They must be able to hear as a jazz musician, know what to look for when listening to jazz, and know how to speak the language and behave like a jazz musician in the music and around it. Jazz also involves a particular way of interacting with a musical starting point. It is the art of personalising and inflecting a given tune by embellishing, reharmonising and generally transcending the material in a flexible and open formal structure. Recent research also indicates that at the centre of all jazz education should be the way musicians work together in groups. Seen in this light, jazz is not a musical vocabulary as much as a set of musical conventions for interacting with other musicians.
Educators maintain a delicate balance between two contradictory views within jazz.
One asserts that learning to recreate the rich traditions of the past is important. This involves an understanding not only of the musical processes but also of the historical context of racial conflict, relative poverty, bohemian excess and sheer hard work which gave rise to them. The opposite movement asserts that these musical traditions and the sometimes tragic and emotionally rich contexts that gave them meaning are in the past now. If jazz is to survive, jazz education must nurture that 'ache' all jazz musicians feel that the music should be contemporary, always moving on and breaking new boundaries. It emphasises the now, the personal, creative and searching elements of jazz.