JazzBlog

Interview with Seka

2006-04-10T20:18:00.000-06:00

Link (Seka's Official Website):
http://www.seka.dk/

I've read that your father is a musician, did you make a conscious decision to go into music at some point in your life, or was it a natural progression? If you made a conscious decision, when and why?

I started out with choir- singing and violin lessons with nine years.

I performed a couple of times in school accompanied by my father at piano. I think he was more nervous than I was at those times. His best friend, the drummer of his old band (German Bonds)Piet Becker, was going to come and watch us once. We were playing classical music back then and my father had outbursts of cold sweat and heartracing before entering stage. I think it´s called stage-fright, hehe.

When I was in seventh grade I started out playing guitar. I quickly picked up the most common chords and learned how to switch fast, but I found it easier to come up with my own songs than to play covers and I really enjoyed to sing. On school breaks there was a crowd of people, usually playing songs while relaxing, that I joined. I still dont feel that I´m the best guitar player there is, but it´s nice to be able to play rhythm on some of the songs that I write.

What really made me hooked on music was, I suppose, the first time I performed alone with my guitar in school with one of my songs. It was a special occasion- It was the last day before summer vacation, before schools out ( I don´t know what its called in english) and every single pupil of our school attended. We had a lots of performances, amongst others- choir. I remember the front row was occupied with the Headmaster, the older (retired) Headmaster, and the big sponsor of our school, an old grey-haired woman. The Aula was quiet as a mouse and as soon as I was done people heaved and cheered. They were completely swept off their feet - and so was I. I don´t think I had ever felt that confident and full of worth-esteem before. My heart was racing. Afterwords when went into town, people that I did not know came up to me, telling me how great the performance was.

I continued to perform in different places, restaurants and schools, playing the guitar only, singing my tunes. And It sometimes happened that people approached me and asked me if I wasnt that girl that had performed at some place I´d been at before - sometimes even years afterwords! So having felt pretty insecure when I was growing up, I grew more confident with every gig I had and felt that I had a "call" in doing my own music.

With fifteen I remember I was so filled with music that I had a thrive to get it out and I remember that I was thinking how I wanted to invent "new" music that didnt exist. I think it meant to me that I wanted to come up with new sounds back then, already, but I hadnt gotten the tools to be able to compose like that yet.These days, with programming, I can do almost anything I like.

If you weren't a musician, what would have been your second choice as a career?

My mother was at first an athlete teacher and got tired of teaching so she studied and became a Medical Doctor instead. Before I decided to put my energy into music I had very good grades and my decision to become a musician wasnt exactly well- seen at my house. I suppose that my parents thought, or hoped, it would be a short fling- me and composing- and that I would tire of doing music. My father even told me at some point that "women had nothing to do in the Music Industry"! I think they were very worried that I would throw all my chances away to become well-educated and later on well-paid- And they were right! In fact I´ve thrown all my chances away to become a composing musician. If I wouldn´t be that, I´d be a cleaning- lady, which -in fact - is exactly what I do for living, to pay my bills...

Who would you say are your main musical influences?

I think that AC/DC was my biggest influence as a band, as long as the songwriter-duo Young/Scott were writing together. It would be big to meet Angus Young in person!

I also listened a lot to Beatles in the beginning. Lennon/McCartney was a faboulous songwriter-couple!

There are so many great artists to get influenced by..like Robert Johnson, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Ike and Tina Turner, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Aretha Franklin, Cheb Khaled, James Brown, EmmyLouHarris, Daniel Lanois, The Staple Singers, Johnny Winter, The Donovans, J. Hendrix, Billie Holiday. Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash...and a whole buch of great hardrock bands such as LedZeppelin, Pantera, Meshuggah , Sweet, Gary Glitter , a many more...and I like to listen to different kind of artists depending on which mood I´m in.

Music is a difficult industry to take part in. What would you say makes it worth all the effort? What would you say is the worst part about the music industry?

The worst part of the Industry must be the "B.S" that is circulating.

All the fairy tales of the "big bucks" that you could make but never do , unless you are one of the few big- selling artists promoted by big labels today. It´s such a gap between big artists like Shakira, and less promoted bands, like Phoenix for example, when it comes to income. Bands get scammed all the time with deals they don´t fully understand.

An illusion that is common, is the one that: behind "success-stories" lies no hard work. It is an illusion of "Glamour" - spending money by doing nothing to earn it - this really bothers me since so many people work hard to make it look easy and people think that you shouldnt get paid doing something that is "fun".The image of "getting famous over one-night " is not true. Some artists do believe that it should be easy-peasy all the time, so they do not prepare for the hard times and get really overwhelmed when they come. And hard times always come. You always have set-backs at some point.

There are people in the Industry making big bucks on scamming artists with fake promises and baloney deals because of these illusions and, to my opinion, an artist should never sign a contract without legal advice from a lawyer. The lawyer should be able to explain exactly what every post in the presented deal means and recognize what crucial things are missing in the presented contract. This To get you a deal that you hope for and not get surprised later on.

Some people dont know what kind of contracts they have signed. They think they are going to make money if their music sells well. Then they get really surprised when they notice that that is not the fact even though their records are selling quite a lot. In a deal you make with a label/publisher it is possible to negotiate away all chances to earn whatsoever on the music you make/you´ve made. And that´s a shame on all the work and time you´ve spent to make a good product!

What makes all this hard work worth its effort? A tricky question. Some people have skills, technical skills. Some have social skills or economic skills. And some people have artistic skills. Unfortunately you cant choose what skills you´d like to have. A potion of economic skills with artistic ones would be excellent to have!

What made me to continue is the passion for music and the drive together with creativity, a desire to invent something new- musically. That together with a pinch of stubbornness has driven me to continue my work. But I also would love, some day, to get paid for the work I´m doing!

Please describe your experiences with "Just Like Dad", and what you have learned from these experiences.

Playing in bands is an energydraining work if you don´t have a bunch of dedicated people sharing the same goals, wanting to create, and that have the same desire to pull the music the same direction. I figured quickly that, to not get disappointed when playing in a band I had to have some clue of how far the other band members would like to take the band. With "Just Like Dad" we had a very fortunate composition of people with similar goals. We could quickly write a set of 12-13 songs, rehearse them and get out live after 2 months. Another fortunate thing was that we had different roles regarding- who did what. One member was writing lyrics in swedish, calling newspapers and booking gigs, another member was fronting the band, composing songs of all the lyrics, and the third member was creating the covers of the recordings and creating posters for promotion.

I think I had the easiest job - I was just writing the music and fronting the band.

To get a band work well together is a hard work for almost no pay off what so ever ,as long as it´s not on proffessional level. We had something going on, the interest was up and people wanted us to perform a lot. We had papers writing about us until one of our members wanted to go to France and study arts. We didnt recover as a band from that setback, but I´ve learned a lot about how to run a band at least. :))

I have played in a couple of band constellations since then, but I never had the same experience of being a part of a group that is so focused on the same goals musically, like we were, again. These days I`d rather have a complete band working for me, playing my music the way I like it, leaving all the work to me to do all the booking, interviewing and co-ordinating- that is calling everybody together, paying them off, telling them when and where to rehearse/gig, deciding which songs to record and make sure all practical details are getting taken care of, when it comes to pressing the cd. It´s a lot more work to it but it´s better than just waiting for things to happen when you´re waiting for somebody else to act.

What are your current projects?

Right now I´m going through an education in north Sweden called "Songwriters Academy". I have one year left and during my last year I was planning on releasing a rock´n´roll record with a backing band I´ve been working with. We´re releasing my own material and probably it´s gonna be an album with 6-8 songs. Before that I am doing a practice on a swedish publishing company called "Misty Music". I have been cowriting a bit this fall and spring and hopefully we´ll get some songs pitched on other artists...we´ll see.

In your opinion, what is the most vital component in a musical composition?

I think that would be the urge to express something, an opinion or an emotion. This can be expressed through both lyrics and music but of course if you have political messages it would be easier to express them through the lyrics. If you´re talking about a "single" or a "hit song" there are many components that should be put together to make the song complete.

Do you feel that electronic instruments can be just as effective as acoustic ones in allowing the musician to emote and interpret a certain composition? Does this depend on the composition, or can electronic instruments be encorporated into any?

In my opinion, all music that exists is an expression of creativity and emotions inhabited by humans. It doesn´t depend on the instruments, whether they are acoustic or electronic, but on the human that uses them and how he/she uses them. With digital and electronic instruments you get a more static impression and that together with acoustic instruments, such as guitars and vocals, will get you a special sort of "swing", vibe, or whatever....I like it.

What effect does the similarities between the areas of math and music have on the effect of electronic music?

....You tell me? It´s impossible for me to tell.
[hahaha, I'll post a small essay later during the summer, I guess... if I want to get rid of the few readers I have *wink*]

What are your opinions of computer generated composition? Is it possible for an algorithm to be derived to compose a piece of music?

I think you could call almost anything music by now, as long as it´s a series of sounds put together. But I´m not sure that I would feel approached, emotionally, by a piece of music, composed by math calcutations. I´m more into communicating between humans through music, but I haven´t heard such compositons so I will have to have my reservations and have my say once I´ve heard it.

What composition are you most proud of, and why? What areas are you working to improve upon?

I´d say that the ones` that I have composed from start until the end, where I have done everything: lyrics, chords, music, melodies, producing and mixing myself and where I still feel I didn´t lose anything of what I tried to express....Those are the compositions I´m most proud of. One example of such is; "Hard Coming Down", "I can´t move", and "Push Pull" - where I did not do the beats and some few synths(Jonathan Holmes did), but most of the synths and sounds were mine , plus that I built the lyrics and sounds and actually managed to mix and produce it myself to a pretty innteresting song, just the way I had wanted it when once getting the beat from Holmes. I´m always working on to improve my mixing and producing skills, because I still have a very long way to go until I have become satisfyingly good at it. I still have problems with frequences, when mixing -not knowing what frequences to cut to get a good sound on everything. I´m learning a lot when working together with Dan Johansson, the mixer/producer of our rock´n´roll project. He´s really good at it.

If you had unlimited funds, and could be located anywhere in the world, what would be your ideal studio set up, and where would it be located?
The dream scenario would be to have a mobile, portable studio, a laptop perhaps with an external sound card, like a Motu Traveler or something comparative in quality. It would be great to be able to move between different cities, different contries to be able to cowrite/co-work with various people. If I had to choose one place only I´d propably choose to be where I have the most contacts and friends. Most of my friends are into music anyway so that`s probably where I´d settle. Unlimited funds would give me an oppurtunity to move and work with other people as well, which would be great and perhaps improve my quality a bit. Monitors are important when you mix so it´s hard to be mobile... perhaps a set of light monitors, Genelec1029, or a pair of straight-sounding, non-flattering earplugs? I don´t know any good brands, but....if there were!

My biggest problem is to get the time to spend on creating music just because of the fact that I have to work to pay my bills. I had one year off when I had to clean only just to pay bills. Now that I study I have the time again to compose and produce.

I've read that you use Logic, why did you choose this program over ProTools or similar software?

I chose Logic based on the simple fact that it was the first program I learned to record in. I am pretty sure that if I had started out in CubaseSX or ProTools I had probably continued working in those programs. ProTools seems by the way to be a great program to work in!

Please plug any sponsors, favorite bands, projects, or albums for sale here:
I would like to promote a Swedish band called JackBrothers. They are playing Jazz and according to what I know today, they have split up. But, I guess and hope for them to join up again and each one of the members are true and genuine musicians and jazz lovers. You should check out their album "Coltrane King" on their website:

www.jackbrothers.nu

Please go and visit my website as well! There you have free downloads of my music.

Check "HardComing Down" out if you´re into experimental. There are songs I´ve made in some other kind of genres as well, like Singer/Songwriter- style and pop-music.

In time I am going to want to put up music for sale on my website as well, but for now you have to settle with free music.

Hard Coming Down

Bill Evans

2006-04-04T23:59:00.000-06:00

[requested by Jeff from BZT]

Link: (Bill Evans Webpages)
http://www.billevanswebpages.com/

Name: Bill Evans
Born: August 16, 1929
Died: September 15, 1980
Instrument: Piano

The Russian son of a Welshman:
Bill's father was the Welsh owner of a golf course in Plainfield, New Jersey, and his mother was Russian Orthodox. Both parents were highly musical, and Bill's musical training began in his mother's church. Bill worshipped his older brother, Harry, who was the first one in his family to take piano lessons. As Harry was playing, Bill would sit next to him and mimick, and this kind of relationship continued until Harry died in 1979. Bill even had his first gig subbing for Harry, playing with Buddy Valentino's band at age 12. During a stock rendition of Tuxedo Junction, Bill discovered a new blues riff (a Db-D-F phrase in the key of Bb) which gave him a real thrill.

"It sounded right and good, and it wasn't written, and I had done it."

This feeling would inspire him throughout the rest of his career. Bill continued to blossom into a talented player, practicing 3 hours a day in his chilhood, increasing to six hours a day during college. Although he was clearly a highly talented individual, he never felt that he had any talent, and worked hard all of his life to develop his skills. Unfortunately, this lack of confidence would become the source of a smack habit, and later a problem with cocaine.

No Cover, No Minimum:
In 1956, after much coaxing (as Bill didn't believe he was ready to record), the album "New Jazz Conceptions" was recorded, all 11 songs in a single day in the studio. It received high critic acclaim, but only sold 800 copies in a year. The album included four Evan's originals: Five, Conception, No Cover, No Minimum, and Waltz for Debbie, which was a solo that Bill recorded after everyone else had left, and later became a classic.

Bill also had learned to play flute and violin as a child, his parents believing it was essential to learn more than one instrument. Because these instruments are largely concerned with tonal expressiveness, Bill learned the subtle gradation of nuance, which can be heard quite clearly in his work. His style has continued to influence Jazz pianists, such as Keith Jarrett, and piano students "reciting the Evans bible" can be heard in every Jazz college across North America.

Miles:
When Miles Davis' piano player, Red Garland, walked out on him, Bill got his big break in the business. Miles had been recently struck with a fascination with modal music, and Bill could follow Miles easily through different modal phrasings. Also, Bill introduced Miles to the works of Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Khachaturian, which presented Miles with totally different scales to play with. Miles enjoyed Bill's playing and in his own words:

" Bill had this quiet fire that I loved on piano. The way he approached it, the sound he got was like crystal notes or sparkling water cascading down from some clear waterfall. I had to change the way the band sounded again for Bill's style by playing different tunes, softer ones at first. Bill played underneath the rhythm and I liked that, the way he played scales with the band. Red's [Garland] playing had carried the rhythm but Bill underplayed it and for what I was doing now with the modal thing, I liked what Bill was doing better. "

Bill continued to play, and record, with Miles until 1960, when he formed the Bill Evans trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, which would become one of the most acclaimed piano trios of all time.

Trio Era:
Bill began to move away from the block chord style he had been using with Miles Davis, and started to experiment with a more open, impressionistic feeling music, influence by Satie and Debussy. During this time Bill revolutionized Jazz piano in a way that is still prevailant today. Instead of the traditional manner of spelling out the chord, Bill developed a system that abandoned roots altogether and instead, interpreted each chord as a particular colour. The root was left to the bass player, or to the left hand on another beat in the bar, or just implied. His ideas on the trio were also revolutionary. Instead of using the bass player and drummer as side-men/rhythm section, Bill gave equal focus to each player in the group. This allowed for lyrical development in the areas of bass and drums, and created a very unique, egalitarian sound for the Bill Evans Trio.

Bill continued to rewrite the book on Jazz theory and technique throughout his later years, right up until his tragic death in 1980. Bill had been experimenting with cocaine, a drug that was considered "safe" by many heroine users of the time. Unfortunately, unlike smack, cocaine requires that the blood system be replenished once per day. Bill complained of stomach pains to his drummer Joe LaBarbera, who drove him to the hospital where he later died. His contribution to Jazz continues today, as many aspiring Jazz piano player spend hours of study, trying to learn and perfect the "Evans technique".

Piano Jazz

Interview: Gaslight District

2006-03-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

Gaslight District is a cross-genre band, with heavy Jazz and Blues influences, based in San Diego, California. Centered around the two main members Myndi Anjuli and Steve Murdock, Gaslight District has had many, MANY players grace it's stage. They claim to be uninteresting people, and perhaps they don't live up to preconceptions the everyday nine-to-fiver would have of a musician, but they are hardly "uninteresting". I threw them some very cliche, stinky-as-stilton questions, and they answered in the only way I have come to expect from a group with a sense of humour, intelligence, and the ability to convey both of these in total honesty. (...Oh yeah, and they're pretty good at what they do, as well.)

Links: (Myspace and IAC)
http://www.myspace.com/gaslightdistrict
http://iacmusic.com/artist.aspx?ID=16739

Where did the name "Gaslight District" come from?

The pulse of life, sexuality, and enlightened self-interest. The nightlife, and entertainment hub of any major city that usually has a Gaslight District. In San Diego, we have the Gaslamp Quarter. A place of cultural diversity, priest-like street musicians, clubs ranging the gambit of sound, harbouring a kinetic energy of life, soul, and song that sets a stage of divine distraction for those looking to lay down their burdens and have a good time outside of a strip mall. As Gaslight District is ill committed to one particular genre, and has been accused of a wide range of styles... well, it only seemed fitting.

[I love the use of the word "accused" there.]

Why did you choose to go into music?

For most of us, there is a fundamental reaction from the first note you sing with clarity and intent, your first triad on a keyboard, your first un-muted chord on a guitar, the first rhythm on the skins... it's merely a whisper when it begins. Some, it ensnares, where others shurg and go onto other interests. Once you begin down the path, greater pleasures abound: the moment you finally figure out what to do with the scales, intonation, dynamics, timbre, the joy of solitary exploration of one's insturment. Even further on, one discovers harmony, the wonders of collaboration, your first clunky attempt at a cover tune, the day when it starts to gel, the first time you leave your body and join the sounds around you, divine accidents. The first show (and all fo the attendant problems, the first good show, the feeling of a well driven kick drum pushing the air of a mid-size hall past you like breath from a mythical beast. Getting paid to play, the ten egomaniacs who approach you after the show and tell you they are ten times better than your current [insert instrument here] player, humiliating showcases, the parasitic lotharios and back stagers who wanna taste the madness... but I digress. What we have here is a classic progressive addictive syndrome and we are clearly addicts.

Who are your main influences?

Influences is a dangerous word. It implies imitation, which is probably beyond our abilities. Having said that, and realizing that none of us exist in a vacuum... the biggies are as follows:

Steely Dan, Ben Webster, David Bowie, Tom Waits, Duke Ellington, Peter Gabriel, Marlene Dietrich (and Madeline Khan by association, throw in Gene Wilder... big time influence), Christopher Walken [the presence of that name made my day], Stevie Wonder (right up to... well... I think we all know when), The Beatles (big surprise), Frank Zappa, Leon Redbone, Black Crowes, Spoon, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Paul Weller (all incarnations), James Taylor, Joe Jackson, Lyle Lovett, Paul Simon, Fishbone, Parliament/Funkadelic (And all that is Clinton and Collins), Sly Stone, James Brown, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Meshell Ndegeocello, Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers, Grover Washington Jr., Jame McMurtry, R.E.M. (Through Life's Rich Pageant), Dire Straits, Daniel Johnston, Sippie Wallace, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, 30's Era Jazz, Dixieland Jazz, [...] Chuck Berry, (the usual suspects)... Billy Holiday, Miles Davis, etc... and of course, Classical, Gershwin, Ragtime etc... etc...

And the list goes on, as this is just to name a few.

Music is a difficult industry to be involved in, let alone choosing a genre that is much less commercial than some. Why did you choose to go the Jazz/Blues/Rock route instead of following the mainstream?

We cannot say that we chose to “go into” Jazz/Blues/Rock. It was a natural progression/evolution. If we had chosen jazz to begin with, we would not sound as we do, as most intentional jazz artists set out to achieve virtuosity…and master the pre-existing standards and so forth. We just hacked our way through our journey of sound, and let the music be what our feelings, instincts, and intuitive senses inspired within our hearts. Silence and listening has always played a huge part in this process. A meditative state, if you will, that centers within the sound that everyone’s soul is interconnected with, where all the strings flutter… and one can travel through many doorways, and tap into the great song. It is not an external exercise at that point, and as it begins to travel outward into the stream of consciousness, much like a birthing process ( just less messy )… it becomes sort of like surfing the currents of ones creativity, and if we can catch the wave and ride it to shore… it then becomes like sand; something tangible to sculpt and shape. But, the sea always comes before the sand, if that makes any sense. Then we begin the outward journey, and begin to harmonize with each other…. and have conversations…and we have never attempted to control the message, or make it one particular sound or another…. we have just surrendered to its flow, and then we find that we are just going along for the ride.

As far as deciding not to follow the mainstream, I do not know if one can intentionally be different, as one cannot intentionally be the same. That would be like always having to define oneself in contrast or in opposition to something just for its own sake. I think we just decided to follow our hearts, regardless of how similar or different that may be. However, aside from that, (insert fallible opinion here) the funny thing about following the mainstream is, eventually it dries up as most streams do, echoing on throughout the thirsty whispers of the banal, and drunk upon homogenized milk by the dry mundane lips… always looking to consume whatever new thing shows up for sale at the local shopping mall. Always looking to be “ in”, and forever defining itself by the common consensus. There is a reason focus groups successfully predict what their audiences will buy. People get what they want as much as they are satisfied with it, and the faster the better, much like fast food… needing it now, now, now like the well-trained consumers that they are. The mainstream is the mainstream because of its audience, and not the other way around. An artist is an artist in spite of it, whether accepted or not.. Those that love music for it’s own sake realize the patience of it, and it is not something one can order up on a lunch break. If an artist adjusts to copy what some fast food producer is doing to his or her stable of moldable commodities, what then has really been added to the conversation? I mean, we all do imitations of things when we are little kids. The adults think that’s really cute and funny. Great. But of all types of entertainment, is there anything sadder than a permanent mimic? Look at what happened to Rich Little! He was always welcome because he was a close approximation of the celebrities of his day. When the pantheon of celebrities changed, he became irrelevant. Do you want your contribution to the world to be, “Greatest Johnny Carson Impersonator”?

The same thing applies in music. Every ‘mainstream’ phenomenon is based on a core group of innovators and a depressing succession of imitators. If you’re lucky, you can sponge a quickie hit off your version of today’s hit, which is always yesterday’s hit, but in the long run, it seems a bit shabby. Say what you got to say, not because, “Its cool to be you” or some other trite shit like that, but because in the final analysis, its all you’ve got.

Where do you see yourselves in 5 years?

In a mirror or a photograph, same as now. If we can't... we'll be either blind or dead.
[Best answer to that question I've ever seen!]

If you could ask any musician, alive or dead, ONE question that would benefit your musical career, who would it be and what would be the question?
[Give me a break, I could have asked the tree question...]

If I had access to a dead musician, a music career would be the last thing on my mind. As far as the living, I don’t rightly know what I would ask, but here is a nonsensical little rant anyhow…

I’ve had access to many musicians who have shared many opinions about how to achieve a music career and so forth, granted, mostly musicians that haven’t achieved one. That is why books are so great, bridging the gap of success and failure. The thing is, one has to decide what one is really looking to achieve in music. Sure, we’d all love to be paid for what we love to do, but just because we may be gifted in a particular arena, well, that does not necessarily entitle us to a career to run amok as we choose.

So, we have to know ourselves, and decide where our real ambitions and aspirations lie… Ours is music, the act of it, the work of it, the process of it, the creation of it, the journey and experience of it, and of course, the sharing of it. Realizing that succeeding at the ‘ business of music’ is a far different focus than succeeding artistically... and truthfully, we all know what has to be done if one really wants to succeed in the music industry, we just don’t like it, and we hate the ones that do. Well, it is a bit of a no win situation. One needs to know ones strengths and weaknesses, be young and extremely attractive, for the most part, not worry about talent so much, but rather, be flexible, movable, and willing to do whatever it takes to market oneself, and submit to whatever sense of aesthetics are being dictated toward your image and sound by the “vision behind the curtains”. And, a musician can’t just be a musician anymore…they have to be an actor, a model, you know, a triple threat, or a quadruple threat, or a ‘ménage a trios’ sexy threat or something. The entertainers catch phrase of the day…

To become a master of ones craft takes time, and it seems life is not long enough to ever achieve it, aside from a few. And if we are demanded to be a “jack of all trades” , then all trades shall be wanting.

I think the question to the question would be, “What the hell do you want from music?”

The terms "musical virtuousity" and "in the zone" are thrown around quite frequently in the Jazz world (and here as well), what do these mean to you and how do you strive for them?

Musical Virtuosity = better than me, solution, practice more, but you’ll never get there.

In the zone = sounds like it feels, solution, play it like you mean it, but its always an accident.

We do not strive for virtuosity. What for? We are not trying to get a job with an orchestra. Nope. We strive to be in key, in time, and be ‘ in the pocket’ as we deem it more useful , and the rest is up for grabs. Structure is for cover tunes, or if you are hired to perform, or write a song within a certain formula, but we don’t have those issues, or should we say, we don’t want those issues. We are wild heathen children that are still under the illusion that we can do what we want. Willful ignorance is a precious thing, and getting away with it is even better.. We prefer to play by the philosophy of the moment, allowing for growth, change, and even what stays the same. And it is true, even the greatest improvisationalist had to learn the rules to break them, and learn them we did, but retaining them is another story. We much prefer free form, and just riffin’ and jammin’, because it’s fun, and you can’t be wrong when you are making it up. Because imagination is where it’s at, and it knows no bounds aside from ones own self imposed limitations. But we do know the difference between a song, a jam, jackin’ off, and playing within the gates. And sometimes the one becomes the other. But as far as these catch phrases go within any genre or musicians cesspool, the one common thread that makes any moment in music is heart. It just comes down to sincerity, and what you are willing to give of yourself in a moment. This is a vast range of depth between many, but we would not dare judge the worth of it. We value expression, and having the guts to do it on your own merits, and not playing it safe. I guess you have to be willing to fail if you are going to succeed at anything, well, we’ve done the the failing part….lol. I guess the success ought to be showing up here soon, ey? We kid the monkey. I will say “Learn your freakin’ scales, it helps ya bastard! And, if you want to be a virtuoso… best get signed up for Julliard or some musical elitist school like it, otherwise…wear your hack badge with pride, and play it like you mean it.” Or, at least that’s what they say, you know, the mythical they…the they that says things. So, that about wraps up question #7… blah, blah, blah.

"Woodshed" -- dread or enjoy?

Dread…Nobody likes an ass whipping! However, there were those times when Daddy hit it just right.

Name one aspect of your music that you are currently trying to improve, and please detail how.

Everything & Nothing, and its never finished, we just get to a point where we have to let it go or it becomes this “ Unobtainable Myth” that we keep chasing… Embracing the imperfections, rather than attempting to sterilize is important, in our opinion. We are not striving toward perfection, but rather; release, satisfaction, completion, and to get the work done when a succubus, better known as a vision…calls us to create. There is always room for growth, as we never stop learning….and could most certainly improve in every aspect of our sound one way or another…but what does that mean, and by whose sense of aesthetics ought we aim? There is a fundamental understanding of music, as said before, timing, rhythm, pitch, tone, chords, scales, and all of the language and skills therein that can be taught. What cannot be taught is instinct, you can train and align your instinct to another’s, but when to develop your own? That is a cliff you just jump off, or you don’t. Improving is a constant struggle with everything, and nothing. So many times the artists get in the way of their own art, attempting to control it. It is the conception that must not be controlled, after the creative process has run its course…then the skill of the matter comes into play. Music must be created for its own sake within the freedom of its conception. Many pollute that very process by what is motivating them, regardless of what they might portend. If you catch the vision, before the trance slips back into the sea of song…then the decision-making, and the control issues can and must come into play….like production, arrangement, and so forth. The technical and affectational aspects of songwriting, Then the challenge becomes not to undo what has been done…and how to nurture it further, without destroying its magic. There are many paradoxes present in the creative realm. Aside from theory, there isn’t much of a language to express these truths…. Other than sound. You just have to do it, play it…the rest is bullshit.

Music has been compared to sex many times, is this a valid analogy or is there a more accurate one?

Who are we to argue. As far as accuracy goes, it is a bit subjective…to some this may be the case, and to others, a mere fantasy or hopeful desire. Who knows, but one thing is for certain, there is an intimacy when one has moved beyond the showing off aspects of music, the motivations to get laid, if you will, the constant need for attention, or validation, and all that stuff that egos and peacocks are made of. Not that one ever really conquers the desire for such things, nor ought they, really… albeit Buddha, or some enlightened being like that. But hell, even Gandhi got his groove on. [A verifiable fact!] There is a place where one surrenders, and becomes transposed into a place of pure magic, and it is a living and powerfully healing force, much like sex. One becomes stripped down of all masks, and is in a pure state of being while in that space. It is sacred almost, but all sin is welcome…and there is no judgment, aside from the audience, perhaps. But if you are doing it right ( whatever that means) and all hype aside, the audience is with you, for it is the artist’s job to break down those barriers, not enforce them. There is not so much one way of going about it, just as there are many roads to get to the same place. But one thing is for sure, if you can’t touch yourself, how can you touch someone else? And if you can’t touch someone else, how can you touch anything? Sex can thus be applied to why humanity hasn’t completely self destructed, and it can also be applied to many ills. But I suppose the lover that you are becomes the many things that you are, and do, and the way you go about doing it. Everyone has a rhythm, and sex is just another form of rhythm in play and collaboration, hopefully, your feeling something…if you’re not, you may want to try another position.

How did you come across IAC, and what is your opinion of the main concept behind the website?

We were actually invited there by Lana Crowley in August of 2005 during what might be called, “The Great My Space Musician’s Harvest”. In our opinion, IAC is an exceptionally well-designed web environment providing easily navigable access to a full range of material from peripheral commercial material to aspirants and hacks, from the base to the sublime. We’ve had a lot of fun and benefit in sharing our songs at IAC, and it has provided us with a convenient platform to share our little Frankenstein creations, and have fun doing it. We try not to take it all too seriously, and enjoy the ride while it lasts.

What is your standpoint on the distribution of music on the internet? (iTunes and so forth)

It has been said a million times in better ways, but the necessities of video production has systematically decimated the overall quality and diversity of popular music in North America and Europe on regular distribution channels. Thank god, we got Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, Christopher Cross, Janis Ian, Paul Simon and a host of others before you had to be a supermodel to get airplay! Not because their work in recent years couldn’t hold up, but because we would not have gotten their most productive years because no one would have recorded them, or distributed them to a larger audience!

Fortunately, after the dark ages of the “video artists”, we are moving into a golden age of productivity and distribution FOR EVERYBODY!!! The up side is that anyone with even modest means can create and archive their music without the need for those archaic evils like the, “give me your publishing rights and pay for production out of your advance, and we’ll record you and put your vinyl on the shelves” bullshit. Electronic storage relieves us of the need for inventories, transportation, retail markups in the thousands of percents and a whole host of other wastes and rip-offs!

The downside is that anyone with even modest means can create and archive their music. Garrison Keeler once said something to the effect of, “The need to perform does not necessarily insure talent.” As with all things for self-determining people, we must each use our personal discretion as to what we do and don’t subject the world to. All I can say is, “Please, for the love of God, learn the damn instrument!” Thank you.

Sadly, this proliferation of new artists and the glut of material means that the age of the “super group” and bazillion dollar record sales are probably fading away, but I’ll gladly trade that lottery ticket for the chance to hear 10 killer musicians that are too ugly for Clear Channel.

What are your thoughts on using electronic "instruments" in Jazz?

As Duke said, there’s only good and bad sound. If it swings, what difference does it make? The Rhodes is an electronic instrument and I don’t think anyone can deny the value of that timbre. That having been said, there is one exception, there is not yet any substitute for live skins. Computers just can’t set up the pocket quite right. It isn’t so much what you play, but rather; how you play it, and what you do with what you got. [Enter…a little self indulgent ditty completely off point]- Also, knowing ones own limitations is just as important as knowing ones strengths, this helps one to utilize the greater whole by the sum of its parts, and lends progress toward evolving beyond the limitations, and making the best of what one has to give. [Back on point]-What works for one may not work for another. [Back off point]-Diversity, the puritans don’t much like it.

Please plug the equipment your band uses here...

Broken instruments and such... found discarded in the dumpsters behind broke and run down Symphony Halls.
[Aaaaah, gearheads eh?]

Please plug recordings, websites, or live shows here...

Google us, and visit a myriad of music sites, youwill find our tracks available for download in the basement or back room of all the usual suspect sites, for the most part. CD Baby has been selling our stuff since 98’, and we are about to finish up “Screaming round the COCK”. Most of the album can be sampled at our page at IAC (for who knows how much longer). Steal it if you can get away with it, we’ll be grateful for the effort.

What advice can you give to young, up-and-coming musicians?

There is no hope, all is doomed…. ( we kid the monkeys) Follow your heart, use some common sense, and realize that there are no safe risks, or free rides. Finish school, cause even though you might believe it with all your heart, there are only a handful of stars, and you may not be “ It”, and just in case you’re not, don’t stand in the way of someone who might be. Give yourself more options other than winning the lottery, and know that you don’t have to be famous to be important. If you truly love music, nobody can stop you from making it, as long as freedom of expression is in play, and if you live to see a time when it is not…then there is no hope, all is doomed… Pay attention !

Ain't Good Enough

Chucho Valdés

2006-03-17T00:29:00.000-07:00

[Sorry, sorry, sorry! This post will be up until Sunday March 26th. After that, I promise something extra special]

Link (Chucho Valdez sitio oficial):
http://www.valdeschucho.com/

Name: Jesus "Chucho" Valdés
Born: October 9, 1941
Instrument: Piano

"The important thing is always the phrase . Breathe through the music and each other."

Quivican, Cuba:
Chucho was born and raised in Cuba, and not much has changed there since the year he was born. Cars (those that are still running) are old 40's and 50's style, building interiors haven't been altered and sit, dusty and antiqued, like haunted mansions, and don't even get me started on the elevators. Get in an elevator in Cuba, hit a button and roll a dice. Neither number will be the floor it takes you to. (And that is in a five story building!) Yet the fact of the matter is no amount of broken elevators can detract from that which is the heart and soul of Cuba, it's music. The music scene in Cuba is amazing. Students at the Havana music school, considered amateur in Cuba, play so well that any seasoned New York musician would be envious. Moved to tears even. It must be something in the Cuban culture, in their blood, as it sure isn't down to their gear. Often people are under the misconception that to achieve a wonderful sound, a musician must have an instrument that has been crafted perfecty to create the exact acoustic environment to enhance sound and improve tone. Cuban drummers lap old x-rays from the hospital over rings and use them as skins, yet they kick the crap out of any North American or European Jazzmen when it comes to feel and complex polyrhythms. Horn players are blowing amazing music out of instruments that a junior highschool band would reject. It's not the instrument, it's how you use it, and Chucho is among the many Cuban musicians who use their instrument with astounding proficiency.

Passion and Aptitude:
Chucho had his first Jazz trio when he was 16, and continued on to form the popular Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna at age 26, and in 1973, the all-time famous Irakere. His father was a world-renouned pianist and composer, and kept a constant rotation of both jazz and traditional cuban records playing their house as Chucho was growing up. The influence of these records could explain Chucho's sound, described as a combination of "Art Tatum, Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner with Afro-Cuban roots and a blazing technique that leaves one breathless and amazed". He has had such a wide-ranging influence that, in his home country, Chucho is referred to as "the Duke Ellington of Cuba". Helping to organize the world famous Havana Jazz festival and giving master classes at the Juiliard School, Chuch helps to promote music in any way he can. It was while forming the festival that Chucho met up with Roy Hargrove, a trumpet player. They found they had much musical ground, and combined skills to work on the Grammy award-winning Cristo. Overall, Chuch has published 31 albums, 5 of which have won Grammy's. Is Chucho still working? Well he was as of the 2003 Havana Jazz Festival, where he KICKED SERIOUS JAZZASS.

Havana Jazz:
The Havana Jazz festival is something incredible to behold, not only for the class of musicians from all over the world which travel to Cuba to participate, but also for the all-night jam sessions and total immersion in a music culture that one can experience. Imagine seeing performances by brilliant Jazz band after brilliant Jazz band, only to head out to a late night club and rub shoulders with the greats, watch them jam, listen to their stories, and then go back to your hotel room to sleep to the sound of street performers that are better than most musicians from wherever you are from, only to get up that evening and do it all over again. If you ever get a chance to go to the Havana Jazz Festival, do.

Peanut Vendor (Chucho with his Dad)

Baila Mi Ritmo (Irakere)

Metalwood

2006-03-06T00:05:00.000-07:00

[NOTE: My personal favourite]

No website available.

Name: Metalwood
Members: Mike Murley, Chris Tarry, Ian Froman, Brad Turner
Born: First album released in 1997
Died: Revived once a year

"It's amazing how much one word can strike fear into the hearts of musicians and critics across North America, but ever since punk dragged its safety pins and chains across the charts, fucion has been pretty much non grata everywhere other than science labs and world-cuisine kitchens." -- Mike Doherty

Canadian grown boys:

Metalwood, the Juno award winning jazz-fusion band, is a combined effort of four extremely talented Canadian, free-lance musicians: Ontarian turned New Yorker Ian Froman, Torontonian Mike Murley, Calgarian turned New Yorker Chris Tarry (with a stop in Vancouver inbetween), and Vancouverite Brad Turner. Metalwood has a loyal following amongst the North American fusion fans. Intellectual, yet listenable... and heck, even somewhat danceable, Metalwood's work hails back to the days of Miles Davis, while still managing to work in a turntable. A wonderful bridge between the cool, the technically proficient, and the passionately emoted, Metalwood's work stands head and shoulders above the rest. So why isn't this group dodgine press and groupies? Well, they aren't dodging the press because they are real working musicians, businessmen, and leave the silly press games to the rock stars. It's about the music, and as it should be. (I can't attest for groupie dodging, tempted as I have been myself from time to time!) Each piece is a terrifically woven conversations between instruments, each musician proficient in the language. But even if you don't speak "heavy Jazz", the music is easy to simply listen to and enjoy. Metalwood is no longer a group, touring and such, however they have been known to reform once a year in Toronto. As much as I wish they'd reform, I have to admit that each member is as powerful individually, as the band is as a whole. Metalwood is truly a sum of it's parts.

Metalwood players:

Chris Tarry - Chris grew up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, home of the cowboy, open spaces, and the cow that got mad cow disease. He started playing bass at the age of 16 as an attempt to woo girls and quickly realized he should have become the lead singer.

With all this free time now available to him he practiced hard and went to school in Boston at the Berklee College of Music. There he learned a lot, played a lot, graduated and moved back to Canada because he missed hockey.

He relocated to Vancouver where he quickly became a busy dude on the scene. He started playing with local hero Brad Turner and they started an electric jazz band called Metalwood. This band got famous, well, famous in jazz terms anyway, and Chris was soon the talk of the Canadian bass town.

He traveled all over Canada (once by dog sled) playing his bass for Metalwood and others wanting his signature sound. Metalwood won some big Canadian Grammies, played with some famous people, and got signed to a major record company. In about 2001 the group broke up amid a sea of controversy and tumultuous incidents involving a farmer named buckwheat, his gophers, and a golf club.

After Metalwood and a stint teaching at Vancouver’s prestigious Capilano College of Music, Chris sold all his belongings, released all of his pets into the wild, moved out of his igloo, bought a straw hat, and boarded a riverboat to New York City.

Once in New York Chris starved, existing on a meal of bass strings and grasshoppers. In the acclaimed book on his life “I’m a bass player, please help me” written by his mother, Chris sheds life on many of the trials and tribulations of life in New York.

“Is this thing on? What do you mean clean my room? Mom, I’m 34 years old, I can clean my own room! Are we doing this interview or what? Yes, I know it’s not nice to talk back to your mother. What? Grounded? What do you mean grounded?”

Over the course of time Chris managed to start working in New York. Stints with various famous people coupled with appearances as a talking bear in time square eventually led to a sustainable life living in Williamsburg Brooklyn, home of the hipster culture, trucker hats, and shirts with other longer shirts underneath. He currently has no pets.

Ian Froman - Started at an early age by playing the piano, but was drawn to the drums. He purchased his first drumset at age 13. Steve Gadd and Jack DeJohnett are listed as his two major influences, although he has studied under each of the following artists:"

"Dave Liebman - Hard core! Right to the point! Play consistent and well - Focus.
Gary Burton - Extremely professional and a great musician.
Tommy Smith - Strong sax man. He allowed me to initiate drum parts for the music.
Ahmad Mansour - Great conceptual approach. Loose and open.
Chuck Burrows - He taught basics and fundamental of jazz drumming. Very thorough.
Joe Hunt - A very conceptual approach to teaching and learning.
Bob Kaufman - Elvin and more Elvin!
Mick Goodrick - Understated master musician. He can really set up a vibe.
Ben Monder - A wonderful stylist. He can really take the music somewhere."

His favorite recordings are:

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
John Coltrane - Transition
Jan Garbarek - Paths, Prints
Keith Jarrett - My Song
Keith Jarrett Trio - Still Live
Miles Davis - Four and More
Miles Davis - Miles Smiles
Mick Nock - Ondas

Currently, Ian is teaching at Berklee college as an Associate Professor and has this advice to offer to fellow musicians:

"Being a musician is an extremely rewarding way of life. To be able to do something that I love, every single day, is really a treat. I am lucky to experience this unique and alternative lifestyle. Have fun!!!"

Mike Murley - An engaging, lyrical player, Mike Murley has emerged as one of the nation’s finest jazz talents and one of the most versatile players on the scene today. Currently active as a leader in various formations from duo to septet, Murley also keeps a busy schedule as a sideman with the David Braid Sextet, the Rob McConnell Tentet and the David Occhipinti Quartet, among others.

Since 1991, Murley has played on nine Juno Award winning recordings and has been named saxophonist of the year six times by the Jazz Report Awards and National Jazz Awards. He holds a part-time teaching position at York University, and since 2002 has been a visiting member of faculty at the prestigious Banff Centre for the Arts.

In July 2004, Murley was invited to perform as part of Solos: The Jazz Sessions – a series directed by Dan Berman (produced for Bravo: Canada’s Arts Network) which captures renown jazz artists in the challenging solo performance format. In addition to Murley, other artists featured in the series include international luminaries such as saxophonists Joe Lovano and Lee Konitz, guitarists Bill Frisell and Kurt Rosenwinkle, and pianists Brad Mehldau and Andrew Hill.

With a musical personality known for its warmth, lyricism and wit, Mike Murley is truly one of the foremost voices in Canadian jazz today.

Brad Turner - Brad's phenomenal talents as a trumpeter, pianist, drummer and composer make him one of Canada’s most-in-demand musicians. Brad has performed and/or recorded with such artists as Joe Lovano, Kenny Werner, Michael Moore, Renee Rosnes, Achim Kaufmann, John Scofield, Ingrid Jensen, Dylan van der Schyff, Mike Murley, Mark Helias, and Gary Bartz. Brad's groups have also opened for McCoy Tyner, Roy Haynes, Terence Blanchard, and Clarke Terry.

Beginning with his quartet's critically acclaimed debut release, Long Story Short, Brad followed this in 1998 with the release of There and Back In that same year and again in 1999 Brad walked away with a Juno Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album recognizing his work in the internationally established electric jazz group Metalwood.

Winner of National Jazz Awards for Jazz Trumpeter of the Year (1999) and Jazz Composer of the Year (2000 and 2002) Brad's most recent release is the Juno nominated Live at the Cellar featuring Seamus Blake, with new releases from both his quartet and piano trio due out this year. Brad's most recent release is his quartet's latest recording, "What Is" , available now.

Brad was nominated for Musician of the Year (1999) by the West Coast Music Association. Brad was awarded the National Jazz Award for Musician of the Year for 2005.

Says the Globe and Mail:

"...kind of a Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and Keith Jarrett rolled into one..."

Chronic

Stan Getz

2006-02-26T23:43:00.001-07:00

For Andy...

[NOTE: The ninth post in the Musical Theory series of posts can be found below]

Link (Stan Getz on The Jazz Files):
http://www.thejazzfiles.com/JazzGetz.html

Name: Stanley Gayetzky
Born: February 2, 1927
Died: June 6, 1991
Instrument: Saxophone

"When I got this saxophone, it became a religion. There wasn't TV, there wasn't much money, and there was just a real dedication...I never thought of it as an art. It was just work that I loved. Not just work, but work that I loved. I loved it so much, I would play it if nobody listened to it. Any jazz musician, if there's nobody around to listen, would play just for the sheer joy of improvising music."

Beginnings of Obsession:
Stan Getz first picked up the Sax at the age of 13, after expirementing with a number of other instruments, and fell instantly in love. The instrument was a present from his father, and sparked a powerful obsession in Stan that would stay with him right up until they day he died. Three years later, at the age of 16, Stan got picked up by Jack Teagarden. Over the next 3 years he played with numerous bands including Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman, but finally made his name with the Woody Herman band from 1947 to 1949. His lyrical solos an immaculate tone gained him much attention, and with his solo on Early Autumn. Stan's mastery of the instrument was apparent through the subtle touches he used to colour his work. He was able to create melodic solos that were mellow, without getting locked into the "foo-foo" sax sound. Soft articulation and breath were paired with sharp, pure tone in a way that accentuated the melodic line. Everything was used in perfect moderation, compiled to create a stunning, and extremely memorable whole. When asked about how he developed his sound, later on in life, he replied:

"I never consciouly tried to conceive of what my sound should be. I never said, 'I want this kind of sound!' I believe it was because of the bands I played with from the ages of 15 to 22. The first one was Jack Teagarden, who we all know played trombone, but his sound was so great, so...(pause) sort of legitimate, and effortless. I never tried to imitate anybody, but when you love somebody's music, you're influenced. Then I was with Benny Goodman when I was 18 and I believe his sound had an influence on me; such a good sound that he had in those days, you know? And, in-between I heard Lester Young of course, and it was a special kind of trip to hear someone like Lester, who sounded so good and almost classical in a warm way. He took so much of the reed out of the sound. I really don't know how I developed my sound, but it comes from a combination of my musical conception and no doubt the basic shape of the oral cavity. I did always try to get as much of the reed out of the sound as I could."

Cool Jazz:
During the 1950's, Stan became quite popular playing in the world of Cool Jazz. Even Charlie Parker, the saxophonist that every sax player wants to sound like, said of Stan "Let's face it. We would all play like him, if we could." While playing in this genre, it became apparent that Stan was also a highly intellectual player. A good example of this is his work on the song Crazy Chords, in which he takes his band through a whirlwind of keys, some of which no sax player in their right mind would ever dream of touching. The stunning part is how effortless he makes it all sound, all the while maintaining his purity of tone. Unfortunately, as happened to most Cool Jazz or Bebop players, Stan adopted a problem drug habit. Moving to Copenhagen to deal with his problem, Stan go to play with European Jazz musicians such as Lars Gullin, Martial Solal, and Bengt Hallberg, which most likely further contributed to his unique sound.

Bossa Nova:
Upon returning to the United States, Stan teamed up with guitarist Charlie Byrd who had just returned from Brasil. It was during this time that Stan put out one of his most popular tunes, Desafinado on the Jazz Samba album. This was his brief foray into popular culture, as a Bossa Nova craze swept over the states. Where to go from here? Down to Brasil to work with the source itself: Antionio Carlos Jobim and the Gilbertos. Jobim was a legend in the area of Bossa Nova, and Stan helped to popularize it through the Grammy winning song Girl From Ipanima, release in 1963. (The file is available below.) Bossa nova is a derivative of the Samba style, but less percussive and more harmonically complex. It was this harmonic complexity that appealed to many Cool Jazz players at the time. (The use of sevenths and extended chords.) Bossa nova would be the genre that Stan would be most associated with. In his later years, Stan would still enjoy playing in the bossa nova style, although he would try to play more obscure tunes, rather than the almost cliche Girl From Ipanima.

Brief Electricity:
Stan Getz had a brief affair with fusion and electronic jazz, but was panned by the press for it and quickly decided it was not the genre for him. His passion and love of the saxophone stayed with him in his later years, all through his battle with liver cancer. Despite his success and "god-like" status in the music world, Stan was a very kind and open man. Easy to get along with, he enjoyed telling stories of past gigs, and the odd dirty joke. When he found out he had cancer, he quit smoking, drinking, and any of the drugs that had been left over from before his trip to Copenhagen. Before he died, Stan was taking herbs, eating health food, and receiving special massages every day. Yet, he still was obsessed with his love of music, and performed, even if it would mean literally collapsing from exhaustion backstage after a show. His morale was good, even up until the day he died. Who could blame the man? He was able to spend his life doing what he loved, and I'm sure that his young model girlfriend, Samantha, also contributed to his mood. He lived what he loved, and died a happy man in June of 1991. We should all be so lucky.

[Links removed -- Files available upon request]

Musical Theory IX

2006-02-26T23:43:00.000-07:00

Time Signatures - a brief introduction

I don't want to alarm anyone, but there is some math involved in time signatures. This is probably the most clear example of the connection between math and music. Music is a division of time into smaller portions, and what better way to convey this division of time than through basic fractions. If the idea of time signatures in music was taught alongside the concept of fractions in mathematics in our schools, our children would have a much clearer understanding of both. In my experience, I found that students of mine that spoke a second language or were strong in mathematics were much quicker to pick up musical concepts. Similarly, some of my younger students who started with me prior to starting school, once they were in school were much stronger at math and languages. I don't think this connection is a coincidence.

In order to make keeping track of your location in a piece of music easier, the music is divided up into "bars". (Seperated by vertical lines, or bars, hence the name.) Within the bar, there can be a combination of several different kinds of notes

Whole notes
Half notes
Quarter notes
Eigth notes
Sixteenth notes

...and the list continues.

At this point you may notice that the names of the knows corrispond to fractions, and in particular, the negative powers of two. (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32...) This is because the system is build upon dividing notes in half. Two half notes are equivalent in time to a whole note. Two quarter notes are equivalent in time to a half note. The pattern continues. Dots and ties can be used to get time values that are not equal to negative powers of two, but these will be discussed next week.

How do we know how many notes we are able to fit into a bar, and which kind of note gets the beat? (Yup, it's important to know which note gets the beat. If you have a conductor standing over you, banging his baton on your stand, red-faced, you REALLY don't want to be guessing.)

This information is indicated by the time signature. The time signature is composed of two numbers, and closely resembles a fraction. Time signatures such as 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 6/8 are very common. In fact, the time signature of 4/4 is call "common time", and may sometimes be represented by a C.

The top number in the time signature is a count of how many. Break apart those common time signatures in your mind into 2*1/4, 3*1/4, 4*1/4, and 6*1/8. Mathematically, this makes sense as 4*1/4 is equivalent to 4/4. But what can this tell us? Well, the bottom number indicated the type of note that gets the beat. In the case of the first three, the quarter note gets the beat. Translated into english, as time signature such as 2/4 would be "Two quarter notes to the bar". The last time signature listed above, 6/8, would have have the eighth note as the beat, and be translated to "Six eighth notes to a bar".

Bars don't have to hold less than one, either. In the case of 5/4 time, there are 5 quarter notes to a bar. This leads us to the Quiz Question that was carried over from last week:

Quiz Question:

Name one song (other than Take Five) that is in 5/4 time.
(*Hint* There is a very well-known movie theme in 5/4 time...)

Dave Brubeck

2006-02-19T23:33:00.000-07:00

[NOTE: Musical Theory posts will resume next week!]

Link (The Brubeck Institute):
http://www.pacific.edu/brubeck/

Name: David Warren Brubeck
Born: December 6, 1920
Instrument: Piano

Rebellious:
Dave Brubeck is a man of eccentric time signatures. Using everything from 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, to my personal favorite 9/8, Brubeck is an interesting combination of the well-trained, the whimsical, and a tried-and-true Jazz man. Born in Concord, California, Brubeck was schooled classically, but quickly developed his unique improvisational skills. It was his mother, an aspiring concert pianist, that gave him his piano training. Brubeck, like most piano students, was not interested in reading music or sticking to any particular methodology, and wrote his own melodies instead. This later caused problems for him, almost getting him expelled from college when it was discovered he couldn't read sheet music. Upon testimony of many of his professors, and a solemn promise that he would never teach piano, Brubeck was allowed to stay until his graduation in 1942, after which he was drafted into the army for four years. Later, he would return to school to study fugue and orchestration, under Darius Milhaud. The Dave Brubeck Quartet was formed in 1951, which included Joe Dodge on the drums, Bob Bates on bass, and the talented Paul Desmond on sax. Probably the most famous Dave Brubeck Quartet song, Take Five, was not actually written by Brubeck, but Paul Desmond. Drum and bass were later chaired by Eugene Wright and Joe Morello, causing Brubeck to cancel many concerts and television appearances in the late 1950's because of Eugene's African-American heritage.

Talented:
In 1959 the hesitantly released Time Out stunned audiences with such pieces as Take Five (in 5/4), Blue Rondo a la Turk (in 9/8), and Pick Up Sticks (in 6/4). The record quickly went platinum and they followed up with Time Further Out, Time in Outer Space, and Time Changes. The covers of these albums used modern art that was as quirky as their music, including Franz Kline and Joan Miro. Brubeck went on to compose (and in some cases record) two ballets, a musical, an oratorio, four cantatas, a mass, works for jazz combo and orchestra, and too many solo piano pieces to count. In recent years he has continued to play, organize more quartets, and continue with various projects. He has been honoured with the BMI Jazz Pioneer Award, the 1988 American Eagle Award (presented by the National Music Council), as well as four honourary degrees. But we all know that all the recognition in the world means nothing if the music doesn't live up to it. Below are links to Take Five and on of my all-time favorites as a kid Blue Rondo a la Turk. (I used to play along to the first minute or so, and then lay on the floor by the piano and just listen to the rest. If you are able to lay on the floor near a piano and listen to this piece, that is how I recommend you hear it. If not, I'm sure it won't detract from the work!) You tell me if the man has lived up to the legend.

...And a Good Man:
Above all else, Dave Brubeck is among some of the few truly good men in music. Just as he wouldn't make a television appearance in the late 1950's after hearing that his bass player was to be kept off camera because of his race, Brubeck is one of the few greats who knows it isn't all about him. It's about the music. Please take the opportunity to look around the link above to The Dave Brubeck Institute, which is described in Dave's own words:

When I graduated from college in 1942, little did I dream that some day an incredible program such as that offered by the Brubeck Institute would be established at my alma mater, University of the Pacific. Back in the ‘40s, the thought of a jazz studies program at the Conservatory of Music was inconceivable. We weren’t even allowed to play jazz in the practice rooms. Although I was enrolled in the Conservatory as a music major, I was also engaged in an unauthorized course of study, playing jazz piano in nightclubs and dance halls, gaining real life experience as a musician and performer. This was my internship and initiation into the world of music making. Now, such performance opportunities are created in the Fellowship program that allows talented students to focus on practice and performance while learning from professional musicians and visiting jazz masters.

The Institute is a realization of a dream. From the earliest days in my career I sought the acceptance and recognition of jazz as a serious art from that reflected American ideals of freedom and individual expression balanced with group responsibility and interdependence. Like America itself, jazz has always drawn from many cultures and has been enriched by that cross-fertilization.

The Brubeck Institute is not about jazz studies alone, however. It is also about social and philosophical issues. Over the years I have become more and more interested in applying these thoughts to classical composition for chorus and orchestra, chamber ensembles, and contemporary music in a variety of forms. I believe in the power of music to transform lives as well as to enlighten and entertain.

Once when asked how I would like to be remembered, I answered, “As someone who opened doors.” The purpose of the Brubeck Institute is to provide the key that opens doors for all who participate, whether as a research scholar in the Brubeck Archives, a Brubeck Fellow or Colonist, a member of academic symposia, a classical performer or teacher, contemporary composer, or an interested member of the audience. The door is open. Welcome!

Dave Brubeck

[Links removed, files are available upon request]

Medeski, Martin, & Wood

2006-02-13T00:04:00.000-07:00

(requested by ME! - because I really dig these guys)

[NOTE: There is no Musical Theory post this week, instead find a contribution from Bonfire Jones, on John McLaughlin, below]

Link (official site):
http://www.medeskimartinandwood.com/

Name: Medeski, Martin, & Wood
Members: John Medeski, Billy Martin, Chris Wood
Born: 1991 in New York

A little bit on the members:
John Medeski is the keyboardist in the trio, playing everything from the Hammond B3, to mellotron, melodica, clavinet, and whatever else takes his fancy. At the performances he can be seen surrounded by a plethera of keyboard instruments, and he'll use every single one of them. John was adopted at birth by the Medeski family, Mrs. Medeski an overacheiver and Mr. Medeski who was in the furniture business. It is said that his mother started to teach John to read before he could even speak, but it was his father that started him on the piano, teaching him basic chord changes and standards. At 9 years old, John had his first experience in "the zone". The state of mind that musicians refer to as "the zone" is a kind of meditative state. You are perfectly calm, and can watch yourself play the instrument as if your body moves of it's own free will and your mind can simply sit back and relax. Perhaps this is a kind of intense physical memory which just takes over, but more likely the brain is just operating at a higher than usual level. Like many musicians with this kind of talent, John found it hard to do anything else and worked obsessively. So obsessively, in fact, that he gave himself the tendonitis that almost ended his career. (This is a danger for any musician, so be forewarned: if you over-practice your career could end before you even start!) Through Hoshino therapy, John was able to reteach himself how to use his body, using a balance of mental, physical, and spiritual cleansing. Good thing too, as this allowed him to finish his musical schooling, and land "some strange Boston gig" where he would meet Chris Wood.

Billy Martin was the unofficial leader of the group from very early on. He booked the gigs, dealt with the press, the making of records, the hunting down of paycheques, and oh yes, he is the band's drummer. Billy's first 11 years of his life were spent in New York's Washington Height's neighbourhood, with his parents and two older brothers. His father was a classical violinist, his mother a Radio City rockette, so Billy was exposed to music early in his life just as John was. When Billy was 11, his family moved to New Jersey. Besides the impact it had on Billy's social life, the move was critical as it allowed Billy to discover one of his older brother's drumkits when it was being packed. Billy set the drumkit up at home and immediately set out playing along to Zappa, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, and other such bands. By grade 10, Billy was playing in the school Jazz band, and jamming with older kids in the evenings. He chose to joing the union in New York City and play every gig he could get hired for. (This is the way to do it. If you are a pipe-fitter you join a union, if you are a brick-layer you join the union, if you are serious about being a musician, join the union. And never say no to a gig!) It was playing in New York that John Medeski and Chris Wood found him in 1991, and a trio was born.

Last we come to the bass player for the group, Chris Wood. I'm going to take this opportunity to call Chris Wood "the Pete Townshend of the bass". His live performance is always electric, vibrant, and athletic. Unlike John and Billy who hide behind a wide assortment of musical paraphenalia, Chris is out in center stage dancing around, tossing his bass, and generally being the center of attention. Chris could just as easily be a rock and roll player as a Jazz man, and he sure doesn't subscribe to the "cool jazz" stiff upper lip. (Editorial Note: I've seen them perform live quite a few times, and the guy is ONE HELL of a stage presence. Wow! ...And he's cute too.) When asked about being the center stage bridge between the chord chair and rhythm, Chris quoted from the legendary Spinal Tap: "I'm very fortunate to have two visionaries, fire and ice, on either side of me... I'm the luke warm middle." Obviously, the man also has a sense of humor. Born in Pasadena, California, Chris is a west-coast boy. His family moved to Colorado when Chris was six, and there he grew up learning to play tennis, drawing, and just doing "normal kid stuff". He dabbled in music from a very young age, playing piano and clarinet, but bass was where it all started for him. Like John, Chris had a "zone" moment which he attributes to both his love of music and a sincere desire to excel at something, anything. Chris began jamming with groups at every chance he got, and after graduating took a year off to work on his craft. Chris then moved to Boston and enrolled in the New England Conservatory of music, which he dropped out of after one semester having been given too many good gigs and skipped too many classes. One of these gigs was the "weird" one, where he met John.

Tone, Time, and Space:
After 1991, the band was playing around New York with quite a bit of success, but only after touring with as the opening act for a mainstream band in 1995, did they really hit "the bigtime". (See this week's quiz question.) This performance gave Medeski, Martin, & Wood it's introduction into the 'Jam Band' genre. Jam Band's are defined by their concerts being largely improvised, such as Phish, Cream, and The Grateful Dead. These concerts are always interesting, "never played the same way once" as I've heard said. The music has to be highly conversational, and the players have to be intelligent, as it's not an easy genre to play in. Most Jazz Jam Bands work from a lead sheet, which provides each musician with the chord changes, they vary the tempo, feel, and voicings. However, as any true Jam fan will attest, the musicians will quickly deviate from the original "road plan", as it were, if they are comfortable enough playing with each other. This makes each concert a unique experience, with some very cool new ideas rising at each performance. (It should be noted, there are always a couple of "whoops, that didn't work" moments as well.) Overall, Jam Band performances tend to be just as much an intellectual, and spiritual in many cases, experience for the listener as it is for the musician. Where many fans may like to go to a concert and hear their favorite bands play their favorite songs the way they know them from the recordings (so they can sing along and hold lighters aloft etc.), it is really a marvelous experience to hear truly talented musicians create, emote, improvise, and talk to eachother on stage. It's like musical sex. Does that make us voyeurs?

Here are a couple of samples from their Uninvisible album (2002), which has been burning out the battery on my iPod lately, and inspired this article. Enjoy!

Your Name Is Snake Anthony

Nocturnal Transmission

Quiz Question:
Who was it that helped Medeski, Martin, & Wood get their big break in 1995? He stated their music made him "drive too fast". (Justin should be able to get this one! :) )

[P.S. - I did promise an article on Buckethead, but I'm currently trying to work out some video for that article. It's still on my mind, I haven't forgotten, but I'm trying to get some cool media for everyone. He doesn't really qualify as "Jazz" per se... but I'm sure we could take a tiny break for one article somewhere down the road.]

2006-02-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

Johnny McLaughlin -Electric Guitarist- 1978 Columbia Records

This is my first JazzBlog post! I'd like to thank Jackie for inviting me onboard! Also...I'd like to dedicate this post to Robert J. Kerns who inadvertantly led me to the discovery of some fine music! Mr.Kerns (as I called him) was my good buddy Mark Kern's father. He was a top record salesman for CBS Records. He helped break many jazz & rock acts in the New York region. As with any salesperson there are always 'samples' of the wares! He would bring back all kinds of really cool promos! Mark (his son) & I would go through bins & bins of the coolest vinyl you could imagine - looking for new stuff to check out! Among tons of rock records were also a multitude of jazz albums. If they were on CBS, Columbia or any subsidiaries Mr. Kerns probably had it! This is where I discovered John McLaughlin for the first time. Mahavishnu Orchestra, etc... it was all there! And so...My initial post is on Johnny McLaughlin's 'Electric Guitarist' album originally released in 1978. In 1990 it was finally released on CD. This album features many great artists who along with John McLaughlin helped define Jazz Fusion at it's inception & onwards. 1) New York On My Mind - This tune features John McLaughlin, guitar; Billy Cobham, drums; Jerry Goodman, violin, Stu Goldberg, electric piano, organ, mini-moog synthesizer; Fernando Saunders, bass. If someone were to ask me for a perfect song to explain what Jazz Fusion sounds like this would probably be it. Sounds great driving through the city! 2) Friendship- John McLaughlin, guitar (second guitar solo); Carlos Santana, guitar (first guitar solo) Narada Michael Walden, drums; Neil Jason, bass; Tom Coster, organ; Alyrio Lima, percussion; Armando Peraza, congas. This is a great tune with Carlos Santana & John McLaughlin each taking a breathtaking solo! Has that 'Latin feel' & swing. 3) Every Tear From Every Eye- John McLaughlin, guitar; David Sanborn, alto sax; Alphonso Johnson, Taurus Bass pedals, bass; Patrice Rushen, piano; Tony Smith, drums. It doesn't get more stellar than this! Everyone shines on this ecclectic track! 4) Do You Hear The Voices That You Left Behind? - John McLaughlin, guitar; Chick Corea, piano; Stanley Clarke, acoustic bass; Jack Dejohnette, drums. Jazz Fusion solos galore! This track really is a showcase for blowing notes- yet with a strong sense of 'ensemble playing' so often overlooked by many. 5) Are You The One?- John McLaughlin, guitar; Jack Bruce, bass; Tony Williams, drums. Another 'power trio' you ask? Of course! Jack Bruce & Tony Williams make for an intense rythmn-section on this 'bluesy' number. 6) Phenomenom: Compulsion- John McLaughlin, guitar; Billy Cobham, drums. When I initially heard this tune I freaked out! Van Halen who??? Don't get me wrong, I love Eddie Van Halen but this came first & it's absolutely nuts! John McLaughlin was the 'original' shredder! 7) My Foolish Heart- John McLaughlin, guitar; arranged by, John McLaughlin. On this tune the album comes to a very soft close. Almost like a 'lullaby' to help relax you from the frantic pace of the previous numbers. This is truly one of the most beautifull pieces of guitar work that I have ever heard! Great chords & melody line. Soft & silky like a moon lit night. I suggest this album to anyone who appreciates virtuosity without compromise. How did I do for my first post? Thanks again Jackie! Ed

Pat Metheny

2006-02-07T02:40:00.000-07:00

(requested by Gary)
[NOTE: The eighth post in the Musical Theory series of posts can be found below.]

Link (PMG Listener Network):
http://www.patmethenygroup.com/

Name: Patrick Bruce Metheny
Born: August 12, 1954
Instrument: Guitar

Metheny beginnings:
Pat Metheny started on guitar when he was 13 and developed quickly. Must be something in the blood, as his older brother Mike is a very talented trumpet player. Pat was already teaching at both the University of Miami and Berklee in his teens, making his debut in 1974 with the one and only Jaco Pastorius. Following this, he played with Gary Burton's group where he met Lyle Mays, a keyboardist with whom he would form the first encarnation of the Pat Metheny Group. This group would also include Mark Egan on bass and Danny Gottlieb on drums. Their second album, American Garage released in 1980, went straight to top of both the billboard Jazz charts as well as the Pop charts. What a beginning!

The Metheny sound:
Although Pat Martino and John McLaughlin had used 12-string electric guitars previously in jazz, Metheny was the first significant user. He introduced some cool alternate tunings in songs such as Sirabhorn, Icefire, and San Lorenzo. For example, in the song Sirabhorn all of the pairs of strings had the second (lower) string tuned down a fifth. He maintains that this created a less "clustery" sound, however the song can be played in regular tuning. Metheny also combined techniques used by current rock musicians, made use of sythesizers, and experimented with unique instruments such as the 42-string Pikasso Guitar created by Canadian luthier Linda Manzer. The signature Metheny sound, however, is one of the most copied guitar sounds in Jazz. It combines the resonance of a hollow-body guitar, which lends itself to a rounder tone, with the sound of a high-mid setting on the amplifier. Using the round end of a high gauge pick contributes to the special attack, and DSP chorus effects fill out the rest. Just don't ever mention using reverb! Metheny feels that reverb magnifies errors, and will often use it as a tool to show students their mistakes. This may seem a little cruel, but when playing an instrument it is sometimes difficult to seperate what you are really hearing from what you would like to be hearing. Reverb is able to remove the sound enough from what the player is currently thinking, that the player can hear what is really going on instead of what is going on in their own mind. This is like a technique that visual artists use, holding a drawing or work up to a mirror to view the reversed image. You can instantly see the mistakes because you are seeing what is there, not what you want to be there.

Diversity:
Metheny is definitely a man for trying anything once, and as such is constantly pushing the envelope. He has done what any musician dreams of, maintaining a constant fanbase through whatever changes of style or concept takes him whim. Performing with the likes of Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Haden, Ornette Coleman, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Herbie Hancock, as well as siting influences like Trey Anastasio and Jerry Garcia in the same breathe as classic jazz players like Wes Montgomery, Metheny has just about covered it all. And why not? The man can pull it off. And before you ask, yes he is still doing it. After creating the 68 minute "The Way Up", based on two 3-note groupings (B, A#, F# ---> B, A, F#) he embarked on a 90 world tour. Currently he is playing The Melting Point in Athens. (Details can be found HERE.) Metheny is one of the greats that the world is still fortunate to be able to go and see. Do I recommend it? Hell yes!!! A Pat Metheny concert is close to a religious experience for any true Jazz guitarist. (Not to mention his side men are always hot players, in case you aren't a guitarist!)

Current Metheny:
Pat Metheny has three dates in North America before jetting off to Autrailia, Singapore, and Thailand. The dates and contact information is as follows:

February 17 : Tallahassee, FL for THIS festival
February 18 : Greenville, SC found HERE
and
February 19 : Falls Church, VA perfoming HERE

(What a schedule! I really don't envy the man at all... but I do recommend going to see him!)

And of course you ALL need to run out and buy his new CD right now:
THE WAY UP

All The Things You

Metheny and Bowie (just for fun)

Musical Theory VIII

2006-02-07T02:38:00.000-07:00

George Shearing Voicings

Now that we have some basic Jazz chords down, it's time to play around with voicings. Voicings are how you arrange the notes in a chord. As I demonstrated in the last couple of posts, a chord name simply tells you what notes comprise that chord, not which order to play them in. Different voicings have different effects, and it is just as important to choose the right voicing for your chords as to play the right notes.

George Shearing was a piano legend, and if you are interested in more information the man he can be found here. Essentially, the concept of what he did was relatively simple. On a lead sheet, a jazz musician is given a melody line and indications of the chord changes as seen below:
This is a sample of the kind of thing you would see in a "fake book". The history of the fake book is an interesting one in and of itself. One of my favorite fake books, and a very famous one, is called "The Real Book". Yes, some guy had a sense of humor. That same man with a sense of humor was also a godsend to the jazz community. My very first "Real Book" was an amateur-bound set of photocopies of every lead sheet from every band this funnyman had ever played in. It was extensive, and for my purposes may as well have been complete. There are some songs in that book I STILL haven't heard. (Which is a sin, yeah, I know.) That copy had to be bought out of some basement in LA, and I'm not sure entirely how "legal" such a beast was at the time. It didn't really matter, because if you were serious about playing Jazz, you had to have one. Now, "The Real Book" is published by Warner, and you can have it ordered for you from any music store. Things have changed, but it still remains a must have for anyone serious about playing Jazz. Get the fake book, be able to play every song in every key, you are now a Jazz monster. Simple as that.

The Shearing voicings are more aimed towards piano players, but it may be applicable to other chord chairs such as guitar. Bass players probably don't need this information as much, similarly horn players, and if you happen to be a drummer and are still reading this, I'm impressed. (Would you like a gig?) For our purposes here, I will explain how to play Shearing voicings on the piano.

George Shearing voicings are the musical equivalent of the mathematical squeeze theorem. The basic idea is to play the melody on the top and bottom of the chords, and squeeze all of the other notes inbetween. Sounds simple? It doesn't stop there. You also have to find the closest inversion from one chord to the next, to minimize moment around the keyboard. The first thing anyone does when asked to play chord changes, is automatically play everything in root. This, of course, has you hopping around the keys like an idiot with their ass on fire (a phrase I always loved from my piano teacher), and doesn't sound very exciting either. The next progression from there is Shearing. It is very structured, yet gets the player thinking about chords in more than just one note order. My recommendation? Take a straight ahead chart, like Straight No Chaser, and play through it in George Shearing voicings. Don't worry about playing slowly at first, the exercise is for your brain, not your fingers. Chords need to be thought of as constantly shifting entities, not root position rocks.

There you go, and get to it! Next weeks quiz question may be related to voicings.

Quiz Question
This one is going back to a previously mentioned concept. What is tritone substitution?

Django Reinhardt

2006-01-30T00:02:00.000-07:00

DELAY: Sorry about the delay, this weeks Jazzblog entry (on Pat Metheny) is going to be delayed by 24 hours. Many apologies.

[NOTE: The seventh post in the Musical Theory series of posts is below.]

Link (Red Hot Jazz Django Site):
http://www.redhotjazz.com/django.html

Name: Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt
Born: January 23, 1910
Died: May 16, 1953
Instrument: Guitar

Django is pronounced "zhane-go":
Django was born in Liberchies, Pont-a-Celles, Belgium, but grew up in a gypsy camp just outside of Paris, France near the Choisy gate. His childhood would have been a strange contradiction, as the French gypsies had a very arhciac value system but they were located in very close proximity to the big, bustling city of Paris.

When Django expressed an interest in music, at a young age, he was given a banjo-guitar by his neighbour. (A banjo-guitar is a banjo that has six strings and is tuned like a guitar.) He quickly became proficient at this instrument by watching the fingers of the older musicians as they played. It is also said that Django started on violin and was given a banjo-guitar by his neighbour when he expressed interest in that particular instrument. I'm not sure which is actually correct. Either way, on the first recordings of him made in 1928, he plays banjo.

Before the age of thirteen Django was a gigging musician, playing at the dance hall on Rue Monge with accordionist Guerino. He became a very talented player, yet at the time he appeared on his first recording he still couldn't read or write and his name appeared as "Jiango Renard".

Fire and Web-fingered Guitar:
(Well, okay not quite web-fingered.) On November 2, 1928 Django returned home to his caravan after playing a gig in Paris. It was 1:00 in the morning and his caravan was filled with cellophane flowers that his wife had spent the day making to sell in the market the next morning. Either Django or his wife spotted a mouse, and when Django attempted to corner it, candle in hand to light the chase, he accidentally touched the flame to one of the flowers. Of course being good old-fashioned flammable cellophane, the whole caravan lit ablaze. Somehow Django managed to wrap himself in a blanket and rush his wife out of the inferno caravan to saftey. He badly burned his right knee and his left hand, fusing several fingers together. This would be a devistating injury to any guitar player, but for Django simply adjusted his technique.

He could still manage to play the closest two strings with the ring and pinky finger, but couldn't extend them past that due to tendon shrinkage from the heat of the fire. This meant from that point on, Django had to solo with his index and middle finger only. All his fingering had to be reworked to accommodate these limitations, making Django a very unique player.

Probably one of the most distinctive things about Django's playing is the feel. As you listen to the files I have posted below, the chug-chug-chug-chug-chug feeling is very distinctly Django. He is a very driving guitar player. Whereas Bob Marley is a good example of a guitar player sitting behind the beat, Django is an equally good example of sitting in front of the beat. Just ever so slightly, without losing time (although that can't be guaranteed in either case). As you listen to Harlem Swing hear how he accents the beats 2 and 4. It has been said you can pick the musicians out in a room of people that are clapping along to music by watching who claps on 2 and 4, and who claps on 1 and 3. Besides the feel of his rhythm, Django plays some wonderfully lyrical lines in his solos. The man knew his Jazz changes, even if he just learned them by ear. Fabulous improvisation, and flawless for only two fingers.

Django Referenced:
References to the great Django Reinhardt are everywhere, particularly in film and television. The opening sequence to the very strange animated Les Triplettes de Belleville features a characture of Django that puffs smoke out of his ears as he plays. In the movie Chocolat, Johnny Depp plays Django's Minor Swing, which can also be heard in the background of the Oracle scene in The Matrix. Rythm Futur and I Can't Give You Anything But Love can be found in The Aviator, Nuages in Gattaca, and even in Sealab 2021 the "Bebop Cola" machine has a flavor dedicated to Django. "Ah, Mango Reinhardt, the thinking man's pop!"

Django may have passed away two years into his retirement in Fontainbleau, but today's pop culture shows that his work will never be forgotten. With two fingers on the piano, most people can play the atrocity that is "Chopsticks". With two fingers on a guitar, Django Reinhardt made music!

[Links removed, files are available upon request]

Musical Theory VII

2006-01-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Diminished Chords

We now have quite the gamut of seven chords, the remaining basic one is the Diminished Seventh chord. Much like the major seventh chord, a diminshed seventh can be derived from the basic seven chord basis. Start out with the seven chord with the same name as the dimished you want to end up with. Flat the third of the chord to obtain the minor seventh. Then further flat the fifth one semitone, and the seventh (that has already been lowered a semitone in the seven chord) one more semitone. This means you should end up with the first, flat third, "flat fifth" (which because of the nature of the interval perfect fifth is called a diminished fifth), and double-flatted seventh.

For example: D diminished seventh (Ddim7). First form a D7 chord from the first, third, fifth and flat seven - D, F#, A, C. Then flat the third to obtain a minor seven (Dmin7) D, F, A, C. Now flat the fifth and the seventh to obtain D, F, Ab, Cb. (NOTE: Cb is the same note a B, but we still call it Cb so that we know what chord we are playing.) You'll notice as you play the inversions of this chord (on a piano, it is much harder to see on a guitar), that there is no "clustering" of notes found in the inversions of the previous chords we have been working with. All of the notes are evenly spaced. This is an interesting quality of the diminished chord that is the subject of this week's quiz question!

To hear the different types of seventh chords, (plus the half-diminished which we haven't yet covered) visit this website:

Hear Seventh Chords

Quiz Question
How many distinctly different diminished seventh chords are there?

Jaco Pastorius

2006-01-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

[NOTE: The fifth post in the Musical Theory series of posts is below.]

Link (Jaco Pastorius' Official Website):
http://www.jacopastorius.com/

Name: John Francis Anthony Pastorius III
Born: December 1, 1951
Died: September 21, 1987
Instrument: Bass

From Drums to Bass:
Jaco didn't start out as a bassist. When he as 16 he used to be the drummer for "Las Olas Brass" in Fort Lauderdale. That was, until a far better drummer Rich Franks moved into town and the band asked Jaco to step down. He did, and while attending one of their rehearsals with Rich on drums, the bass player left rather abruptly. Jaco picked up the bass and said he'd like to play for the band, and of course he was told he could, but he had a week to learn the material.

"...the moment I picked up the bass, I knew it was my instrument." (Jaco)

Jaco would then spend time during lunch and after school at a music store nearby, where inbetween customers the owner would practice his guitar and answer Jaco's many questions. Jaco quizzed the owner about the left hand, arpeggios, fingering, and so forth. He learned the material, and joined the band as their bass player.

There are many rumors out there at Jaco just picked up the bass and played it intuitively without any practice. This is of course about as true as we all just stood up one day when we were children and started walking without any work at all. Jaco used to carry his bass with him everywhere and practice, inbetween mouthfuls of cereal, while talking to people, watching television, all the time. Jimi Hendrix was rumored to be similar in that respect, even taking his guitar into the bathroom with him.

Of course, the best way to find out how a man behaves is to ask the woman that lives with him. In the words of Jaco's first wife, Tracy:

"Jaco practiced all the time but never late at night. He rarely stayed up late unless he had a gig - he loved getting up early. But, whether he was sitting in the back yard soaking up the sun or watching Star Trek or Jeopardy on TV, his bass was always in his hands. It never bothered me - I don't know why - maybe because my father was a jazz musician too. I've read where people have said he never practiced, but that wasn't the case when I was with him. All his early works were written on the bass because we couldn't afford a piano. Then he actually started writing on a little toy piano my mother had given our daughter Mary for her birthday. He had never had a
music lesson and I remember my mom showing him where "C" was on that little toy piano."

Family Man:
Jaco was a very caring person, loved to be close to nature, and of course his family. Pictured on the right is Ingrid, his second wife, with his for children: John, Mary, Julius, and Felix. Before anyone asks the forever predictable question, yes, they all play musical instruments. John plays drums and piano recreationally, Mary is a singer-songwriter that plays piano, Julius plays drums, and Felix bass. John and Mary were born to Tracy and Jaco, and Julius and felix to Ingrid.

There is a rather cute story surrounding the song Portrait Of Tracy, obviously named after Jaco's first wife. Once again in Tracy's words:

"I'll tell you the background of that title. You are probably all bass players and whether you realize it or not, it is not always the most enthralling thing in the world to listen to a bassplayer practice - riffs - scales - all that stuff. It never bothered me at all, but to say it was engrossing would be pushing it. Well, one day Jaco started practicing a new song and it was like nothing else I had ever heard him practice. It was so different and hauntingly beautiful. It got so that everytime I went to take a bath I would holler to him, "Jaco, play my bathtub melody!" because it made me feel so relaxed. So for months that is how it was referred to between us - the bathtub melody. I did not know until the day his first album came out and saw it that he had called it "Portrait of Tracy". So to say I was the inspiration for it may be an exageration but thank you. Years later people who knew us knew he was pissed at me whenever he started playing it with that fricking fuzz tone on!"

Weather Report etc:
This band was originally a spin-off of the musicians associated with Miles Davis, and the Bitches Brew era work. It soon developed more of a funk feel, and in 1976 Black Market was released, introducing newest addition viruoso bassist Jaco Pastorius. He stayed with the band during their time of most success. He left the group in 1981.

Jaco was a brilliant artist. His music is compelling, it is passionate, it is intellectual, and something that every bass player today aspires to. (This is an editorial note: I had it commented before that this Jazzblog looked like a labour of love. This is not entirely true, it is something I have known all my life and am comfortable with. Not much about Jazz gets me riled up, it is more like a comfortable set of pajamas I can slip into and curl up on the couch with. However, I do have my favorites and my passions within the Jazz genre, and Jaco is one of them. The word virtuousity gets thrown around a lot in music, and this is where you can find the definition. Listen to his music, it is virtuous.)

The name of one of Jaco's publishing companies says quite a bit about the way he lived his life. Mowgli Music was named after the Jungle Book character, which Jaco felt an affinity with even early on in his life. Apparently he used to like to climb from tree to tree on the way to school, and always wanted to be with nature, barefoot and wearing next to nothing. He was courageous and fearless, always in love, dedicated, loyal, able to find what he needed to survive around him. Jaco was a free spirit in the very sense of the word.

Unfortunately, not everything was wonderful for poor Jaco. He suffered from bouts of what those close to him would call "strange behaviour". Essentially, these were manic depressive episodes, Jaco was a man of violent ups and downs. Peter Erskine (excellent drummer and very kind man) first recognized mental illness and called Jaco's wife Ingrid to let her know about it while they were on tour in Japan. When Jaco returned home, it was evident to her as well that he was having some problems. Peter's father, Dr. Fred Erskine, suggested unofficially that Jaco might be bi-polar, and could benefit from taking Lithium. Throughout his life, Jaco would be hospitalized serveral times, but unfortunately couldn't successfully adhere to any medication.

Jaco's Death:
This is an issue that I would like to approach with the most sensitivity I can, as his not being able to contribute to the music world today still breaks my heart. Nothing in my own words could do this justice, so below is a story told by Doctor Miguel A. Gonzalez, who was there for Jaco's final hours.

"I met Jaco when he brought his wife, Ingrid, to my office. He had found me via the yellow pages. I am an obstetrician, and Jaco and Ingrid were planning to start a family. I will never forget his presence, and how he announced he was the greatest bass player, so he brought records for me to the following office visit. Heavy Weather, and the first solo album, I had never heard of Weather Report, and was forever hooked.

Per his invitation, I saw him several times perform, once with Ira Sullivan at a club called Bubba's on Sunrise Blvd. I felt close to him, and we use to joke about the size of his hands compared to mine. I would tell him it wasn't the size that counts, but what I do with my hands.

We had lost touch, but not too long before he passed away I was with my children at Holiday Park, and he had asked for some change to buy hot dogs, in lieu he gave me his guitar strap. He bought the hot dogs, and grilled them on one of the grills randomly available throughout the park.

Next time I saw him was a sad day, he had been admitted as "John Doe", beaten, I happen to be
on a call for one of my patients, and was told about this John Doe, as soon as I looked at him, even with his injuries I knew it was my friend Jaco. That is how the family was eventually notified.

About 9 days later the decision was made to take him off life support, as usual Ingrid had been there all day, the family started to arrive to be present for the removal of the life support.

Ingrid didn't want to be a part of it, and left the hospital shortly before the support was removed.

What followed next is something that most of us in the medical profession had not heard of. Everyone there had been informed that after removal of support, it would take about 20 minutes, the most half an hour, so we all waited, the priest, his parents, his brothers, first wife, and kids. But an hour went by and eventually everyone got restless, the priest had to leave, others left and periodically came back in. This went on for THREE HOURS, his heart continued to beat strong, shown on a monitor, though he wasn't breathing. All my colleagues I have spoken to about this agree it is very unusual, unheard of. For three hours Jaco put up a fight, his heart beating strong.

Only he would do something like this his special way.
What an amazing man, to this day I think of him often.
God Bless.

And Jaco, you were right, you are the greatest bass player.
Peace, my friend."

Jaco's resting place is at the Queen of Heaven cemetery,
Plot: Section L, Block 219, Grave 8
located on State Road 7, A.K.A. 441,
north/west Fort Lauderdale.
Address:
1500 South State Road 7
North Lauderdale, Florida
(954)972-1234

[Links removed, files available upon request]

Musical Theory VI

2006-01-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Major Seven Chords

Last week we covered the basic seven chord, which was built on the first, third, fifth, and flatted seventh of the scale bearing the same name. In Classical music, this is call the "Dominant Seventh" because if you were to build a four note chord on the Dominant (or fifth) note of a scale, you would have a seven chord. This is why we must flat the seventh in the Jazz naming scheme. A C Dominant Seventh in Classical terms is actually a G7 chord in Jazz terms. In the C major scale, there is no F#, and this is why when building the G7 from the first (G), third (B), fifth (D), and seventh (F#), we must flat the seventh note to an F. This is very similar to the idea of modes, but is far too complex for practical purposes. On the fly, if you are asked for a C Dominant Seventh Chord, you'll freeze. However, if you are asked for a G7, it's a whole lot easier. With a little practice, even intuitive.

Anyways, back to our NEW kind of chord for this week, the Major Seven. As we have just reminded ourselves, the regular seven chord is the first, third, fifth, and flatted seventh of the scale bearing the same name as the chord. For example, D7 is D-F#-A-C. But what happens if we leave the C#? The chord will have an almost "lifting" sound to it. Whereas a triad and a seventh chord sound final and secure, a major seventh chord sounds as if it is floating. So for our example a Dmaj7 (D major seven chord) would be D-F#-A-C#.

If you have the means, play a regular seven chord on an instrument, followed by a major seven chord. Do you hear the lifting?

Quiz Question:
Describe the difference in sound between a fretted and a fretless bass. (This is a fairly subjective question, so long as the answer is argued reasonably well and is supported, a point will be awarded.)

Benny Goodman

2006-01-17T19:17:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the late posting!!
[NOTE: The fifth post in the Musical Theory series of posts is below.]

Link (Official Website):
http://www.bennygoodman.com/index.php

Name: Benjamin David Goodman
Born: May 30, 1909
Died: June 13, 1986
Instrument: Clarinet

Benny's Beginnings:
Benny learned to play clarinet in a charity run youth band. He quickly became quite proficient at the instrument, and played professionally in many bands while still in his youth. By the age of 16 Benny was playing with one of Chicago's top bands, and at age 17 he made his first recording. He began recording albums under his own name two years later.

Benny and his brother became fairly successful working musicians, and Benny attempted to convince his father to retire. His father had always worked shovelling unrefined lard, a smell that Benny couldn't stand. As soon as the boys were in a position to help out their father, they tried to do so. But Mr. Goodman wouldn't have any charity, and was rumored to have said, "You look after yourself, and I'll look after myself." Shortly after this, Mr. David Goodman was hit by a car while getting off a streetcar, and died in hospital. This death would haunt Benny, who wished his father could have seen him become a great success.

In the late 1920's, Benny headed off to New York and gained his reputation as a solid and reliable playing by playing with Red Nichols, Isham Jones, and Ted Lewis. In 1932 he formed his own band, auditioning for New York radio two years later. His radio broadcasts from New York had been too late to attract a large audience on the East Coast, but had an avid following in California. However, Benny did not hit the "bigtime" until his band played the Palomar Ballroom in 1935.

Racial Integration:
Benny Goodman is said to be to Jazz what Elvis was to Rock and Roll. Jazz was largely considered to be black music, and Benny was able to bring a taste of it into white culture. He was also a pioneer in racial integration, breaking taboo on many occaisions by hiring black musicians to play with white orchestras. This was something that may have been taboo in the Northern and Central states, but it was actually illegal in the South due to the Jim Crow laws. Benny had enough fame and money not to need to tour in the South where his band would be subject to arrest, and so he simply hired the musicians that would be suit the gig, regardless of race.

The Bigtime:
Much like last week's Buddy Rich, Benny Goodman was also a perfectionist. He has been called arrogant, cheap, and demanding by many who worked with him. Any musician who did not meet Benny's standards on a gig would receive his signature glare, dubbed "The Ray". However, most appreciate Benny's perfectionism as it led him to be the most technically proficient clarinetist of his time. Any accusations of Benny being cheap were understood as stemming back to his penniless childhood in Chicago, where he would have been trained to watch what little money he had with care.

Benny's band, whether a trio, a quartet, a sextet, or a full big-band had great success throughout the thirties, even playing the legendary Carnegie Hall on January 16, 1938. Unfortunately, in the forties many of the talented musicians were signing up for service or getting bigger paying jobs as factory foremen, and Benny Goodman lost popularity. The new fad was crooners, such as Frank Sinatra, and Benny didn't fit into that profile. He embrassed bebop throughout the fourties and the fifties, but with limited success. Jazz seemed to have simply outgrown him.

Despite the ever changing music world, Benny continued to play in the Swing style he was best knn called arrogant, cheap, and demanding by many who worked with him. Any musician who did not meet Benny's standards on a gig would receive his signature glare, dubbed "The Ray". However, most appreciate Benny's perfectionism as it led him to be the most technically proficient clarinetist of his time. Any accusations of Benny being cheap were understood as stemming back to his penniless childhood in Chicago, where he would have been trained to watch what little money he had with care.

Benny's band, whether a trio, a quartet, a sextet, or a full big-band had great success throughout the thirties, even playing the legendary Carnegie Hall on January 16, 1938. Unfortunately, in the forties many of the talented musicians were signing up for service or getting bigger paying jobs as factory foremen, and Benny Goodman lost popularity. The new fad was crooners, such as Frank Sinatra, and Benny didn't fit into that profile. He embrassed bebop throughout the fourties and the fifties, but with limited success. Jazz seemed to have simply outgrown him.

Despite the ever changing music world, Benny continued to play in the Swing style he was best known for, as well as some classical clarinet, right up until he died at the age of 77, in New York city.
own for, as well as some classical clarinet, right up until he died at the age of 77, in New York city.

[File to be uploaded later]
Try here in the meantime

Musical Theory V

2006-01-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Seven Chords

Some of the more classically trained among you may know these as "Dominant Seventh Chords". The thing about Classical music training, is it tends to make everything much more complex than it needs to be. Jazz was the music of the uneducated masses, and although it developed into something extremely complex, emphasis is placed more on the concepts than silly teminology. For this reason, I'll be using a lot of the Jazz names when referring to chords, as they tend to be much more straighforward.

Last week, we covered major and minor triads. These are three note chords, and are fairly simple sounding. Our first introduction to four note chords will be the simple seven chord. There are many four note chord structures, diminished, augmented, suspended, major sevens, but these all build off of the basic first, third, fifth, and flat seven.

The first, third, and fifth are our triad, so this you should be familiar with. To turn a triad into a seven chord, add the note one semitone lower than the seventh note of the scale of the same name. For example, a C7 chord would be the C major triad C, E, G, plus the flatted seventh of the C major scale, Bb. Our D major triad can be turned into a D7 chord by taking the seventh note of the D major scale, C#, and lowering it by one semitone to become C before adding it to the D major triad. Therefore a D7 chord is D, F#, A, C.

Minor seven chords work in a similar fashion, only you take the seventh note of the major scale of the same name and lower it by a semitone. This means that the only difference between a D7 and it's minor counterpart, D-7 (the negative sign denoted minor) is the third.

D7 : D, F#, A, C
D-7 : D, F, A, C

Quiz Question:
Why would a seven chord be referred to as a "Dominant Seventh" in Classical Music Theory?

Buddy Rich

2006-01-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

As Justin would say - MORE DRUMS!!!
[NOTE: The fourth post in the Musical Theory series of posts is below.]

Link (Buddy Rich Official Website):
http://www.buddyrich.com/

Name: Bernard "Buddy" Rich
Born: September 30, 1917
Died: April 2, 1987
Instrument: Drums

A man walks up to the gates of heaven and stops suddenly to listen. Yes. He recognizes that sound. The man turns to St. Peter excitedly and asks:

"Is that really Buddy Rich?"

St. Peter shakes his head and replies:

"No, that's God. He just thinks he's Buddy Rich."

Young Buddy:
Buddy Rich was a naturally gifted drummer. His first gig was at the age of 18 months as "Trap the Drum Wonder" in a Vaudville show. At eleven years old, he was already the head of his own band. He had absolutely no formal training. He entered the world of Jazz at the age of 20, and went on to play with Joe Marsala, Bunny Berigan, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Carter, Harry James, Les Brown, Charlie Ventura, and Jazz at the Philharmonic, before many of the "Jazz Greats" including Bird, Miles, Diz (Dizzy Gillespie), and his own Jazz orchestra. Buddy Rich lived, and breathed, drums.

Legendary Player:
What is so special about Buddy Rich's playing anyways? I mean, a drummer is a drummer so long as they keep the beat and don't play too loudly, right? Wrong. When you listen to the two files that I have linked below (especially Birdland), hear how he cues the band using his fills and shots. The drummer can be the maker or the breaker of a band. From the drum chair you can cue the musicians, you can drive them, you can slow them down, you can make them groove or swing or do whatever you want. A powerful drummer is always the one in control in a band.

Buddy Rich may have been seen as slightly power-crazy during his time with his big band after 1966, but he was just a perfectionist. His cues were as clear as day to anyone used to listening to a drummer for cues... and if you were playing with the Buddy Rich band, you'd better be. His technical proficiency was astounding for a man that had never taken a lesson in his life. In fact, he even went so far as to denounce the whole idea of "practice makes perfect". To him, practice was useless. "If you can't do it in an hour, you can't do it in four days." His method of improving was to play with a band, to play in front of an audience. Why shouldn't it be? The man played in front of audiences from 18 months.

When you listen to Birdland below, listen to the drums. This may be hard for some of you, as the drums are not always the first thing a person hears when they listen to music. Think of this as if you were playing in the band. How can you tell where the band is going to come in and play? How can you tell where the horn shots are going to be? Each time Buddy plays a fill or a riff or a shot, it's not to show off or to display his talents or because he can. Every single note that Buddy plays is placed where it is placed for a reason. To contribute to the piece as a whole, and also to help the band do what he wanted. The drums are a musical instrument like any other, and Buddy treated them as such.

Legendary Temper:
Just as well known as Buddy's playing were his temper tantrum he used to throw between sets. The man demanded perfection, and if he didn't get it he got hopping-mad. Once, he fired a bass player right off the stage during a performance. He had fired his usual bass player the night before, and the sub quite obviously didn't have a clue what he was doing. Buddy Rich came to the front of the stage where the audience yelled requests at him. Buddy stepped up to the mike and said, "We're not going to play Channel 1 or West Side Story or any of that shit. We're going to take 15 minutes and figure out why." The band left the stage, and a few tense minutes later roadies could be seen wheeling the bass amp off. The guitar player covered the bass part for the rest of the gig.

A Recording of Buddy Between Sets (CLICK HERE)

What the fuck do you think is goin' on here? You had too many fuckin' days off and you think this is a fuckin' game!? You think I'm the only one that's gonna work up there while you motherfuckers sit out there and clam all over this fuckin' joint!? What do you think this is anyhow? What kind of playing do you think this is? What kinda miscues do you call this? What fuckin' band do you think you're playin' on, motherfuckers? You wanna fuck with me on the bandstand?...Shut that fuckin' door! I'm up there working my balls off, trying to do somebody a favor, and you motherfuckers are suckin' all over this joint. What kind of trumpet section do you call this tonight? And saxophones...you gotta fuckin' be kidding me! How dare you call yourselves professionals. Assholes! You're playin' like fucking children up there. You got your fuc...(distracted momentarily) where the fuck are you? Where is Peneke? (turns to the Trombonist) You've got your fuckin' horn so far deep in the fuckin' bell, we don't need to have a band here tonight. You afraid you won't be heard? Everybody can hear your fuckin' clams out there. You don't need a mike for that. You're takin' up too much fuckin' time blowin' what? Shit!! You stand out here all night tryin' to blow your fuckin' brains out; when it comes time to play, what do you play? Clams!! You got nowhere to fuckin' go tonight the next set because if I hear one fuckin' clam from anybody, you've had it! One clam and this whole fuckin' band is through...tonight!! Try me! You got some fuckin' nerve. Nights off, nothin' to do, and you come in and play this kind of shit for me...Fuck all of you!!

You're not doin' me any fuckin' favors, you're breakin' my heart up there. I gotta go up there and be embarrassed by you motherfuckers? I've played with the greatest musicians in the world. How dare you play like that for me! How dare you try to play like that for me. Assholes!! I get fifteen fuckin' kids in rehearsal. The fuckin' time in this band is incredible! We don't play two fuckin' bars in one fuckin' tempo. Not one! You can't keep fuckin' time and play, there's too many things to do, isn't there? You can't pat your fuckin' foot and play. You're all over the fuckin' place. Miscue after miscue...You try one fuck up the next set, and when you get back to New York you'll need another fuckin' job. Count on it! Now get out of my fuckin' bus! Right now!

Buddy has even been known to leave players at the side of the road after kicking them off the tourbus. One thing was definitely for certain when you played with Buddy, you played your very best or you got fired. Instantly.

Buddy didn't enjoy his temper tantrums at his band, it wasn't a power trip. On the contrary. Buddy was such a perfectionist, he found it painful to even listen to his own recordings. His own words on recording:

"I've never enjoyed any of them that I've ever made - with my own band. I've had great fun and great thrills working with people like Lester Young and Bird, and you can go on and on and on with names. I had great times recording with Basie, and I had great times recording with the All-Star people. But for my own band I've never really done anything where I can say: "That is the best thing that this band's ever done, or the best thing that I've ever done."
First of all, I can't stand the way I sound on records, and I've said that all my life. I play things that I think are right at the time - then when I hear it, I say: "Why did I do that?" So to look back and say: "This is the best record" - there is no record I've made with my band that I feel I want to talk about. Especially the last album we did in the States - it's the worst thing that you could possibly listen to. I mean, it should be banned; it should be illegal. The recording is terrible, the band was terrible, the playing was bad; there were mistakes that the engineering let pass. I was away at the time the thing was released, or it never would have been released. What I have done, in the past eight months that the album's been out, is that every night at every concert I tell the audience that our new album is not to be believed, it's terrible, and please don't buy it. I'm saving myself the embarrassment of having people listen to it, and I'm also saving them the money that they would pay for a record that is not worth the price."

RIP Buddy:
Not to end on the wrong impression here, Buddy Rich could be a really sweet guy as well. If you were a young fan lucky enough to get a chance to ask Buddy for an autograph, he would never say no. In fact, he would go out of his way to make you feel special. Once, a former owner of a music store in Toronto got a phone-call that Buddy had broke one of his crash cymbals and needed a replacement. Of course the man took a new cymbal to his concert that night, but also a friend who worshipped Buddy. The music store owner asked Buddy for his old, broken cymbal and Buddy inquired why anyone would want a broken cymbal. The music store owner explained that his friend, who had box seats with him for the concert, was a big collector of Buddy paraphenalia. Buddy signed the cymbal to his friend, dated it, and then remarked, "Make sure you give him a good deal on it. It's broken." When the concert started, Buddy saluted the box where the store owner and his friend were sitting. Ever see a grown man cry?

Buddy Rich changed the face of drumming. This is said about a lot of players and their respective instruments, but with Buddy it is actually the truth. You talk to a drummer worth his salt and he worships the ground Buddy walked on. Buddy Rich is in all honesty, a legend.

"And you have to really love them, nurture them, and take care of them, for all the joy and the happiness that they've given throughout the years. I don't look at anybody's talents as ever diminishing. Once it's great, it's great, and that's that. Timeless? Exactly."

Here are a couple of recordings, the second of which Buddy probably would have hated. But I can't very well tell you to go and see him play live, now can I?

[Files removed. Available upon request.]

Musical Theory IV

2006-01-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Triads

Last week's post on modes was quite complex, so now we'll relax a little a cover the idea of triads. Up until this point, we have been dealing with theory one note at a time. But this is obvioulsy not how music is played. What happend when more than one note is played simulatneously? We get a chord. One of the very basic, yet important, chords is the triad.

Triads are a "stack", if you will, of three notes that are played simultaneously. In the major triad, the basic form is the triad name, one third about that (or 4 semitones) and one fifth above the triad name (or 7 semitones). More simply, this would be the first, third and fifth notes of the major scale of the same name. For example, a C major triad would be the first, third, and fifth notes of the C major scale: C E G. Another example, the Bb major triand would be the first, third, and fifth notes of the Bb major scale: Bb D F. Minor triads work on the same principle, only they are based on the first, third, and fifth notes of the minor scale with the same name. (For example C minor triad would be C Eb G and Bb minor triad would be Bb Db F.) A major triad can be converted into a minor triad by flatting the third one semitone. For example, the D major triad is D F# A. To obtain the D minor triad, all we need to do is flat the third. Therefore, F# would then become F, and we would have D F A, our D minor triad.

Of course the notes of each triad don't have to be played in this rigid position of first, third, fifth, from bottom to top, as close together as you can get them. The notes can be played in any order, and these differing orders are called inversions. The basic position of a triad is call root position. This is because the name of the triad is at the bottom of the chord. In our D major triad, D and then the F# immediately above it, and then the A immediately above that F# would be the root position. The next ordering of notes is the first inversion. This may be obtained by taking the first, or the bottom note of the triad in root position, and putting it on the top. Thus with our D major triad, the first inversion would be F# on the bottom, then the next A up from that F#, and then the next D above that A. Second inversion is taking the bottom note of the first inverstion and placing it on top. In our D major chord, A on the bottom, the next D directly above that, and finally the next F# above that D on the top. There is no third inversion, because if you take the bottom note of the second inversion and place it on the top of the chord, you get the root position again. Therefore with a triad there are three positions, root, first inversion, and second inversion.

The root and inversions of a minor triad work the same way, but with the notes of the minor chord.

I have described these triads as all played within the same octave, or closed triads. But, there are many octaves in music and nothing to restrict us to only one while playing a chord. If you spread the notes out over several octaves, you have an open triad. For example, with our D major triad we could pick and F# as low on the piano as we can go, the D next to middle C, and the highest A possible. Obviously this would be silly to play this way, but it is a valid open triad.

Wasn't so painful this week, was it?

Quis Question #2

This week, as we are dealing with Buddy Rich, the question will be drum related. Name 3 drum rudiments, and indicate one possible sticking for each.

Letter to the JazzBloggers

2006-01-02T00:14:00.000-07:00

Dear JazzBloggers,

Thank you for supporting the JazzBlog, and thank you even more for taking an interest in Jazz. There is so much to put up here, I think I have a lifetime work of work set out for me! As long as people are still reading, and are still interested, I will do what I can to do these wonderful musicians and their work justice.

I have added new links to two online Jazz radio stations, as well as several artists. Etherbeat is an "interesting" selection of music they call "The Urban Alternative". Much more traditional jazz can be found on radioioJazz, which in my opinion is and excellent station. In fact, I'm listening to it right now. Links will be added constantly, as it is impossible to come up with all of the names and sites I think people would like to see. If you notice someone is missing, please speak up and I will add them.

Anonymous posts are welcome. Asshats will be deleted. Complaints will not be misconstrued as asshattery. Complaints are welcome as, after all, there is no way I can improve without knowing what you would like to see done differently.

E.L. Wisty has asked about the new Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane CD (at Carnegie Hall), and unfortunately I haven't been able to listen to it yet. I'm waiting for a copy to come in at my Andrew's store, and then hopefully I, or possibly Andrew if I can get him interested, will write a review on the CD. Perhaps Andy has been able to listen, and he could write a review. Whoever ends up writing the review, E.L.'s question will be answered.

Requests are always welcome, and I will get to them as soon as I can. If you have a request, some feedback on something you would like to see, a question, comment, or experience you would like to share, please feel free to post.

I welcome contributors of any kind. Thank you Andy for already taking an interest in being a contributor. If anyone else is interested, please post a comment, or send me an email, with an email address that I can send you a team invitation to.

Happy New Year, everyone, welcome to 2006!

Best Wishes to you all,
Jack

Ella Fitzgerald

2006-01-02T00:12:00.000-07:00

[NOTE: The third post in the Musical Theory series of posts is below]

Link (Ella Fitzgerald official website):

http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/

Name: Ella Jane Fitzgerald (Lady Ella, the First Lady of Song)
Born: April 25, 1917
Died: June 15, 1996
Instrument: Vocals

A Favorite with Favorites:
The well known Frank Sinatra had only a small comment on Ella: "My all-time favorite." Quite a complement coming from Old Blue Eyes himself. He even blocked Capitol from re-releasing some of his own albums that would have run parallel to some of what Ella was releasing. Quite a respectful gesture. With such a fan as Frank Sinatra, you would think this Queen of Jazz Royalty would be confident and cool with any other performers. But Ella has admitted, herself, to being a fan of Billy Holiday:
"Once, when we were playing at the Apollo, Holiday was working a block away at the Harlem Opera House. Some of us went over between shows to catch her, and afterwards we went backstage. I did something then, and I still don't know if it was the right thing to do - I asked her for her autograph."
Even the favorites, have favorites.

Ella's Beginnings:
Ella was raised in New York, and orphaned at 14 when her mother had a heart attack and her father disappeared. She made her debut singing at the famous Amateur Night at the Apollo in Harlem. Young Ella had planned a dance number, but was so intimidated by a previous act that she opted to sing instead. A stroke of luck, and an excellent choice, won her the prize of $25 and also caught the attention of Bardu Ali, a member of Chick Webb's band. He talked to Chick about hiring Ella, and at first Chick flat out refused. Finally he allowed her to come along with them on a gig at Yale, as a kind of audition. She passed with flying colours. Chick Webb and Ella developed a strong personal relationship, and when Ella began touring with his group, Chick legally adopted her. In 1939, Chick Webb died of spinal tuberculosis and Ella became the leader of his band. She stayed with the group for a year and then starting touring solo. An almost fairy-tale like beginning to a career that would earn her 13 Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Art, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well as a loyal following of many generations.

Ella's Style:
Ella Fitzgerald is to jazz vocals what Charlie Parker is to jazz sax. She began as a swing singer, but over the course of her career she covered many different styles including bebop, blues, bossa nova, samba, gospel, calypso, and of course scat. Scat singing had been around for a while before Ella Ritzgerald, but Ella and Louis Armstrong perfected the art. Scat singing is vocalizing, wither wordlessly or with nonsensical words, an improvised jazz solo. The idea is to create the vocal equivalent of an instrumental solo using only the voice. A common annecdote is that Louis Armstrong started the art of scat because he frequently forgot the words to songs. Ella picked up on his method of instrument impersonation, and took it to another level. In her own words, "I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns." She did impressions as well, and was able to acurately duplicate both Marilyn Monroe and Louis Armstrong. Ella commanded great respect during her time, and crossed several racial borders. Ella Fitzgerald was a black woman who popularized songs written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians, and got away with it. Her incredible technical ability, and perfect pitch transcended all racial boundries.

Verve:
The Verve record company was formed in 1955 around Ella, by her manager Norman Granz. Under this label, Ella recorded songs by artists from what is known as the "Great American Songbook". This consisted of eight albums, each devoted to a great American composer:

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook (1956)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook (1956)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (1957)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook (1958)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook (1959)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook (1961)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook (1963)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook (1964)

She also recorded an album devoted to Cole Porter, Ella Loves Cole (1972), and another Gershwin album, Nice Work If You Can Get It (1983). As well as 3 albums with Louis Armstrong:

Ella and Louis (1956)
Ella and Louis Again (1957)
Porgy & Bess (in the early 50's)

A Listening Exercise:
For the more enthusiastic among you, try comparing Porgy & Bess as done by Ella and Louis, Miles Davis, and Oscar Peterson and Joe Pass.

Loved and Remebered:
Ella's obituary can be found HERE at CNN.

"I guess what everyone wants more than anything else is to be loved. And to know that you loved me for my singing is too much for me. Forgive me if I don't have all the words. Maybe I can sing it and you'll understand."
--Ella Fitzgerald

[Links removed. Files are available upon request.]

Musical Theory III

2006-01-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

Modes

There are two naming systems for the modes, the one seen here (the Church names) and also the Greek names. This is very confusing, but to simplify the isssue, I believe the names corrispond as such: (I could be off on a couple, if you know, please speak up.)
[Church name = Greek name]

Dorian = Ionian (I)
Hypodorian = Dorian (II)
Phrygian = Phrygian (III)
Hypophrygian = Lydian (IV)
Lydian = Mixolydian (V)
Hypolydian = Aolean (VI)
Mixolydian = Locrian (VII)

The mode starts on the degree of the scale indicated by the Roman numeral.

Pick any of the previous major scales we have learned. Now, instead of playing the scale from I to VIII (I), play the same scale but start on the third note and finish on the third note. This means you use the same notes as in the scale you picked, but start on a different degree of the scale. You have just played a mode. For example, pick the C major scale. The third note is E. The key of E major, as we learned earlier, is F#, C#, G#, D#. However, playing the Phrygian mode of C (III), the notes are E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, as the key signature of C major has no sharps or flats. That means the F#, C#, G#, and D# have all been lowered a semitone, back to naturals. Remember the idea of the third being a semitone lower in minor scales? If a mode has this lowered third (as compared to the major scale of that same letter name), then it is considered a minor mode. Otherwise, it is considered a major mode.

Quiz Question:
Which of the modern modes are major, and which are minor?

[The first person to post a correct answer here gets a point. When a person has reached 3 points, I will send them a prize. I'll try and come up with a good question every week. The prize will be Jazz related.]

Thelonious Monk

2005-12-25T00:17:00.000-07:00

(Requested by ing)
[NOTE: The second post in the Musical Theory series of posts is below]

Link (Thelonious Monk website):
http://thelonious-monk.com/

Name: Thelonious Sphere Monk
Born: October 10, 1917
Died: February 17, 1982
Instrument: Piano

Early Monk:
There isn't much known about Monk's childhood, except he was born in North Carolina, starting playing piano at age six, and moved to Manhattan with his family in 1930. There, Monk's first gig was making rounds as an organist, backing an evangelical preacher. He got a house gig at Minton's Playhouse, which is where he would cement his unique improvisational style, hard-swing. Influences of Monk include Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, James Johnson, and many other early stride pianists. He released his first LP as leader, Genius of Modern Music Vol. 1, in 1947.

Monk vs. "The Man":
Monk had many run-ins with the police during his career, much like every other working black musician in New York at the time.

One such incident was in August 1951, when the New York police searched a parked car occupied by Monk and his friend Bud Powell. As was typical of the time, they found narcotics in the car, which they believed belonged to Powell. Monk refused to testify against his friend, and his Cabaret Card was confiscated. The Cabaret Card was a license, at the time, for a musician to play in a venue where liquor was sold. Without this card, Monk's gig options were severly limited. He spent most of this time playing theatre gigs, out of town, composing and recording.

A second incident was in 1958, when Monk and Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, a wealthy patron of several Jazz musicians of that era, were arrested and detained in Delaware. When monk once again refused to cooperate with the police, he was beaten with a blackjack. The police were authorized to search the vehicle, and once again found narcotics. It is unknown if these, and the narcotics found in 1951, actually belonged to Monk and his companions, or if they were planted by the police. Judge Christie of the Delaware Superior Court ruled that the detention of the pair and beating of Monk was unlawful and rendered the consent to the search void, as it was given under duress.

Monk's Work:
Monk recorded with Blue Note Records in the period from 1946-1952, Prestige Records 1952-54, and signed with Riverside Records following that. Monk's work was highly respected by other professionals in the music trade, but was difficult for record companies to market to the public. Monk's first record with Riverside was Thenlonius Monk Plays Duke Ellington which made him more accessible. Following this, he was requested to put out one more cover album before he released Brilliant Corners in 1956, his first LP of all original Monk material. Monk appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1964, and was signed to Columbia records about this same time. After Monk died in 1982, his music gained a wider audience and he eventually became a Jazz icon. Clint Eastwood made a documantary, Straight, No Chaser, about Monk's life and work in 1989.

Possible Illness and Death:
During the early 1970's, Monk disappeared from the Jazz scene. His last recording was completed in November 1971, and it was said that during this time Thelonious became an extreme introvert. He could go entire tours without talking to anyone. Occasionally, he would stop playing, stand up, and dance while the band continued without him. His playing style was highly unusual, syncopated, and percussive. He was hospitalized several times for mental illness, and although the diagnosis is not known, guesses include bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Symptoms that Monk exhibited would later be seen in Syd Barrett, of Pink Floyd fame. It is unknown whether this was a serious mental disorder, or if Monk was simply "ahead of his time".

Recommended Monk Listening:
- Thelonious Monk And John Coltrane
Fantasy OJC-039
Wilbur Ware, Shadow Wilson, Art Blakey

- Thelonious Monk, Tokyo Concerts
Columbia 38510
Charlie Rouse, Butch Warren, Frankie Dunlop
*listen to the quirky solo on I'm Getting Sentimental Over You

- The Complete Blue Note Recording of Thelonious Monk
Mozaic 101
Four LP set covering from 1947-1957

[Link Removed, File Available Upon Request]

Musical Theory II

2005-12-25T00:16:00.000-07:00

Minor keys and their relative majors

Last week we finished with the list of sharps and flats for each respective major key. The major key is the most common of modes, and produces a pleasant sounding, happy result. The second most common of the modes is the minor key, which tends to produce a sad or melancholy result.

The natural minor of any key starts on the 6th note of the relative major scale, keeping the original key signature of the key. For example, the key of A minor would have the relateive major of C (as A is the sixth note of the C major scale). This means that an A natural minor scale would be to play the notes from A to A, with not sharps or flats. Now we know that the key of A major has three sharps, F#, C#, G#. Those of you familiar with the sound of major scales will probably feel like there are "wrong notes" being played in this scale. It just takes a little getting used to.

We didn't call a major key a "natural major" key, so why refer to the minor as natural minor? Because the natural minor of a key is the theoretical minor. In practice there are two played minors, the harmonic and the melodic. The natural minor is the basis for both of these minor scales.

The harmonic minor is the same as the natural minor with the exception of the seventh note, which is raised by one semitone. In our example of A minor, this would have G go to G#, as it would be in A major. The result is a slightly Middle Easern, or Egyptian sounding scale. The harmonic minor scale is the same ascending as descending, much like all of the other scales we have dealt with so far. The melodic minor is slightly different. Ascending, the melodic minor is based on the notes from the natural minor with the sixth and seventh notes raised a semitone. In our example of A minor, this would have F# and G#, resulting in on the the third (C#) being indicative of the minor key. Descending, the natural minor is played.

The above wheel is a circle of fifths. The concept of the circle of fifths is an easy one, the next key starts on the 5th note of the previous key. This circle has both the major and minor keys, as well as the key signatures listed. The circle of fifths will be revisited later as related to chord progressions.

Next week we will cover the modes, in both the Church (Gregorian) and Greek names.

Miles Davis

2005-12-19T01:12:00.000-07:00

(Requested by E.L. Wisty)
[NOTE: Basic Theory Post below, first in musical theory series of posts]

Link (Miles Davis official website):
http://www.milesdavis.com/

Name: Miles Dewey Davis III
Born: May 26, 1926
Died: September 28, 1991
Instrument: Trumpet

"Who's that motherfucker? He can't play shit!":
A response from Miles Davis when asked about Cecil Taylor, a free-jazz piano player. Most people either love Miles, or loathe him. He has been regarded as a man who changed the face of music more than once, the father of fusion, an innovator not only in the jazz genre, but one who influenced rock, and also a drug-addicted trumpet player who played many "wrong sounding" notes. Even if listening to his work is a matter of taste, the influence he had on the industry is undeniable.

"I’ll play it and tell you what is later.":
Miles came from a musical family, as so many of "the greats" do. However, even though his mother was a competant blues pianist, she kept this from her son as she felt that kind of music was too low-brow. Instead, Miles was sent to learn at the famous Juilliard School of Music in New York city, an education which he quickly abandoned to track down Charlie "Bird" Parker.

While learning his craft by doing, instead of the strict study environment of Juilliard, Miles also picked up a heroin habit much like his Jazz heros. During this time, his work was stilted, less than spectacular, and in fact, it sucked. Realizing that his career was in jeopardy, Miles returned to East St. Louis, and with the help of his father he kicked his habit. Even though the subsequent year saw the recording of "Bags' Groove", "Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants", ande "Walkin' ", which were considered important recordings at the Prestige label, Miles' career didn't fully recover until he played the Newport Jazz Festival. His rendition of Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight" redeemed him, and he was back in the game.

Miles formed his first quintet in 1955, with John Coltrane on sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on the drums. He made several recordings with this group, later adding Cannonball Adderley on alto sax to record the famous "Milestones". In 1959 Miles Davis recorded "Kind of Blue" which is widely regarded as his masterpiece. Also, during this time, he worked on many recordings with Gil Evans. Miles was no stranger to the music industry rule: "Never turn down a gig".

The second Miles Davis Quintet was formed in 1965, with Wayne Shorter on sax, Herbie Hancock on piano (later to be replaced by Chick Corea), Ron Carter on bass (also later to be replaced, by Dave Holland), and Tony Williams on drums. With this quintet, Miles moved into what is called his "time no changes" period. Unlike the previous movement of bebop, this method of playing is referred to as "out there" and reflects the musical ideas that come to the player as they come to the player, unrestricted by the almost mathematical formulas of the chord changes.

"There are no wrong notes." (Bitches Brew):
Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew", released in 1970, is probably one of the most influencial recordings in music, while also being one of the most difficult to listen to. The concept is a fairly simple one: a group of talented musicians, many of whom are high at the time, play free-form in a recording studio for hours on end. The result of this was taken by Miles and Teo Macero, and spliced together into rather prolific (20min) tracks. While the idea is simple, the result was an extremely complex and interesting recording which influenced the work of many in the music industry, not just restricted to the genre of Jazz. This is the work that seperates the Miles Davis lovers from the haters. Bill Meyer from Ink Blot magazine, a critic, expressed this best when he said: "Davis drew a line in the sand that some jazz fans have never crossed, or even forgiven Davis for drawing."

Personnel on Bitches Brew:
Miles Davis (trumpet)
Wayne Shorter (soprano sax)
Bennie Maupin (bass clarinet)
Joe Zawinul, Larry Young, Chick Corea (electric piano)
John McLaughlin (guitar)
Dave Holland, Harvey Brooks (bass)
Lenny White, Jack DeJohnette (drums)
Don Alias, Jumma Santos (percussion)

"For me, music and life are all about style.":
It must be mentioned that although Miles Davis' style was highly improvisational, it was not what is known as "free jazz". In fact, Miles hated "free jazz". Even though Miles' music could be highly dissonant, as well as spontaneous, it was well planned beforehand to produce a certain result. Miles Davis' work was not based on the "happy accident" philosophy. Miles and Gil Evans would prepare skeletal harmonic frameworks before recording sessions, this was the planning stage. In order to preserve the improvisational nature of his work, the other musicians would only see this framework on the day of the recording. For this reason, Miles Davis hired some of the most talented sidemen in Jazz, and a further study of "the greats" in Jazz can be done by looking into each of the sidemen on any Miles Davis recording.

While able to solo in the busy bebop and post-bop manner, Miles is also well known for his haunting melodic lines. Not only could he weave a beautiful modal line, he knew how to play the empty space between his notes. He is a perfect example of the notion: "What you don't play is just as important as what you do play". A well executed silence can be as potent as a well played note.

Modal Jazz, which made Miles Davis' solos so original, broke many musical rules by inserting notes that would not usually be considered as "in the key of the piece", such as seconds, nines, and sharp thirteens where the chord changes didn't call for them. Miles would do things such as solo in dorian mode, which is a scale based on the second note of the key of the piece. This is an extremely dissonant mode as it is so close to the "correct" key, but not that key, that the ear of the listener keeps begging for it to resolve. A good example of this can be found in Miles' piece "So What". The structure of this piece is AABA, where the "A" sections of the piece are in D dorian mode (or the D major scale played from E to E), and the "B" sections of the piece are in Eb dorian mode (or the Eb major scale played from F to F). While this may sound "wrong" to classically trained musicians, it also creates a tension unexplored before in jazz.

Modes and Moods:
Dorian (I) - happy or joyous, the one we are most used to, the major scale
Hypodorian (ii) - serious, haunting, melancholy, highly dissonant ("wrong" sounding)
Phrygian (iii) - angry
Hypophyrigian (IV) - tender, tempered fierceness
Lydian (V) - happy, sounds extremely close to the Dorian mode
Hypolydian (vi) - pious or sad, the second most common mode, the minor scale
Mixolydian (vii) - pleasant sadness

"A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I'm still doing it."
Miles Davis died of a stroke at age 65, on September 28th, 1991. His last album was released in 1992.

[Link removed - available upon request]

Musical Theory I

2005-12-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

The basics about scales and key signatures:

A scale is a sequence of notes based on the idea of semitones and tones. A tone is a way of measuring the difference in pitch between two notes. A semitone is half a tone. A scale is a sequence of 8 notes (the first and the last being the same note) which are a set interval apart from one another. These set intervals are:

I -tone- ii -tone- iii -semitone- IV -tone- V -tone- vi -tone- vii -semitone- VIII (I)
For a major scale (e.g. C D E F G A B C)

I -semitone- ii -tone- iii -tone- IV -tone- V -semitone- vi -tone- vii -tone- VIII (I)
For a (natural) minor scale (e.g. A B C D E F G A)

This can be best seen on a piano keyboard:
As you can see by looking at the examples for the two given scales above, tones occur where there is a black key inbetween two white keys, and semitones occur where this black key is missing. A semitone by definition on a keyboard would be two notes that are directly next to eachother (i.e. not seperated by another key). Therefore, from C to C# on this keyboard would be a semitone, as would B to C. On a guitar, the distance between two adjacent frets is a semitone. If you skip a fret, that interval is a tone.

These intervals work out fine for a major scale using the white keys from C to C (the C major scale), but what if we wanted to play a major scale from the notes D to D (the D major scale)? Our semitones and tones would be misalligned if we just used white keys. This is why sharps (#) and flats (b) exist. [Note: A flat usually has a more pointed bottom on it, but it does closely resemble a lower case "b", so for our purposes here we will use "b"]

A sharp is defined as a semitone above the given note. For example, D# would be the next key to the right of D, which would be the black key we can call D#. In a similar respect, E# would be the next key to the right of E, which is a white key already named F. Thus F = E#. A flat is defined as a semitone below the given note. For example Db would be the next key to the left of D, which would be the black key we can call Db. You will also notice that in the above diagram this key is labelled C#. That is because every key is to the right and to the left of another key, so every note is a sharp and a flat. Db = C#. Similarly, Cb would be the key to the immediate left of C, which is a white key already named B. Thus, Cb = B.

These sharps and flats, also referred to as "accidentals", can be used to adjust our scale from D to D so that it is a proper major scale by definition. We would raise the third and seventh notes (F and C, respectively) by a semitone in order to obtain our D major scale. Thus the "key of D major" has F# and C# in it. A key signature indicates which notes need to be sharped or flatted to make sure the scale has the correct intervals between each of it's notes. A piece of music is in a particular key when that piece uses (only) notes from the scale which shares a name with the key.

But, let's face it, to figure out all of this semitone and tone stuff every time we want to play a certain scale would be a hassle. There is an easy way to remember which major scales have which key signatures.

"Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle"

When read from left to right, the first letter of each word indicates a sharp. This is the order in which sharps occur (FCGDAEB). When read from right to left, the first letter of each word indicates a flat. This is the order in which the flats occur (BEADGCF). Then you only need remember how many flats or sharps each major key has.

Sharp Key------# of Accidentals------Flat Key
C---------------------none------------C
G----------------------1--------------F
D----------------------2--------------Bb
E----------------------3--------------Eb
A----------------------4--------------Ab
B----------------------5--------------Db
F#---------------------6--------------Gb
C#---------------------7--------------Cb

Minor keys derive their key signatures from a relative major. Minor keys and their respective key signatures will be covered next week.

Bird (Charlie Parker)

2005-12-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

Link (courtesy of Professor Tommy D.): http://www.charlie-bird-parker.com/

Name: Charlie "Yardbird" Parker
Born: August 29, 1920
Died: March 12, 1955
Instrument: Alto Saxophone

Interesting Trivia:
Bleeding Gums Murphy on The Simpsons was modeled after Bird.

Where does the nickname come from?
Charlie Parker loved chicken. Good old fashioned homestyle fried chicken. He is also known as "Yardbird", but the shortened version "Bird" is the more frequently used nickname.

The song "Lullaby of Birdland" is referring to a New York jazz club established in 1949 that was named after him.

Lullaby of Birdland (look up under: Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing)

Lullaby of birdland, that's what
I always hear when you sigh
Never in my woodland
Could there be words to reveal
In a phrase how I feel

Have you ever heard two turtle doves
Bill and coo when they love
That's the kind of magic
Music we make with our lips
When we kiss

And there's a weepy ol' willow
He really knows how to cry
That's how I cry in my pillow
If you should tell me
Farewell and goodbye

Lullaby of Birdland whisper low
Kiss me sweet & we'll go
Fliyin' high in Birdland
High in the sky up above
All because we're in love

Starting Out: Everyone Has Bad Days
Bird quit school at the age of 15 to follow the dream and become a musician. He didn't realize that jazz songs were only played in a few keys, so he learned the songs in all keys. This, of course, is a marvelous way to learn to play something. But Bird didn't start out as a legend. In fact, once he tried to play Body and Soul in double time on a gig and was laughed off the stage. Another time, while jamming with Count Basie's orchestra he got lost playing I Got Rhythm and the drummer, Jo Jones, threw a cymbal at the young Bird's feet. This is probably the best motivation for learning, and Bird did some real wood-shedding during the subsequent years.

Bebop
Every single sax player wants to play like Charlie Parker. All of them. Parker was a leading figure in the bebop scene in New York. He soloed by building chords on the higher intervals of a song's harmonies, something that sounds incredibly strange unless you are used to it. Fast tempos and a sense of liberation from the original melody-based soloing of the days before were his signature. Also, the flatted fifth is one of the key aspects of Bebop. Strongly dissonant ("wrong" sounding), it soon became just as common as the undetermined thirds and sevenths in traditional blues. Between these, and the tritone substitution, and the diatonic scale, and the modal jazz of the soon to evolve "hard bop" the danceable jazz of the old days was quickly being replace by the frantic, nervous, fragmented and chaotic.

Bebop Scales
Bebop Minor -> I - II - bIII - IV - V - VI - bVII
Bebop Dominant -> I - II - III - IV - V - VI - bVII - VII
Bebop Half-Diminished -> I - bII - bIII - IV - bV - bVI - VII

And example of tritone substitution:
A progression of -> IIm7 - V7 - I
Would become -> IIm7 - bII7 - I

Downfall
Bird had a car accident as a teenager and developed a morphine addiction while in hospital. This soon developed into a heroin addiction which created the illusion for many that his musical genius was related to the drug use, and unfortunately it may have led to many habits in later musicians. Charlie Parker eventually died while watching Tommy Dorsey on television in a hotel room. The cause of death was officially pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer, but drug and alcohol abuse had made him so haggard that the coroner mistakenly estimated Bird to be between 50 and 60. He had a wife, a daughter Kim Parker, who is a musician, and a son Baird Parker.

"BIRD LIVES!!" -- Ted Joans

The above is a lead sheet for All My Tomorrows. It gives the melody and the chord changes, and the rest is improvised by the players. This is why jazz is said to be "intellectual music". The players have to know their changes, know what they can do with the changes that will work, and be able to do so at a lightning fast tempo... most of the time while stoned out of there trees. (Let's face it here, it is too often the case.)
A little secret: While improvising in a solo, if you hit a note that sounds wrong, slide it a semitone up or down, and chances are it'll sound better. Never sit too long on a dissonant note, unless you know what you are doing, and are doing it on purpose.

The following mp3 is a sample of Bird playing along with the great Miles Davis (trumpet):

[file removed, available upon request]

The file isn't complete, but you get a good feel for his playing style. Bird's playing is completely unique, his tone has never been matched. A good horn-player's tone is like a man's voice, completely his own. When you listen to the soloing, see if you can hear where the tune would fit in underneath it. It's tricky, but there are clues in places as to where in the chorus he is.

Everyone wants to play like Charlie Parker, no one ever will.

(I will be removing the old mp3's at the end of every week, cause I'm sure I'll be breaking every copyright law known to man. If anyone objects to me putting up the recordings, I will take them down, just request it.)

Settin' 'er up! (...man)

2005-12-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm going to spend the next couple of days getting this somewhat set up. First post will be midnight this Sunday, Mountain Standard Time, which is 7 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time. First article shall be on "Bird" (Charlie Parker).

If you would like to become a contributor please comment here and I will add you to the group. I've allowed anonymous posters for comments as well, so that people don't have to be bloggers to share an opinion, story, or just generally contribute.

Thanks for the comments all, hope to be up and running soon!