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I've pondered this question many times.

Technical Prowess means you can like play Giants Steps note for note and twice as fast. Not much feeling though. Sadley the only ones in the audience clapping are the other highly impressed musicians.

Feel for the Music means you've made people cry. smile Might not be able to keep up with peers technically though, but gains huge audience response.

Ability to improvise means you're the guy they bring in to lay down solo tracks at a moments notice. Also includes large audience response.

Ability to sight read like a machine: You get tons of studio work. You come in and lay down the music flawlessly without much prep. Average audience response.

Could be any combination of the above also. I'm thinking if you're a cobination of 2 and 4 you're really good, but improv might give you trouble. A 1 and a 3 seems really dangerous to me. Throw in a great feel for music and there's your legend status.

Thought on this? How would you rank these in importance? I'm sure there's even catagories to add here.

Here's where I am on percussion: I can read, but not sight read on the spot. I need lots of prep. I've got good feel, and I can improvise. Technically I'm ok after a good warm up, but middle of the road at best. Complicated time signatures make me stumble without tons of practice. I've got a good ear though.

yeah you definitely need all of them to be a great musician. ive got a friend that can do 1,2, and 3 but cant really sight read, he can read chords but not the little dots on the page that well, and the scary thing is is that hes a sophmore in highschool and hes.. yeah. as for me, i think im bout like mhn horn freak, but idunno. sorta inbetween lessons right now, i got stuff to work on its just mainly gettin to it and things, my sight readings getting better but eh

and i know someone to that is classically trained and cant swing for s**t but shes in there as a place holder as 2nd tenor but.. gah she has like the worst tone on it and shes using a mark VI.. i swear me and the rest of the sax section should just kick her out. well all she can really do is just read and that gets annoying when she cant swing(or play in tune consistantly for that matter cus shes using this shity mouthpiece not bringing out the potential of mr. browns mark VI)

anyways i can go on about that.

Lol! Well-I don't know that I agree with you on Beethcoven or Bach wanting us to improv with their music *Beethoven did put so much work into the details after all-getting it just the way he wanted- and with Bach's subtle genius-I wouldn't mess with those guys and their musical works-they wrote it the way they did for a reason*.
I mean-classically speaking-vocalists would add decorations to their solos that later became trills and what not-but if you're actually suggesting changing Beethovens material then, while I am all for creativity and self expression-their music wasn't meant to be toyed with like that. It is as it is. It's meant to be appreciated in the form it's in.

Onto the topic though-I'd say all of these aspects are important to any jazz musician worth his/her salt. Sight reading helps you run through almost any chart with so much more ease. The more familiar you are with forms and styles versus only knowing the whole piece helps you to have a better understanding of the jazz music available anyway, I would think. You need a healthy dose of technical and musical intution[emotional] abilities to play well and keep an audiences attention. Improv-if wanting to be in the spotlight or have a solo career-is also important. Music is never really one thing-but the combination of many things that's what makes it so great. Jazz-being music-is the same.

Totally. All those things make a good musician, but an extraordinary one, one of those timeless people, always have something that hasn't been done. For that reason, I might put feel as the most important, but that's not quite it- it's more being original and breaking free of the box. Particularily in jazz.

I have to agree with the above: Feel. If the musician can't feel any life in his music, chances are the audience won't either. Sight reading, technical prowess and improvisational skills can be worked on again and again until they're perfect. Feeling in the music sometimes is harder to come-by.

I agree with all of those, but I also think that the ability to have your own style and have people recognize it is another aspect that can make you great
can you recognize benny goodman? john coltrane? duke ellington? miles davis? they all have their own style that you know (and love maybe wink )
though it is also cool to copy other styles having your own makes you your own not someone's poser
maybe it should be added to the list wink

again i'm bumping this cuz it's an awsome thread and needs more people to put thier two cents in.

The most important thing is to feel the music in you. If you're great at technical, can improv really well and are a great sight reader, that's all good, but if you can't feel the mood of the music and if you can't convey that to people, then what good is it? I mean, a technical genius can play scales really well too, I suppose, but it's not very interesting, is it? A person who genuinely is feeling what the music is about may make a mistake or two, but they are able to put their own spin on the music and by the end the audience can feel what they really think and also what the composer of the piece was thinking. I think that's pretty important.

Though I will also say that overall it is important to have skill in every area. I just think it's really important to have an emotional attachment to what you play as well.