All musicians build on tradition. Some try to honor it by imitation. Imitation is the sincerest indication of a lack of personal creativity. For others, their roots show (which is good, in folk music.) Some honor tradition by acknowledging it as an important influence in the music that they create. But, nothing is created out of whole cloth.

My question is, How do you honor tradition? For myself, tradition is the well I draw inspiration from. But, I see tradition as fluid.
Traditional music is an ever-evolving process of creating something "new" out of something "old."

My own approach to honoring tradition has been to assimilate it, out of love for the music, so that it becomes a part of who I am and the music I create. When I first heard the Anthology Of American Folk Music, I could hardly contain my excitement. Through time, I learned half of the songs on the collection. I've met people who try to reproduce the exact performance of the songs, down to the final note and vocal inflection, even if the culture that produced the tradition is not their own. I never liked that. Maybe it's all because of Lonnie Donegan. Lonnie captured the energy and essence of the songs, with very little attempt to recreate someone else's music. In learning songs from a tradition, whether it's folk, blues or gospel, I've never sat down and tried to copy the original recordings. I figured that interpetation had already been done and no matter how accurate an imitation I could do, it would still be just that: an imitation.

These questions are surfacing right now because I am fusing members of an a capella doo wop group with members of my gospel group that does mostly old black gospel quartet music. In doo wop, the original is the thing. Nobody wants to hear Blue Moon without that classic bass introduction. In doo wop, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In my quartet, I don't want anyone to become wedded to a previous performance of a song. Someone's already "been there, done that." I approach tradition, whatever form of music it is, in the same way.

So, how do you approach tradition? How much is imitation, how much is influence, and how much is personal interpretation?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Jerry