I get the biggest eyebrow raises when I tell people I play jazz. “Really? Jazz on the harp?”
I’ve gotten a lot of raised eyebrows this week. In the steamy month of July, I’m playing jazz for all my senior living facilities. Recently playing with The Symphony at the Elkhart Jazz Festival got me in a jazzy mood!
But pulling together a solo jazz program, I was faced with a problem—what counts as jazz? Most people think of jazz as a saxophone, a double bass and a drum set. Others think of a list of songs. What rules of jazz transfer to the harp? Can I play Frank Sinatra standards? What about Broadway? “All That Jazz” just begs to be included.
The first rule of repertoire is asking, “Who is my audience?” Since I mostly play in senior living facilities, I am choosing songs that my 70-90 year olds will recollect. But this month I think I must be a seventy year old lady because a little of Louis Armstrong’s vocal gravel turns me into pudding!
I checked out the CD limit at the library of jazz divas, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland and my favorite, Ella Fitzgerald. I collect titles that crop up at the top of top ten lists: Wonderful World, Summertime, Unforgettable. I squeeze in New Blues an instrumental piece for harp. At the risk of being called Sam, I even pick the movie favorite “As Time Goes By” from Casablanca.
But a list of titles can’t define jazz. For one song, I play out of a book, “Jazz Favorites for the Harp,” that writes out every note and every curious chord. I don’t need to improvise. The next song just shows chord symbols next to lyrics leaving me to improvise the harmonies and sometimes the melody as best I can. Is one more jazz than the other? The chords are more jazzy on the written music but the idea of improvisation is alive on the second.
Defining jazz is simpler in front of an audience. Jazz makes them tap their toes or wow when I pull a big finish. I lament the hair-frizzing effects of “Misty” in “Summertime”. From “What a Wonderful World” I slip into my own jazz interpretation of “Joy To the World” from my Christmas CD The Sounding Joy. Christmas in July anyone?
As I finish up these favorites, I sit down to play a version of Amazing Grace with a harmonic twist. Jazz isn’t just a set of songs anymore than it is a collection of instruments. It’s a way of thinking about music, harmonies and rhythms. I could take any song and add that rhythm to make it lively.
In that way, Jazz is a lot like Grace.