My Jazz Explorations

Project on Hold

2005-04-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry, but this project has been temporarily put on hold until June. Please check back then for future posts.

Hancock, Brecker and Hargrove

2005-02-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

Around this time last Friday, I just got out from seeing Herbie Hancock at the University of Southern California. The show started right on the dot, 8pm, with the Thelonious Monk Institute Ensemble Class of 2005 opening up the show. While listening to the opening band, which was very talented, I thought: Music school has made these musicians love the idea of playing jazz more than the real act of playing jazz. While performing, the piano player wiggled his upper torso in an excessive display of enthusiasm. The trumpet player instructed us to "listen to this music like it's your last time ever." While no one seemed to miss a note or disconnect from the band, there was just NO EDGE to their performance. It was too thought out. It felt over practiced. They were too willing to please and not brave or perhaps mature enough to play something outrageous. Nevertheless, their performance was very respectable. It was also the first time I had ever heard a vibraphone played live. On CD or the radio, the vibraphone is completely out of the ball park of my taste; however, sitting before the live instrument, I could hear more depth to the sound. Perhaps, there were overtones or other subtle resonances that can't be heard on a recording. I am now more receptive to that instrument.

After the opening act, instruments were cleared from the stage. Amrita opened her hidden candy bar and was covertly snibbly away at it. On my left Courtney was threatening to have her escorted out for having the candy bar in the auditorium. Pensive Joe sat quitely while we were giggling and bickering at each other and trying to decide if the guy sitting across the aisle from us was the guy from the show Curb Your Enthusiasm. He had a young little houchy date with him like most old successful men in entertainment. There were at least 300 people in the room. The show was sold out! Unlike the steep price of the shows at the Catalina Bar and Grill, this show only cost $8 a ticket. One thing I did wish for was a glass of wine or whiskey. Whiskey more because it was cold and pouring down rain outside.

After about 20 minutes, the jazz geniuses were introduced and took the stage. My expectations were very high and were met. I was familiar with Herbie Hancock's piano playing. What I love is how he melts into the band and playfully dances around everyone coaxing, teasing, leading, and sometimes following. He becomes a spirit without a body. His chording and notes are spacious and intuitively placed. Such intuitive spontaneity demonstrated a deep sincere conscious feeling for the music and what was being expressed inspiring the rest of the band to let loose too.

I had never heard of Roy Hargrove or Michael Brecker until then. I'm certain their performance will be one I will remember years from now and later recall how I saw them back in the day. Roy was like a magician on his trumpet. The range of tones and sounds he could produce was simply astounding. He made his horn squeek and squeal and played notes that were of an unworldly scale. It felt as though he was blowing into his trumpet and transforming it, physically stretching it with his wind, making it contract and expand to its outter limits and producing solos so dynamic that at times I would feel so estatic I would laugh out loud to release the emotion he inspired within me.

On his turn to solo, Michael would step up with his saxaphone. He looked like a crane with his long skinny legs arched in a straight forward line incline. His demeanor was like that of a technically logical geek with such a profound spiritual intelligence that made him very "hip and cool". Like Roy, he seemed to expand the range and capacity of his saxaphone. His instrument was animated like a cartoon character that can do and withstand more than the real.

The more subtle foundation of the band, the magical ether, was Scott Colley on bass and Terri Lyne Carrington on drums (yes, a woman!). They were both amazing. Bass and drums in jazz are like that unknown component of chocolate that would explain why you love it so much if you could only put your finger on it and name it. The subtle something that moves you and the soloists.

Good jazz may or may not start on time, but good jazz never ends on time. After the last song of their set they all left the stage, but unlike all the previous shows I had seen, these guys were burning to come back out and give us more. And so they did. Another 3 more songs! Long songs too!

This was definitely one show that will be hard to top! Chick Corea is next. He comes to the CBG at the end of the month. Also Wayne Shorter is coming to city soon too.

Pat Martino

2005-02-06T13:32:00.000-08:00

So far every jazz musician I have paid bucks to see has come out on stage at least 15 to 30 minutes late. And not once has any of them offered to play one extra song at the end to compensate. They start late and end right on the dot. Don't jazz musicians like to play? Pat Martino was a good 30 minutes late before he showed up on stage. He looked like a scientist with his glasses, sober expression and waves of grey hair. He dedicated his set to Wes Montgomery who was his role model guitarist.

I wasn't very familiar with Pat's music. I learned a few of his guitar licks in jazz guitar class and was told that Pat's trademark was his very long steady licks. I recognized what was his and what belonged to Wes Montgomery. Wes was known for playing octaves in his licks. Perhaps, I was unable to appreciate Pat's skill because overall I found his solos to be too busy and lacking dynamics. The tone of his guitar was very flat too, which is also a hallmark of Pat's style. There was nothing edgy about him. He came off as a "straight A" jazz student, who finished all his homework on time and never did anything spontaneous or risky.

I sat too close to the stage for this show. I wanted to see Pat's fingers on the guitar. I saw them but was blown away by his guitar amp. The drums were too loud also. For a couple of songs I moved to the back of the room. There I could hear the piano and bass and how they all blended in together.

Patricia Barber and Ron Carter are the only two jazz artists playing at CBG who took responsibility for the bands overall sound. In those two bands, you could hear all the musicians playing no matter where you sat in the room. No one was drowned out!

My Discoveries

2005-01-30T22:36:00.000-08:00

After two months of listening only to jazz radio and collecting songs that have moved me, here is what I have now:

1. Oliver Nelson's Stolen Moments- And here are some interesting notes about the song I love best. I just realized three seconds ago that Roy Haynes is playing drums on this particular song. In my previous post, I was just bitching about him and his performance at the CBG. Also on this song, Bill Evans is playing piano. I didn't realize that until this past week, when the song came on once again on my jazz station and the DJ mentioned Evan's piano playing. I love Bill Evans! On this song is Eric Dolphy (flute) and Freddie Hubbard (trumpet). This song has a very haunting dark feeling like that of a soul caught in a slightly chilly wind storm on an early spring sunset evening. It has the feeling of something precious lost but that of moving on strongly alone against that chilly breeze with little hints of hope. Paricularly in the third solo chorus, which I assume is Nelson on sax, the instrument moans, cries and at one point just rips a note in half like a broken heart and then picks up in the climax of the solo and releases it to Bill Evan's piano. Then Bill blows the chilly wind with his fast runs of minor notes that sound like little dark funnels of wind. Throughout the entire song, there is the hint of spring, new growth and beginnings, and hope.

2. Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers- A la Mode- Like Oliver Nelson, I found Art Blakey categorized in the jazz genre of "Hard Bop". I'm not sure exactly what sets this genre apart from others but I must like it since my two favorites so far are Hard Bop. I've been downloading songs from i-tunes and one thing I do not like is that the other artists are not accessible on these downloaded songs. So, I can't mention them. Art Blakey is a drummer and it is exactly the swinging, tingin' drums that I love in this song. The song is upbeat, fast and driven by Art swinging on the ride cymbols and pushing it with little accent hits here and there. After the first round of the melody is played, the soprano saxaphone comes in sounding like a snake charmer.

3. Cannonball Adderley's Autumn Leaves- First, I am sentimentally attached to this particular song Autumn Leaves because I spent one whole year playing it over and over in guitar school during my attempt to learn to play jazz. I know the melody by heart and can really appreciate how close the soloists stay to it as they elaborate on it. There are a few notes in this song that at first sound very off and just wrong; but, having the melody stuck in my head, I can hear how those off notes really do belong and are not really that far off. Now, if I could only listen to other songs as I can Autumn Leaves, how much more pleasing they would all be!

4. Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage- Looking at my album, I see I have another song with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. Also, Ron Carter is on bass (saw him too at the CBG, excellent performance. see previous post). What I really love about this song is the wide spaces, the openness, and interaction between the musicians. Herbie Hancock is playing piano and his comping during the solos is like a gorgeous dance between him and the soloists. His chording and arpeggiating fits neatly into each pocket and groove of the soloist. Like two people talking and both affirming with their notes and timing that they are not only listening and hearing each other, but intuitively understanding the soul of each other. It is very clear to me why this song is considered a master piece.

5. Phil Ranelin's Horace's Scope- I love the melody of this song, in particular the dissonance. Similar to Art Blakey, it is a fast and upbeat song that really swings. Trumpet, then Sax and then piano take solos spinning fast and twisted notes.

Of course there are more than five songs. In the past two months, I have purchased 87 jazz songs off i-tunes, plus 10 albums that i-tunes did not have. More song and album reviews to come. Also, I have tickets to see Herbie Hancock and Pat Martino in the coming week.

Roy Haynes

2005-01-16T09:56:00.000-08:00

Last week my attention turned from the guitar and bass to the drums as I had the opportunity to see the "once" world class drummer, Roy Haynes. I emphasize "once" because I was very disappointed by his performance. The music was completely distorted and overpowered by his arrogance. Yes, Roy has a resume of which he can be proud. Throughout his 60 year career he has played with a number of jazz giants: Coltrane, Monk, Chick Corea, and most notably Charlie Parker; but from his performance and the sound of his band last Sunday night, such a history was hard to believe.

On stage, the two men within Roy, the simple everyday man and the talented extraordinaire drummer, were warring for admiration and respect. Almost 80 years old, Roy could still tear up the drums with speed and force inspiring awe. His drum kit was set up center stage with the bass behind him and everyone else off to the side. The bass was barely audible; the piano was muffled; and the sax player was the only one who could cut through the noise of the drums. And yes, at that volume, Roy sounded like noise. All the special hits, accents and rhythm patterns that perhaps made him famous passed unnoticed because they were out of context with the band. The connectivity or musical conversation between the band members that distinguishes jazz as music instead of chaotic noise was just not there.

For most of the evening, Roy gave us more drunk babbling than music. After the first song, he got up from the drums and walked up to the mic with his drink. He looked like something the cat had dragged in from the 80's with his tight black tappered velvet pants, cowboy boots, and untucked cow patch print shirt that came down to his thighs. He lifted his drink to the mic and then took his straw and started blowing bubbles. He said, "Now that was in the key of D." Charlie Parker's ghost must have prodded him back to the drums as he recalled to us, "Charlie used to say we don't need to talk, the music will speak for itself." We got a couple more songs out of him before he got up from the drums once again to babble more. A guy from the front row shouted, "play! play!" That got us one more song, but because we didn't clap loud or long enough, Roy came back to the mic to berate us for our lack of enthusiasm: "What's the matter with you people. We've been touring all over the world and in Europe they just eat this up. Maybe you guys just get too much of it here." At that point I was beginning to feel very irritated. On top of the expensive venue (Catalina Bar and Grill), where the waiters are very rude, Roy was slinging insults out to the audience! I was almost up to my feet to shout back to him- I can't hear the bass; you're too loud; you're drunk and all you've been doing is talking- but I remembered that he was 80 years old and yes, drunk. So, I refrained.

He went back to the drums again and they played the Coltrane tune, Giant Steps. The young black male on soprano sax, the only one who could be heard above the drums, seemed to be a rising talent. Roy introduced him by his name only once and I can't remember it. The bass player and the piano player were two of a kind, dressed in very similar geeky attire of plain tan pants and pull over T-shirts with a collar. Both didn't care to take responsibility for the sound of their instruments or lack of it. They seemed to just be doing what they were told, standing in Roy's shadow. The bass player hid behind the drums. As he slouched over the side of the upright bass and played, his eyes blinked out of control. He looked as though he was being electrocuted. His short white stubby fingers seemed to be busy on the bass, but hardly any sound was reaching the audience. The only audible contribution the piano made was the muffled sound of the chord changes. Perhaps, he was a great piano player, but if so, he couldn't be heard over the drums.

After getting chewed out by Roy for not clapping, on the last note of Giant Steps, the audience hopped to their feet to clap. I remained sitting. I wondered if Roy had recorded Giant Steps with Coltrane; perhaps that was what brought them to their feet. It was enough to coax Roy on. During the next song, the band sat out and Roy played all by himself. After a few more songs, the show ended. Roy gave us a headache and the waiter gave us a big bill for the show and two drinks we were forced to buy. We happily got up and made our way out into the pouring down rain and back home.

Surfing for Jazz Bloggers

2005-01-09T14:15:00.000-08:00

Surfing the web for new jazz bloggers, I found one who went to the same Ron Carter show that I did at the Catalina Bar and Grill here in Hollywood. Checkout what the Jazzcat wrote about the show: http://www.thejazzcat.net/blog/_archives/2004/12/26/216371.html

Plus the Jazzcat took his camera and got a shot of Ron playing. He also made it to the Jazz Conference in Long Beach that I missed and has posted some photos and notes.

Jazz Conference in Long Beach 20 minutes away...

2005-01-05T23:42:00.000-08:00

The International Association for Jazz Education Conference is taking place in Long Beach (20 minutes away)...for $183 dollars for 3 days.
http://www.iaje.org/ac_intro.asp

uhmmmmm! I want to go, but those are work days!

Digging in Deeper

2005-01-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

Earlier I had mentioned that my favorite jazz instruments were the piano and trumpet. Since then and after a month of constant listening and a little study, I have learned that it was other instruments besides the piano and trumpet that had drawn me to my particular favorite songs. I realize now that my favorite jazz instrument is the BASS!

In my first entry, I couldn't explain exactly what it was about Bill Evan's song Witchcraft that I liked so much. Now I am clear that it is how the bass player weaves in and out around the piano melodies. I learned that this technique of bass playing is called the "non-repetitive" style (from Mark Gridley's demonstration CD of Jazz Styles). The bass is not just walking, hitting each beat, and playing the roll of the time keeper. Neither is this bass taking a set aside improvised solo. Nor is this bass repetitive. The "non-repetitive" bass is involved in a very intimate conversation with the piano. It is listening to every note and line and answers attentively, respectfully and in a playful way. This is what I love about Bill Evan's Witchcraft with Scott LaFaro on bass.

As for Holly Hoffman's tune, Everything I Love, off her new album A Minor Miracle, again, it is the bass. In that catchy little chorus-like section (eventually I will determine the structural format of this song), it is the bass taking a 2 bar solo each time it passes! Aside from how the bass stood out for me in this song, I was moved by the flute which sounds like the voice of a 10 year old child full of innocence and play and who feels safe and loved. But isn't that a flute for ya? No. Some flutes sound like whirlwind storms, some like boring band geeks, and others like hyperventilating fools trying to slice the air with imaginary swords. I don't like the flute, but I do like whirlwinds and Holly Hoffman's happy child.

Jazz Back Then

2004-12-26T19:48:00.000-08:00

I discovered jazz and many other things during my undergrad college years. Maturing out of my punk phase, I had taken a new interest in reggae and folk music. My friend Arnaz and I would take day road trips over to beaches and redwoods in Marin County. I would bring along my folk and reggae tapes and Arnaz would bring his more diverse selection of music. He would accomodate me all day long by allowing me to pick the music, but on the way home he would say, "I think we should 'cool out'awhile and listen to some Coltrane." Pissed, I wouldn't say a word and would sit fuming in the passenger seat visualizing me taking his tape box and slapping him across his balding Indian head and telling myself over and over, "why do I let him drive! I will never be held hostage again in someone else's car listening to music I hate!" Nevertheless, Arnaz always managed to be the driver and the ultimate boss of the music.

On one trip coming home, both of us very stoned, Arnaz put in Coltrane but this time I didn't mind. I was stoned calm and going with the flow. Unable to make judgments and in a more receptive state of mind, I mentally drifted with the music and was lured to follow the melody note to note as I was so intrigued by the suprises of unanticipated lines. Then I would zoom out from the detail of the melody and absorb all the tension and release from the dissonance and chaos of the busy music. In my stoned stupor I felt as though the music accurately represented the complexity of my emotional life then. Stormy, busy, dissonant at times, but always briefly resolving here and there and mysteriously hangin' together. Coltrane's music was like an intelligent friend affirming that, yes, life is annoyingly complex but underneath does make some logical sense that gives pleasure. That was my deep stoned revelation for that year.

At that time I was a college DJ for our campus radio station, KDVS. With a new fascination with jazz and what other secrets of life I may find in it, I would spend hours down at the station going through (what I was told) the largest jazz collection on any college campus. I only knew of Coltrane and there were two long tall walls of records and CDs for me to listen too. I started in the As and listened all the way to the Zs picking songs to play on my radio show. Today I thank Arnaz for insisting that we "cool out" and listen to Coltrane!

Ron Carter

2004-12-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

Last Friday night I went to the late show at the Catalina Bar and Grill(CBG)in Hollywood to see the Ron Carter Quartet. I had heard much buzz around the name and figured I should check it out. His bio posted on the CBG website (http://www.catalinajazzclub.com/) was quite impressive. Ron had been around the block in the jazz world and hung out with the "cool cats". From 1963-68, he was the bass player in the Miles Davis Quintet. So, after seeing the Charlie Hunter Trio without a bass player, I thought it would be a nice contrast to see a group with the highlighted star being the bass player.

Ron played with a drummer, percussionist and a pianist. All four of them came out on the small stage in dark dress suits, each with a different colored tie. Ron was tall and very graceful. He looked as though he were at a formal dance. He stood with a proud arch in his back as he held his upright bass against his hip like a female partner, caressing it up and down the fret board with his long dark fingers and his eyes closed while taking deep breathes.

Ron would play little motifs one after the other and with each one he would end with an unanticipated blue note that was pleasing and pulled you along if you were following. The first song started off with the percusionist and Ron together. It felt as though it were 5am in a jungle and all the animals were beginning to stir and wake up. A few minutes into the song, the pianist and drummer came in and it was high noon! At one point in the song, I sat looking at all four of them thinking, they're each so busy doing their very own individual thing. The stage looked like a four-plex apartment and they were all busy neighbors at high noon, each in their own units doing their own thing, but yet living together, co-exisiting agreeably.

The pianist annoyed the living hell out of me. He would sing the notes as he played them and I couldn't hear the damn piano over his waspy broken and at times off key humming along. At one point I just wanted to take off my dirty sock that I had been wearing all day long at work and jump up there and stuff it in his mouth!!! The percusionist was very fun and playful. At the end of the set, Ron picked up the microphone and a very serious and sober voice introduced each musician. After one more song, they all put their instruments down and took a long low bow before the crowd. Amrita heard Ron whisper to the other guys, "Do you want to play one more or go home?" She said no one answered or signaled back to Ron, and well, they didn't play one more either.

Charlie Hunter Trio

2004-12-12T10:16:00.000-08:00

The Charlie Hunter Trio was playing two shows last night at the McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, a very small, cozy, upclose and personal venue. It was Charlie with his drummer, Derrek Phillips, and a saxophone player who's name I've already forgotten. The small room squeezed in 50 listeners who were more than willing to cough up $22 to see Charlie play his 8 string guitar for an hour.

Yes, it is an 8 string guitar that sets Charlie apart from other guitarists. The two extra bass strings made the fret board of Charlie's guitar look twisted and warped. He simultaneously played the bassline during his solos with the rhythm chords leaving no room in his band for a bass player. Playing the parts for two intruments, guitar and bass, is undeniable an extraordinary talent, but the advantages of doing so is arguable. For one, on a guitar, even with 2 extra bass strings, he could never emulate the full potential of a real bass. Second, by attempting to do so, he would always be in the way of or stepping on the toes of a real bass player if one were added to the band. So, not being very familiar with all of Charlie's recordings, I leave myself wondering, has Charlie ever recorded with a bass player and what does that sound like?

There are many definitions that one may use to define or categorize music as jazz. Some jazz connoisseurs are very strict and insist that the music must have swing rhythm and improvisation, while assuming the plentiful presence of "blue jazz notes" in the solos. McCabe's described Charlie's Trio as "funk jazz". So, jazz without swing but with a funk rhythm. I thought that Charlie was more funk than jazz. While many of his songs had very jazzy improvisations, with very modal, "blue" or "outside" notes, often times he would also simply play straight out rock, funk and blues guitar solos. It was as if he was alternating between being a jazz musician and a rocker. I would have preferred that he stayed outside more with the jazzy solos on the funk beat. Charlie also had a box of tricks, guitar effects. He turned his guitar into an organ playing full solos backing himself with chordal comping plus the basslines too! Quite an amazing feat!! Three parts at once on guitar: comping, bassline and solo too! He played without a pick. Freeing up the fingers allowed him to do more with the strings to accomplish such playing.

Today Charlie is giving a one time funk/jazz guitar seminar for guitarists at McCabes. I'm trying to decide if I should go and if I could possibly absorb anything from the lesson. Or should I go to the beach.

Not Completely Green, Maybe Turquoise

2004-12-07T19:28:00.000-08:00

I know as much about jazz as I do about wine. I prefer a red over white, merlot over cabernet, and a smooth fruit over a woody tanin flavor. Not much, but something. With jazz I may know just a tid bit more. I'm drawn more to the modal free style of the sixties and seventies. I like a spacious solo. My favorite instrument is the piano and then the trumpet. I especially loathe the vibraphone. I have a hard time distinguishing between a tenor saxophone and a clarinet. I understand the music: the II V I progressions, chord substitutions and the scale modes. I can't name off very many of the jazz masters, nor am I that familiar with all the different styles. I have noticed that particular jazz songs which resonate with me reflect my inner emotional world more accurately than songs from other styles of music. I also know that jazz has taken my mind off my unhealthy obsessions.

A month ago I quit a few of my addictions. Among the trivial was pop radio and my daily Starbucks coffee that cost me $2.60/day. I realized that pop radio was inducing a hypnotic fantasizing state of mind focused on subject matters centered around co-dependent/addictive relationships, low self-esteem ("I'm a loser baby, why don't cha kill me"), and emotional spewing without human insight. I still do love and enjoy pop music, but when these type of songs are looped over and over on the radio and burned into your brain, I find it hard to believe they do not have a psychological impact on my well being.

Instead of listening to Star 98.7 FM for 30 minutes coming to and going from work each, I've been listening to KJAZZ 88.1 FM. It is a rare occasion if I hear the same song twice on this station. So, there is nothing being burned into my brain via loop and replay. To really enjoy the music, it requires active listening and attention. So, I'm not off in dreamland, I'm present in the moment listening to melody lines and instrument tones. It's very meditative and I find that in my other activities my attention span has increased. Each day I hear at least one song I like enough to add to my collection. Since I'm no longer spending $2.60/day on coffee, I can now spend that money on music. That would be at least two songs/day off i-tunes. Today I'm buying Oliver Nelson's song, Stolen Moments. Not only is my attention span increasing, so is my music collection!!!

Where shall I begin?

2004-11-27T09:19:00.000-08:00

Instead of getting a book and reading about the masters, I decided to let my ears lead me first! So, with a naive and amused ear, I've been listening enthusiastically to jazz radio and making notes of the artists and pieces that tickle my senses. This way my jazz explorations will be unbiased. My first picks will be ones that are sincerely pleasing to me, excluding the bias that I "should" learn to like a piece and force myself to do so simply because it is defined as a classic by society.

Recently I made notes to get the following songs:

Bill Evans- song Witchcraft- album- Portrait in Jazz
His piano playing sounds like witchcraft!!!

Holly Hoffmann- song- Everything I Love- album- A Minor Miracle
Usually I hate the flute, but Holly transforms the flute in a way where I hear music and not that whimpy whispery puffy instrument. No I hear music! There's something about this song too that is catchy. It has a catchy chorus that makes you want to hear it again and again if you resonate with the song.

After writing this first entry, I realize that I also need to make notes on my first impressions of the songs that I hear that I like and want to get. Since it has been a few days since I heard the songs, I can't remember what it was that specifically drawed me in. I will be more attentive next time!!!