Are you stuck in the past? Are you afraid of ghosts? Listen, I’m the first person to tell you to check out the past, study the masters and dig deep into the tradition. But the only reason to do that is to use that experience and knowledge to springboard yourself into the future. You use the past to create the future. You don’t need to recreate the past.
So many jazz musicians and jazz educators have ridiculous opinions about what is jazz and what is not. They put limits on themselves and on their music. They pigeon hole the music and in doing so they pigeon hole themselves. They get caught up in the details and lose site of the big picture—‘this is jazz, that is not; this is real bebop, that is not, etc.’
That sort of thinking only has the effect of limiting your creativity. Jazz doesn’t care what you do. Charlie Parker doesn’t care what you do. Just because Charlie Parker did something one way (either in music or in his personal life) doesn’t mean you have to. He doesn’t care. In fact if he were still alive I would bet he would applaud you for creativity and originality not imitation.
I heard a story about Thelonious Monk, and if I remember correctly here’s how it went. Monk was at a club watching a young piano player perform. Now, this piano player had clearly done his homework and really checked out Monk’s music. Seeing that Monk was in the audience this player decided to perform one of Monk’s tunes. He pulled out all of his Monk licks and played the tune as close to how Monk would as he could. He imitated his tone, his feel and his vocabulary. So, what was Monk’s response? “I already know how I would play it; I want to hear how you would play it.”
There are no rules and there are no mistakes. The only thing that matters is self-expression and connection with other people. That’s it.
This sort of limiting belief pops up in all sorts of ways. As a drummer I like to experiment with time-feel. I use this as a device to create interest and tension in a piece of music. I might change the time feel (i.e. Latin feel for the bridge, rock feel for the tag, modulate to another meter for the C section, etc) through out a piece of music. I might change for each soloist, or maybe just for the bridge. I’ll change only sometimes on the bridge or change in different ways, never locking myself into anything. The bass player I play with most often (in several bands) is hip to this and is a creative and open-minded person himself, so he goes with it and enjoys the interest created. Heck, he does it himself. But sometimes I’ll use this stuff with less creative people and I get responses like ‘actually the bridge on that tune is supposed to be a swing feel’ or ‘actually, so and so always played it this way’. So What! I’m not ‘so and so’.
So study the tradition and study the ‘rules’. Then throw them away as fast as possible. Do your homework but then let your ears and your heart guide your music. There are only two types of music in the world: good and bad. Good music is any music that moves you and inspires you. Draw on all of your influences and roots. If you grew up playing punk rock before you starting checking out jazz, that music is still in you. If it comes out in your improvising…THAT’S GREAT! It’s part of you. It’s part of your artistic voice. Your punk rock energy combined with your jazz sensibility could come out sounding fantastic and totally original. Jazz is all about originality and individuality. Innovation is the tradition.

Chris Punis is an active jazz musician in the northeast. He is founding member of the critically acclaimed group Gypsy Schaeffer and a member of renowned saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase’s group The Explorer’s Club. Chris is also an accomplished jazz educator and author of “The Monster Jazz Formula”. For more information about his teaching methods and to receive your free lessons, “21 Great Ways To Become a Monster Jazz Musician”, visit www.learnjazzfaster.com