Crossing the Great Divide

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For as long as I can remember, trombone players in the music profession have in general been pigeon-holed as either straight players or jazz players.

There are valid historic reasons for this situation. Apart from the fundamental difference in styles between classical playing and jazz playing there has always been the rôle of the school curricula and the music colleges. When I was learning to play the trombone at school, nearly everything we studied was geared around a classical syllabus. There was little or no teaching of jazz in the large majority of schools. There was plenty of choice for those who wished to study classical trombone at music college or university. However, if one wanted to study jazz in higher education in the late 1970s, the choices were very limited. As I remember it, Trinity College and Leeds College were in the early stage of setting up jazz courses. If you wanted to study both styles then there were no options at all. Little surprise then that players ended up being pigeon-holed.

I was very fortunate during my formative years since my father (who taught me the trombone) encouraged me to listen to and play as many styles as possible. Most players will remember particular moments in their early playing days when they were inspired by a player or piece of music. Mine included J J Johnson and Kai Winding playing Georgia on my Mind and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult playing Brahms 1 (just the trombone chorale of course!). Two more diverse styles could not be imagined, yet they both remain etched in my mind. I spent many hours attempting to emulate both of these styles.

Having taught at both the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music in the last twenty years I have observed a number of changes that are bringing about a gradual change to this pigeon-holing. In addition to the classical syllabus, both the Associated Board and Trinity Guildhall currently offer jazz exams to players who are in the early stages of their development. I recently adjudicated a competition at my old school in Bedford, in which young players were performing both classical and jazz pieces. There is also now a wealth of options for more advanced students. Most of the music colleges have jazz courses and there are even a number of universities that have jazz programmes. Most significant of all is the fact that players can now study both classical and jazz at the same time. In the long term this will surely lead to a situation where more players will be versatile enough to play in any style.

One might ask at this point why this versatility should be necessary. However versatile trombone players become in the future there will always be players who specialise in one particular style. Would players who attempt to master all styles be compromising their overall ability? Whilst I accept that there will always be players who specialise in one style I would argue that there is a lot to be gained from a certain measure of versatility. Apart from the obvious musical fulfilment that can be gained from performing diverse musical idioms there is also the added benefit (from a professional standpoint) of being suitable for any form of work. Much of the work required of modern freelance players requires that they are able to adapt to any style of playing. Anybody who has heard players like Richard Edwards, Colin Sheen or Dave Chandler will know that their overall ability is in no way compromised by their talent to change seamlessly from one style to another.

This may sound obvious, but my advice to any players who are serious about mastering different styles of playing is that they need to spend a great deal of time listening to music. Whenever I played Brahms 1, I wanted to sound like Derek James on that LPO recording. Similarly when I played Georgia on my Mind I wanted to sound like J J Johnson. In order to master a style of music you must have a perception in your mind of how that music should sound. This is not something that can be taught in a book or manual.

Many jazz players tend to have a classically based training and are good at listening, so are able to adapt to a classical style fairly easily. If you are a classical player who wants to try your hand at jazzing, I can thoroughly recommend the Aebersold play along series. However much you fancy yourself as the next Mark Nightingale, it's always a good idea to confine your early efforts to the front room. The first attempts will not always be that fruitful but you need to persevere and remember to listen to players improvising to pick up ideas. Not just trombone players but other instrumentalists too. I have learnt a great deal about jazz from listening to players like Bill Evans and Miles Davis for example.

If you are prepared to listen and put in the hard work you can cross the great divide!

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