It’s gratifying to get applause for a solo, but it also annoys me. Why?
Well, because sometimes it interferes with the overall flow of the tune or performance.
It also annoys me when one of the other band members or the front person introduces me during the last phrase of my solo, or when they introduce the previous soloist over the first phrase of my solo.
For those who don’t know, the first and last phrase of a solo is the most important part. You can easily crash and burn on the take-offs and landings.
Besides the fact that it’s intruding on my solo, it’s actually soliciting applause and that just seems self-serving and a little bit desperate.
Another thing about it that I find annoying is that it prompts or encourages competition among the soloists; who can get the most applause? And as any performing musician knows, it’s not usually the “best” soloist who gets the most applause, it’s the one who is the most “gimmicky.” The fact that applause-after-solo encourages competition among players will be addressed in more detail below.
Don’t get me wrong; I like it when there’s a spontaneous outburst of “YEAH!” - even in the middle of my solo. That means I’ve touched somebody with my playing. And that’s what it’s all about.
It’s the perfunctory, solicited applause-after-solo that bothers me.
Why do jazz audiences routinely clap after solos? This is something I’ve wondered about most of my career. How did that get started?
I have a theory. But first I did a little research.
After googling the same question worded different ways, what I came up with was a consensus along the lines of,
“It’s just tradition and standard protocol at jazz clubs and concerts.”
Well...that's a stupid non-answer.
I have a theory. I can’t confirm it or document it at all; it’s just a theory:
There’s a history of the, "jam-session-as-cutting-contest" in jazz. I started working in and out of Kansas City from about 1970. There is a strong Jazz/Blues jam tradition here that has its roots in the 1930’s.
Even today, you can usually find a Jazz &/or Blues jam session going on somewhere any given night of the week. The “cutting” aspect, that is, battles or competitions between soloists, is not all that common anymore; jams are now more nurturing and mutually supportive.
But when I was a young musician coming up, there was a definite competitive element, especially among older players. I call it “Competitive Assholery” and wrote a blog about it.
Those older players were products of the 1930’s musical culture or were mentored by guys from the ‘30’s.
The Boomer-era musicians who started their musical careers in the sixties and seventies were more about peace, love and tolerance - at least that was the ideal.
I’ve mentioned it before; Eric Clapton’s response to, “Who’s the best guitarist in the world?”
“Contests are for horses.”
The evolution of the cutting contest in pop culture has resulted in “the great Darwinian spectacle” as Bruce Springsteen aptly put it, of American Idol.
Instead of a panel of judges, a la American Idol, maybe, just maybe, the audience applause-after-solos was how the “cutting contest” was decided.
The “contest” has mostly faded, at least at jam sessions in Kansas City, but the applause remains, an empty remnant of a bygone era.
Just a theory.
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