Harmonic knowledge: the jazz musician as Mozartean throwback

[mke]

A somewhat informal source for this, but I found it interesting:

Originally Posted by Helen Radice (harpist)

Florica and I just spent THREE HOURS putting together a kletzmer number.

Ridiculous how dependent you become on notation. The jazzers I talk to are always envious of our reading fluency, but guys, at least you can work out a four-chord progression in under an ice age.

Originally Posted by Rob (in the comments)

So true. I was interviewing the amazing jazz pianist Uri Caine a little while back and he made the very good point that "It’s just a weird phenomenon for many people to think that a very mediocre jazz trumpet player has more knowledge of functional harmony probably than many people who are first trumpeters in orchestras."

This is definitely a failing in current musical education. When I was at college, the pianists were supposed to take a jazz course; few bothered to turn up. Those that did, including my then girlfriend, were given a list of chord symbols to stick to the fridge and learn in all keys.

Jazz is currently the main repository for practical musical knowledge that was absolutely standard to musicians of Mozart's day, many of whom composed and improvised as a matter of course. I say this as a frustrated classicist like yourself... time for some harmony lessons I guess!

[John L]

That's an interesting point. Indeed, I imagine that it is possible to become a great classical virtuoso and sight reader without understanding anything about the harmonic foundation of the music that you are playing. In addition, as the emphasis in classical music played for the general public has shifted from composition to performance, understanding harmony is probably becoming increasingly less important for a successful musical career.

You can't do that in jazz! (At least, you didn't used to be able to do that. )