, or the mandatory drum fill, the whole band just held the last note, and while the audience waited for the ending, ready to clap their hands, it just went on, and it slowly got louder, till the bandstand actually vibrated, and still they held it, people started shouting out, it was so loud and so intense, it sounded like the end of the world, and when it finally stopped, I just thought, two minutes longer, and the audience might have completely freaked out (like in "Das Parfüm").
The beautiful melody, seemingly simple and unostentatious, but actually going through all sorts of tonalities, against a busy rhythm, and this intense ending, touched me so much it made me cry.

To me, an experience like that is like an earth quake, things get into perspective, and I wander around in a blur for a few hours, and I'm always so thankful to be able to feel something like that. I can only hope that I'll maybe one day through my music be able to give that gift to someone else too.

Got philosophical again! Oh well. Good night, and good luck!

Let's Build A Jazz Metropolis

Reading the paper today I found out two things. One: Switzerland is going to be "full" in 2020: people will have to cram themselves in small spaces, by military order buildings everywhere will receive ten floors more, no one except the highest political ranks will be allowed to eat meat (cows take away lots of space, and their empty barns will prove to be very useful), which will lead to a once again changed beauty ideal: the richest will be the only ones fat ergo fat bellies will once again be sexy.
Seriously, it's going to be a problem, but what a luxury problem: swiss people aren't used to live in high buildings, they need their little garden to put the garden gnomes in - looking for an appartment during the last few weeks I've found out how much this is true! I just couldn't live in a skyscraper (okay: 15 floors!), standing on the balcony makes me dizzy, and there are just too many people around... man, we really live in a little world of our own!
And the second thing I learned today: according to a an us survey, ten million people all over the world would like to immigrate to Switzerland. Wow! It brought me to think: musicians all over the world love to play in Switzerland, because of the good and warm food and the hotel beds. Apparently, jazz musicians in America aren't used to such a service. Well, okay! Everyone of you jazz musicians, come here! We'll choose a secluded valley somewhere, build an autarkic city, have our concert halls, make cheese and sausages, and maybe even create our own traditional costume? Won't we all live happily everafter?
Would be much easier for the government, too: everyone of them supervised with just one helicopter flight- They could even drop foodbags and social security cards all at once!

 But look: it's not all perfect!

How Small The Worlds

I'm going to risk a few generalizing statements today. Playing with people studying at another jazz school than I last week, and talking about plans for the (professional) future, I realized once again how strongly jazz musicians are influenced by their upbringing, meaning their educational environment. I guess it's human to orientate yourself, wherever you are, to the leading ideas.
In my jazz school there is a rather international vibe. A lot of the teachers have studied in Berklee, or Graz, and we have many masterclasses by jazz stars such as Mark Turner, Eric Harland, or Esperanza Spalding. The best students talk about their plans to study abroad after the bachelor's degree. There is idealism in every corner. People are talking about getting better, about bands, and cd projects, and getting reassured by the teachers who have led very interesting lifes. Discussions about money, about the future and about a job are very rare.
In the other jazz school, the leading subject seems to be different - I've found a more down-to-earth approach. Of course people talk about getting better and their cd projects, too. But a lot of the people put an end to their jazz studies after the bachelor. One statement that I've heard more than once is that with a master's degree in performance you don't have a profession, and with a master's in composition you'll just end up writing for carnival groups (called Guggenmusik in Switzerland). If you want to be a teacher, you will study pedagogy, but if not, you'd better try to find a job that guarantees some financial stability and practice your instrument on your own. I have never heard statements like these in my jazz school.
There are a lot of other differences. For example, a subject I will elaborate on a later date, in the city I live in there is a large jazz scene. Newcomers can play in lots of restaurants or small bars, gig that are neither paid well nor attended by many people, but still, there is often more than one jazz concert a night.  In the city I study in there are much fewer jazz locations, jazz concerts concentrate in one bar, open from wednesday to saturday.

I'm often astonished how quickly a rather self-orientated, self-sufficient subscene can build itself, and how quickly you find yourself believing that in there, you'll find the truth - not knowing that just a hundred kilometres away, there is a very similar subscene holding on to a totally different set of truths.
I guess I'm in a good position - studying there and living here!

"some jazzy philosophics"

For today, just some philosophical thoughts about jazz (one of my favorite pastimes!)
if you take all of mankind, and separate the people who have once in their life heard jazz from the people who haven't ever, and take from the first group the ones who actually like jazz, and again, divide the remaining group into the ones who really do like jazz in all its glory and the ones who only like ragtime and dixie (which by the way I have absolutely nothing against), there are maybe two people left in the entire world, and one of them probably is a jazz student and dreams of a concert career.

and if this takes place in the states, it's still kind of plausible, because well, it all started out there. but what now and again strikes me as extremely funny (I mentioned it before, but I will again!) is that there are so many people studying it in switzerland - the land of cuckoo clocks and yodeling. There are six jazz schools in our sweet little land! In each of these schools you'll find 50-100 students (I'll do a little research for next time!), so there's a whole lot of young people who'll learn to play Someday my prince will come. Kind of a jazz army, really, who plays at weddings, funerals, birthdays - always at your service for a good time! if it's not too loud, 'cause please, we're eating here, and could you maybe play something with a melody?

And who sometimes even lands the occasional gig, in a nice jazz club, with a bunch of nice people! really a great thing to happen.

I'll keep posting about the swiss jazz scene and the everyday life as a jazz student, but any questions or inputs are welcome!