How do I go about learning jazz?

[FretlessMainly]

I'm surprised I haven't seen Mingus being mentioned here yet.

n.b.:

...Compare the work of two of the jazz greats, Louis Armstrong and Charles Mingus...

I...or the attitude of Charles Mingus playing Haitian Fight Song...
I truly believe that the great jazz musicians like Charlie Parker, Lady Day, Miles, and Mingus (to name but a few)...

...And yes, I love and played Mingus...

 

[Whousedtoplay]

I've read all of these suggestions about learning jazz as a bass player.
I think that some advisers really missed one excellent book for the beginners. It's Ed's book called "Walking Bassics".

I mean, Ed Fuqua not Ed Friedland.

Why do I highly recommend Ed Fuqua's book.

I've purchased a kindle edition from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Bassics-Ed-Fuqua/dp/1883217504
I took me about 3 minutes to download the book. No need to wait for hours, days, etc...
I like reading books on my laptop/computer. It allows me to get any help from Google immediately.
The digital book has a link to download the accompanying CD. After you unzip the file, you have MP3 files ready to play on your computer, laptop, tablet, IPod, etc...
That's the technical side that I like about the book.

Now.

In my personal opinion, Ed Fuqua's book is a "street smart", short but very informative ("Cheat sheet") guide for the beginner bass players.

It's like a guiding light for those who want to learn walking bass lines.
The book doesn't try to teach you everything about Jazz Music (one of my pet peeves with some other similar books written by acknowledged educators).
The book just gives you a very solid foundation (if you read it slowly and try to analyze each and every paragraph/advice/exercise)
on building walking jazz bass lines, from a true and "hard working" jazz practitioner's perspective.
Where some other educators "dilute" the message by adding extra pages and, kind of, "protecting" or encoding the real knowledge (you'll learn it from my next book), Ed Fuqua reveals those "crystalized-over-long-time" chunks of his experience in his first book.

Also, a bass player can apply Ed's principles to building pop/rock/r&b basslines.

The accompanying CD (the Aural Part of the book) even exceeds the written (Intellectual Part).

I wish Ed Fuqua could write the same way a book about bass soloing.

 

[FenderPlayer96]

Maybe learn some songs by Jaco Pastorius?

 

[dae666]

Great advice here. Maybe the OP didn't respond/appreciate, but I did, so thanks everyone.

(I particularly love Ed Friendland's book, it totally changed the way I listened to not only jazz but music overall. So, thanks Ed.)

 

[Misterwogan]

As a blues player (guitar & bass), I sometimes jump into Jazz (particularly BeeBop) and end up coming out again saying "this needs some dedicated time". I can only begin to imagine the scale of the challenge facing the bassist who has not travelled a least part of the blues journey.

 

[phillybass101]

And I thought discussions about gear were rough!!!!

 

[pbass888]

Get a good teacher steeped in the tradition. Do what they say and go experience live jazz.

 

[megafiddle]

Also try some of the backing tracks, like from jazzbacks.com.

Use the full recording to get an idea of the bass part and the recording minus
the bass part to practice with.

I have some of them; they are very good if you are starting out, easy to follow.
Real bands playing with your particular instrument missing (jazzbacks.com).

Also there are midi sequences on the net that range from horrible to excellent.
Just mute the bass part to practice along with. You will need a sequencer to
load them into in order to mute the bass track, but those are available also on
the net. (I use commercial sequencers so can't recommend any)

.

 

[davidhilton]

Sure, and I'm just saying I disagree with your opinion that you have to spend years working at jazz before you go out to play, or that to tackle jazz you must necessarily work harder than at other types of music.

I think this is a myth in general about jazz, that jazz musicians spend more time and effort on their craft than musicians of other styles do.

Do you play jazz? I do, and it takes a lot more work than playing a Nirvana song- and i love Nirvana. I graduated from Berklee in 95, and have been working at honing my "jazz" skills ever since- I'll let u know when I feel Im there lol! You have to learn the language and then you have to put it into play in performance situations- hard work... Coltrane still practiced hours a day long after he was renowned and accomplished...Sunny Rollins spent @ 3 years practicing up in the Williamsburg Bridge... "In 1959, feeling pressured by the unexpected swiftness of his rise to fame, Rollins took a three-year hiatus to focus on perfecting his craft.[5] A resident of the Lower East Side of Manhattan with no private space to practice, he took his saxophone up to the Williamsburg Bridge to practice alone: “I would be up there 15 or 16 hours at a time spring, summer, fall and winter”.[6]

So for you to say, "I think this is a myth in general about jazz, that jazz musicians spend more time and effort on their craft than musicians of other styles do" i would have to completely disagree with you- and its not my opinion, its a fact that jazz musicians work extremely hard- i would say harder.

I rarely post here, matter of fact, I tell my students not to take most of what they read here as fact. I not trying to prove you wrong, or say I'm right, but the facts speak for themselves.
You can check out my site @ www.basslessonslosangeles.com.
I'm available for lessons in the greater Los Angeles area, online and video lessons are avail as well.
Peace, -d