Writing as Jazz, Jazz as Writing: Part 6
Words of writing wisdom gleaned from some jazz greats.
Words of writing wisdom gleaned from some jazz greats.
Because I have a musical background, I often think about writing through a variety of musical lenses.
Writing as classical music with its sonata form and three act structure.
Writing as rock music with its raw power of emotion.
Writing as country music with its love of character-driven stories.
Writing as hip hop with its embrace of the poetry of storytelling.
But if I had to choose one musical genre which best fits what we do as writers, it would be jazz.
Why? Because every time we sit down to write, we have to do two fundamental things:
- Write in the moment
- Improvise
Every scene exists in our present tense. We have to be right there with our characters to experience the story unfolding in ‘The Now’.
Every time a jazz musician performs live, they exist in the moment. They find the spark of creativity by playing off each other and giving themselves over to every second of the songs they perform.
Likewise whenever we sit down to write, no matter how much of the story we’ve figured out, we have to give room for spontaneity and to improvise when our characters veer over here or there.
So, too, jazz musicians whose lifeblood is improvisation, making it up as they go along, pushing the envelope, and testing each song in nightly performance.
That inspired me to do a series this week featuring quotes from some of the all-time great jazz players.
Today: Bill Evans.
It bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It’s not. It’s feeling.
“It’s feeling.” A great thing to remember about the actual act of writing. We study the craft. Read books and scripts. Watch movies and TV shows, breaking them down. Listen to interviews with pro writers.
And all that’s fine. But when we sit down to write pages, set all that stuff off to the side of consciousness…
And write what we feel.
In this regard, Ray Bradbury echoes the same sentiment as Evans:
“I’ve had a sign over my typewriter for over 25 years now, which reads ‘Don’t think!’ You must never think at the typewriter — you must feel. Your intellect is always buried in that feeling anyway.”
Evans didn’t just say that. He played that. Check out this video of the Bill Evans trio from performances in Sweden and Denmark. Watch how he plays.
Head bowed low, hardly ever looking at his fingers on the keyboard. It’s like he’s peering deep, deep inside, and what emerges is… well… feeling.
Here is the song list from the video:
Sweden ’64
My Foolish Heart 0:00 Israel 4:40 France ’65 Detour Ahead 9:09 My Melancholy Baby 14:16
Denmark ’70
Emily 23:20 Alfie 27:50 Someday My Prince Will Come 33:05
Sweden ’70
If You Could See Me Now 38:33 ‘Round Midnight 42:30 Someday My Prince Will Come 48:36 Sleepin’ Bee 54:21 You’re Gonna Hear From Me 58:59 Re: Person I Knew 1:01:56
Denmark ’75
Sareen Jurer 1:07:38 Blue Serge 1:13:50 Up With The Lark 1:18:29 But Beautiful 1:25:06 Twelve Tone Tune Two 1:30:19
Previous posts in this series:
I hope you’ve enjoyed the series. If you’d like more, I’ve got more. Let me know in RESPONSES.