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Free Jazz and Breaking I used to study the mechanics of jazz music when I was in school and I learned some interesting things that I later applied to my dancing, specifically in the area of dancing on- or off-beat. Most important were the chord changes inherent in jazz from the swing era and onwards. Songs were based on a set series of chord changes that gave color and melody to a particular song...rhythm, tempo, and the instruments used could all be changed to suit the artist's tastes, but the fundamental series of chord changes would always stay the same. Each chord consisted of a series of notes (at least 3), and the musician was allowed to use only those 3 or more notes to improvise with. He could play with them however he wanted, so long as he limited his expression to just those 3 or more notes. That was around the '30s. In the '40s, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, et. al., came along and revolutionized jazz improvisation by cramming more and more notes into their chords. Their music became more technical, intricate and fast-paced as a result. After a couple of decades of this, some musicians eventually got tired of chords and the way those chords limited improvisation to such a small series of notes. Musicians like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane started to experiment with chord-less music, thus eliminating the need to stay within given parameters when improvising. They instead used the melody and mood of the song itself as fuel for their improvised solos, and they called their music "Free Jazz," because it allowed them a fuller freedom of expression. That notion of freedom inspired them to gradually blur more and more of the boundaries set around jazz improvisation. After chords, rhythm and tempo were next to be tossed out the window, and you soon heard groups using collective and simultaneous improvisation, sometimes with each musician playing in a different tempo and time signature, as a means to produce not music in its traditional form, but instead an "artful noise." The parallels between this gradual evolution of jazz and the current trends in breaking should be pretty apparent by now. Look at the traditional style of breaking, and you have what effectively amounts to a chord consisting of 3 notes: toprock, footwork, and freezes. As the dance developed, power moves were thrown in, adding another note to our chords. Fast-forward to the late '80s and early '90s, with the development of power combos, power style, and more difficult freezes, and breaking, with its increasingly complex arrangements of "notes," starts to resemble bebop. Finally, consider the current state of affairs in the bboy world, where you have large amounts of people going against the grain, purposely dancing off-beat in the name of more complete self-expression, and freezes and power moves are unbelievably complicated. This backlash against a more simplistic traditional style has caused breaking to resemble not so much a dance, but a "visual noise." This is a natural progression that is apparent in every artform throughout history. Attempts to limit the development of an artform and restrain artists from cultivating their self-expression leads to an inevitable backlash against whatever establishment happens to be imposing such restrictions. Backlash leads to backlash, and this constant flux produces art of amazing variety. It is important, and even necessary, to allow such freedom of expression to exist. There are so many notes, chords, and moves yet to be discovered, and the suppression of any form of art, any idea, can prevent the development of potential new artforms. In other words, to suppress a single idea, no matter how unusual it might be, is to prevent an entire chain of events from occurring...events that could have led to even more advances in art. Don't be afraid to think a little differently. Peace |
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