"Do You Know...?": The Jazz Repertoire in Action

by Robert R. Faulkner, Howard S. Becker

Every night, somewhere in the world, three or four musicians will climb on stage together. Whether the gig is at a jazz club, a bar, or a bar mitzvah, the performance never begins with a note, but with a question. The trumpet player might turn to the bassist and ask, “Do you know ‘Body and Soul’?”—and from there the subtle craft of playing the jazz repertoire is tested in front of a live audience. These ordinary musicians may never have played together—they may never have met—so how do they smoothly put on a show without getting booed offstage.

In “Do You Know . . . ?” Robert R. Faulkner and Howard S. Becker—both jazz musicians with decades of experience performing—present the view from the bandstand, revealing the array of skills necessary for working musicians to do their jobs. While learning songs from sheet music or by ear helps, the jobbing musician’s lexicon is dauntingly massive: hundreds of thousands of tunes from jazz classics and pop standards to more exotic fare. Since it is impossible for anyone to memorize all of these songs, Faulkner and Becker show that musicians collectively negotiate and improvise their way to a successful performance. Players must explore each others’ areas of expertise, develop an ability to fake their way through unfamiliar territory, and respond to the unpredictable demands of their audience—whether an unexpected gang of polka fanatics or a tipsy father of the bride with an obscure favorite song.

“Do You Know . . . ?” dishes out entertaining stories and sharp insights drawn from the authors’ own experiences and observations as well as interviews with a range of musicians. Faulkner and Becker’s vivid, detailed portrait of the musician at work holds valuable lessons for anyone who has to think on the spot or under a spotlight.

Genres: Sociology, Music

232 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2009

Reviews

[Roger · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fascinating book is actually a work of sociology, although you might also find it in the music section of your local academic library.

The authors, both semi-professional jazz musicians (Faulkner on trumpet, Becker on piano), set out to answer the question - how do musicians work out what to play together, when they may only play together as a group on one occasion?

Their research, both personal (making records of performances over a period of three years) and observational (interviewing about 60 performers), reveals how sets of music are constructed, and how that process has changed in recent years.

The book describes how bandstand activity takes place, the negotiations that occur to reach a mutally agreed playlist, the to-and-fro of suggesting, accepting or rejecting songs, and the fakery that can take place if one person in the band doesn't know a song that the group plays regardless.

A large portion of the book deals with how musicians learn their repertoire, be it on the bandstand itself, from records or radio, or from sheet music. Faulkner and Becker go on to describe the changes that have occurred in this process from about the '60s on - before that time there were a large group of tunes that "everybody" knew, known as the Great American Songbook. However, in the post-bop age, and with the fragmentation of radio stations and music in general (no hit parade that all musicians would listen to), the idea of a common pool of tunes has diminished, consequently it becomes much harder for a group of players to have tunes in common. This has made the negotiation of a set between musicians that don't know each other that much more difficult.

The change in the amount of playing also has had an effect - Becker explains that in the '40s, he played on bandstands in bars for approximately 43 hours per week - something which is almost impossible to do today. This amount of time playing, and the conditions in which it was played (background music in a bar), enabled the players of that era to experiment more, and learn songs "on the job". That has become harder now.

As a hack musician myself, I found this book fascinating, if somewhat academic (why do sociological books have to be written in such a plodding style?). If you've ever wondered how musicians can get up and play something without having necessarily rehearsed, read this book

Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/

[Morris Nelms · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone who plays jazz or listens to it live should read this.

[Yisu Z. · Rating 4 out of 5]

非常棒，信手拈来的一本书。两位作者都是爵士乐手/社会学家。对于各种演奏技巧、业内术语以及爵士乐的历史都很熟稔。理论上没有特别花哨的地方，也没抽象出新的层次（『即兴爵士演奏是一种共同知识的创造过程』）。但就是一种油然而生的生活感，从50年代的芝加哥工人酒吧，到2000年的新英格兰音乐餐馆。浸润了音乐的一本书。本书还有一本『配套』的作者对话录，等通过添加审核后贴一下。此外，推荐各位在黑夜里听一下Chet Baker 的estate ，绝了。