Well my real point here is that freqeuently people starting out are
mislead about this whole 12 keys thing by using Bill's name. I know
that you and Marc are not trying to do that but nevertheless that is what
prompted my original mail in this area.
The phenomenon is what I call the "bait and switch". It goes something
like "you want to sound like player X ...... well then do Y because
X did Y". Usually the person that is making the statement is looking
to get people to accept his own musical idea Y and is associating it
with player X and usually player X was not doing Y at all. It's a shame
because sometimes the other player has some valid points and ideas
but for me I get really turned off by the whole thing because of the
way it's presented.
In the case of 12 keys, I don't see any evidence that Bill felt
equally comfortable in all the keys or even most of the keys,
despite the fact that he may have practiced playing specific tunes
in unusual keys.
Like I said in my earlier mail, I'm comfortable playing Emily in
E and some other particular tunes in unusual keys. Certainly like most
people I also play "You Must Believe in Spring " in B minor. If you
just sample those data points you could say I was comfortable playing
in these different keys and nothing could be further from the truth.
If I could interchangeably switch beteen the keys, I would be doing
it all the time. I would play rubato's in different keys (for the
the same tune) and not play them in the same key every time. I would
definitely be having fun modulating during a solo.
I don't see Bill doing anything like that, except perhaps on a particular
tune where he worked on being able to do some particular thing on that tune.
My teacher Don Haas on the hand is really pretty adept at being key
interchangeable because that is something he particularly worked on
in his playing. Don will do what I'm describing. Because he has that
facility if he sits down and starts playing he will modulate all over
the place because it's fun to do and he can do it. I'm not saying he
plays better than Bill, I'm just saying that he has this facility of
being comfortable in all the keys. Because he has that facility it
show up in this kind of natural way in his playing.
I think Bill basically started out playing in the same keys we all play in
and did that for many years.
Later he challenged himself and explored different keys for particular
songs.
This is the evolution though I'm sure all along like most of us he
may have played some tunes in 12 keys as a musicianship kind of thing.
My main point is that for the developing musicians they should keep
this perspective in mind and not be fooled into thinking that they should
be practicing all their tunes in 12 keys because they think that is what
Bill Evan's did.
As far as Bill's claim on Marians show, I think he was just being honest.
There are very few (publicly available) words recorded on tape or paper
from Bill and I for one have scoured them looking for any clues as to how
he approached music, etc.. I have found that all his recorded verbal
thoughts are
all incredibly honest, deep and piercing. I'm sure he carefully thought out
that response on Marian's show and was probably concerned about what I'm
talking about. I'm sure Bill was aware of the effect of mispoken words
on all the developing musicians.
reed
Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com