This, of course, is the same man who didn't realize that healthcare was complicated until after congressional debates began, and thought that everyone else was just as fuckin' clueless as he was. What could possibly go wrong?
Today, though, I'd like to write about the difference between improvisation and just wingin' it. Improvisation. You may have noticed that I have a certain fondness for improvisational music, and jazz in particular. Ask any jazz fanatic what the most important recordings in jazz history are, and you will get some varied lists because we have varied tastes. You would be hard-pressed, though, to find a serious jazz fan or historian who would dispute the importance of Miles Davis's Kind of Blue. On any given day, if you asked me my favorite album, I'd probably tell you that I couldn't tell you. I have too many favorites. If forced to answer, though, this is one I might reasonably pick. It is a great album, and a truly important turning point in jazz history.
And nobody had a fuckin' clue what they were going to play until the tapes started rolling. There was one alternate cut, and that's it. Here's the history, well-known to serious jazz snobs like me.
It actually kind of starts with George Russell, who wrote an important book called The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. Russell was a bandleader and music theorist. He is one of those unrecognized (popularly) but vitally important people in the history of jazz, whose work and theories started to build towards everything post-bebop. Eventually, Miles and his piano player, Bill Evans got their hands on Russell's theories, and decided to put their stamp on them. That is what really gave us "modal" improvisation. What is modal improvisation, and how does it differ from bebop? Basically, the difference is the difference between improvising around the chord changes and improvising within the chord structures. Look, you want a lesson on music theory, go read a shitload of music theory, including Russell's book. I'm summarizing a lot.
Anyway, Miles and Bill spend some time working out the practical aspects of putting Russell's ideas into play. Everything really came together in 1959, arguably the most important year in jazz history, with landmark recordings by Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, and plenty of others. Miles drew up some very simple charts. Just some chord ideas. Nothing elaborate. He brought his band into the studio, cracked the whip, and just told everyone to play their fuckin' asses off.
The result was one of the most stunningly beautiful selections of music ever recorded. Kind of Blue will stand the test of time, I believe, with any of the western canon. Any of it, as will much of Miles's recorded output. Yes, I am a total Miles Davis fanboy. He was, though, arguably the most important musician of the 20th Century. He changed how people thought about music.
OK, now what makes Kind of Blue work? Well, first you gotta be Miles Fuckin' Davis. Your band also has to consist of John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Cannonball Adderley taking lead with you (and Wynton Kelly too!), with Jimmy Cobb and "Mr. PC" Paul Chambers as your rhythm section. There has never been a better band assembled in music history. I mean, I could make a case that Elvin Jones was a better drummer, but he wouldn't have been right for the album. This was just a perfect alignment.
These people ate, slept, lived and breathed jazz. Miles could hand this group of absolute, supreme fucking badasses a couple of simple notes, and tell them to play because that's what they did with their lives. They practiced, and they performed, and pretty much nothing else.
Scales. Did you ever take music lessons? Scales fucking suck. They are boring as hell. But, if you play them over, and over, and over again, they become engrained in muscle memory, and you can improvise around them. That's critical to jazz. You can't stroll into the studio not knowing your scales and with no practice, and just start playing. You'd sound like Eric Dolphy! (Obscure zing!)
That's the difference between improvisation and winging it. Improvisation, of the kind that led to Kind of Blue, was built upon years and years of practice and study and work together as a group. There is underlying theory and concept, and in the case of Kind of Blue, it was based on the complex ideas of George Russell. That doesn't work when some inexperienced, unpracticed jackass just picks up an instrument and starts fuckin' around with no clue what he's doing.
There was a place for winging it. We called it a "Grateful Dead" concert, where the concert-goers were too fucking drugged out of their minds to notice that the "musicians" weren't actually playing music. Here's an oldie but a goodie. What did the Deadhead say when he ran out of drugs? "Wow, these guys suck!" Why? They were winging it, not improvising.
Improvisation requires understanding of underlying concepts, extensive practice and study. Winging it is just fuckin' around. One works. The other doesn't.
Note, too, that improvisation is intrinsically risky. Kind of Blue was recorded, released, and has stood the test of time. How much hasn't? We don't know because it hasn't been released. How many bad improvisational concerts have there been, even by great musicians? I have no clue, and neither do you. Even when the musicians are geniuses, they won't always get it together because improvisation is always intrinsically risky. If you look through the recorded output of Miles Davis, there are tons of concerts and bootlegs and such, and... they're not all Kind of Blue. Why not? Because even a genius like Miles can't keep that level of genius going at all times. Kind of Blue was a peak. Not the only one, to be sure. I'm a big fan of Sketches of Spain, and plenty of other Miles albums, but improvisation always carries an element of risk.
Nothing compared to wingin' it, though. Even if you happen to be the greatest musical genius of your century.
On the other hand, what if you are nothing more than Donny Dipshit? What if you spend all day watching Fox News and tweeting about "NO COLLUSION!" and trying to figure out how you can top last hour's insane lie with an even crazier lie?
You can't improvise if you don't know anything and never practice. Now, to be sure, many of the musical greats had no formal musical training, even in jazz. Wes Montgomery comes to my mind, as a fan of jazz guitar. But, his natural talent and ear picked up everything so that he didn't need to know the names of the chords. He knew the chords and played 'em not knowing the names.
Donny Dipshit is not Wes Montgomery. He doesn't know anything or understand anything. Remember the Nieto and Turnbull phone calls? Imagine that, but with Kim Jong Un.
When Sarah Palin's handlers were preparing her for the 2008 vice presidential debates, they understood that she's a fucking idiot, so they needed to feed her a couple of lines to recite, telling her that she can't deviate from those lines. Otherwise, she'd just humiliate herself by revealing her idiocy. You can't improvise if you don't have the skill. Winging it? No. Just... no.
Donny Dipshit is about to "wing it" with Kim Jong Un. What could possibly go wrong?