When you speak to senior musicians such as John Pochee of Ten Part Invention, you find that they learnt to play jazz from experience. This has been a tradition in the US, but now the prevalence of classroom teaching has to a large extent changed this type of apprenticeship.
"It’s likely that even Mr. Marsalis, with his staunchly different set of aesthetic values, would agree with that assessment. Jazz’s apprenticeship system, after all, flows freely across the fault lines of ideology. It can take root in a classroom as well as a club. And judging by the track records of certain former prodigies, it has a way of perpetuating itself."
READ MORE from the New York times article by Nate Chinen
And to read more on this topic from NPR and Patrick Jarenwattananon
Image Jason Moran
