CC BY
15
https://doi.org/10.29013/EJA-20-3-151-154
Pokaz Andrey Vladimirovich, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Special Piano, Odessa National A. V. Nezhdanova Academy of Music E-mail: Andrew.pokaz@gmail.com
STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS OF THE MODERN JAZZ PIANO PLAYER'S PERFORMING STYLE
Abstract. The article examines the performing style of a modern jazz piano player in the systemic and structural aspect. As the structural components of the jazz piano player's performing style, the individual characteristics of a musician (musical thinking and performing abilities), "intonational vocabulary", the principle of imitation, sound ideal, etc. are highlighted. These components have a decisive influence on the formation of the individual style of the jazz piano player and his style specifics. The manner of playing is considered as a universal concept that contains a very broad sense: those different aspects of the manifestation of the musician's creative individuality, which affect the features of its sound manifestation.
Keywords: jazz; jazz performing; style; jazz piano player; jazz improvisation; sound image.
In the course of its historical evolution, jazz piano it is associated with the development of the piano
performance has developed as an independent and specific area of musical performance, which in many aspects differs from academic traditions and classical canons. From its very origins, the performing practice of jazz pianists has been based on the principle of "verbal" existence of musical material among musicians. And this principle determined the exceptional importance of the performing individuality, which, through its creative activity, carries out the evolution of musical vocabulary, creatively realizes itself through a characteristic performing style and acts as the main criterion for evaluating (historical, performing or musicological) of phenomenon of jazz music. Particularly this concerns the modern state of development of jazz piano performance, which is developing under the sign of active interaction of various styles, directions and trends of musical art.
The purpose of the article is to identify those factors of the professional skill of a jazz piano player that form the individual image of his performing style.
An individual performing style is an essential factor in the development of piano art in general, as
repertoire, and the evolution of the organological characteristics of the instrument, and the transformation of the fundamental principles and traditions of pedagogical and concert practice. In the history of jazz, the category of performing style is even more important, since in this area of musical art the figure of the performer is a kind of absolute embodiment of musical creativity, uniting both the composer and the performer in his personality. It is with this position that the interpretation of the category of style in the works of the largest theorists of jazz is connected: style in jazz is understood not only as a historical direction and a system of musical expressive means, but also as a specific manner of performance, as a complex of techniques inherent in a particular musician (studies by J. Collier, M. Sterns, J. Panasier, E. Barban and others). At the same time, the "style of trend" is often identified with the "style of the performer", or rather, the "articulatory manifestation" of creative individuality forms the style image of a separate direction or trend in jazz music. The personality of a musician in this case plays a central role
in determining the normative musical and linguistic qualities of both a separate stylistic direction and the era as a whole. Accordingly, in jazz performance, the issue of identifying those components of performing skills that create an organic complex of individual expressive means, which today in musicology and performing environments is understood as a phenomenon of an individual performing style, is of particular importance.
O. Katrich, reflecting on the possibilities of studying the performing style in the academic musical tradition, notes: "The study of the musical performing style is significantly hampered by the lack of musical-textual fixation of the result of the musician-performer's creativity" [2, 2]. In jazz music, this question is especially acute, because the "manner of playing" here turns out to be central in terms of the idea of the improvisational principle of performing activity. At the same time, the "manner ofplaying" is the multipurpose concept that contains a very wide range of subjects, i.e. those different aspects of the manifestation of the musician's creative individuality, which in one way or another affect the features of its sound manifestation. Therefore, according to jazz researchers, the individual style of a performer is determined not by his technique, but by his personality, his intellect, his talent and coordination [7].
The originality of the performing style of outstanding jazz piano players encompasses all the "generic" qualities of jazz music: improvisational thinking and technique, the ratio of the individual and the general (the principle of dialogue in collective music-making, the style parameters of the original musical material and its performing model that forms improvisation), a variety of performer's intonation vocabulary. The individual style of a jazz musician can be understood as "the system of artistic thinking and stylistics - musical idioms, speech cliches as the basis for generating individual musical language" [3, 9].
Let us single out the most significant factors influencing the individual style of the jazz pianist's
playing and the formation of his personal approach to performing practice. Among them a significant place is occupied by the individual characteristics of the musician - such as his melodic, modal, harmonic, rhythmic thinking, as well as the nuances of the performing apparatus. All these elements are the main points on which the piano player's improvisational thinking is based, his idea of the main types of improvisation - melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, textured and timbre-dynamic. These elements serve as the foundation on which the performer's "vocabulary" and his improvisational technique are formed. Possession of "music theory" in a broad sense and of "jazz style" part of it in particular is a determining factor in the formation of the type of musical thinking that distinguishes a jazz musician from an academic one. The virtuosity of jazz improvisation is largely due to the rational and intellectual abilities of the musician, rather than the technical aspect of the issue, since it is the combinatorial principle of "working" with his own "vocabulary" that forms the specificity of musical technology (performing techniques). This does not exclude the importance of musical technique (playing speed, for example, etc.), which also certainly constitutes the basic foundation of jazz piano performance.
Accordingly, the pianist's "vocabulary" plays an essential role for his individual manner of performance, which determines the methodological idea of the mass of didactic books on jazz improvisation. The structure of most of this books is similar and reflects the general classification principle of improvisation methods - harmonic, rhythmic and melodic. Accordingly, the methodology of mastering jazz improvisation in teaching aids is ultimately aimed at developing the skills and abilities of a piano player, associated with the possibility of combinatorial harmonic, rhythmic and melodic formula-models. Moreover, it is important to develop a creative approach to the "initial" material in the student ("bricks" and "blocks", in the terminology ofA. Ko-zlov), which stimulates an individual vision of the
structural, compositional and expressive capabilities of the musical "building material". It is this attitude "towards creativity" that provokes the jazz impro-viser's maximum coverage of rhythmic, melodic and harmonic models, which, ultimately, should form his vast "vocabulary", which he can use in the process of creating a musical composition. And the more complete and varied this "vocabulary" is, the more combinatorial possibilities the piano player has, which are manifested in his virtuoso mastery of musical material.
Also an important aspect of the formation of an individual performing style is the imitative principle, which is relevant for various generations of jazz piano players. We are talking about the individual and personal orientations of the musician, which are represented by the figures of outstanding masters, whose performing individuality and manner are thought of as a standard. For a jazz musician, a very important moment is the personification of the musical and linguistic standards of jazz music in the personality of a particular performer, the Master, who is the ideal of "how it should sound". Accordingly, this factor determines the following principle of the formation of an individual performing style: a set of certain performing techniques inherent in a performer-standard is "assimilated" and "processed" in accordance with his abilities, which were mentioned above, as well as taking into account subjective musical and aesthetic ideas.
The style reference factor is similar to the previous one, but more general in terms of reference material. For a musician-performer, the style factor is basic in his professional activity, it is on the knowledge and sense of style that the artistic usefulness of musical performance and the creative activity of a musician are based. Jazz performers have indisputable advantages in this aspect over academic musicians: jazz has no centuries-old history, its evolution fits into less than two centuries. However, the small historical volumes ofjazz music are compensated by the breadth of its stylistic varieties and the diversity
of national and ethnic manifestations. Both auditory and intellectual experience are directly related to the most important factor in the development of a musician's performing individuality - the formation of his "intonation vocabulary", which consists of a set of intonational-rhythmic patterns inherent in a particular style. In this sense, the thought of O. Katrich is correct: "Direct analysis, as a rule, is preceded by the formation of the researcher's feeling and understanding of the stylistic dominant of the musician-performer's creativity. The concept of the style dominant of the musician-performer's creativity encompasses a certain unity of the most significant individual, national, cultural and historical stylistic characteristics of this phenomenon" [2, 11].
The factor of "sound ideal" can be considered as the most general, since it synthesizes the previous ones and forms an integral system of an individual performing style. A jazz musician is always guided by a specific sound image of his instrument (the so-called "sound ideal"), which is "... aggregate ideas about sound quality, ... about timbral, technical-performing, articulatory-intonation, harmonic and musical-stylistic characteristics" [6, 155]. The creative individuality of a jazz piano player is always formed on the basis of a specific sound image of the instrument (which includes all the parameters of expressiveness - sound, timbre, rhythm, phrasing, articulation, dynamics, etc.). The sound ideal of a jazz pianist is formed in accordance with his reference ideas about the quality of piano sound, personified either in the performing style of a particular musician, or in a particular style of jazz, or on the basis of his subjective and personal aesthetic standards.
It is known that the specificity of the instrument significantly influences the artistic intentions of musicians. E. Nazaikinsky noted that the semantic component of the "sound world of music" is directly related to the nature of the musical instrument [6, 157]. Consequently, the composer's intention depends on the acoustic characteristics of a particular instrument or group of instruments. This is
exactly what A. Copland had in mind when he introduced the concept of "sounding image of an instrument": "an auditory representation arising in the mind of a performer or composer; a mental picture of the exact "nature" of the sounds that he will bring to life" [4, 22]. A. Copland's ideas were continued in L. Gakkel's musicological studies of "sounding images of the piano" of the first half of the 20th century [1]. However, it seems to us that a more accurate definition will still be a "sound image", reflecting not only the momentary, but the potential capabilities of the instrument, which find their artistic realization in the performing art. In this regard, the most optimal is the definition of the sound image of the piano, proposed by I. Sukhlenko: the musicologist understands it as "a kind of stylistic perspective of the complex perception of the expressive capabilities of a musical instrument: timbre, dynamic, register
characteristics and the artistic semantics associated with them" [5, 229].
Conclusions. Thus, the factors identified by us in the formation of an individual performing style of a jazz piano player in a complex form an integral system of his performing practice. Each of these factors can be considered as an independent aspect ofthe theory of jazz performing style of a jazz musician, which significantly affects the individual characteristics of the manner ofplaying. These components form a holistic system of performance of a jazz musician. The considered factors of formation of individual performing style ofthe jazz pianist in a complex form integral system of his performing practice. Each of these factors can be considered as an independent aspect of the theory of jazz performance style of a jazz musician, which significantly affects the individual characteristics of the manner of playing.
References:
1. Gakkel A. Piano music of the twentieth century: Essays.- Leningrad: Soviet composer, 1990.- 288 p.
2. Katrich O. The personal style of the musician (theoretic and aesthetic aspects): the thesis for the degree of PhD of arts by specialty 17.00.03 - Music Art.- Kiev, 2000.- 15 p.
3. Kovalenko O. Theoretical problems of style in jazz music: the thesis for the degree of PhD of arts by specialty 17.00.02 - Music Art.- Moscow, 1997.- 22 p.
4. Copeland A. Music and imagination. Music and Time: Thoughts on Contemporary Music.- Issue 1.-Moscow: Music, 1970.- P. 52-53.
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