BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
If there’s one style that’s stayed timelessly cool since it first hit the clubs, it’s gotta be jazz. Australian pianist and composer Tom Vincent knows this more than anyone. Praised throughout Australia and around the world for his innovative improvisation and energetic live performances, Tom’s musical career has spanned over two decades and five albums. The mad muso lets us in on what it takes to make good jazz.
As a professional jazz pianist and composer, what have you learned are the benefits of a good practice routine?
You’ve got to practice two or three hours every day just to remain at the level you’re at, then you have to practice four or five hours a day if you want to improve. You might be tired first thing in the morning practicing and you might just be going through the motions, but then you will get into it and you’ll discover something. You’ll make a little mistake, just a tiny wrong note, and then it’s like a window into something you’ve never done before – rhythmically, melodically or even a mood. The more you do that over the years, every day you do that year after year, it just becomes richer and deeper.
What’s the trick to successful (and fearless) improvisation?
It does take a lot of confidence. I was a trumpet player to start with. I was 14 or 15 and I went to a jazz workshop in New Town in Sydney. I had no idea what I was doing and all of a sudden the band stopped playing and the horns next to me said, ‘it’s your solo, man!’ and the blood ran from my face. There were chords there and I was like, ‘solo? What do I do?’. It was so embarrassing, but you go through that two or three times and it gets less and less so. I guess I was lucky because I was thrown in the deep end without knowing, which is a good thing.
How do you think a good jazz musician evolves throughout their career?
If you can play a beautiful ballad without going into double time, which is easy to do in jazz, if you can play it slow and simple, all of that stuff deepens your music. There are only 12 notes but there are so many combinations and chords. Playing gigs is also really important and communicating with other people and living a healthy life. It’s good to have a solid foundation because if you just want to make up crazy stuff without foundation it doesn’t last – whatever discipline, whether it’s arts or science.
Do you feel jazz is more about the communication between musicians and audience or an introspective and personal activity?
It all comes back to the emotions. You have to be playing from the emotions from your heart. Otherwise, forget it, it’s nothing. It’s got to be intensely personal but, at the same time, you can’t be in your own little bubble. You communicate with the drum and the bass player and you have eye contact, and you do something and they respond. If the audience likes it, it’s good, and that also feeds into it. It’s the communication. Teaching is like that too – it’s really joyful because you’re sharing this form of communication that is beyond words. You can say that ‘music is like this or that’ and you can attach words to it, but a lot of these songs don’t have words and they’re abstract things. While you’re sharing these ideas, you can even produce these emotions that you don’t normally have. It’s pure music – and it takes you into this other realm.
Where do you think jazz fits into today’s musical landscape?
With jazz and film and everything, you can just download things for free at home. With the recorded medium, everyone has access to music and I think maybe over time people will want to go out and experience live music. That may become in a way even more special. I think where jazz fits in with that is that jazz is based on improvisation. It’s based on being in the moment and it’s got a real fresh thing about it. It’s very much part of the audience. With jazz, you can feel the room and when you play the people there affect you.
Image supplied.
