Mike C K
Paying Your Dues
Short version:
I've been practicing jazz piano more than ever, and it's showing - hopefully - through the playing. It's a process and involving respect, confidence, and humility. Check it out:
Longer version:
You have to practice. You can start out with a lot of talent, money/privilege, access to good recordings, to good teachers....but you also have to practice. With jazz, quite possibly the most significant and profoundly meaningful American musical genre, you also have to pay your dues. In one way, this means having to "suffer" through the periods where you feel your time (rhythmic command, essentially) is lousy and you don't like your solos. In another way, it means being distinctly mindful and respectful that this incredible music was unequivocally borne of slavery, and that you, an extremely fortunate and well-off individual, are now getting to study and play it. This is why "suffer" is in quotes.