I've always liked it, though not a huge fan.
ButI'm very much into Emmet Cohen's youtube channel:
ButI'm very much into Emmet Cohen's youtube channel:
OT: Jazz Music
- Thread starter RU05
- Start date
I’m similar, was introduced to jazz as a teenager and over the years, it’s been a change of pace musically for me. As a guy who has been interested in guitar, Charlie Christian was one of the early titans of electric guitar as heard on “Swing To Bop” from the early 1940s:
little known to some, we have the most vibrant jazz scene in the area in New Brunswick Nj. Many Rutgers-connected musicians have succeeded at the highest levels.
Jerry Weldon, a tenor saxophonist and original member of Harry Connick’s band is actually the “house” musician at Tavern on George. He’s there playing or sitting in when he’s not on the road with Harry. Many former members of the Lionel Hampton orchestra come out.
It’s common to find Dizzy Gillespie’s daughter, Jeanie Bryson hanging out. Nat Adderly Jr plays often. Cyrus Chestnut lives in town and plays! On Tuesdays we have the young up-and-coming Mason Gross students and often the pros sit-in with them which is a thrill!
If you haven’t come to see live jazz in New Brunswick you’ll love it. Emmet Cohen is great and many of these players have jammed with him.
Jerry Weldon, a tenor saxophonist and original member of Harry Connick’s band is actually the “house” musician at Tavern on George. He’s there playing or sitting in when he’s not on the road with Harry. Many former members of the Lionel Hampton orchestra come out.
It’s common to find Dizzy Gillespie’s daughter, Jeanie Bryson hanging out. Nat Adderly Jr plays often. Cyrus Chestnut lives in town and plays! On Tuesdays we have the young up-and-coming Mason Gross students and often the pros sit-in with them which is a thrill!
If you haven’t come to see live jazz in New Brunswick you’ll love it. Emmet Cohen is great and many of these players have jammed with him.
One of the few electives I had at RU was Jazz Workshop taught by Larry Ridley. He was a fine bass player who had played with many greats including Sonny Rollins.
Rutgers had/has a pretty amazing jazz faculty. Bill Fielder (trumpet) and Kenny Barron (piano) are a couple of others. I did work study a couple of summers in the music department and Prof. Fielder had great stories about Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, and others he played with or taught over the years.
Pretty much described exactly what jazz is all all about when done right. Kind of Blue remains my favorites of all time.
I actually love that album. It's a frequent selection for my late night weed & bourbon in the pool adventures.
But Davis and his studio band are pretty well structured, I think. The fact that a lot of it was improvised doesn't make it random - it basically never happens these days, but not too long ago improv in a recording session was pretty much the norm.
Totally off-topic, but a great and classic story about studio improv...
The late, great Gordon Lightfoot was in the middle of recording the "Summertime Dream" album when he was inspired to write "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" after reading an article about the sinking in Newsweek.
He went into the studio the next day with the lyrics scribbled on a piece of paper and the rhythm guitar part in his head. They rolled tape and he recorded the vocals and 12 string on Take 1.
Take 2 was the rest of the band, playing to the first track. Totally improvised. One take. It's precisely what you hear on the record.
F*ckin' amazing.
Chord progressions and scales are all important elements in Jazz. The chord structure progressions are usually more complex than rock and blues. The improvisation and extended soloing is based on Modes (which I don’t really understand). There is a method to the madness. However, when you get into the Coltrane, Miles Davis free jazz stuff I get lost . Miles Davis once said “There are no bad notes”. Well you need to have all the bases covered to say that. I know there are bad notes to me , I hit them all the time when I try to improvise extensively.
One of the great pleasures of my undergrad days at RU were bus trips into the City to visit Birdland (the original). Most of the greats still making appearances. They had a cover charge (which I couldn't afford) but if you sat at the bar they let you in for free. At least they did with me.
The last bit is because of the first bit, but you already probably know that. Understanding modes, and modal interchange, is critical to improvisational soloing.
I'm lucky for two reasons. The first is that if I'm playing a 5-string barre chord (B, C, D, etc) my ring finger bends in such a way that I can grab the 2 / 3 / 4 strings with it and not mute the high E string. The other is that I'm really good at understanding modes.
But yeah, I'm with ya on the "bad note" thing. I have a chronic issue with grabbing F# in A Aeolian because the B past octave is right above it on that 7th fret. Usually I'll realize it quickly enough that I can bend the F# up to G and make like I did that **** on purpose.
Before listening to jazz at Tavern every Tuesday and Thursday night, I didn't get it. How do these guys meet each other and 5 minutes later play a song and it sounds like they've known each other for years? Sharp Radway (after many cocktails) sat me down and explained how we can all speak the english language and tell the exact same story. But the words and paragraphs will always be different. The themes and plot of whatever story will follow the same arch. And then it made sense a bit for a non-musician.
Same exact dudes that play at Smalls, Birdland, Django, etc are regularly playing in New Brunswick. Nat Adderly Jr playing tonight at NBPAC if anyone feels like a few hours of good music for like $20.