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Post by peggs on May 2, 2016 20:33:47 GMT
Watch, listen and be amazed...
My Dad was a fan of Big Band music and I grew up listening to his collection of 78s; Benny Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers, Duke Ellington and the like. This performance, by these outstanding young players, is a breath of fresh air and is a reminder of what Art is all about.
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Post by Jeff Truzzi on May 3, 2016 19:12:52 GMT
I'm not a jazz idiot. But I'm not a jazzer, either. Love it, but can't play it worth a shit (not enough chops.) And my ear is largely more attracted to pop & rock. But I've heard most of the greats, recognize their genius, and give them their due. This guy somehow flew in under the radar. I'd heard the name, but never heard him play until seeing him on Ken Burns' "Jazz" documentary. To say I am blown away is an understatement. I didn't know it was possible to play piano this good. And in the 1930s? The harmonic vocabulary he is using is closer to the 1950s. Art Tatum.
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Post by sticksman1 on May 4, 2016 8:47:04 GMT
The game changer...
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Post by cicadashell on May 4, 2016 10:46:52 GMT
art tatum, oh yeah. my parents liked him and so i heard his records very early. but as it happens i was just recently delving into some inherited cds and have been spending time listening to tatum; he was really amazing, his harmonic invention was relentless, and not so much ahead of his time but just in a class by itself. i just listen and shake my head in wonder.
hundreds of years ago i used to put a lot of time into transcribing solos, mostly saxophonists, and it was common practice to play recordings at half speed to get the trickier parts. doing that with horn players would often expose imprecise articulation in double-time runs; you would hear hesitations and missing notes. but we tried that with art tatum and it was uncanny, spooky even; you could hardly tell you were listening at half speed, so precise was his playing.
it's also a bit staggering to think about where someone like that even comes from. today you can listen to these records and be blown away, think "i didn't know this was possible" and then dedicate your life to learning to play like that. but where did he get it from? how did art tatum learn to play like art tatum? he just invented his whole style, from who knows what.
after you've taken in more of mr. tatum, you should check out my real hero of the piano, jaki byard. more on him later.
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Jazz
May 4, 2016 17:08:35 GMT
Post by Jeff Truzzi on May 4, 2016 17:08:35 GMT
I shall forever remember being in the recording studio control room in the mic 90s as an eager fusion keyboardist came into set up his stuff, raving about the new YellowJackets CD. I sarcastically replied by quoting two lines of Chuck Berry's "Rock & RollMusic": "I've got no kicks against modern jazz Unless they try to play it too darn fast." He said nothing, but if looks could talk he would have said "I could fucking kill you right now."
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Jazz
May 4, 2016 17:09:22 GMT
Post by Jeff Truzzi on May 4, 2016 17:09:22 GMT
I shall indeed check out jaki byard.
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Jazz
May 4, 2016 19:54:45 GMT
Post by cicadashell on May 4, 2016 19:54:45 GMT
I shall indeed check out jaki byard. some songs you might recognize: youtu.be/IKArr1e2x44youtu.be/HYA5Wml7bzAsome fantastic work with charles mingus' 1964 group: youtu.be/9Y2G8JhE7OApart of what kills me about his playing is the way he hints at the more obvious jazz tropes (or, less generously, cliches) but then takes them in completely unexpected directions. i don't suppose a listener less familiar with the music would hear those in the same way, but i would hope they could appreciate the sheer range of the harmonies, rhythms and timbres he coaxes from the piano.
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Jazz
May 9, 2016 14:45:33 GMT
Post by peggs on May 9, 2016 14:45:33 GMT
Thanks, cicadashell, for the Jaki Byard links. While his music isn't something that grabs me from the start, there is something in his sound that makes me want to listen more. Artists such as Art Tatum and Miles Davis were game changers in the world of jazz and music in general. Their ability to expand the parameters of jazz were akin to the Cubist movement in fine art; using the foundations of the genre and then creating their own style and form. As someone who grew up listening to a very limited array of jazz I find the artists that push the boundaries of the genre difficult to listen to (this can be said for other genres as well). Is it due to a lack of musical education or technical expertise? I don't know but I liken it to not understanding or appreciating movements in fine art that challenge the norm. That said, I am taking baby steps in expanding my jazz horizons. A site I want to highlight is Jazz Night in America. It's a National Public Radio show that films its programs and is an amazing resource for any music fan. I came across it quite serendipitously a few weeks ago and am having fun listening to and watching the programs and doing a bit of self-directed education. A player I discovered through the show is Marquis Hill. He talks about the influence of Motown and R&B in his musical upbringing. Hearing that in some of the music he plays in this program offers a familiar reference point and makes it a bit easier to understand the more (to me) musical challenging pieces.
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Jazz
May 10, 2016 14:49:59 GMT
Post by Jeff Truzzi on May 10, 2016 14:49:59 GMT
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Jazz
May 10, 2016 15:55:52 GMT
Post by sticksman1 on May 10, 2016 15:55:52 GMT
He he
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Jazz
May 11, 2016 11:08:01 GMT
Post by cicadashell on May 11, 2016 11:08:01 GMT
As someone who grew up listening to a very limited array of jazz I find the artists that push the boundaries of the genre difficult to listen to (this can be said for other genres as well). Is it due to a lack of musical education or technical expertise? I don't know but I liken it to not understanding or appreciating movements in fine art that challenge the norm. That said, I am taking baby steps in expanding my jazz horizons. i always cringe a little when someone attributes their limited appreciation for a music to a lack of "expertise" (or the like), because i want everyone to just listen and not have it be about who has mad skilz. but that's not really what you're saying, i think, and you make a good point. that it's like literature or fine arts, that the more you expose yourself to it the more you can pick out the connections, the better to connect yourself. i didn't really appreciate byard until i went to a little "seminar", really just him in an old paneled room at the michigan union talking to a group of maybe twenty persons and playing solo piano. usually i can pretty much tell what piano players are doing even if i can't execute it myself (or so i thought at the time, this would have been almost 40 years ago), but he did things that did not seem possible; i just sat there slack-jawed.
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Jazz
May 11, 2016 23:30:17 GMT
Post by peggs on May 11, 2016 23:30:17 GMT
...that it's like literature or fine arts, that the more you expose yourself to it the more you can pick out the connections, the better to connect yourself. Yes, that's it. Big band and cool jazz were the entry points for me; very melodious and familiar. Bebop, hard bop and free jazz have not clicked with me...yet, however I do have the great album by Milt Jackson and John Coltrane, Bags & Trane that is a gentle step forward for this would-be jazz enthusiast. I adore the vibraphone and since Jackson recorded with such a wide variety of players, listening to his recordings is a good bridge between the familiar and the unknown. Milt Jackson and Ray Charles, Soul Brothers, Soul Meeting is another great combination.
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Jazz
Sept 29, 2016 0:09:10 GMT
Post by peggs on Sept 29, 2016 0:09:10 GMT
Today marks the 25th anniversary of Miles Davis' passing. I heard a short read on the radio about him today and found a short bio of him online that reads, in part:
"...our vocabulary may no longer be adequate to describe the nature of an artist like Miles Davis. In a career that spanned parts of six decades, Miles Davis didn’t simply evolve as an individual musician. He drove the very evolution of the art form he worked in, pulling much of the jazz world along with him as he moved from one new sound to the next with utter disregard for the critical or popular reaction."
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Jazz
Oct 1, 2016 3:02:42 GMT
Post by Jeff Truzzi on Oct 1, 2016 3:02:42 GMT
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Jazz
Oct 3, 2016 21:57:08 GMT
Post by peggs on Oct 3, 2016 21:57:08 GMT
Good article, Jeff. Miles turning Herbie's bad note into a good one is one of, dare I say, genius . As for the students list of fears, I would also add; fear of how
much work is involved in mastering a discipline.
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