A CONVERSATION WITH TERRY SEABROOK

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In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

We met at the Snowdrop in Lewes. Monday nights are terrific there.

I asked Terry how he would rate Harmony versus Rhythm versus the tune in his playing. He would not separate them, all equally important. But, he added that harmony is particularly important for the piano and for writing. He also says he is influenced by being a 50% writer and 50% player. Music is a cohesive entity and you can’t separate it into a collection of elements like rhythm, melody and harmony. We can do this in order to learn, develop and theorise but you always have all the elements present when you create actual real music. It’s like driving a car – the brakes, throttle, gears etc. are all necessary components to the totality of a car and we have to learn about their roles but then we master driving when we put them together into the whole. When you get good at it driving becomes intuitive and then you can even listen to some music while you drive (although I don’t think I have a reputation as a natural driver)

"Melody gets the interest of the listener," he said. Rhythm for him also encompasses the groove  the time feel. He had just seen Larry Goldings trio at Ronnie Scotts the previous night. He said they were tremendous, "Part of the reason is that they are totally locked in together, they've been playing together for over 20 years. That makes a big difference."

He sometimes plays references to the tune usually in the last chorus. I asked him about what Alan Barnes calls "shapes". He said that playing shapes help the continuity in the music. "When everyone knows the song and harmonies inside out then can play more intuitively. "When we are not sure, then we tend to concentrate on ourselves and what we are doing and we play less together.

He thinks that as well as being an art form jazz can be seen as a sport, as a game to be played with rules. This side of it it is more about having tremendous fun in the moment with other musicians rather than being focussed on being especially innovative, although there is always some chance that this might  happen too.

Terry studied at Eastman School of Music, New York. Toured world wide with Joe Lee Wilson (US jazz singer). Performed in Brighton & London with his own groups & leading frontliners - Chet Baker, Jimmy Witherspoon, Sonny Stitt, Harry Eddison, Archie Shepp, Jim Mullen, Bobby Wellins. Leader of Cubana Bop and creator of Milestone's the Miles Davis tribute.