What do musicians do on stage? In small ensembles the audience is expected to savor the music as it is being heard. Unlike recording, the music “appears” without artifice and this is a wonderful thing. The audience is also enjoying the way the music is produced—bows sliding across strings and sticks and hands hitting drums and cymbals. And then the audience is also seeing how the musicians interact with each other as they signal with nodding heads and raised instruments and pointed bows. They see some musicians showing their own enjoyment and even rapturous joy as they play a passage of music. For example, they see a guitarist bending over backwards while playing a powerful high note or a saxophonist moving to the music or a pianist shaking his/her head in time to the music. Those body movements have long held my interest and that’s what I’m writing about next.
Some famous musicians move a lot and others don’t. With the ones who move, the body movements seem to be an integral part of the musical passage being executed. Lesser talents look like they’re faking it with all their contortions and brimming-over hip looks.
Several decades ago a dancer told me that my group presented little to look at. Here we were, four musicians with our heads in the sheet music playing our saxophones. As with several other wind instruments the mouthpiece freezes facial muscles and hand movements are likewise kept at a minimum. We can hardly bounce around or bob our heads because we have to pay attention to my demanding parts. So there’s not much to look at.
For musical reasons, since 2023 I have been writing passages marked “unlimited repeats” for long improvised solos. I instruct the soloist to slide away from his/her position behind the music stand and move in front of the three other saxophonists. As the solo is tailing out, the soloist moves back to the reading position. When I started doing this I think some of the musicians were half-thinking that it’s just to win over the audience and nothing more. But engaging in a little movement really brings out the best in a soloist. And the audience loves it. And in contrast to the jive physicality of many jazz performers it’s real and has a purpose.