22/01: Let's call this....
Category: A Rationale
Posted by: Admin
This area deals with my life long love of music, in particular jazz. My father had a phenomenal reach and depth to his knowledge of jazz and brought me up on the stuff too. What follows is part of the journey....
Recent DVD reviews - By Steve Voce, courtesy of Tom King
It’s not surprising, given its extended form, that DVDs are used to try to inform us as well as to entertain. In this respect I found ‘Stéphane Grappelli – A Life In The Jazz Century’ (Music on Earth MoE 01) particularly pleasing. It is a very worthwhile project done with love and unsurpassed expertise.
There are two discs...
It’s not surprising, given its extended form, that DVDs are used to try to inform us as well as to entertain. In this respect I found ‘Stéphane Grappelli – A Life In The Jazz Century’ (Music on Earth MoE 01) particularly pleasing. It is a very worthwhile project done with love and unsurpassed expertise.
There are two discs...
09/01: The best seat in the house??
Michael Garfield of hplusmagazine.com speculates on the musical "experience" to come...
– It’s 2006, and I am now accustomed to the jumbo screens to either side of the main stage at any given major music festival. I still remember having no choice but to elbow my way to the front if I wanted a better view, and it’s still a fresh feeling: gratitude for being able to leave my binoculars at home and enjoy the view from the lawn
– It’s 2007, and I am a consultant for social music network iggli.com
– It’s 2006, and I am now accustomed to the jumbo screens to either side of the main stage at any given major music festival. I still remember having no choice but to elbow my way to the front if I wanted a better view, and it’s still a fresh feeling: gratitude for being able to leave my binoculars at home and enjoy the view from the lawn
– It’s 2007, and I am a consultant for social music network iggli.com
This question was asked (on the West Coast Jazz Group site) of Bill Crow - well known student, writer and expert on jazz folk, their humour and their interactions.....
Bill,
I've been curious about something for a long time, and I thought you
might have an opinion on the matter, given your extensive experience in
the jazz community. My basic question has to do with the personal
associations and subgroups -- or what sociologists call "identity
groups" -- that might exist among jazz musicians, just as they exist in
other professions.
Specifically, do you think there is any correlation between the
instruments that musicians play and the friendships they are likely to
form? For example, is a trumpet player more likely to become close
friends with other trumpet players than he is with (say) saxophonists,
owing perhaps to their similar experiences with the same instrument? Or,
alternatively, is a trumpet player less likely to befriend and pal
around with other trumpet players, perhaps because of a competitive
tension that might exist between them?
Or do you think that all of this is irrelevant, and that friendships
within the jazz community are usually based on other considerations
altogether? And if this is the case, then what might those other
considerations be? Are they simply a matter of individual personalities
and the personal likes and dislikes that influence every friendship in
every field? Or do cliques tend to develop within the jazz community
that coalesce around a common denominator that a given musician shares
with some of his colleagues but not with others? For example, do the
better or more famous musicians tend to form their own exclusive
fraternities, in effect?
I know these vague questions defy precise answers, and that attempts to
generalize will leave many exceptions in their wake. We are talking
about complex human beings, after all, not automatons. Nevertheless, I
would appreciate hearing any opinions that you (and other JWC members)
might have on this topic.
Thanks.
and his answer.....
Bill,
I've been curious about something for a long time, and I thought you
might have an opinion on the matter, given your extensive experience in
the jazz community. My basic question has to do with the personal
associations and subgroups -- or what sociologists call "identity
groups" -- that might exist among jazz musicians, just as they exist in
other professions.
Specifically, do you think there is any correlation between the
instruments that musicians play and the friendships they are likely to
form? For example, is a trumpet player more likely to become close
friends with other trumpet players than he is with (say) saxophonists,
owing perhaps to their similar experiences with the same instrument? Or,
alternatively, is a trumpet player less likely to befriend and pal
around with other trumpet players, perhaps because of a competitive
tension that might exist between them?
Or do you think that all of this is irrelevant, and that friendships
within the jazz community are usually based on other considerations
altogether? And if this is the case, then what might those other
considerations be? Are they simply a matter of individual personalities
and the personal likes and dislikes that influence every friendship in
every field? Or do cliques tend to develop within the jazz community
that coalesce around a common denominator that a given musician shares
with some of his colleagues but not with others? For example, do the
better or more famous musicians tend to form their own exclusive
fraternities, in effect?
I know these vague questions defy precise answers, and that attempts to
generalize will leave many exceptions in their wake. We are talking
about complex human beings, after all, not automatons. Nevertheless, I
would appreciate hearing any opinions that you (and other JWC members)
might have on this topic.
Thanks.
and his answer.....
17/08: Les Paul: R.I.P.
From the NYT...
August 14, 2009
By JON PARELES
Les Paul, the virtuoso guitarist and inventor whose solid-body electric guitar and recording studio innovations changed the course of 20th-century popular music, died Thursday in White Plains, N.Y. . He was 94.
The cause was complications of pneumonia, the Gibson Guitar Corporation and his family announced. .
Mr. Paul was a remarkable musician as well as a tireless tinkerer. He played guitar alongside leading prewar jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. In the 1930s he began experimenting with guitar amplification, and by 1941 he had built what was probably the first solid-body electric guitar...
August 14, 2009
By JON PARELES
Les Paul, the virtuoso guitarist and inventor whose solid-body electric guitar and recording studio innovations changed the course of 20th-century popular music, died Thursday in White Plains, N.Y. . He was 94.
The cause was complications of pneumonia, the Gibson Guitar Corporation and his family announced. .
Mr. Paul was a remarkable musician as well as a tireless tinkerer. He played guitar alongside leading prewar jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. In the 1930s he began experimenting with guitar amplification, and by 1941 he had built what was probably the first solid-body electric guitar...
20/07: A useful link to jazz styles
This link connects to a useful list of genres - the point being not that classifying is necessarily useful or accurate or meaningful.... but the page has links to numerous descriptions of each genre and its musicians etc.
Category: Sonny Rollins
Posted by: Admin
This courtesy of Duaneiac - Sonny Rollins Jazz Colossus Blog
By Marke Andrews, Vancouver Sun
June 26, 2009
VANCOUVER - Saxophonist Sonny Rollins doesn't take the Orpheum stage until 8 p.m. Monday, but he's told the venue that he needs the dressing room by mid-afternoon.
That's because he wants to practise for three hours before he takes the stage. And, if things go the way they did when he appeared here two years ago, he'll practise for another hour after the concert....
By Marke Andrews, Vancouver Sun
June 26, 2009
VANCOUVER - Saxophonist Sonny Rollins doesn't take the Orpheum stage until 8 p.m. Monday, but he's told the venue that he needs the dressing room by mid-afternoon.
That's because he wants to practise for three hours before he takes the stage. And, if things go the way they did when he appeared here two years ago, he'll practise for another hour after the concert....
How Many of You Are There in the Quartet?
by Paul Desmond
by Paul Desmond
Dawn. A station wagon pulls up to the office of an obscure motel in New Jersey . Three men enter - pasty-faced, grim-eyed, silent (for those are their names). Perfect opening shot, before credits, for a really lousy bank-robbery movie? Wrong. The Dave Brubeck Quartet, some years ago, starting our day's work.
Today we have a contract (an offer we should have refused) for two concerts at the Orange County State Fair in Middletown . 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Brubeck likes to get to the job early.
Category: Bud Powell
Posted by: Admin
Bud Powell
Produced by Molly Murphy
Pianist Bud Powell's unrivaled virtuosic style exuded an emotion and power that captivated audiences and musicians alike. Though great personal misfortune would interrupt his prolific career and tragically shorten his life, Powell found a level of peace at the piano that few experience in this world.
Powell pioneered the revolutionary bebop sound along with alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, pianist Thelonious Monk, and drummer Max Roach. Pianist Bill Evans considers Powell the most underestimated figure in this elite group, though Davis himself called Bud "the greatest pianist in this era." Bud's playing always appealed to great musicians, and his rehearsals at home often drew a crowd of them.
Born in New York City in 1924, Powell began piano lessons at age five. By age ten, Bud demonstrated an ability to imitate legendary pianists like Art Tatum and Fats Waller. Powell considered Tatum his greatest influence and the only jazz pianist above his level technically. Monk was another primary influence and became Bud's friend and mentor, nurturing the pianist's blossoming talent.
Monk was to Powell everything he wanted in a father figure, a confidant, a colleague. And Monk recognized Powell's talent, they say, instantly. That he saw the technique in Powell that perhaps he himself didn't have.
-- Peter Pullman
Produced by Molly Murphy
Pianist Bud Powell's unrivaled virtuosic style exuded an emotion and power that captivated audiences and musicians alike. Though great personal misfortune would interrupt his prolific career and tragically shorten his life, Powell found a level of peace at the piano that few experience in this world.
Powell pioneered the revolutionary bebop sound along with alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, pianist Thelonious Monk, and drummer Max Roach. Pianist Bill Evans considers Powell the most underestimated figure in this elite group, though Davis himself called Bud "the greatest pianist in this era." Bud's playing always appealed to great musicians, and his rehearsals at home often drew a crowd of them.
Born in New York City in 1924, Powell began piano lessons at age five. By age ten, Bud demonstrated an ability to imitate legendary pianists like Art Tatum and Fats Waller. Powell considered Tatum his greatest influence and the only jazz pianist above his level technically. Monk was another primary influence and became Bud's friend and mentor, nurturing the pianist's blossoming talent.
Monk was to Powell everything he wanted in a father figure, a confidant, a colleague. And Monk recognized Powell's talent, they say, instantly. That he saw the technique in Powell that perhaps he himself didn't have.
-- Peter Pullman
From the March Issue of Downbeat
My Favorite Blue Note Album'
By Ted Panken and Dan Ouellette
Chick Corea found it impossible to pick just one album in the Blue Note catalog as a “favorite.”
“In fact,” Corea e-mailed, “there are so many Blue Note recordings that I grew up with and continue to listen to for inspiration, that I would have to make a long list.” Instead, Corea, whose late-’60s recordings for Solid State came out as Blue Note CDs in the ’90s, and who recorded for the label as a sideman with Blue Mitchell, free-associated a listeners’ feast that included everything in the catalog by Miles Davis, Horace Silver, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson and Wayne Shorter, as well as Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch, John Coltrane’s Blue Train, and Tony Williams’ Lifetime and Spring.
My Favorite Blue Note Album'
By Ted Panken and Dan Ouellette
Chick Corea found it impossible to pick just one album in the Blue Note catalog as a “favorite.”
“In fact,” Corea e-mailed, “there are so many Blue Note recordings that I grew up with and continue to listen to for inspiration, that I would have to make a long list.” Instead, Corea, whose late-’60s recordings for Solid State came out as Blue Note CDs in the ’90s, and who recorded for the label as a sideman with Blue Mitchell, free-associated a listeners’ feast that included everything in the catalog by Miles Davis, Horace Silver, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson and Wayne Shorter, as well as Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch, John Coltrane’s Blue Train, and Tony Williams’ Lifetime and Spring.
