Leontyne Price or Ella Fitzgerald?  Who was the better vocalist?  Neither.  They were simply different.

The mastering of any form of art can take years to achieve – the 10,000 hours of practice theory.  Students of western European classical music or America’s high-art form, jazz, must rehearse and study rigorously to attain a high enough level of skill to become professionals in their fields.  Both forms of study require intense dedication.  One might wonder why there are few musicians who have truly mastered both. It’s because there are several distinct differences between the two forms of music that lead a musician down one, or the other path, but very rarely both.

Western European classical music is mostly determined by the composer.  As the pianist sits at her instrument to play a Bach fugue, she is interpreting the music of the composer.  The written music provides all the parameters she must follow to bring the piece to life such as the key signature, tempo, the feeling, and each and every note that needs to be played and when each and every note needs to be played.  Of course, the pianist must turn these notes into music, imparting her personal artistry into the performance for this interpretation to be successful, but the composer has set up a clear blueprint to follow.  In short: classical music is played as written with a few exceptions.    

The jazz pianist, on the other hand, will typically sit down at her instrument with an outline – a rough sketch or map of the tune she will play.  This map gives an arrangement of chords, melody and form.  The rest is up to the jazz pianist.  The pianist decides the tempo, the key and the feeling.  The pianist and the composer are real collaborators. In contrast to the classical pianist, the jazz pianist is literally composing in real time.  Jazz is defined by improvisation.  In addition, it is the goal of a jazz musician to carve out a truly unique voice -not only in tone, but in use of rhythm, harmony or melody.  

Active listening and collaboration are of utmost importance to both art forms.  The classical violinist playing with an orchestra must always be listening and following the composition, either actively playing or waiting for cues to re-enter the performance.  Jazz musicians are also actively listening, but they are also having to listen to new interpretations constantly.  A jazz pianist will play the entire tune, actively listening to the bass and drums and other instruments, and in kind through musical conversation while keeping the chord progression and form, i.e., creating on the spot.  Jazz employs “call and response” and bouncing back and forth of ideas.

The treatment of rhythm is also a distinguishing difference between jazz and classical music.  Jazz musicians put emphases on the second and 4th beat, and use syncopation to improvise rhythmically.  “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing,” so to speak.  Time signatures can be wonky, as in some more avant-garde jazz pieces with 5/4 or other irregular signatures, but typically, the tempo, once set, stays.  There’s an emphasis on steadiness of pulse.  In classical music, tempo can change, as in the use of rubato – to slow down as a means to support a musical phrase or line.

Achieving a particular or ideal and consistent tone is more important in classical music than jazz.  A coloratura soprano is distinguished by range and a clear tone.  Also, use of vibrato in classical music is uniform and consistent.  A jazz vocalist can have a clear tone, a raspy tone, no vibrato or any combination therein.  Jazz vocalists make use of tone and use of vibrato in countless ways.  Listen to three of the great jazz vocalists, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughn sing the same tune and each of their approaches, not only with their use of tone and vibrato, but also melody and rhythm, are all very distinct.  Also, if you were to listen to any of these three masters sing the same tune twice, each version would be different, because jazz is about improvisation.   

The time it takes to master either form is the reason why there are so few masters of both.  You’re about as likely to hear the late great opera singer, Leontyne Price, belting out a believable blues tune as you are the reincarnation of Miles Davis adding his nuanced riffs to Mozart’s Trumpet Concerto in D major. It’s a neat idea, possibly transformative.  Certainly, there are many musicians who are competent in both forms; very few are truly masters of both.