Jazz, in the simplest terms possible, is a musical impulse which constitutes a logical and vital growth of serious music making. It is not a confrontation with older music: indeed, it carries forward those qualities which make "classical" music great and fulfills a musician's quest for wonder and adventure as well as fidelity to the human condition. It is essentially evolutionary and the assumption that it is a different species altogether is a fundamental error based on too constrained an overview.

It uses Western instruments and in so doing has extended their usable ranges and expressive power: it functions, in the main, within our twelve tone system and expands, not contracts or cancels, the harmonic language within which all the basics still apply: it employs traditional notation and developed chord symbols: it requires of its exponents not only practise disciplines (scales, arpeggios, interpretation, sight reading) but also a compositional awareness of form and mental access to whatever melodic, harmonic and rhythmic components may exist at the given musical moment: it has proved its enduring relevance to the twentieth century by its reassertion of feeling as a life-source in the face of much that is negative; as such, it has transcended racial and cultural barriers.

There is also the widely expressed wish of exclusively "straight"-trained musicians to be able to inhabit the idiom. Fortunate indeed are those youngsters who, along with their grades, have been able to acquire a foundation in jazz techniques. Not only does it make fresh calls on personal creativity but since a main thrust of its development is in relation to time and sensitivity as regards its use by the player, it sharpens a musician's awareness to all other music.

This is not to say everything which has ever come out of, or is presently emerging from, jazz is unequivocally beatific! But the classic sources are clear enough by now: Ellington, Armstrong and Parker, to identify a basic triumvirate. And although primarily an American phenomenon, Britain, placed uniquely between the United States and Europe, has produced much that is original and refreshingly different.

In short, the repertoire, techniques and disciplines arising from this almost century-old musical renewal which is fast finding its place in musical institutions worldwide, would be highly apposite as an intrinsic part of the Associated Board's presentation and examination structure.

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