classical studies to improve jazz

[running wolf]

Am new to SOTW. Am older, intermediate tenor player who has a nice horn and is very motivated (play a coupla hours daily). Mostly intested in jazz standards -- Monk, early Trane, Duke, etc. My teacher wants me to take a 6-month hiatus from jazz and work classical music to improve my mechanics. I agree they could benefit, but am reluctant to let go of my jazz studies. Have been with this teacher for 3 1/2 years. Any advice?

[paulwl]

These dilemmas often say as much (or more) about the teacher than about the student...What kind of player is your teach? Do his jazz and classical philosophies meet or blend at all? What does he think jazz is "doing" to you that classical study would "fix"?

And don't let him think jazz doesn't require mechanics...:D Try laying some etude-like stuff on him, like the Parker Omnibook, or Joe Viola's jazz technique books, or perhaps transcriptions of jazz players with a more "legit" tonal approach - like Getz or Prez, or (altoists) Konitz and Desmond (both very formalistic, organized improvisers as well).

If you interpolate classical work into a kind of jazz that's compatible with it, the two should blend nicely.

[MS]

Whether playing jazz or classical, it is important to be albe to play the saxophone technically and understand it's nuances. If you're doing much improvising, you certainly need a basic grounding in all scale forms at a level that is automatically internalized. Reading should improve with good technical studies grounding.

If your current status is just playing the heads of songs (just melodies), you should probably explore the knowledge and technical facility to include and expand improvisation.

If applied to sports, there's a basic body conditioning that all athletes do on a regular basis to ingrain basic reflex conditioning, so that gamess are a matter of planning and evaluating stratagy. If you're worrying about your tennis serve, you've already lost the game. Good luck and have fun.

[No Clever Name]

Definitely playing and studying classical music can help. Sure, you can play jazz without classical studies, but I found that playing classical really improves my time, finger speed, and all around technique. AND, it's sometimes fun to throw in part of a classical solo into your improv solo...