Deep Focus in Jazz

We recently had the idea presented to us, that jazz is a sort of flyting. I avidly disagree with this idea, and consider jazz to provide us with more a musical conversatation between the various players. An argument implies a sort of organized chaos, It is a hardly something that would be considered music to one’s ears. A quick listen to the works of artists like Coltrane, Davis, and Ornette pull one into this realization. Trey Anastasio, the jazz guitarist and former front man for the band Phish outlined this critical idea of both jazz and jam music in lecture he delivered to a music class at University of Vermont some years ago.
If we follow Trey’s ideas and the patterns we see emerge in the jazz we listen to, we could hardly miss the interrelated aspect of the different instruments. As the instruments unfold the given piece, specific instruments come out as leaders and pull the others with them. There very existence and ability to lead comes from the foundation built up the cohesiveness of the background. Without an organized background, a jazz piece, like a conversation collapses. The background suddenly becomes critical. This is Deep Focus in music. It marks a critical moment in American thought.