Jazz musicians, after playing the melody, will take a solo. Put simply, they compose a piece on the spot. It is our hope, as the supporting musicians, that the soloist will compose a piece that sounds similar to the melody, uses similar harmony, and compliments the style of music being played by the rest of the band. When that musician finishes improvising, they hand off to another musician.
The amateur listener will experience several minutes of musical ideas that may, or may not, sound like they make sense - it's just nice to listen to. But the attentive listener gets to enjoy a conversation across the band. Ideas being traded between one musician and another. Ideas being being born, developed, evolved and destroyed.
The life cycle of a riff, of an idea, starts inside the musician - it's conceived. The musician then nurtures the riff in their head until it's ready to be shipped to the world - born. When the musician plays the idea, it is shipped. Now, the musician enjoys the responsibility of nurturing the idea.
With the help of their band mates the musician takes the idea and grows it. Adding new ideas upon it, removing the old ones. Like nature, an unelegant evolution that's bombastic and caustic. Eventually another musician picks up on the idea, takes it, destroys it, and births their own.
I have been thinking a great deal on what it means to live and lead a fulfilled life. Perhaps it's not about being "happy," but instead it's about birthing, nurturing, and shipping something that's worth something for someone else.
What if happiness could be like a solo? Giving birth to an idea only to see it taken by someone else and made better.
Want some inspiration? Listen to Miles Davis' First Miles album here. It was Miles' idea of how jazz might evolve, but it was the smallest of an idea. Years later, Miles would evolve the idea of jazz into new and unknown ways.
What idea will you give birth to?
