jazztruth

Warren Wolf Part II

2013-05-21T22:51:00.000-07:00

GC: I'm trying to remember the first time I met you. You were playing drums, it was a jam session. I showed up with Tim Warfield, I don't even remember why I was there...but I think we showed up and played Solar or something.

WW: Was it Wally's?

GC: I don't think it was Wally's, was there another place?

WW: I thought the first time that you and I met was with Tim on a New Years gig.

GC: Yeah, a New Years gig with Rodney Green in Pennsylvania. With Chris Bacchus. I remember that, that was a while ago. Alright, so when did you start playing with Christian McBride?

WW: I started in 2008. I got a call from a woman in this office, somebody he was working with at the time. They said, "Mr. Wolf, Christian McBride would like to have you in his band for one week at the Village Vanguard." He had these things called the "Christian McBride Situations." I think a lot of people knew how badly I wanted to play with Christian so I thought it was a prank call. I was like "man, stop playing" and they said "no we really want you to play, we'll take care of everything, we've got the hotel." So I went up, and we all thought it was just going to be a week. So it was me, Steve Wilson, Carl Allen, Eric Reed. So after the show's over, people were raving about that band. Keep the band together, keep it together. So he said okay, and booked a gig somewhere in South America, and then we did Monterey right after. I thought that was going to be it. At that point, I was in Houston, doing many gigs here and there, I've never actually been in a band. As a matter of fact, I didn't even think bands existed in jazz anymore.

GC: Wow, that's really telling.

WW. Yeah. But then they were saying we're going in the studio and doing a record. I still thought it was like no big deal, I mean how many cats go into the studio and release records and then go off and do something else? But after we released the record, we got some gigs. Again I was like "okay, a couple gigs, I'm used to this." But they said "no, we're going to keep it going!". That record was Kind of Brown, and we've been touring that record even up until today, 4 years later!

GC: Does he have a new record coming out?

WW: We just recorded it back in Spring of this year. So hopefully it will be coming out at some point next year, when he's done with this Monterey All-Stars Tour.

GC: I don't know how much time we have before we hit... there's so few people here, I wonder if they'll delay it... anyway, in closing: what are your thoughts - I would deduce that, because you have probably very few memories of life without being a multi-instrumentalist (and you play bass too, we don't even have time to talk about that) - what are the benefits of being a multi-instrumentalist for you?

WW: For me it gives me the knowledge to know what I want to hear in my band. There's so many times where I'm doing my own gigs, and if the piano player isn't doing something right, I can get on the piano and tell you "try this". Same with the bass player. I could at least show them something, what I'm hearing. Also it helps with teaching. I'm teaching now at Baltimore School for the Arts, as the jazz instructor. I can always sit down at least with the rhythm section and tell every one of them to try this, try that. At least from the rhythm section perspective. When it comes to horns, I could tell you how to solo but I can't work on sound much. It just helps me be a complete musician. It gives me knowledge; I don't want to have to say "okay, I know vibraphone stuff". I like to know it all.

GC: Speaking of vibraphone, legend is that you don't even own a vibraphone! How do you feel about that?

WW: I feel fine. (laughs) I actually sold my vibes about 5 years ago on eBay.

GC: Because you never use them?

WW: Nah it wasn't that, I was playing gigs on them. I just needed some money because I was trying to finish a CD of mine. The thing is, my dad has a set of vibes, I can use them... which I do, when I need it. I just don't have one in the house. I live almost 30 miles from my parents, I just don't feel like driving down there all the time.

GC: Where do you live?

WW: I live in Owings Mills. They live in Baltimore City. The way I practice nowadays - people ask "do you practice?" and I say "no" and they don't believe me, but I really don't. I tend to do a lot of mental practicing. And it's not even just jazz, it could be whatever. The more and more I can hear stuff, it's like I have the ability to hear stuff and it goes through my head down to my arms or fingers. I'm not saying I don't practice at all, there are certain times where I might want to work out little kinks. I feel fine though, if I don't have the vibes. I mean there's been times where I try to practice, then just get bored. I mean, it could be because I practiced so much as a kid. A lot of people just don't do that nowadays. I ask the kids in my high school how much they practice, the answer is "hardly ever". I did it a lot! And that's not trying to say I'm the best...I just don't really know what to work on physically. When I hear stuff on record though, I hear it and go "oh that's nice! I like that." And that could be from the worst musician! I could pick up something from the best musician or the worst musician. I'll take their ideas and ball it up and out comes... what I heard.

GC: I mean, I should be practicing. But I don't have the time. Because I spent a lot of time in the 90s practicing, I feel like on piano I can get away with it... trumpet is a different story, but I feel like I can still play at a certain level without practicing. It would be nice to have time, but I have a child and a job. And you have three kids?

WW: Yeah, three kids. They live in Boston with their mom. Even when we were all living together, when I was trying to practice, it was really hard to do it. Because my kids would be like "hey could I join in with you?" and I'd be like "no no, leave me alone."

GC: I have the same problem.

WW: Now I'm remarried, my wife is a ballet dancer. And every now and then... I haven't completely just shut off. Like right now, I am practicing the Carnival of Venice on Marimba because I'm about to record it, and that thing is hard. Not so much technically hard but... just a lot of notes. Making sure I just nail them. So I'm practicing that a lot. But other stuff, not really. Because jazz music is so free for me. I don't have a rule, like "make sure you get this note, make sure you get that note". Because everything could be resolved in a certain way, it's just how you execute it, make sure you get your rhythm right.

GC: Does it matter to you what instrument you're playing? Does it all just become the same thing, or do you find that you're thinking about different things on different instruments?

WW: No it really doesn't matter. Me, I like to think as a drummer or vibraphonist. I mean I can play piano, but I don't really like it.

GC: You don't like the instrument?

WW: No. But I'm saying that mostly because it hurts. Also, I don't have the proper technique. People see me play piano, but I play them like I'm playing vibes. I've never had a lesson on piano. But fingerings... if someone said "play the Eb major scale" I'll probably mess it up. I've just never had the training. I'm self-taught, I know what chords sound good. I know about as many chords as any other professional pianist. There are just certain things I can't execute right. But I'll do gigs on piano. Same with drums. It's hard to sit in on drums though because I'm left handed, and I don't feel like making the trouble of making the switch. I could make a living as a pianist or drummer... which I do, sometimes.

GC: I guess for me, I try to tell my students that a certain amount of technique is important, but... like you get drummers that just practice chops all day and all night and they don't really know how to function musically. They can't hear. Do you find yourself trying to relate that to your students? How do you relate that?

WW: I'm not even there yet.

GC: (laughs)

WW: My students... it's a classical oriented school. So jazz is like an elective, but they enjoy doing it. It's not even about chops. For instance, I was telling my bass player - he's just trying to get the right notes in, but he's making mistakes. So when he thinks he hits a right note, he plays real soft. I said "don't do that! If anything, right now I want to hear you maintaining that beat and that pulse. At least figure out what key you're in, but we'll get to the other stuff later." So it's not about chops so much for me. It's more about making sure they're playing in the key with some type of decent rhythm. Playing as a unit, getting an overall sound, making sure dynamics are there. That's what's more concerning me right now. That's a whole other conversation, because the jazz thing just isn't there, isn't present. I'm just trying to help them learn this stuff. And it's not even jazz, just contemporary music. You could play smooth jazz and still play changes. It's more just like trying to get them to understand the concept of chord changes and such. For me I'm like "this is easy, you can't hear that?" But they can't.

GC: Do you enjoy teaching?

WW: Um...(pause) Yes. I think my biggest thing that I have to work on when it comes to teaching is being more patient. I pick up music very easily. Over the years you get better, but it just came very easy to me. And it still comes easy for the most part, I mean there are certain challenges but it's like "okay, that's fine." A lot of my students, I look at them and talk with them, have conversation s with them, but they just don't understand it so much. I always wonder "why can't you guys get this?" I've learned to be more control and calm, let them take their time.

GC: Did you ever want to move to New York?

WW: Couple reasons for that. For one, this isn't the 1940s and 50s anymore. Back then, if you want to play jazz, yes you have to move to New York. Everyone wanted to be seen by Bird and all the cats back then if you wanted to get the gig. But how it is now with the prices in New York, a lot of cats are going to the city fresh out of college and they're playing these gigs in restaurants for very little money. It's like the money that was good back then, except they're still doing it now and the cost of living went up like 5 times. I mean if a person wants to live that life, I'm not hating against them, that's fine. There are plenty of musicians who's plan is to never get married, have a family, they just eat, breathe, and live that shit. That's not me. Me, I had kids at an early age. That's another reason. I had my first child when I was 20. And she's now 12, going on 13. I have three kids, like I said, and I couldn't... maybe I could have, I don't know, but I didn't think I could afford living in New York. My girl is the oldest, and I have two boys. Eventually they're going to get older and I want them to have their own rooms and things like that, so I look at it and think that's either going to be a 4 bedroom apartment or 4 bedroom house combined with the unsteadiness of the gigs... I couldn't afford New York. That's why I came back to Baltimore. I was teaching in Boston at Berklee for 2 years right after graduation, but it just got so expensive in Boston I decided to come back to Baltimore. It's pretty reasonable to live here, you can get to D.C. in 30 minutes, 45 to Philadelphia, New York, and there's an airport and you can get just about anywhere, any major city. And the other thing, I really believe that if you really play your tail off, they'll find you, if they really want you. I mean, people who want to go to New York... that's cool for them, it's just not for me. And besides, I don't really like New York. I like to go there and do what I have to do. I like to go to New York and then come home. I'm a family guy, I like Owings Mills. I have grass! I can see deer running around! I have to deal with buses and shit, I live in a nice quiet neighborhood in a 4 story house. In New York, a 4 story house would be like 3, 4,000 dollars or something...

GC: To rent.

WW: Yeah, and I'm buying.

GC: Yeah, I hear you. Where do you see yourself in ten years? How are you going to get out more as a leader? Is that inevitable, are you trying to work on it?

WW: I'm trying to work on it now, because I've released my first record last year, on the Mack Avenue label. The next one will be recorded February and March, two different bands. It's just about getting the right team together, in order to push me and it takes the promoter of the club to actually believe in that person, give them a chance. So it's a matter of what happens on that end. Then there's another side, there's other sides I want to conquer, I want to get back on the classical side of music. There was a point in time where I thought about moving to L.A., play R&B and pop music because I like that style of music too. I remember about 4 years ago I got an offer to join Ne-Yo's band, playing drums.

GC: Really? Wow.

WW: I got the offer, I'd rather just play straight ahead... at that point in time.

GC: I bet is pays better with Christian.

WW: Probably, because I've heard those R&B gigs pay at the max like 500 bucks.

GC: I've heard that. Because then you can get anyone to do it.

WW: The thing about those R&B gigs... not all, but the majority of them, you get more things quicker. Endorsements quicker, life might be better depending on who you are. You get to travel on your tour bus, you get to wear regular street clothes on the gig, access to a lot of different women, if you're that type of person.

GC: Want me to keep that in there?

WW: Sure.

GC: (laughs) Well I think that's why a lot of young people will do that, because they're still out there having fun. (Signal to go onstage...)Oh, we're ready? Alright. I think that's good.

WW: You sure? We could do more over the break. I've got a lot to say, man.

GC: Actually, my saxophone student has to transcribe this. So this should be good.

http://www.warrenwolfmusic.com/

The Great Shirley Horn

2013-05-19T22:15:00.002-07:00

Shirley Horn

I've worked with many jazz vocalists over the years. I would be lying if I said I loved every minute of it... However, I believe that there are musical areas that you can't really explore without a vocalist. I learned a lot as a pianist accompanying jazz singers; not only did I gain experience in comping, playing rubato, improvising intros and outros, but I was exposed to a whole range of music that I might never have gotten to know if I had only worked in instrumental situations. There are certain tunes which come up only with vocalists; most jazz students these days don't even know basic tunes like "Alone Together" and "All The Things You Are", let alone tunes like "Skylark" or "What A Difference A Day Makes", or "Estate", etc...In all fairness, I feel like I'm only on the periphery when it comes to jazz vocal repertoire; although I did work with a lot of singers, I never considered myself a "singer's pianist." Indeed, there were many singers who I was clearly not their favorite(meaning I didn't get called back, or didn't keep the gig for as long as I would have wanted), which is cool because honestly, there's no way you can be everybody's favorite. Still, we can grow amidst failure and success, and whether the singer was great or not, or whether I was great or not, accompanying singers is an art unto itself. In some ways, it's becoming a lost art.

Then there are the singers who just comp for themselves. The late, great Shirley Horn was one of those. I was recently listening to a live recording she did called "I Thought About You", which was her first for Verve Records in 1987. (It's a live recording from the Vine Street Bar and Grill in Hollywood.) Her version of "Something Happens To Me", the opener, is exquisite; her swing and phrasing is a perfect encapsulation of jazz singing in less than 4 minutes. I listened to this track many times in a row, and when you listen to her piano comping, you realize that she is the perfect accompanist for herself, and yet, if you didn't know, you would think it was two people!

Here is a live version from a 1990 Bern, Switzerland performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INsLeBrFPKM

Shirley Horn was born in Washington, D.C. in 1934. She took classical piano lessons from the age of 4, and majored in piano and composition at Howard University; although she was accepted at the Juilliard School in New York, she couldn't afford the tuition. Horn worked in D.C. as a pianist fronting a trio, and was discovered in 1960 by Miles Davis. Davis let Horn open for his group at the Village Vanguard. During the 60's, she recorded some great albums for Mercury and Impulse, but never really achieved stardom. Here's a track from "Loads of Love", released in 1963:

Towards the end of the 1960's, Horn became frustrated with the direction of the music business and trends in popular music. She choose to stay in D.C., spend time with her family, and perform mostly in local venues. It wasn't until the 1980's when she made a comeback with touring and recording; in 1987, Horn signed with Verve Records and recorded for them until her death in 2005 from complications due to diabetes. From this period, there are so many classic cuts; my favorite, and probably yours, is "Here's To Life":

If you don't feel some deep emotion after hearing that track, you might be a robot. Or Mitt Romney.

Horn had the same rhythm section for 25 years: Charles Ables on electric bass and Steve Williams on drums. I got to play with Williams a bunch when I lived in D.C.; I believe that Williams, although having a great career and an indeed special musical relationship with Horn, is rather underrated in the drumming world. If you listen to how sensitively Williams plays on these tracks, you can see how special his musicianship is for this kind of situation. Many drummers would have a hard time holding back their "chops" for the sake of such quietude.

I was fortunate to see one of Horn's last performances before her passing; she had an engagement at Au Bar in New York. She was clearly not well, but her magical powers still came out in her music. I think all jazz vocal students should be required to listen to everything Shirley Horn has ever done. Her phrasing, her delivery, her swing, her taste in material, her piano comping, it's all there. Shirley Horn was indeed a treasure.

Here is also a film about Horn's life that might interest you:

"The Shed" Second Annual PSU Summer Jazz Camp Featuring Jimmy Greene

2013-05-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Wow. Summer is fast approaching. If you are one of those people who spends the sticky months on vacation from your instrument, then this post is not for you! But if you are serious about using your free time for musical development, then we have just the thing for you. "The Shed" Second Annual Portland State University Summer Jazz Camp is happening. thanks to a partnership with The Portland Jazz Orchestra and PSU. It's July 16-19, and it's going to be even more awesome than last year!

Yes, last year's camp was a really positive experience. The camp is different from many other jazz camps because we focus on specific repertoire for the entire run of the camp. We select a number of jazz standards, from easy to more challenging, so that everyone can get a chance to really familiarize themselves with specific tunes. This way, a more in depth application of various concepts can be achieved. Oftentimes, we tend to look at a tune and then get distracted by other tunes and concepts, and we don't REALLY learn the tune we set out to learn in the first place. "The Shed" is a chance to focus a little more deeply. This is not to say that we don't just call other tunes if the mood strikes!

Alan Jones, one of the many great faculty members

The range of folks who attended last year ran the gamut from raw beginners to more experienced adults and everything in between. Most of the feedback was positive. Some people wanted more instrument specific information; this year, we are adding instrumental master classes in addition to the general masterclasses. We've also added a day, so we will have more time to get to more topics.

The most exciting thing about this year's "Shed" is the presence of tenor saxophone master Jimmy Greene. Mr. Greene is internationally known as a soloist; he spent years as a sideman with Tom Harrell and Harry Connick, Jr. and many others. He has a number of albums out as a leader, and is a really fine composer and educator.We worked together at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada for 2 years. I'm delighted that he can make it out to Portland!

Jimmy Greene

For more information, please go to http://theshedjazzworkshop.wordpress.com/ We hope to see you there!

Reno Jazz Festival 2013

2013-04-30T09:19:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, I flew to Reno, Nevada. No, I didn't go to gamble or see Sawyer Brown in concert. (Anybody remember Sawyer Brown? Winners of Star Search?Are they still touring? Seems like a band that would play Reno once a year.....)I was asked to be an adjudicator at the Reno Jazz Festival. This festival, hosted by the University of Nevada Reno, has been running for 51 years, and is primarily a competition for middle school, high school, and college jazz bands. It's a huge event, and it's remarkably well organized considering there are usually around 300 bands, 9,000 participants, and 60 judges/adjudicators. There are also some professional performances; this year the featured acts were Dave Douglas and Matt Wilson. There are also some additional clinics and performances; I gave a piano clinic, participated in an adjudicator jam session, and also one afternoon concert. Other than that, it was wall to wall adjudication for me.

So far in my career, I haven't done that much judging of competitions. I was rather surprised that the good folks at University of Nevada Reno had asked me to come. I ended up having a really wonderful time. I was assigned to be the feedback judge for high school combos. I didn't give any scores, but I gave constructive commentary for each group that I listened to. I alternated between listening to a band for 25 minutes, bringing them to the "feedback" room, talking to them for 25 minutes, and then running back to the concert hall to hear the next band. It was back and forth all day for both days. I actually had a lot of fun listening to the high school kids at all different levels and critiquing them. Most , if not all, of the students and their directors were very receptive to my feedback. I think it's important to stay positive in these situations; after all, I could barely play at all in high school, so already most of these kids are in a better situation than I was at their age.

I have to give it up to the folks who organized this festival. When I imagine all of the work that it would take to do something like that at PSU, I shudder to think of the magnitude of responsibility. School of the Arts Director David Ake and trumpet professor and festival organizer Larry Engstrom did a wonderful job of making sure everything ran as smoothly as it could. It's kind of an odd place to host a jazz festival; Circus Circus, the main hotel where everyone stays, is part of a Vegas like casino complex which has almost nothing to do with a jazz. I participated in an adjudicator jam in a Mexican bar/restaurant right in the middle of the casino. I'm not sure if our uptempo version of "Lover" made us any friends besides the jazz festival participants.

Portland State University brought two excellent groups to Reno. One of our groups, a quartet called Reverse Mermaid, tied for third place among college groups. I didn't get to hear either group because I was busy judging the high schoolers, but I heard that they both did really well. I had coached both groups and contributed some arrangements to the second group. The Reno Jazz Festival are great about sending mp3 files with and without comments. When I have the time, I'll listen to them and give them my own feedback.

I happened to find this set of videos from the faculty concert that took place on the Saturday afternoon of the festival. It was rather impromtu, but I had fun playing after listening to so much music for two days. You'll hear Tom Wakeling on bass, Don Aquilo on tenor saxophone, and the fabulous Mark Ferber on drums. Enjoy the videos and maybe I'll see you in Reno next year!

Tour Diary: Ballard Jazz Festival

2013-04-22T23:31:00.000-07:00

Seattle, just like I pictured it....Space Needles.....and everything....

I just got back from a long weekend in Seattle. No, I don't live in Seattle, I live in the other famous Pacific Northwestern city(and no, not Vancouver, either). A mere 3 hours by car without traffic, and merely 8 hours with traffic.......Seattle is a city with a lot of natural beauty and culture. Yes, it rains a lot, and it rained A LOT during this trip. However, I'm used to it, having lived in Portland for a year and a half. ( I think the rainy-ness is worse in Seattle. Honestly, the weather in this part of the world is really mild compared to the east coast.)We actually stayed in West Seattle, which from downtown Seattle is about a 15 minute drive without traffic.......2 hours WITH traffic.....I love the little bungalows in West Seattle, and the views are breathtaking. We rented a really lovely 2 bedroom house; my wife and son wanted to come up for the weekend, so we made a little vacation out of it.

I performed for 4 straight nights at the Ballard Jazz Festival. Ballard is a little neighborhood about 10

to 15 minutes from downtown. It's kind of a hip and happening spot for young people to congregate, with bars, coffee shops and restaurants. There are also some nice residential neighborhoods. The festival is the brainchild of the proprietors of Origin Records: drummers Matt Jorgensen and John Bishop. Both are great musicians in their own right, and their multi-talents include running a successful record label and a jazz festival. I really dig the fact that some musicians were able to create and control their own events and include other deserving musicians in the process. I can't even imagine how much work it took to put this festival on. The trick is that not only do Jorgensen and Bishop organize and promote the festival, they also play in it as well. I'm extremely impressed with their ingenuity, and they have been successful for 11 years. Here's hoping for many more.

Matt Jorgensen

I'm honored that they asked me to do 4 nights of gigs. The first three nights were at a venue called Conor Byrne( it's pretty much an Irish Bar..). Night one featured the theme of "Brotherhood Of The Drum"; I played organ with the Matt Jorgensen Trio featuring guitarist Tom Guarna. Although the set was a mere 45 minutes or so, it was very highly concentrated music; both Guarna and Jorgensen were on fire from note one. I felt like my reaction time was a little slow, but I tried to keep up the best I could.

The second night, we added bassist Paul Gabrielson and turned the same group into the Tom Guarna Quartet. I was relieved to not have to worry about the bass lines. This was my first time playing with Gabrielson, and he is quite a strong player. He and Jorgensen had a nice lock, and once again Guarna was shredding like gangbusters. Both nights had an attentive, enthusiastic crowd. The Ballard Jazz Festival is well promoted and seems to be a popular event. I believe that there are jazz fans everywhere and it's really just a question of getting them all to come out at the right time.

Night Three was basically the same group as night one except we called it the George Colligan Trio. So we did mostly my tunes and a few standards. I don't get to play organ that often(well, it wasn't

Tom Guarna

even a real organ, but it's a Nord Electro;close enough for jazz....), so I feel rusty sometimes. Holding down the bass line is quite a different feeling from just comping chords. I try to cover my technical shortcomings as an organs by playing with the best rhythm I can and trying to keep a certain amount of intensity in the music. The crowds were enthusiastic, but they ebbed and flowed, due to the fact that this night was what they call the Ballard Jazz Walk, where there are many different bands playing at once; listeners go in and out of venues up and down the block like trick-or-treaters on Halloween. I only went across the street to see the Portland crew of Jeff Baker on Vocals, Darrell Grant on piano, Dylan Sundstrom on bass, Jason Palmer on drums, and David Valdez on alto sax. They were really throwing down, considering they were backing a singer(come on, Jeff, I'm kidding around!)

The last night was held at the Nordic Heritage Museum. Two bands would perform; first was trumpeter Lew Soloff, back by Milo Peterson on guitar, Essiet Essiet on bass, and Sylvia Cuenca on drums. I got to hear just the tail end of the performance; they played a mellow version of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing", and ended with a rousing rendition of "Caravan", on which Soloff showed off his impressive virtuosity. I was really looking forward to being reunited musically with one of my first bosses in New York, alto and soprano saxophone master Gary Bartz. (This set again featured Jorgensen on drums and Phil Sparks on bass.)I worked with Bartz back in the mid 90's, and the time I spent in his bad was a real learning experience. Bartz's music is truly connected with the legends, and it's amazing to bask in his energy and wisdom. Bartz has wisdom in his choice of notes but also his choice of words; during our soundcheck, Bartz remarked that "people think it takes a lifetime to play this music. It actually takes MANY lifetimes!" (This is something that we need to relate to our students, who are under the impression that it takes 4 years of college to learn jazz.)

the Great Gary Bartz

I don't know if was the nostalgia for New York in the 90's, or whether it was just the pure joy of listening to one of the most unique alto saxophonists alive, but I was smiling pretty much the entire concert. Gary isn't slowing down as he's getting older; he's playing better than ever. Bartz knows how to swing and how to play modal music, but sometimes it's almost like he's playing rubato over the swing. It's so lyrical; not too many younger saxophonists know how to play like this. Bartz is also a master at quoting other melodies as part of his solo; however, he does it in such a way that it is never corny or contrived, it always feels natural, so natural that you might not even realize that it's a quote. During our version of "Star Eyes, " I believe he quoted maybe 3 or 4 other melodies in rapid succession as he improvised.

I always remembered that Bartz liked to find tunes which were kind of off the beaten path; on this night, we ended up doing a duo version of a Sidney Bechet tune called "Si Tu Vois Ma Mere", which was used by Woody Allen for his recent film, "Midnight in Paris". I always loved comping behind Bartz, whether it be a rubato ballad or a furious swing tune. This gig really brought me back. It's always great to play music with great players, and this gig was really something special. I left Seattle with a really positive, optimistic feeling about music. Congratulations to Matt Jorgensen and John Bishop and everybody at Origin for another great Ballard Jazz Festival.

The Warren Wolf Interview Part 1

2013-04-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

Warren Wolf is an amazing young multi-instrumentalist from Baltimore. He plays the drums quite well, and I've hired him and worked with Wolf the drummer in a number of settings. He is THE premier young vibraphonist on the scene. He also plays piano and bass extremely well. I hope he doesn't play anything else! You might have seen him with Christian McBride or Wolf's own group. I was able to finally sit down with him and find out how he turned out so well.

GC: Warren Wolf! I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, finally getting to it! How’d you become such a bad motherfucker?

WW: (laughs) That’s a very long story.

GC: (laughs)

WW: In basic detail, my dad, Warren Wolf Sr.. His main day job was a school teacher. He was a Baltimore City Public School teacher, he taught History - U.S. history, World history, things like that. He also had a band on the side. Music was a serious hobby of his. I would say around 1978 or 79, the year I was born, he wanted to buy an instrument. He wanted to do something completely different than what everyone else was doing, so no saxophone, trumpet, or drums, things like that. So he bought a vibraphone. I was born in November ‘79, and a couple years later, three years later, he got me started.

GC: Wow, so you started at three. Wow!

WW: Now that’s not just vibes, that’s everything. From the vibes to basic piano to drums. It started at three. Most people, as far as drummers go, most people know that I’m a left-handed drummer. I’m not a left-handed person though. I’m a left-handed drummer because my father’s a left-handed person. So the way he played drums - that’s how I saw the drums coming up. I saw the drums set up as a lefty. So I thought “oh, that’s right, that’s how it’s supposed to be.” Then I got older and started going out and seeing all these cats playing right-handed drums and I realized that I’m the wrong person. So that’s the drum side... as far as mallets go, I took lessons at Peabody Preparatory with Leo LePage. He’s now deceased, but he was with the Baltimore Symphony. He was also a jazz drummer when he lived in Boston back in the day. Took lessons with him every Saturday for like an hour, outside of my normal practice that I did every day from the age of three to seventeen, I practiced 5 days a week, 90 minutes. 30 minutes on drums, 30 on vibes, 30 on piano. That ranged from jazz to classical to pop music to Motown. Everything, just about. My father wanted to give me a crash course in music.

GC: That’s very regimented, for such a long time. It sounds like it must have been very focused if

you were compartmentalizing it like that.

WW: It was very focused. I mean, my dad - he knew what he wanted me to be from the moment I was born. I didn’t have a choice so much.

GC: But you do love it.

WW: No I do love it. I didn’t really start loving it until middle school jazz band. But before that - what kid wants to be in the basement? I had a typical childhood - I went to school, got home and watched my cartoons. But when my parents got home, around 5, it gave them a half hour wind-down time and then my father was like “okay, let’s go”, and we were in the basement from 5:30-7pm every day. After that, I do homework, eat dinner, go to bed, do it again the next day. Saturdays were the day at Peabody, an hour at Peabody. Then after that - I have two older sisters, so I would just play with them or go outside in West Baltimore. Same for Sundays - I didn’t grow up in church, so they were just another free day, with family or whoever.

GC: So would you do music that day?

WW: No, no music.

GC: So you don’t know life without music.

WW: Pretty much. It’s pretty much all I know. I mean, just like any typical kid, at least what I saw growing up in Baltimore, I see sports on TV and rap music and so I knew that stuff, but music was and is my life.

GC: Did you do any listening? I assume he had a lot of records.

WW: He had a pile of records. I don’t recall anything in particular. But I always had a good ear, I just didn’t know it then. He’d put on the Yellowjackets, Spyro Gyra, Anita Baker...all of those records are what I remember. That’s what he played in his band. He had kind of a fusion band that played around Baltimore, called the Wolf Pack.

GC: I don’t know them.

WW: No, no, it wasn’t a band that actually went out. Just a local band that played restaurants.

GC: Was it like... did you ever know that band Moon August?

WW: Oh yeah, I knew them, with Harold Adams on tenor. I think they were more on the swing side.

GC: Really? I thought they got...smooth...at a certain point.

WW: I think they did a mix of things, they played classic songs like “Sugar”, “Stolen Moments”. Then they’d easily go into something like “Sweet Love” by Anita Baker. That’s what I grew up listening to. And my parents still do this to this day, they still play a lot of Motown songs from back in the day. I heard all of that stuff, Motown, Jackson 5, Smokey Robinson - I heard all that stuff growing up.

GC: That’s how you make a virtuoso I suppose. You get to the point where you’ve just been doing it for so long. I mean, you’re a lot younger than me, but you’ve probably been playing longer than me.

WW: This is year 30 for me now.

GC: Yeah. I’m 42. I didn’t even really get serious about piano since I was 21.

WW: Yeah, I’ve been playing for a long time, but like I said I didn’t really start enjoying it until I got to middle school. I went to a school called West Baltimore Middle School, back in the day in the 60s and 70s, they called it Rock Glenn Middle School or Junior High School. The band teacher was Betty McCloud and we had a jazz band, concert band, wind ensemble, but the jazz band consisted of 8 trumpet players, 6 trombones, and a pile of horns. No bass player, but I was the pianist and sometimes drummer in the band. I think what made me really start liking music - like I didn’t really understand the concept of changes and playing in the key. My whole thing back then was play whatever the hottest song was on the radio for your solo.

GC: (laughs)

WW: One of the songs that we did - we actually did not play jazz oriented big band charts. We were a big band in that setting but we played songs like “Eye of the Tiger”, things like that. One of the songs was “Louie Louie”. So when they got to the keyboard solo they were like “alright Warren, you go!” and I forget the name of this girl, but she was very popular. This was 1990 or 1991. And I could sing the chorus of this one song... (sings chorus) and I learned that on piano. So I used to play that on the solos and I would watch how my peers in the auditorium would react - they’d get up and start clapping and dancing. So I was like “wow, if I can get that reaction playing songs like this I wonder what it could do for real?” So at that point, I think it was 6th or 7th grade, that’s when I really started loving music.

GC: You liked the attention.

WW: Yeah.

GC: So your concept was “get house immediately”?

WW: Nah that wasn’t really the concept but that’s just what happened.

GC: It’s kind of a concept!

WW: Yeah, I guess. I mean, like I said, I knew a certain thing about changes but not too much.

GC: When did you really learn about changes?

WW: It kind of slowly picked up - I can’t say there was a given moment. My dad had these charts, I remember when I was starting to learn how to read. He had a big band chart of St. Thomas. And it had some time of solo in there, written out. And I remember playing it and I still remember how the solo goes to this day but I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just like “okay I’ll read it down, this sounds good over this.” At some point in middle school my dad would take me out to the club. We used to go to the Sports Lounge. Organ player, his name was Chico (that’s all I know him as) and the drummer Bobby Ward. We used to go over there, and he’d play the vibes, and sometimes his band would go over there. There wasn’t anything that I specifically worked on to learn what changes were, it was more just playing and playing. Like I said, I always had a good ear but I never knew it. One of the classes that I had at Peabody was classical theory.

GC: In high school?

WW: Middle school.

GC: Wow!

WW: I had to separate myself between high school and Peabody, but I’ll talk about that in a minute.

GC: Okay.

WW: I took a theory class in middle school and I was pretty terrible at it. My teacher always had said “he has a great ear”, and I didn’t know what he was talking about. Eventually after I graduated middle school and got to high school - Baltimore School of the Arts, fall of 1993, the staff told me that I could not attend Peabody anymore and I could not study with the percussion teacher because the teacher at the School of the Arts was also a member of the Baltimore Symphony, but he was strictly classical. His name was John Locke. Basically they didn’t want me studying with two guys from the Symphony, they already had someone there at the school. So I got accepted into the school. How I figured out I had a good ear - I had perfect pitch, but this is how I figured it out. Ninth grade, 1993, there were a lot of students who were trying to figure out a popular song - a Mary J Blige tune called “Real Love”. Very popular back then. The students couldn’t figure it out at all. I was like “hey, I can play it!” They didn’t know what it was, we were freshman. They said “yeah right”, and I just got on the piano and played it right away. They were like “wow! Can you play this one?” They kept asking me. And I had never played these songs before. So I did some research after a while and found out I had perfect pitch, and that’s why a lot of people said I have a good ear.

GC: Why didn’t they tell you?

WW: I don’t think they knew. I think it was just something I had to figure out on my own.

GC: It’s interesting, you taking those classical lessons and your ear never coming up.

WW: That’s another problem in my youth. I was at Peabody Prep for years and I wasn’t just some little kid taking lessons. During that time I was also going on tour and performing as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony. My first concert as a soloist with the Symphony I was about 8 years old. I played all sorts of Concertos, Bach’s Concerto in A Minor, Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto in C Major.

GC: On mallets?

WW: Yeah, on the marimba. I also did a two week tour with the Symphony when James Galway was a soloist. We did John Corligiano’s “Pied Piper Fantasy”. And we all know the story of the Pied Piper - the guy who comes and takes the kids away. I was one of the little kids, we had a snare drum/field drum part in that piece. We did that for a long time. Basically I did on and off work with the Symphony for 14 years.

GC: Wow! That’s amazing. So you went to school for the arts, and then you went to Berklee.

WW: Yep. Fall of 1997.

GC: How old are you?

WW: 33. Just turned 33.

GC: So what was Berklee like for you? Did you feel advanced?

WW: Um...Berklee was cool. I feel I learned, like any serious musician, I learned more outside of the school. I learned some things in the school, how to write music, how to notate it, certain things about harmony. But a lot of the things they teach at Berklee, I was just like “what’s the point of this?” Like in Harmony 4, we were analyzing pieces of music and putting brackets around chords and indicating whether or not it was a ii-V, and I used to always think “what the hell, why would I ever use this?” Basic stuff in Harmony 1 and 2 was what I needed, then I was cool. Same for Ear Training. I think any college that has a music program is going to have pros and cons. Some things are good, some aren’t. A lot of those classes at Berklee I think were just designed just to take your money.

GC: Ugh, and that’s a whole other conversation.

WW: (laughs) Yeah.

GC: As an educator myself...well, maybe we’ll come back to that. Berklee used to be a place where people would just come through. Most people didn’t finish Berklee - the joke was that if you actually got a degree from Berklee you were probably sad cause no one come through and took you away. But I think times have changed, I think people want their degrees and it’s not quite the same in the industry.

WW: I don’t think so. I mean, I finished the school.

GC: Did your parents want you to get the degree?

WW: Yeah, but I mean...I got a Performance degree. I didn’t really need to go to Berklee to get a Performance degree because with the type of work that we do, it’s like... who cares if you have the degree? It’s either you can play or you can’t play. It’s not like I can just go to Christian McBride and say “hey, I have a Performance Degree from Berklee, get me in your band!” I mean - I do think it’s necessary for other types of things, like if you’re doing Music Education or Music Therapy, of course you need that. Berklee has all of those. Everything else just depends on how good you are.

GC: So did you start hooking up with the cats you play with now at Berklee?

WW: Yes. One of the first people I met at Berklee who really helped me out was Jeremy Pelt.

GC: While he was a student?

WW: Yeah.

GC: Is he your age?

WW: He’s about 4 years older than me. You know, being a new person on campus a lot of people just start talking about you. Actually one of the first people I met up there was Jaleel Shaw. I just happened to be walking around the hallways, because that’s what freshman do, and I met Jaleel and a friend of mine, Rashawn Ross, trumpeter for Dave Matthews. All these guys were in the room, just playing, and there’s a set of vibes in the hall. So I’m seventeen years old, just walking around I asked to play with them. They said “sure, come in!” And we played for maybe an hour and a half or two years. Jaleel must have gone around telling people “check out this cat on the vibes, he’s the guy!” So word starts getting passed around and Jeremy finds me. It was easy to find me because I lived in the dorms. He asked me to do a couple of cafe shows - Berklee had this thing where students would perform in the cafeteria, just give us a little bit of experience being a leader. So I did that, and my name eventually got passed on to Wayne Escoffery. He gave me my first gig as a leader at the club Wally’s. John Lampkin was another part of that, him being from Baltimore and he’s always trying to look out for the guys, you know, like “yeah that’s my boy from Baltimore, you gotta give him a chance!” I remember my first gig at Wally’s, John wanted to give me the chance to play. I never got paid for that gig.

GC: (laughs)

WW: But the gig was like 50 bucks for 4 hours. They let me play everything that I knew. So I called all the tunes that I knew from Baltimore...”Sugar”, “Stolen Moments”, “Ornithology”, “My Little Suede Shoes”...songs that they don’t play at the club. So they said “oh yeah, you sound good, come back tomorrow”. So I come back the next day and they start calling tunes that I now think everybody should know but at the time I had no idea what they were. Like...”In Your Own Sweet Way”, “You Stepped Out of a Dream”. So instead of writing all this stuff down, cause at this point I had perfect pitch, I figured “well I don’t have to know the melody right now, I can at least hear these changes out.” So John, Jeremy, Darren Barrett, Jaleel Shaw...those were the main ones that really got me started in Boston.

Excuses

2013-04-14T11:35:00.000-07:00

Best excuses for not practicing:

1. Fell asleep at 4:30 in the afternoon
2. Watched a Gilligan's Island Marathon, followed by a Three's Company Marathon
3. Had to make sourdough bread
4. Couldn't find my instrument
5. Left my instrument in my other pants
6. My dog ate my instrument
7. Sold my instrument for crack
8. Had uncontrollable diarrhea
9. Had uncontrollable diarrhea AGAIN
10. Couldn't find my fingering chart
11. Teacher didn't tell me I have to practice more than once a year!
12. Thought that too much practicing would make me go blind, but I think that's something else…..
13. Got married and had children

14. Have neighbors who hate music. They also hate me.
15. Left my instrument at a vegan strip club
16. Wanted to take it easy after the New York Marathon. I watched the whole thing on TV!
17. Had to go to the Portland Farmer's Market, since there's no other place in Portland to buy fruit
18. Couldn't sit still after 7 Starbucks Grande Lattes!
19. Had uncontrollable diarrhea after 8 Starbucks Grande Lattes!
20.Thought Practice Makes Perfect, and yet, Nobody's Perfect, so that contradiction really threw me off for a while…
21. Don't need to practice because somebody told me to "work it out on the bandstand"
22. Don't need to practice because I don't want to "play licks"
23. Don't need to practice because I want to be "in the moment"
24. Don't want to have "too much technique" and be a show-off, like that guy, what's his name, who's so busy working because he "shows off" by being able to read and knowing tunes and sounding great. What a darn show-off!
25. Had to put cover sheets on the TPS reports

26. Watched a Star Trek Marathon, followed by a Charles in Charge Marathon
27. Had to read " Atlas Shrugged" for a second time. Ha Ha, Now I get all the jokes!
28. Too busy blogging
29. Very busy reading blogs about how to practice
30. Sold instrument for heroin
31. Sold instrument for a Starbucks Card
32. Sold instrument to pay for music school
33. Sold Starbucks gift card to pay for music school
34. Got arrested for selling heroin to pay for music school

35. I figure I know about 17 tunes, so I should be cool
36. Camped out all night for Justin Beiber tickets
37. Too busy watching Ken Burns "Jazz" documentary
38. Got married and had children….AGAIN
39. Left my instrument at a vegan Satanic Church
40. Why practice when it's so sunny, rainy, snowy, dark, cold, or warm outside?

Norway Stakes A Claim in Jazz

2013-04-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

That little Red house might be a jazz club!

While browsing the news feed on Facebook, I came across this article on the NPR Site: "How Norway Funds a Thriving Jazz Scene" by Michelle Mercer. (The writer, who recently penned the biography "Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter," happens to be married to an old friend of mine from Baltimore, bassist Marc Niehoff).

This article piqued my interest for many reasons. I have always been aware that European nations, due to their financial contribution to the arts in general (much more so per capita than the United States), have supported so many more jazz tours than the nation where jazz was born. However I have always resisted the notion that Europe should become the de facto "new home of jazz," maybe because 1) I have not figured out a way to live in Europe, and 2) perhaps I have some kind of subconscious national pride about Jazz music. (I suppose those who who would label me a "Blame America First" sort of liberal might be surprised to hear that occasionally, under circumstances, if the wind is just right, I'm slightly proud to be American. It usually clears up after a good night's sleep and some Tylenol...)

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the British writer Stuart Nicholson wrote a book a few years

ago called "Is Jazz Dead? Or Has It Moved To A New Address." This book was actually a more in-depth version of a New York Times article written in 2001 (the book was published in 2005) based on the same premise; Nicholson contends that European jazz musicians are not only better funded, but also more innovative and more interested in furthering the development of the art form, while American musicians like Wynton Marsalis and others are merely regurgitating the past, treating Jazz more like a museum piece rather than a living contemporary art form.

While Nicholson makes some valid points, I feel that he uses pretty selective and at times, dubious examples to prove his point. Let's take the example of Wynton Marsalis, who, as we all know, has a very rooted philosophy: Jazz music is about the blues and swing and if that isn't in it, it's not happening and it isn't Jazz. OK, fine, but that's ONE musician out of hundreds who are known, and thousands who are unknown. Many American Jazz musicians are going further; it;s just that we can't get funded. Our cultural system in the U.S. is mostly based on commerce. If you sell, you get to play and you get attention. And usually, you will sell if you get a record deal, or you have a hit song, etc... It's also incredibly competitive in the United States; most people cannot compete with Wynton Marsalis' fame. Meanwhile, in European nations, there are considerably fewer jazz musicians, and it is much easier to get public funding.

E.S.T.

Case in point: the Swedish trio known as E.S.T., or the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, was a very successful jazz group in the late 90's and into the last decade. (Svensson tragically died in a scuba accident in 2008.) Our writer Nicholson holds up E.S.T. as an example of music with the "Nordic Tone," and claims that they are much more innovative than the current crop of American musicians. E.S.T was highly popular in Europe, it's true. They had major funding from the Swedish Government, to my recollection. Musically, I think E.S.T. was pretty good; not particularly innovative to my ears, and certainly they didn't play anything that the Keith Jarrett Trio played better years before. Honestly, it seemed unfair to me that a pretty OK Swedish group, thanks to plentiful Swedish money, could become mega-stars playing jazz while so many great American jazz musicians I knew could barely get one gig a year. (I'm not really trying to bash E.S.T., I'm just saying that an American group playing the same music without funding would be unknown.)

That silly national pride combined with my own glorious self interest made me think quite unfavorably of Nicholson's suggestion that Jazz is now a European phenomenon. I don't necessarily mean the book itself; many have taken issue with it's selective journalism and I think they are right. Many of Nicholson's arguments just don't hold up when you really think about it. I'm talking about just the idea of Jazz in Europe. I still wanted the old paradigm of Europeans booking American jazz musicians in their festivals to go on forever. Instead, nowadays, when you look at the European festivals and venues, it's more often than not European musicians and groups. This is not only due to more interest in European jazz musicians, but it's also for basic economic factors: why pay 1500 dollars for a plane ticket from New York when you hire someone from Berlin and pay only a few hundred Euros for a ticket? Plus, the fact that it's far easier for European musicians to get government money for a tour; in the U.S., it is really difficult to get any kind of grants.(I've gotten a few; back in 2003 I received a Chamber Music America Grant and an Arts International Grant. It's very competitive. I applied for the CMA grant many times again and never made the cut. Arts International is now defunct as far as I am aware.)

This, from the NPR article by Mercer, really struck me:

For now, though, most Norwegians still consider art and culture too important to be left entirely to the markets. As long as art is considered a public good, it will pay for Norwegian jazz musicians to dream big — and write lots of grant applications.

Lage Lund-a seriously bad cat from Norway

I still believe that Jazz is America's art form. I question whether the music being called "Jazz" in Europe is actually Jazz; it might just be jazz influenced improvised music. There is nothing wrong with that at all. But this idea of music and the marketplace is the dilemma. In America, we are all about the market. The success of your art is based on sales. YOU as a person are judged by how much money you make, how big your house is, what kind of car you drive. I think many Europeans don't see the world in this way. They see culture as part of the public good, rather than a commodity. Despite the economic doom and gloom going on worldwide, Europeans have at least built societies which have the people's interest at heart. When I look at how our government lets the interests of the 99 percent slip into the ocean, then I wonder whether we have the strength as a society to save our own cultural institutions. And if this is the case, if we as a society cannot hold on to what's important, then I say Europe already has more of a claim to Jazz than we would like to admit.

Putting the virtue in virtuosity

2013-04-05T17:14:00.000-07:00

Joshua Bell-virtuoso violinist

I'm totally loving my lecture classes this term, and it's just one week in. We've had some really stimulating discussions. Has anyone learned anything? Well, who knows. Nobody had their eyes closed, at least not that I noticed. I have to make sure to keep a certain amount of control of the class, because, what with the internet and everyone's short attention spans, it's easy to go from talking about Duke Ellington to videos of cats leaping over furniture. Still, I don't want to just lecture; I want people to actually think about things in a different way. Don't get me wrong, I have power points and planned lectures: sometimes, the best time is had when we improvise!

Today's Jazz History class got into a great discussion regarding the concept of virtuosity. This came about after hearing three contrasting examples of jazz music. The first was Louis Armstrong's "Potato Head Blues." The second was a tune from Michael Brecker's first album, called "Choices." The third was a live performance by Esperanza Spalding, an original tune called "I Know You Know." The point of the exercise is to compare and contrast the three tracks, which represent the past, present, and arguable future of jazz, respectively. Another point of the exercise is to listen for the textbook "salient characteristics" of jazz music: blue notes, syncopation, improvisation, polyrhythms, call-and-response, and swing. We know that in some music, some of these elements will not be obvious at times, and even some will not exist at all, and yet we can still call the music jazz.

One common denominator in these three tracks was a presence of a virtuoso star soloist. What is a virtuoso. We agreed that a virtuoso is someone who is beyond outstanding on their instrument, who has a high level of technical ability. Indeed, the textbook definition of "virtuoso" is as follows:

A Virtuoso (from Italian virtuoso, Late Latin virtuosus, Latin virtus meaning: skill, manliness, excellence) is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument.

Further description from wikipedia:

The defining element of virtuosity is the performance ability of the musician in question, who is capable of displaying feats of skill well above the average performer. Musicians focused on virtuosity are commonly criticized for overlooking substance and emotion in favor of raw technical prowess. Despite the mechanical aspects of virtuosity, many virtuosi successfully avoid such labels. Once more commonly applied in the context of the fine arts, the term has since evolved and can now also simply mean a 'master' or 'ace' who excels technically within a particular field or area of human knowledge—anyone especially or dazzlingly skilled at what they do.

We agreed that Louis Armstrong was a virtuoso cornetist. In his day, no one could do the kinds of technical things he was doing on the trumpet. Armstrong was known for playing 100 high C's in a row and then a high F at the end of the night. However, beyond just his physical talent for this, he was more swinging, more inventive, and more charismatic than any jazz instrumental soloist who had previously existed. So, this implies that it takes more than mere high notes to be a virtuoso in our eyes. (I'll get to high notes later.)

Michael Brecker is still worshiped for his speedy phrases. However, I think that beyond the "Brecker licks" that every tenor player loves to play, there is a lot of passion and inventiveness in Brecker's playing. So once again, it's not just merely being technically impressive; it's a certain level of artistry and using technique to create an emotional response. Some might disagree in preference of other tenor players. I can enjoy the simplicity of Charlie Rouse or Stan Getz as much as the blazing ferocity of Michael Brecker.

Our discussion started going left when we got to Esperanza Spalding. My contention is that, due to her fame, critics will write that Spalding is, AS A BASSIST, in the same league as Dave Holland, Christian McBride, Ron Carter, etc. I think that this notion is dubious. However, Spalding, as a bassist/vocalist/composer/performer is without a doubt a virtuoso. She is dazzlingly skilled at what she does.

Was Theolonious Monk a virtuoso? Most of the jazz musicians said "yes", despite the fact that Monk is known for unorthodox piano technique, highly angular and confusingly simplistic melodies, and a strange, perhaps off putting stage presence. For the benefit of those civilians in the class who had never heard Monk, we watched some concert footage of Monk with his quartet. Even with Monk's odd phrases and clunks and spaces, we still agreed that Monk was a virtuoso at being Monk.

In almost the same breath, I asked if Bob Dylan was a virtuoso. The initial reaction was "NO!" Now, I'm certainly not a Bob Dylan fan by any stretch. However, is he a virtuoso at being Bob Dylan? Whether you love his music, or think he can sing at all, he is an original and identifiable musical force. Indeed, one of the things I think that the blues and the folk influence in American music has done is made it so that you don't have to be the best singer on the block to make music. In Italy, you cannot perform opera unless you have Luciano Pavarotti type of chops. However, you DO have to have a distinctive sound and a unique message, which, I will say begrudgingly, Bob Dylan does.
(Here again is one of my favorite videos, from the We Are The World sessions, where Dylan lays his track down. It's pretty funny, all due respect.)

I have found that the older I become, the less impressed I am with the traditional virtuosity. I want to hear SOUL, I want to hear MEANING. I still like a lot of music that many folks might think is pretty heady. Still, I remember as a kid being blown away by Maynard Ferguson (may he rest in peace. I heard he went out on a high note....). Ferguson's higher louder faster technique was really amazing to hear live. However, I find myself now unable to listen to more than thirty seconds of high note trumpeting. I think it has it's place, and I certainly wish at times that I had better range. However, I don't think high notes are necessary to make good music. Sadly, many trumpet players around the world, who I'm sure are fine human beings, seem to spend most of their time trying to play as high as they possibly can on the trumpet. I was hanging out on youtube.com, drifting around, and at a certain point began to notice that many trumpet players had posted videos of themselves playing double high C's, or even above. (I've posted a few below, just for fun. You'll probably have a headache after you listen to them. There are hundreds of them.....) Uhhh, yeah, that's great , fellas, but can you play me a melody? What about playing some blues? How about something with rhythm?

All of this leads me to believe that the transformation of the idea of viruosity is a good thing. We want to play out instruments well-really well. But musical vision and artistry is so much more than that. I'd rather hear Miles Davis play one middle register note with feeling than all of the triple high C's in the world. I mean, if you had a choice between being Miles Davis, or being able to play a triple high C, which would YOU choose?

Spring Term: Finding The Balance

2013-04-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

My Spring Break is NEVER like this......

Spring Break is over. I had a blast:driving around Ocean City in a convertible with my shirt off, hangin' with my best buds, walkin' down the beach, dancin' by the pool, slammin' down brewski's, hooking up with random chicks.....yeah.............oh wait, I'm sorry, that wasn't me at all. I guess television has always given me this idea of Spring Break that I'll never get out of my head. Actually, I went with my wife and son to New York City. 3 year old Liam was actually pretty good on the long flight from PDX to JFK. Bringing the infant Liam on a plane was much more challenging: there was definitely a lot more diaper changing and screaming and squirming. This time, during the descent into New York, Liam sat on my lap and looked out at the Queens skyline as we turned in for a landing.

It's always fun to go back and see New York. I miss it sometimes; many of my good friends are

there, and certainly many of the best musicians in the world are there. However, I think the West Coast lifestyle has spoiled me a bit. It's still wintery cold in New York, whereas Portlandlers are starting to put their winter jackets in the storage closet. New York has been slowly transforming itself from a mecca for artists into a playground for the wealthy. If you aren't a hedge fund manager, you will have a hard time in New York. I think even the hedge fund managers are complaining about the prices now. Portland has always been known as a place where "a musician can buy a house." Real estate in Portland is, at least for now, much more affordable than New York.

Now that we are back in Portland, it's time to get back to work. This term, I'm teaching both Jazz History and a brand new class called Jazz and American Culture. The latter is more of a jazz appreciation class, although it also deals with the cultural relevancy of jazz and related forms of music. We are two classes in, and we've had some really great discussions. The Jazz History class also promises to be interesting because we have a mix of jazz majors and non-majors in the class. (I call them civilians.)This will be an interesting way for players and non-players to find out what the other is thinking about various sub-genres of jazz. Both classes are lecture classes, however, it's much more stimulating for all if we have discussions about the music and the history. I think that a pure lecture class can be useful, especially if there are over 150 students; however, with interaction, the students feel better about the class, which hopefully will make them feel better about the music.

Give it to me straight, McBride!

I'll still working with many ensembles. I was working with an ensemble a few days ago, and the bass player and drummer just were not hooking up. So I stopped and worked with the bass player. This young man is very talented and precocious, however, he is still somewhat inexperienced, and he has certain technical limitations. He's got a lot of passion for the music, and does a lot of listening at home, which is REALLY important. When he walked a bass line in time, I noticed how inconsistent his quarter notes were. They were actually quite sloppy, if we listened to him play alone. I wanted to critique him, but I didn't want to be too harsh, so I started to say, "You know, it's actually pretty good...." And then this young bass student said, "NO, DON'T DO THAT!" By this, he meant, "Don't sugar coat it, Professor, give it to me STRAIGHT!"

Now, this young man has been working with Mr. Thara Memory, an Portland based musician who is

Esperanza Spalding and Thara Memory

known as a trumpeter, educator, and director of the American Music Program. He is also known as a mentor of Portland's own, bassist and vocalist and composer Esperanza Spalding; and if you haven't heard of her, then you might want to just crawl back under your rock. Mr. Memory has a reputation for being somewhat of an old-school type task master. Some say he is too harsh at times; however, I recently gave a clinic to his young band, and honestly, I had very little to say. Memory certainly gets results; his band of high school and even middle school kids play with a precision and enthusiasm that rivals most college and some professional bands. All the music was memorized and they swung like there was no tomorrow.

So my young bass student, coming from this environment of seriousness, didn't want me to be NICE. He wanted me to tell him how to get better. This is really important, because why would anyone go to music school, or for that matter, anything school, if they didn't want to get better? And yet, because of the softening of our society, there has been a relaxation of our expectations of students and young musicians. We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, and we don't want to step on anyone's toes, and everybody's a winner. Without any sort of motivation, how can we expect our students to get better? Are we preventing ourselves from "giving it to them straight' because first we don't want them to feel bad and second because we want them to keep paying for school? And when I say "we", I most definitely include "ME!"

I don't know if being an old school hard ass teacher suits me personally; however, the proof is in the pudding. Thara Memory's band sounded amazing. Case closed. As an junior educator trying to find my way, my question to myself is how can I get the best results from students and be honest with students without making them cry. (And I have made students cry, if you can believe it; I was a guest clinician in Groningen, The Netherlands, and all I did was ask a young Korean piano student, after she played, if she had ever heard a recorded version of Herbie Hancock's "Tell Me A Bedtime Story." She burst into tears! I guess I just have that kind of effect on people...Ugh...)

I think there is a way to strike a balance. We need to be honest without being hurtful. Lately, I find that my pendulum swings widely and wildly from side to side. I'm either too nice or too mean. Also this week, I think I was overly harsh to a young musician who was having some issues on his instrument. I felt bad after the fact. However, I think the intent was correct. We need to "give it to them straight." After all, if you go to a doctor, and your body is riddled with tumors, you wouldn't want you doctor to come in and say "Hey, you are doing great! Picture of health!" You want him to tell you what's going on! Now, not every doctor has the best bedside manner. At best, your doctor could say, "Well, Mr. Jenkins, our tests show that there are a number of tumors in your chest. I've scheduled you for surgery at 2pm on Wednesday. I can't say for sure what the prognosis is, but we'll do our best." Of course, you might get a doctor who will say, "DAMN, YOU GOT TUMORS OUT

THE YING YANG, BRO! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING? EATING CIGARETTES FOR BREAKFAST? DO YOU PUT PESTICIDES IN YOUR COFFEE? MAN, THIS IS REALLY REALLY BAD. WELL, NICE KNOWING YOU, PAL. PAY THE RECEPTIONIST ON YOUR WAY OUT......."

I hope you won't take offense at my attempt at facetiousness. My point is that in an academic environment, the most important thing is the LEARNING. So if no one is learning, it seems like we could be doing something else with our time. (perhaps DRINKING....ha ha). My quest is to be more efficient and more effective. How can I get the most out of the students without torturing them? This term is another 10 weeks of finding the balance.

Calling Them Out: Cornelia Street Cafe

2013-03-25T20:03:00.000-07:00

I wish I had two more hands so I could give this place 4 thumbs down

Last year, I heard an amazing classical pianist named Adam Tendler perform at Portland State University. Tendler played a stellar interpretation of John Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano." Tender was also gracious enough to speak with the audience afterwards. He answered questions, and gave the small crowd many thoughtful insights into his musical career and his approach to preparing Cage's work. Tendler is quite busy as a performer; however, he finds the time (kind of like yours truly) to blog about music.

I recently saw a post on his blog which really struck me. Tendler wrote about recently attended performance at a venue in New York called Cornelia Street Cafe. This club is known to most jazz musicians and fans. I've played there a number of times over the years. The small club is in the heart of Greenwich Village, in the basement of a restaurant. They are known for presenting jazz and poetry, but sometimes they present other things. In this case, Tender was at Cornelia to see a fellow New Music minded classical musician. Unfortunately, the performance went horribly wrong. What follows is an "Open Letter To Cornelia Street Cafe", reprinted from Tendler's blog The Dissonant States:

“Awful.” “Shitty” “Shocking” “Horrifying.” “Gross.” ”Unbelievable.” “Outrageous.” “Disgusting.” “Despicable.”

Those are some comments already posted on my various social media platforms after I informed my friends and followers about last night’s experience at Cornelia Street Cafe, where I witnessed a performer humiliated onstage by manager Angelo Verga, who then proceeded to verbally assault a fellow audience member and me.

Let me continue: “That really sucks.” “Yelp here I come!” “Good to know.” “They don’t realize how fast word gets around.” “Insulting.” “The owner would be ashamed…” “A fucking nightmare.” “What?!” “Retweeting.” “Sharing this now.”

Okay, you get the point.

I’ve frequented Cornelia for years, and even visited multiple times last week for various concerts and a CD release party. I have no personal bone to pick with Cornelia Street Cafe. But after seeing Andy Costello, who came from Montreal to perform his 6pm recital Sunday evening, humiliated onstage by your manager because of a poor turnout and an apparently confounding program, and then, after being forced to cut his set short—he had two pieces left, fifteen minutes, and Angelo insisted he “make it ten” because “they needed the room” (the next performance was in an hour and a half)—and then, once offstage, guilt-tripped even further for having not drawn a crowd and lectured about how much money was lost… well, I was stunned. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Never.

When I brought up the fact that I paid a full price, plus drinks, for the performance, and would have liked to have heard the whole program, Verga dismissed the objection, saying “he didn’t give a shit.” Wow. Okay. As one of my friends said: “Good to know.”

Does Cornelia, as a venue, not understand the risk in presenting music in New York City (especially a modern program at 6pm on a Sunday)? The New York classical music scene is either like high school, dominated by popular cliques, or like conservatory, where friends come to their friends’ recitals in solidarity. It’s mostly the latter, honestly—every performance I’ve attended at Cornelia has been populated mainly by acquaintances of the performers—and mostly a New York phenomenon. Someone can sell out a show out of town, have a following on the West Coast, and then play to an empty room in New York because they don’t have a devoted following of local friends. It’s reality, and it’s unfortunate, but most of all, it seems to be news to you! Anyway, Andy did his best. He marketed online (that’s how I heard about the show) and sent you posters. Where were they? Not in the front window, to be sure.

As a performer who has sold out venues nationwide but who has also suffered the misfortune of playing to virtually empty halls, I urged Angelo to understand that these things happen, that it’s no one’s fault, but that interrupting a recital and tossing out a paying audience (of any size) is unacceptable and an unwise move for a presenter. His response, again, that he “doesn’t give a shit,” came as a shock from which I’ve still not totally recovered. Maybe it’s just that I’m not used to being cursed at, especially by a host at a restaurant where I just paid a bunch of money. The fact that my friend wasn’t paid his cut of the door (it would’ve been $20, but who cares, right?) only adds insult to injury. So my money, for this catastrophic experience, went straight to Cornelia and to no one else. I couldn’t be less pleased.

But at least I learned something. I learned that if a small audience attends a Cornelia Street Concert, Cornelia pockets all the cash, pays the performer nothing, and audiences are asked to leave early with no refund on their ticket. Got it. It goes without saying, but I also learned that Cornelia Street Cafe “doesn’t give a shit” if its patrons have a good night or not, or if performing artists have a pleasant experiencing presenting work in their space. It’s about money, after all—performers bring their friends to deliver revenue to Cornelia Street Cafe—and if that means ejecting an audience and humiliating the performer to teach us this lesson, so be it. Andy, a real class act, behaved graciously throughout, even though inside he had to have been crumbling, or fuming, or regretting having ever stepped foot in your establishment. I know I was.

It’s my duty as an artist to inform people about this experience. I think it’s very interesting, honestly. My friends and allies in the arts community, as you’ve seen, continue to find other, more imaginative words.

I was sad to hear this story. I am impressed with Tendler's assessment of the situation, and I agree with everything he says. I was not, however, surprised to hear this story. Although, like I said before, I performed at Cornelia a bunch of times over the years, I had a similar experience back around 2004. I had been looking for venues to present a band I had formed called Mad Science. This fusion organ trio had featured guitar wizard Tom Guarna since the start in 2000. But we hadn't settled on a drummer. I had secured a night at Cornelia for the band, and I decided to give drum virtuoso Rodney Holmes a chance to play some of my music.

Mad Science is an organ guitar drums power trio much like Tony William's original Lifetime band. It's not a quiet piano trio. However, it's not the loudest thing you've ever heard. I will admit, we started out on the loud side. Regardless of the volume, I was really digging the music; Holmes' freakishly good time and precision and Tom Guarna's exciting solos were giving me new hope and inspiration for the project.

Unfortunately, during the second song, the bartender walked up to the stage and placed a note on the keyboard, which read as follows:

IF YOU DO NOT TURN DOWN THE VOLUME, THE GIG WILL BE SHUT DOWN

This wasn't putting me in a great mood to play music, although it offered a solution with the ultimatum. So when the tune was over, I told Guarna and Holmes about the note. We cut our volume in half; Holmes played the rest of the night on brushes. Sadly, our dilemma didn't end there. After another tune or two, which I reiterate, was at half the volume of the first two songs, someone who may have been Mr. Verga, but he never introduced himself, so I have no idea. He did act like he was an authority figure, so I guess he was the owner, or something. As we were trying to figure out which tune to play next, Mr. Authority approached us, or rather, me.

Mr A: Can I talk to you for a minute?

GC: Sure.....

Mr A: Take a break and come out and ......

GC: Uhhhh, we're in the middle of a set. These people came to hear us.

Mr A: Ok, listen, you need to turn it down or we shut it down. That's the deal.

GC: We turned down....we are playing at half the volume now.

Mr A: Ok, fine but you are still too loud. If you don't watch the volume, we shut it down. That's the deal.

So it went like that for a minute. Before I started the next tune, I asked the audience, "Are we too loud?" "NO!" was the unanimous reply. Then Mr. Authority started yelling, loudly:" We get noise complaints from the EPA, I get fined......" The point is- we did turn down but it didn't seem to matter to this jerk. We played the rest of the set so softly that I could actually hear people's conversations over our music.

I didn't play at this club for a long time. Why would I? Cornelia Street Cafe has never been a lucrative place to perform, at least for me. Cornelia, like many jazz venues, has failed to cultivate a regular audience. They expect whomever is performing there to bring in their own crowd. Mr. Tendler spoke to this phenomenon in the previous paragraphs. Even when I started playing there again, I would be lucky to be able to pay the cats and maybe have enough bread left over for a taxi ride to Queens. Even so, musicians like to play, and since I've never been able to book my own band at the Vanguard, I had settled for places like this.

There were a few times where I did have a good turnout at Cornelia Street. So I did start playing there more regularly. However, not surprisingly, another depressing incident occurred with Cornelia Street. I actually blogged about it right after it happened; I had chosen to keep the name of the venue a secret so as to not potentially burn a bridge forever. Since I have decided that not only will I never play there or set foot in there ever again, I no longer care about being a gentleman about it. You may go back and read that blog entry in it's entirety, but here's a clip:

I have played at this particular venue for 15 years, dealing with a succession of bookers, most of whom were friendly and easy to deal with. Not so with a recent exchange. My wife and I played a double bill there this past spring, and we had a respectable, if not terrific, turnout. But when I contacted the booker to ask about another date, I was dismissed with comments to the effect of: "Feedback I got from the bartender and waiters about your show was not too good, to say the least. Your turnout was way below average, I was told that your sets did not start on time, the whole evening was poorly run, and you didn't even know what instrument you were going to be playing the second set."

I think what bugged me the most was that this booker was judging me by what the host and bartender said about the performance. (This to me is akin to getting a review of the New York Philharmonic from one of the ushers in the concert hall...no offense to ushers.) I wanted to ask him if they were musicians or not, but my wife stopped me. I really had to hold back some choice words. Anyway, It's not like I need to play there to make a living; on the contrary, I usually tried to hold back booking stuff there in fear of a conflict with a tour or better paying gig. So as I was saying, it's not about the money, it's about the respect. And this is from a fellow musician, who is probably struggling as much as we all are. Where's the sense of community?

So now, you know(although many of you knew it was Cornelia Street already).

I think Mr. Tendler is right. It’s also my duty as an artist to inform people about these experiences. I think at a certain point we need to use social media to let people know. We can choose not to patronize these venues. We can choose not to perform there. We can urge others not to go there.We do have more power than we realize.

The sad thing is, it's not as if we are even asking for more money, or even for these venues to take more responsibility for their business. It's that we are asking for a decent amount of respect as artists, and as human beings. And even as customers! That's all I really hope for these days. I know it's hard to make it work presenting creative music. But when the venues make us jump through hoops to even GET a gig, make us do all of the promotion, don't guarantee any money, and EVEN THEN treat us like scum, it's no wonder jazz venues are hurting. I think we are all in this together: if you treat us with respect, it will make us not only want to play there, but it will make us feel like we are in this together. It will make us feel like we want to HELP your venue. We will recommend it to our friends and fans. We will eat there. We will drink there. We will pay to hear music there. It's just plain old common sense. It's common sense which the management at Cornelia Street seems to lack in spades.

Jazz History Final Part II: Electric Boogaloo

2013-03-20T01:41:00.002-07:00

This is my classroom when it's empty

This is my second year as a professor at Portland State University. This term was my second pass at teaching a huge lecture class in Jazz History. Last year, I had 191 students. This year was slightly less; however, more than 10 is a challenge, and any class over 30 students is a nightmare. Fortunately, this year I got a better lecture room. Last year, I was in a huge space used for biology classes; I was up on a huge podium towering over the students (I felt like the Wizard of Oz or something). This year's classroom was more conducive to discussions, questions, and general interaction. It was also better for the in-class performances. Although it's nearly impossible to teach jazz history effectively in 10 weeks, I got the impression that the students, mostly non music majors, really learned a great deal. Hopefully they will continue to learn about jazz on their own.

Keeping in mind that most of the students were not musicians at all, I thought that it would be best to make the tests on the easy side. However, some observers thought that perhaps my tests were a little TOO easy. You'd be surprised at how many people even miss the giveaway questions because they don't read the question carefully, or maybe didn't come to class, or maybe even overslept the final! Well, now that the final is over, I'm posting the test for you to take it yourself and test your jazz knowledge. (Keep in mind that this actually a JOKE version of the Final; the type of questions are very similar, but just for you, I'm taking some comic liberties.....actually, a LOT of comic liberties....)Let me know how you do!

(Warning: taking this test on your own does not entitle you to college credit.)

1. Which famous Jazz Composer was born in Washington D.C. , and titled his first composition "Soda Fountain Rag?"
A. Kenny G
B. Duke Ellington
C. Yanni
D. Vangelis

2. Which of the following were NOT written by Billy Strayhorn?
A. Take The A Train
B. Lush Life
C. Achy Breaky Heart
D. Blood Count

3. Which of the following was NOT a popular white swing band?
A. Tommy Dorsey
B. Boyz To Men
C. Benny Goodman
D. Glen Miller

4. Which musician was part of Bebop, Cool Jazz, Modal Jazz, and Fusion?
A. Slim Whitman
B. Liberace
C. Miles Davis
D. Lady Gaga

5. What is the term used to describe the symbol where the top number tells you how many beats are in a measure and the bottom note tells you which type of note gets 1 beat, as in 4/4?

A. stethoscope
B. paleontologist
C. Time Signature
D. Allegro Molto Non Troppo

6. Which of the following is NOT true about bebop?
A. It's constantly played on the radio and kids today love it even more than death metal
B. Music was not for dancing
C. Many bebop musicians used heroin
D. Some black musicians wanted music that "the white cats couldn't play"

7. What music includes fast tempos, virtuosic improvisation, and difficult harmonic structures?
A. Japanese Speed Metal
B. Japanese Death Metal
C. bebop
D. Japanese Power Metal

8. What event is considered by most jazz historians to be the beginning of the Swing Era?
A. George Colligan's Birthday, December 29, 1969
B. 1066 AD: The Norman Conquest
C. Benny Goodman's performance at the Palomar Ballroom on August 21, 1935
D. George Colligan's graduation from Centennial High School, June 15, 1987

9. What is the term for a new melody composed over an existing chord progression
A. Didaskaleinophobia
B. hemidemisemiquaver
C. floccinaucinihilipilification
D. contrafact

10. What 1939 Coleman Hawkins recording is considered an antecedent of bebop?
A. " Flesh for Fantasy"
B. "Body and Soul"
C. " Wango Tango"
D. "F#*$ Da Police"

11. Which of the following is NOT a tune written by Thelonious Monk?
A. "Well You Needn't"
B. "Round Midnight"
C. "Blue Monk"
D. "Gin and Juice"

12. Which of the following is TRUE about Miles Davis?
A. Was partner in a law firm for most of his music career
B. Went to study at Juilliard, but was more interested in learning from Charlie Parker
C. Invented a time machine in order to go back in time and kill Hitler, although he accidentally killed someone who looked remarkably like Hitler. (The Hitler mustache wasn't Hitler's invention, I'm just sayin.....)
D. Was known for his ability to break dance while he played the trumpet

13. Which of the following would NOT be considered a jazz version of a tune?
A. Ice Cube singing "Lush Life"
B. Bob Dylan singing Happy Birthday
C. Karen Carpenter singing " The Rainbow Connection"
D. Bob Dylan singing any song
E. All Of The Above

14. What is another name for "Fusion" music?
A. Sushi
B. Jazz-Rock
C. Donnie and Marie Osmond
D. Norwegian Grindcore

15. What was the name of Herbie Hancock's band before he came out with the Headhunter's Band?
A. The Mamas and The Papas
B. Peter Paul and Mary
C. Mwandishi
D. Captain and Tenille

16. Which of the following would be true about "Free Jazz?"
A. It just sucks, dude
B. I would just rather listen to Christian Grindcore than have to hear that Free Jazz BS! Jeez!
C. Oftentimes used be bop rhythms and instrumentation without adherence to chord changes
D. Free Jazz? What about Free Mumia? What about Free Shipping?

17. Which of the following are NOT considered important bebop musicians?
A. Neil Diamond
B. Charlie Parker
C. Thelonious Monk
D. Nelson Rockefeller
E. A and D

18. What is the name for jazz which avoids fast chord changes and uses "scales" to create more introspective moods?
A. Scale Jazz
B. Modal Jazz
C. Avoids-Fast-Chord-Changes-Type-Of-Jazz
D. Introspective-Mood-Jazz

19. Who is considered the first great tenor saxophone soloist?
A. Coleman Hawkins
B. Nicole Glover
C. Tip O'Neil
D. Al Gore

20. Which famous event is credited for revitalizing Duke Ellington's career in 1956?
A. Portland Farmers Market
B. Lollapalooza
C. Portland Gay Pride Parade
D. Newport Jazz Festival

Extra Credit 1. Name three jazz musicians. For example: Lester Young, Chick Webb, Ron Carter. (You can use those three.)

Extra Credit 2. If a jazz musician leaves Chicago at 10:35 am , scheduled to arrive in Dallas at 2:37, but his flight is delayed because it's on Delta and Delta sucks ass as an airline, but then the flight gets re routed to Pittsburgh, how angry in the jazz musician going to be on a scale of one to ten?

Extra Credit 3. Correct the following phrase: "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing."

Extra Credit 4. Give Me Five Dollars.

Extra Credit 5. I SAID, GIVE ME FIVE DOLLARS.

Extra Credit 6. Listen to the following musical example. Concentrate on your breathing. As you listen, fall into a DEEP DEEP SLEEP. You believe you are a chicken......

Extra Credit 7. After hearing yours truly play the keyboard in class, what superlatives can you think of to describe my musical abilities? Think carefully, because this question could determine your entire grade for the term....

Extra Credit 8. Explain in your own words what happened to actor Steve Guttenbergs career. Because I have no idea. I thought he was ok.

Extra Credit 9. Sing an E locrian scale up 7 octaves using the scat syllable "GACK,", and then sing back down the E locrian double enharmonic majorminor scale on the scat syllable "MFRATZ."

Extra Credit 10. Find out where Ken Burns lives. Knock on his door. When he answers the door, break a chair over his head, and say, "George Colligan says HELLO!"

Swingin' and Compin' Part 2

2013-03-14T06:33:00.001-07:00

This cat is swingin!

I recently posted an answer to a letter from one of my former students regarding swing rhythm and rubato comping for singers/bass players. While I like to write in this forum with a certain fraction of confidence based on having a little bit of experience over the years, I also enjoy exploring other viewpoints. A few jazz celebrities posted some alternative ideas on my facebook page, and I am hoping that these folks and I are cool enough that they won't mind if I re-post their thoughts.

The original question was as follows:

Could you remind me of what you told me when we talked about where the 'swing' feel came from
when phrasing 8th-note lines? Am I correct in thinking it comes from phrasing relatively straight while playing slightly behind the beat?

My response was as follows:
To answer your first question: yes, you are correct in a sense. The "swing" rhythm in the general "jazz in 2013" sense is straighter than the swing of 1935. My theory is that as tempos became faster in the 1940's, the somewhat "jerky" swing rhythm had no choice but to straighten out a bit. And so, when the players who would play these fast tempos played slower tempos, their rhythm became a little less jerky overall.When you compare the swing of Lester Young to the swing of , say, John Coltrane, or even Kenny Garrett, there's a noticeable difference.

I hesitate to use the phrase "behind the beat" because this kind of thing can lead to dragging. In the same way, "playing on top" can lead to rushing. It's very subtle. My advice is to play along with recordings. Even if you don't know the solo, if you at least know the tune, or even if you sort of know it, just try to tap into the rhythmic feel of whoever you like. I used to play trumpet along with Coltrane's "My Favorite Things", even though I had no idea what the chords or the melodic concept was supposed to be.

Dave Stoler

Pianist Dave Stoler said:

My belief is that today's relative marginalization of swing as an integral part of jazz syntax was due to the growing popularity of rock in the mainstream, starting in the mid 50's...

Mike LeDonne always has interesting things to say...

George - while I agree with what you say about swinging I always found it frustrating to "talk" about swing in terms of straight eights vs. swing 8 and where in the time to place your notes etc... That never got the message across.

Mike LeDonne

Swing is all about rhythm and I find that you have to involve your body in your playing and get more into touch. It's all about touch. In other words your arms and fingers and gravity. This is all very natural and involves dropping into the keys and never pushing. What I'll do, and I've had great success with it, is start out teaching a student to begin a phrase by dropping their hand into the first note ( a down wrist). This will create an accent. In a long line I tell them to use use "high fingers" which means keep the wrists down and lift each finger up and let it drop. At the end of the phrase pick your wrist back up and off the keyboard (an up wrist) so you release the muscles and get ready for the next phrase. We'll transcribe a solo of someone with a heavy groove in their notes like Red Garland or Sonny Clark. We go through it listening for all the tiny accents in the phrases. Sometimes they'll come every 2 notes even though it's a long line. So we mark the phrases and start using the touches very slowly and exaggeratedly. Red's 2 note phrases usually have the down wrist on the up beat and the up wrist on the downbeat. When you coordinate the touch so you can get through the whole line with these 2 note phrases you start to hear Red's swing happen. The student's able to get the same "swing" between the 8th's and the up wrists create the same spaces between the 2 note phrases which is an important part of the rhythm. The silences between the notes.

Do this on a medium blues solo. Listen for accents and place the beginning of a phrase mark there. The up wrist will come right before the next accent because the wrist has to be up before it can come down. I call it decoding touch. You can do it for any player just by listening to their accents and making adjustments to things like the length of notes. I've found that most solos are a combination of straight eighths and swinging eighths and there' s no rule as to where they come although a lot of times ascending lines will be more straight. For straight eights I usually teach my students to put a little bit of arm into each one to get more body weight in them. This would be for medium and slow tempo's. It sounds complicated but it all comes from the very natural process of dropping the weight of your arms and fingers loosely and letting gravity do it's thing. To do that you have to stay relaxed which is really the point. I find that after a few solos the student no longer has to think about all this stuff but starts to just hear it. Then they got it. I think everyone can swing, well almost. Some have more than others but more times than not - it's in there.

Anyone who thinks this sounds interesting and would like to check it out further get in touch with me. I'd be glad to show it to you. For a nominal fee of course (shameless)

David Berkman

Of course, David Berkman then weighed in:

The faster tempo argument doesn't really fly for me entirely. Especially when you check out how fast some of those tempos that bud played were. I mean half note = 170 is not uncommon.

I like what Jamey Haddad told me a long time ago. Every era has a certain groove. You look at old movies of cats and its in their walk and attitude. So while we can all learn by imitation as M.L.D. suggests, there may be a certain feel that varies over time, but still swings--like the difference between the way Wynton Kelly and Kenny Kirkland swing. I do think things have gotten straighter over time, and maybe that has something to do with straight 8th music influence.

But...I think the physicality is a good point--it's a kind of dance and as a player you have to spend time, in bands you can get it from others, but you have to spend time trying to make it dance yourself.

Sean Wayland

Another brilliant musician, Sean Wayland, posted something on his blog which is also interesting:

This is in response to George Colligan's post about swinging from his blog "jazztruth". Perhaps my blog could be called " Jazz BS " or something....

A discussion ensued on George's facebook page involving other esteemed pianists Dave Berkman and Mike Ledonne. It's an interesting topic and to discuss "how to swing" within the confines of the internet is surely limited but it fascinates many very serious musicians so it's probably valid to try. George was mainly focused on the placement of the notes and transcribing which is surely very important. Ledonne is also keenly aware of controlling accents with your technique and he has spent a great time trying to analyze the technique of some of his favorite "swingin" pianists. Also a great idea well worth exploring. I have thought about this a lot too and experimented with both George's and Ledonne's approach. I spent a fair amount of time memorizing solos and playing them along with the recordings trying to emulate the "swing". Most of the solos where Herbie Hancock's but there where a few Wynton Kelly and Kenny Kirkland ones too. It all happened years ago but I still suggest to students that the memorize and perform Wynton Kelly's Freddie Freeloader along with the recording.

My teacher Roger Frampton suggested that and it surely was a valuable lesson for me. I don't think you ever get to "swing" it is more of a garden of eden that you can approach. Moving to New York and playing with a lot of musicians with good time helped especially playing organ. That's probably one reason why George and Mike do such a great job rhythmically having had the experience of playing quarter notes on the bass with a great band and drummer.

I have one thing to add which I often think about and that is that the shape/contour of your lines can make a huge difference. A piano is inherently "blurry" ( the instrument is still resonating even after you take your finger off the keys ) and at fast tempos it can be pretty hard to control articulation especially at the end of notes. Even at very fast tempos you still have control over WHAT you play as opposed to how you play it. That's really the essence of the page of examples and questions above. Do some things inherently "swing" no matter where they are placed or accented / articulated ? I think so. I often think the mystery of the greatness in Charlie Parker is somewhere in the organisation of the contours and rhythms. His solos seem to swing even on paper. Ditto looking at John Coltrane's great Giant steps solo I often notes how he changes direction when the chords change at that generally the whole thing tends to move downwards through phrases. I suspect that some rhythms going upwards will never swing if continued for too long.

I find all of these viewpoints fascinating. Even more fascinating is that this intellectual musing is all taking place in a public forum. It's like we are all working on our Doctoral thesis collectively out in the open. I think it's cool.

TWO CONCERTS! Tonight and Tomorrow at PSU

2013-03-11T16:46:00.001-07:00

Farnell Newton

I've been enjoying my time with the various ensembles I work with in the Portland State University Jazz Program. This term, we benefited from the PDX Jazz Festival giving us additional opportunities for student performances. We had many groups perform at Ivories as well as the PDX Student Stages on the PSU campus. It's great to get the students performing in real situations. Additionally, I invited some of our ensembles to perform for my Jazz History class. I think it was good for the jazz students as well as the history students.

Tonight and tomorrow(March 11 and 12) our cup runneth over; we will have TWO performances by our ensembles on the campus of PSU. Tonight's concert will be in Lincoln Hall 75, and feature three different groups: the PSU Salsa Band(directed by trumpeter and PSU alumni Farnell Newton), the Guitar Orchestra (directed by one of our Master's degree students, guitarist Corey Hoeppner), and the Portland State Jazz Saxophone Ensemble(directed by yours truly...). I have heard the Salsa Band, and they are impressive; Newton has done a great job of teaching them the traditional rhythms of Latin Jazz. He also sits in with the band on congas! Similarly, I will be playing piano with the Saxes; they've done lot of performing this term and they are steadily improving. We are doing a number of great McCoy Tyner tunes and Herbie Hancock tunes, as well as a few tunes arranged by our tenor saxophonist Tristan Weitkamp. Tonight's concert is free and begins at 7pm.

Darrell Grant

Tomorrow's concert is in Lincoln Hall 175. The groups performing will be the PSU Nonet(directed by Assistant Dean of the College of the Arts and famed pianist Darrell Grant), the Park Avenue Group(which I direct and play in) and the Guitar Heroes(which I direct...and occasionally sit in on drums). The Nonet has some of our strongest players in the program, as does the Park Avenue Group. The latter group has done a lot of performing this term, and even more playing without me; tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, bassist Jon Lakey, and drummer Jon Huteson have been playing every week at the Brasserie Montmartre, which means they know how to groove together. The Guitar Heroes are playing many of my songs, and they also know how to groove together, as well as come up with some cool guitar effects using pedals and so forth. This concert also starts at 7pm and is free and open to the public.

I'm leaving you with some clips from a recent performance of the Park Avenue Group from the PDX student stages. The sound isn't optimal, but it might give you an idea of the great things we are doing in the Portland State Jazz Program. Hope to see you tonight and/or tomorrow!

Kerry Politzer/George Colligan Double Bill March 9th 8pm Camellia Lounge

2013-03-08T20:48:00.000-08:00

Pianist Kerry Politzer

Tomorrow night, Portland is in for a treat: two New York jazz musicians for the price of HALF of one. (Or maybe a third or fourth of one, considering how expensive it usually is to hear live music in New York City.) This Saturday, March 9th, at 8pm, at the Camellia Lounge
(510 NW 11th Ave, click here for tickets) for 5 DOLLARS(I don't know, maybe that's a lot of money for Portland but you could probably find 5 dollars IN YOUR COUCH CUSHIONS), you can hear the wonderful pianist, composer, and mother of my son, Kerry Politzer. Kerry doesn't get to play often; she's mostly taking care of 3 year old Liam, freelancing as a writer, or doing schoolwork(she's pursuing a writing degree at Portland State University). However, Kerry is so profoundly talented that she needs little effort to bring technical flair and creative brilliance to the keyboard. Joining her tomorrow night will be the great Eugene native Chris Higgins on bass and George Colligan (yours truly) on drums. Kerry will begin the night.

Second set will be something completely different: I will be performing as a singer-songwriter for the first time in my whole life. (Some of you are probably thinking, "What the Freak?") Yes, I've been working on songs with lyrics since 2010. I started by setting some of my sister Dana's poems to music. Eventually, I became confident in my own lyrics to set them to music as well. If you've been following my blog, you might be aware that I've done projects where I used other vocalists to perform my songs. (I'm still working on an album featuring vocalist Debbie Deane. I hope it will come out later in the year.) Although it was amazing to have other singers, really trained vocalists, perform my music, it's actually easier if one sings one's songs oneself. (Say that three times fast...)

During the fall, I was on the road in Europe for a few weeks with the Jack DeJohnette group. Instead of spending my time watching the news in German or reruns of "The Cosby Show" in Norwegian, I spent any down time either running or writing songs. So I have a stockpile of new tunes. Tomorrow night, I will present a small sampling of fresh material. It's not really straight ahead jazz, per se, however, it's jazz influenced and there will be some kick ass grooves and solos.

Helping me out will be two of my top students at Portland State University. Jon Lakey, who will play electric bass, is actually a very talented acoustic bassist, pianist, vocalist, and occasional drummer. Brandon Braun is a very precocious drummer, and has endless potential as a musician. I'm very excited about this gig and I hope you will come by and hear for yourself.

I must admit that I'm not the most accomplished vocalist; however, I have been studying with a wonderful voice teacher in Portland. His name is Daniel Weiskopf and he teaches a method called "Speech Level Singing." It's actually done wonders for me. Weiskopf is highly trained in this method and he's very focused during the lessons. He's also a great musician himself; he has a band called Age Sex Occupation that's done some touring around the U.S.

Hope to see you tomorrow. Come on, y'all, FIVE DOLLARS? Plus, Camellia Lounge has great tea and food. What else are you going to do on a Saturday night? That's right, come to my gig......See you then.

Swingin' and Compin'

2013-03-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

One of my former students in Winnipeg recently wrote to me with a few questions:

Hi there George,

Could you remind me of what you told me when we talked about where the 'swing' feel came from
when phrasing 8th-note lines? Am I correct in thinking it comes from phrasing relatively straight while playing slightly behind the beat?

Also, how did you practice comping, say rubato sections with a singer or for bass players? I am curious because this is something that comes up often; I find transcribing very helpful in this area (I have begun transcribing Herbie Hancock from the "Four and More" concerts like you had mentioned before) and was wondering if there is anything else you found helpful or useful.

To answer your first question: yes, you are correct in a sense. The "swing" rhythm in the general "jazz in 2013" sense is straighter than the swing of 1935. My theory is that as tempos became faster in the 1940's, the somewhat "jerky" swing rhythm had no choice but to straighten out a bit. And so, when the players who would play these fast tempos played slower tempos, their rhythm became a little less jerky overall.When you compare the swing of Lester Young to the swing of , say, John Coltrane, or even Kenny Garrett, there's a noticeable difference.

I hesitate to use the phrase "behind the beat" because this kind of thing can lead to dragging. In the same way, "playing on top" can lead to rushing. It's very subtle. My advice is to play along with recordings. Even if you don't know the solo, if you at least know the tune, or even if you sort of know it, just try to tap into the rhythmic feel of whoever you like. I used to play trumpet along with Coltrane's "My Favorite Things", even though I had no idea what the chords or the melodic concept was supposed to be.

In regards to rubato comping, I guess transcribing would be helpful for voicings and orchestration. However, the most important thing with rubato comping is your ability to follow the vocalist. And it might not just be following; you might have to lead at times. Whatever it is, it can be a give and take. It's hard because, although playing in time is a challenge, playing without time can even be more of a challenge.

My advice would be to find a vocalist with whom you can develop a rapport. Get together and work on some ballads, or any tune which can work in a rubato setting. Maybe you can discuss how it feels to either follow her phrasing, or how it feels to follow each other. The pianist/vocalist relationship, or really any duo setting, is more intimate than other settings. So it might take a little time to see what works and what doesn't. When I worked with vocalist Vanessa Rubin, it took years to truly refine our duo playing. We had been playing Michel LeGrand's "The Summer Knows" for quite awhile, and when we finally got around to recording it, our rendition was light years from when we first started trying to play it. I mostly followed Vanessa, but there were times when she was waiting for me, and all of that subtlety had to be negotiated.

I was looking for a good example of vocal and piano rubato. All I could find in this moment was "Poor Butterfly" with Sarah Vaughn. The verse of the tune is rubato, and regardless of whether or not it's the best example of what I'm talking about, it's an excuse to listen to the magnificent Sarah Vaughn. I'll look for some better youtube examples in the meantime.

I hope this answered your question. Keep them coming!

George Cables Solo Piano at PDX Jazz Festival

2013-02-21T22:37:00.000-08:00

The Great George Cables

It's Jazz Festival Time here in Portland, Oregon. This is a very exciting week. There is a lot going on, and it's probably impossible to hear it all. Fortunately, my excuse is that I'm performing quite a bit. Unfortunately, I will miss a lot of great music. The PDX Jazz Festival, like most good jazz festivals, has a wide variety of jazz artists, local and international. Thanks to festival director Don Lucoff, there are huge headliners as well as student ensembles as well as Portland mainstays, all presented for your listening pleasure.

Tonight, I got the opportunity to introduce, interview, and listen to one of the true piano jazz greats: George Cables. When we talk about jazz piano, we of course speak of Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett. But if you are just getting into this music, and you dig a little deeper deeper, you find names like Kenny Barron, James Williams, Harold Mabern, John Hicks, Onaje Allen Gumbs, Albert Dailey, Ronnie Matthews, Larry Willis, and many others. George Cables is one of those jazz pianists who played with all of the greats and is still, even in his late 60's, still on my Talent Deserving Wider Recognition list! He has had all the dream sideman gigs, and has a lengthy discography as a leader as well. He's a true New York pianist. (He's from Brooklyn as well. Isn't everyone from Brooklyn?) He's also an extremely friendly guy, and was nicely forthcoming in our "jazz conversation" before the concert at Classic Pianos officially began.( I tried to record the interview but my computer crapped out. I asked him about playing with Joe Henderson on "Live At The Lighthouse", among other

things.....)

Cables gets a wonderful variety of tone color out of the piano. He began with a fast and flowing version of "My Foolish Heart." I enjoyed the fact that Cables, much like Art Tatum and Bill Evans, can stretch his timing in a very tasteful way. At times, it was rather Chopin-esque, and other times, it was solidly grooving. Cables played a number of great jazz standards, including Freddie Hubbard's "Up Jumped Spring" and Theolonious Monk's "Round Midnight", but he also featured some of his most beautiful compositions; a song for his mother entitled "EVC", and a song for his "best friend" Helen Wray (who sadly passed away in 2010) called "Helen's Song" were highlights. Cables, by request, played one of his hit tunes called "Think On Me", which he described as "a tune which I rarely play in a solo setting." Cables uses a lot of bass lines in his writing, and has a very fluid technique, but never overplays or tries to overcompensate for the "space" of solo piano.

Another welcome surprise was a quite high energy version of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." I'm noticing that many older players will take tunes that are considered ballads or slow tunes and make them into "burners." Indeed, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is not an easy tune as a ballad, let alone as an uptempo tune! Cables continued on with an off-the-beaten-path McCoy Tyner ballad entitled "You Taught My Heart To Sing." He played it in the key of Bb and modulated to Db on the last A section, which I had never heard anyone do before.

Finally, Cables stood up to receive a standing ovation. As an encore, he played one of the most compelling tunes of the evening: an original entitled "Lullabye." George Cables has all of the hip New York edge and experience combined with a sensitive soul. I left Classic Pianos with musical joy and inspiration still ringing in my ears.

http://georgecables.com/

Move to New York?

2013-02-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this from a Huffington Post article from 2010:

Musician and author Patti Smith had some sound advice for fledgling artists thinking of moving to New York: don't.
According to Vanishing New York, in a discussion with writer Jonathan Lethem at Cooper Union on Saturday, Smith was asked if it was possible for young artists to come to the city and find the path to stardom that she did.
In response, Smith told the crowd, "New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie. New York City has been taken away from you. So my advice is: Find a new city."

This was the subway in New York in the 70's

I followed the link to Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, a blog regarding the "changes" which have been occurring in New York since perhaps the late 80's and early 90's. Yes, New York is safer and more pleasant in some ways. But in other ways, the gentrification and the influx of bankers and wall street hedge fund managers into New York has made the city into a playground for the ultra-rich. (Bloomberg is blamed heavily in some earlier posts.)This means that any struggling artist would have his work cut out for him if he wanted to "make it" in New York.

Many of my students ask me: " Should I move to New York? Do I have what it takes to make it in New York?" For most of my students, the answer is no, and that's mostly because they don't have their musical stuff together. But for those of my students who I believe DO have the potential to work in New York, I still hesitate. It's not that they can't make it in New York as a jazz musician; the question is, can ANYBODY make it in New York anymore?

I moved to New York in 1995. I played a lot around town, even though it took a few years to really get established. I played at Bradley's, Sweet Basil's, Small's, and a bunch of restaurants and smaller clubs in different parts of New York. Plus, I still went back to D.C. and Baltimore to work just to fill in the gaps. I also was starting to travel more. In fact, I would say for most of my career in New York, the bulk of my income was from touring Europe. Sometimes, I would be on the road for 50 percent or more of the entire year.

That all seemed to change after 9-11. Whereas in the 90's, tours could be as long as 9 weeks straight, or even 11 weeks straight, the 2000's seemed to whittle that down. Many of the great venues in New York closed, and the ones that stayed open became more and more competitive. Many musicians, including yours truly, started to be on the lookout for teaching gigs. In 2007, I attended Queens College to get my Master's degree, in the hopes that this would make a full time teaching position more possible.

When I first moved to NYC, my rent was 150 dollars a month. I had 5 roommates. I literally lived in a closet. Then I moved into a place with 3 other roommates. Now I had a child's room for 300 bucks a month. After about a year, I moved into my own one bedroom for $650 a month. That was in Park Slope. Nowadays, the rents in Brooklyn, let alone Manhattan, are astronomical. I have a friend who lives pretty far out in Brooklyn, way farther than Park Slope, and pays $1000 a month for a tiny no- frills studio. I suppose deals can be had, but it all depends on how you want to live.

I think some of the reasons to move to New York to play jazz are still there: more jazz musicians than anywhere else, a great way to make connections and be inspired, some jazz industry things going on, more venues than other cities. But actually making a living playing jazz in New York seems almost impossible. The gigs don't pay, and you are competing with so many other superb players for the same gigs. Also, I think the venues are not thriving the way they used to because the demand for creative music, or any live music, is not what it was. Bankers and hedge fund managers are more interested in cigar bars and high end sushi-fusion restaurants than jazz clubs.

If you have a lot of money saved, or you want to live far out in the outer boroughs, or even in New Jersey, (ha!), and you can consider working a day job until you start to earn money from gigs, then by all means, move to New York. You can hear incredible musicians every night, and New York is still a wonderful city. Even though some say that the city has lost it's character, I believe New York still has a lot of personality(more than most other American cities. Sorry.). But if you think it's going to be easy, you are delusional.

I still have desires to spend time in New York. However, I believe it's actually a lot cheaper to fly to New York a handful of times a year, and get small fixes that way, then to live there full time-WITHOUT a teaching gig(you dig?). That's the next thing I would recommend to aspiring jazz students. Try to spend as much time as you can in New York without going broke. Fly there a few times a year, see as much music as you can, try to play sessions, and soak up the atmosphere. Maybe try to meet, fall in love with, and marry a hedge fund manager, while you are at it.

Wayne Shorter Part 2 Electric Boogaloo

2013-02-08T14:52:00.000-08:00

I think the Wayne Shorter controversy has run it's course. It has come to my attention that the young man who said terrible things about Mr. Shorter is actually a very troubled human being and probably needs someone to help him. I really hope he gets the help he needs. We don't need to bash him or shame him. That's already been done. I think this kid is hurting. Send some good thoughts his way. He might not be ready to get help, but I want peace in this world and one way to create peace is to love those who maybe don't love you.

In the meantime, I got this in the Facebook "mail":

Hey Mr. Colligan: With all this Wayne-ing noise going on, I'd like to ask you a question. To my ears, I still think "High Life" is one of the very best albums I've ever heard, at least in terms of effectively cross-breeding the idea and /or potential of a "studio recording" with the idea and/or potential of "jazz expression". Yet most of the critical comments I've seen have tended to be lukewarm at best. Care to comment? Thanks in advance.

Excellent question. My first reaction is that many critics have their heads up their you-know-what. Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" was panned. My second reaction is that I haven't listened to that recording in a long time, so this is a perfect time to pull it out and listen to it again.

I think one thing that's amazing about Shorter's career is that he is a great improviser, and played with such freedom with the Miles Davis Quintet. But he also has a flair for long form composition. "High Life" is a celebration of the latter. It's densely orchestrated, with REAL strings, REAL woodwinds, and some synthesizers and percussion. It's quite colorful, but it's more like symphonic music in that one, it's mostly written, and two, it's melodies and moods unfold slowly over time. It's not a head-solos-head affair at all; this is a Magnum Opus kind of session, which I imagine probably took a lot of time and energy to finish.

I think we have a tendency to jump too quickly to conclusions about music. If we hear one recognizable element, we want to immediately throw it in the "style" box. " Oh, this is funk..." or whatever...."This is fusion." As I listen to "High Life" some more, I marvel at it's harmonic complexity, and the way that Shorter is able to solo melodically over these types of polychords, chords which make "Giant Steps" seem like a blues in comparison. One cool thing about Shorter's music throughout his career is that he uses common tones between chords, which functionally may have nothing to do with each other, and makes it seem like a natural progression, all the while creating a singable, simple melodic statement. In this way, "High Life" is just a long form, highly orchestrated version of his earlier work.

I couldn't help but listen to this music and remember former New York Times jazz critic Peter Watrous' highly critical review of the album. Watrous used the following words to describe this music:

"...turns out to be a pastel failure and a waste of his enormous talent..."
".... it is as if Picasso had given up painting to design greeting cards...."
"...simply, it's an eager-to-please instrumental pop album..."
"....only a vestigial relationship to mainstream jazz and virtually no connection to Mr. Shorter's glory years...."
"Mr. Shorter's "High Life," with its reliance on the most obvious pop back beats and its sentimentalism, is quite likely a commercial mistake. The real money nowadays is in acoustic music with intellectual weight. Mr. [Joe]Henderson, Mr. Shorter's label mate, sold 74,000 copies of "Lush Life." Mr. Shorter's three albums, electric and ostensibly commercial, recorded for Columbia during the 1980's never sold more than 20,000 copies apiece. "

Much of the article refers to what Watrous calls "The Curse Of Miles Davis." My interpretation is that Watrous just never could get with "fusion" music, and seems to think that Davis, Shorter, and Herbie Hancock should have kept playing straight ahead acoustic music. My opinion is that Watrous, obviously biased, should not have even been allowed to review this album. This is not only because he is clearly biased against the music based on boxing it into a genre, but he's not even calling it fusion, he calls it "eager-to-please instrumental pop "! My question is: what the heck is Watrous hearing? Does he have any ears at all? Did he even listen carefully to the entire recording? If he doesn't have the chops to understand it, or if he doesn't have the time to listen to it, then he shouldn't be allowed to write in the newspaper of record about anything. My feeling is that this review is practically libel, and if Wayne Shorter cared(which I'm sure he didn't), he should have sued.

This is why I believe music writers need to be held to a higher standard. First of all, words NEVER tell the proper story when it come to music. Here's an example; if we are at a party where the folks know nothing about jazz, and Wayne Shorter and one of my PSU students are in attendance. Wayne Shorter says, "I'm a jazz musician," and my PSU student says, "I'm a jazz musician, too," the folks at the party would think that Wayne Shorter and one of my students are equals. That's pretty insane if you think about it.

In this way, Watrous flippantly reducing "High Life" to "eager-to-please instrumental pop"
is in the same way false. In my view, he basically lumped Wayne Shorter in with Kenny G!

Folks, you decide:

Here's Shorter's brilliant reworking of "Children Of The Night":

And here is Kenny G's most popular tune:

There is a big difference in what's happening with both of these songs: harmonically, improvisationally, thematically, and rhythmically. However, from what I read, Peter Watrous would put "High Life" in the exact same category. This is just wrong on a million levels.

In the way that our Facebook friend said terrible, disrespectful things about Wayne Shorter, shouldn't critics be held to an even higher standard? When you think about the fact that every moment of Shorter's musical life up to that point led up to the completion of "High Life." Every moment he spent practicing his horn, every lesson he took, every gig he played with Art Blakey, with Maynard Ferguson, with Miles Davis, with Weather Report, and so one. Every hour it took to record "High Life", to make sure all the parts were correct, to mix and master, and so on and so forth. For Mr. Watrous to so viciously, disrespectfully, and furthermore inaccurately hate on it is....well, it was outrageous. I believ Watrous took a lot of heat for that piece. (Much like the avalanche of anger heaped up our Facebook friend.)

I don't mean to open old wounds. And I don't really know Mr. Watrous. I could have met him at Bradley's in 1996 when I had my own group there; the club owner told me not to bother him. "Peter doesn't like to be bothered." As if I was dying to talk to him? Isn't this what is so jacked up about the jazz business? Everyone's important except the actual musicians. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? Shouldn't he have wanted to talk to me? I'm the one on the bandstand, for pete's sake......(If memory serves, I think he gave me a good review for that gig, but honestly I can't even recall....)

So in answering the question, I think that once again, the problem with jazz is that you actually have to listen to it. And sometimes people just want to figure it out in a hurry. I wonder if Mr. Watrous ever went back and tried to figure out what he was missing? There's no pleasing everyone, that's for sure. I think "High Life" is really a magnificent work of art. But what do I know? I'm merely a musician who has devoted his life to understanding and performing and composing music......

What's all this about Wayne Shorter?

2013-02-05T11:48:00.002-08:00

LOVE Wayne Shorter.......

Facebook is quite miraculous in many ways. The explosion of social networking in cyberspace has changed people's lives and made it easy to keep up with friends who are far away, publicize your gigs and music, and also share photos and information with large numbers of people. There's also a dark side to Facebook. Some people use it as, at best, a public diary, and at worst, a way to incite virtual riots. (Since Facebook caught on, I've been truly fascinated to see the wide diversity of status updates; they range from extensive quotations from the writings of Krishnamurti to "I love pancakes!")

In the past few days, there has been a huge cyber-controversy regarding a young musician who, in what I imagine was a poorly thought out burst of emotion, posted something very harsh about the great saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. (I don't want to post it here. It was a much meaner way of saying "Wayne Shorter sucks.") Folks have come out of the Facebook woodwork to criticize this young man. While I haven't had time to read all 400 and then some of the comments below this post, I felt the need to say something.

While obviously, this guy, who is a saxophone player, technically has the right to say whatever he wants (within the laws of free speech; for example, it's illegal to threaten to kill the President, or to post child pornography, or that type of thing). And certainly, I have said harsh things about human beings on my Facebook page, AND on jazztruth. In defense of myself, I have been harsher on political figures, who I believe are fair game for harsh criticism; I believe I have been critical of them in a political context. If it seemed over the top, I was probably attempting humor (for example, if I say , "John Boehner is the Devil," I don't really believe he is the Devil, first of all, because I don't really believe in the Devil, and secondly, because I am aware that Boehner is a human being. He is a VERY corrupt politician. I don't know, unless you don't consider passing out contribution checks from Big Tobacco to fellow Republicans on the floor of the House of Representatives corrupt). Perhaps it's unfair to use humor as a defense; Rush Limbaugh has tried to hide behind some of the reprehensible things he has said by saying he was trying to be funny. (Limbaugh makes millions and is in a much different position that I am.)

I have been critical of some musicians, maybe some who didn't deserve it. In observing this sort of flip disrespect of Wayne Shorter, who is widely agreed in the community to be a jazz legend, I have my own regrets of things I have posted about lesser known musicians. I never used this type of profanity to sort of "dismiss" anyone. Now, some say that this type of obscene dismissal occurs all the time in private conversation(or perhaps throughout the Miles Davis autobiography. Well, none of us are Miles Davis, so you can forget using that as a justification). There's a big difference between saying this kind of thing in conversation and posting in a public forum.

Again, everyone has the right to their opinion, whether it makes any sense or not. Let's face it, this young jazz player is at least dismissing Wayne Shorter after listening to him; how many billions of other people in the world have dismissed jazz music altogether? In fact, they don't even have the time or interest to say, "Jazz Sucks," on Facebook. So in this way, this young musician's opinion is probably in the majority, if you really think about it.

However, I think that this poor misguided young musician is going to regret his callous words in the future, maybe even the near future. It would have been better if he would have written these words in a private email, or just vented to a good friend after a few beers. Unfortunately, saying something on Facebook is now a very open public forum, much like saying something in a magazine interview or on television. I think one should consider that these type of statements will have consequences, and that one must be prepared for those consequences. (For example, if I say "Mitt Romney sucks!" I know that there are some of my Republican or conservative friends who are going to disagree. And as long as they don't call me names, I'm willing to accept intellectual dialogue. But to my recollection, my criticism of Romney and other conservative figures has been based on their policies and their words. These policies will effect the course of world history. Music is WAY more subjective, and we need to acknowledge this.)

My basic impression is that a young musician who has essentially not much of a career to speak of at this point should not be publicly dismissing 80 year old jazz legends. It would have been MUCH different if he had posted, "Just came from the Wayne Shorter concert. I think it went over my head..." or, "What's all the fuss about Wayne Shorter? I'm not a fan....". Instead of dissing Wayne Shorter, maybe he should have talked about the tenor saxophone players he really loves. "Hank Mobley is AWESOME!"

Regardless of whatever his true opinions are, this young saxophone player should realize that success in the jazz business(and although it's microscopic compared to the rest of the music biz, it's STILL a business) is probably based as much on REPUTATION than one's playing. So if you want to have a good reputation, dissing the living legends of jazz is probably not a good way to make people think well of you. And it seems as though this young man is pretty stubborn, and pretty convinced that he is "right." Well, whether he is right or wrong, which is fairly subjective, he should still consider the fact that no he will be known as "the guy who dissed Wayne Shorter on Facebook" rather than "the guy who plays tenor saxophone at Small's occasionally."I've seen careers ruined by much less than this. Maybe this gentleman will eventually live this down. He could start by apologizing, instead of digging himself further down into a hole by trying to justify himself.

In some way, I can understand the emotion behind the rejection of one's elders. Jazz music, like life, is a progression. Jazz evolves. How does anything evolve? It changes. Jazz music comes out of a tradition, much like people come out of traditions. Some people continue traditions, some people take traditions and modify them. Some reject them altogether. I think when we are very young, we worship our parents, because we would die without them. As we get older, in order to assert our independence, we push our parents away. However, a sign of MATURITY, real MATURITY is to be able to look at our parents and say, "Wow, I used to think you were really corny. Now, I respect you."
I say all this because my mother died very suddenly a few weeks ago. I think about when I was in high school, and I had many conflicts with her. Then, as I got older, I started to understand her and respect her. And when I had a son, then I REALLY understood all that she sacrificed, and how I took her unconditional love for granted.

In this way, I think this young man's rejection of Wayne Shorter in such a disrespectful way is much like the high school kid saying to his parents, "I can do what I want! You aren't the boss of me!" But I suspect that a few years down the road, this young man will begin to understand why he should RESPECT the 80 year old Wayne Shorter, regardless of whether he will ever love Wayne Shorter's music or saxophone playing. It's just the right thing to do.

Ribbon in the Skype

2013-01-28T19:15:00.000-08:00

Do you Skype?(By that, I mean USE Skype the software, but Skype is now a verb, wise guy.) If you don't, you are probably still living in 1996. Skype is a program which allows you to talk free WITH VIDEO to other Skype users through the internet. You can also make calls to land lines for incredibly cheap prices. If you have a good connection, it's almost like being there. (Make sure you are dressed before you answer a Skype, unless, well, it's THAT kind of party. Well, that's up to you, it's a free country.) I Skype my family often from the road so my son can see me(although he'll probably just keep playing with his BRIO trains and look up every now and then and say "Daddy, can you buy me more BRIO?"), or I use it to avoid astronomical cell phone charges. ( I think calling from Russia is about 58 Dollars a minute.) If you don't Skype, you should. Do you even have a computer? Come on!

As my regular readers know, I've been working with Jack DeJohnette's group. Because I live on the West Coast, and DeJohnette is so busy, it's hard to organize rehearsals. Before we did the Newport festival last summer, DeJohnette and I arranged to have a Skype rehearsal. He was in a hotel in the south of France, and I was in my office in Portland. The connection was so good, we were having really nice jam session.(Jack played his keyboard and I played bass. And no, this wasn't the configuration for the Newport gig…)

I had been hearing that some musicians had been teaching via Skype. I have to admit, I was a little……SKYPTICAL. ( Cue the rim shot.) But after that rehearsal, I figured that this sort of thing, while obviously somewhat lacking in the live human feel of a private music lesson, would save people so much time and money that those shortcomings would pale in comparison to the benefits. Think about it: I can teach anybody who has a computer in the comfort of my home, and they can study with me in the comfort of theirs! It's kind of a miracle.

I posted on Facebook that I was offering Skype lessons, and two students hit me up. Since I haven't been teaching private students that much at PSU, it felt great to connect one on one, especially with serious piano students. (Actually, the students I refer to are professional. Which makes it all the more an honor that professionals would seek me out for advice.) One of them had an audio glitch; however, I could still hear him play and it was really productive, in my view.

Since I already have a full time teaching position, I don't plan on spending a ton of time doing Skype lessons. However, I would like folks to be aware if they so desire to try it.So hit me up with a private message on Facebook, or email me through my website (www.georgecolligan.com) My Skype rates are affordable-especially considering the fact that you don't even need to leave your house! I think as audio, video, and internet quality improves, even the most SKYPTIC ( groan) of teachers will consider this method.

Sus Chords?

2013-01-14T08:33:00.000-08:00

One of my advanced students asked me a question recently, via the electronic mail:

Dear Great and Magnanimous Professor and Exalted Wise Master, Seer of All Things Jazz Related, Knower of All Things Jazz Edumacational:

I was wondering - do you have alternative ways of approaching sus chords other than the obvious?
-your most humble saxophone student

Dear humble saxophonist,

Please! No need for such pomp and circumstance. "O Great One" is all that's necessary.....or simply, "My Lord"......

I don't know, approaching them sideways? Or just get right in their face.......

So we are talking about how to improvise jazz lines over sus chords. The thing about "sus" is that it implies a 4th in the chord(sus stands for suspended....). So that
would lead one to believe that you can never play the third. It
actually can make the third sound like an extension. If it's just a
Sus, Like

C7sus4
You can play E and it's cool.

But I would think that the "sus" implication would depend a lot on the
types of voicings played by the pianist or guitarist. If the pianist
is playing

C F Bb(straight fourths)

then you might lean towards 4ths or some pentatonics or some McCoy stuff.

If the pianist plays

C in the bass Bb D F A(like Bbmaj7 over C)

Then maybe you might play Mixolydian or bebop(think Gminor 7, which is
probably what Herbie Hancock would do.....)

However, all of that being said, I think at this stage of the game for
you, you need to go past conventional thinking for this type of thing.
For example, Sus chords voiced in 4ths imply what I said above. Why
not find something more chromatic just to take it in another
direction? And if it's voiced in thirds, why not find a 4 note scale that
uses some unexpected notes?

(For example: C7sus4-which I would
probably write as C7sus11-but sometimes Sibelius gets weird when I do
that-Why not play C EF A Bb? something like that. I was surprised that
Steve Coleman actually used a lot of things like that. THAT combined
with stark chromaticism might yield some interesting results.)

(Hopefully, we(or you at home reading this) can look at some of Gary Thomas' stuff and you might
find that simply ONE of his licks will open up your mind in terms of
possibilities. You should look at his intro solo on Angel Eyes. I have
most of it on paper, and somebody else did a transcription. Maybe at
least listen to it.)

Did we talk about triad pairings? Sometimes I like to use three
triads. For example, over F7sus4(there it is again) McCoy will do F Eb
on and on. But what if you add a D triad to that? what if you added a
B triad to that? Or Ab minor triad? That could open up an entire world
of experimentation.

I think the problem with being in a program where most of the
students, and even some of the professionals, are thinking
"Here's some chord-scales that work. Ta Da!" Which is totally fine. But the MUSIC is beyond
that. At least I think so. If we are all playing the same chord scales
and so forth then at a certain point all of this stuff starts to sound
the same. This is why coming up with your own ideas is so important.

That's why you need to compose-so you can sit down and say: "A bunch
of stuff has been done. What HASN'T been done?" And you do that, and
even if it has been done, at least you are using your noggin- rather then letting
Jamey Aebersold tell you how to play. Or even let ME tell you how to
play!

Why don't you write a tune with sus chords and then make it somehow
unconventional?

Sincerely,

Lord Colligan, Esq.

"It has to feel good......"

2013-01-12T16:15:00.003-08:00

Mulgrew Miller has always been one of my favorite jazz pianists. I've heard him in so many settings: trio, quartet, with singers. I've heard him with musicians who were very traditional, and musicians who very very modern. Miller seems to always approach every situation in a tasteful way; he fits right in, and somehow finds just the right amount of energy to make the music complete. I saw this video on Facebook and had to post it.

It's fascinating to me because everything Miller says is actually pretty obvious. However, it's easier said than done. Many things in our world are obvious, and yet how many of us ignore the obvious every day for our entire lives? (For example: I want to lose weight= diet and exercise...so obvious, and yet how many of us don't do it? And the list goes on and on....) I wish I had more chances to work with students on comping, and I mean beyond the nuts and bolts of form and voicings. That stuff is important as well. But beyond that, much of it is philosophical.

Mulgrew Miller is one of the best examples of legendary-musician-turned-jazz-educator. Because of his vast experience, everything he says comes from the real world of jazz. It's not merely theoretical. My inclination is that comping has to be developed by playing with people. It's interesting that Miller is saying that you should actually practice it abstractly-on your own- before you get to the gig. I think this makes a ton of sense. The idea is that you should have a base of "laying it down" so that it swings, or whatever you are trying to do, and it "feels good". I think having a good "feel", whether comping or soloing, is one of the most important things you should have as a jazz musician. This might mean the difference between work and no work. I believe that my initial success as a pianist was not because of my technique( I had little) or repertoire( I had even less). It was because I had a knack for making it "feel" like jazz.

The big question is, HOW do you make it feel good? Well, for starters, listen to the great compers: Wynton Kelly, Red Garland, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Kenny Kirkland, Mulgrew Miller, Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Cedar Walton, Horace Silver. Listen to how they provide harmony and create rhythm, and where do they leave space and how do they fill in the spaces. How do they help the soloist without getting in the way. Maybe play along with them on recordings.

The next step is to find what works for you. And that depends on your taste, and it also depends on who your are playing with. Some people want, or may actually NEED, for you to lay it down in a strong way. Others might want you to play very little. Some maybe not at all. Piano can be omnipresent or superfluous, or everything in between. It's a constant journey to find the right balance. It's a combination of trying to read the mind of the soloist, and "make them feel comfortable", as Professor Miller said, and using your own judgement.

I remember when I realized how important comping is to a pianist's career. I went down from Baltimore to Washington D.C. to sit in with saxophonist Paul Carr at a club called Takoma Station. I sat in on a rhythm changes tune. I guess I was in a listening mood, because I felt I should listen before I played. Carr played a lot of notes, but when he left a space, I played one chord, let it ring, and then listened again. I barely comped at all. Carr came up to me after the tune and exclaimed, "Wow, I LOVE your comping!" He then hired me for a bunch of gigs. Well, they say "less is more." But you have to figure it out for yourself. I'm still trying to figure it out as well. That's the great thing about this music; you are never done learning.

JEN Conference Part II, Electric Boogaloo

2013-01-09T14:02:00.002-08:00

I'm safely back in Portland after a whirlwind trip to Atlanta for the Jazz Education Network Conference. Although half of the time I was not in the best physical or mental condition; I flew through the night from PDX, arrived in Atlanta at 6:30 AM with no sleep, couldn't get into my room at the Hyatt until 10 AM, and then really didn't get a chance to nap because I didn't want to miss the conference. ( I think I'm still not 100 percent recovered!)

In a previous post, I compared the JEN conference to the IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators), and lamented that attending the IAJE always seemed like an overwhelming shmooze-a-thon. Every musician you talk to would always be looking over your shoulder, checking to see if there is someone in the industry who can help you with your career! Well, this was much less of that. I actually had focused conversations with everyone that I saw. It's always nice to see old friends and to make new ones.

It's impossible to go to every event at a convention such as this. They seemed to have 4 or 5 different seminars or performances every hour. You either have to pick one or run around the hotel like a madman to all the different rooms. I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked. I did see enough to be inspired; I think Jazz Education is still alive and well. It was nice to see a lot of young, enthusiastic young players.

In fact, the first thing I heard after I finished my breakfast was the American Music Program, which is a jazz band based in Oregon for middle, high, and some college students. The program is led by Thara Memory, who has received accolades for mentoring jazz star Esperanza Spalding. I heard them play some Duke Ellington and Thad Jones charts; boy, were they swinging! (I found out later that the drummer is only in middle school!) I was impressed not only because they played all of the charts from memory, but also because they somehow had the money for an entire big band to fly from Portland to Atlanta!

I snuck into a few clinics; one was giving by a guy named Matt Falker called "Jazz Piano Voicings for Beginners." Another clinic led by Matthew Pivec was called "It's Not Just Scales and Chords: Equipping Your Beginning Improvisors with Tools of Expression." Pivic demonstrated some easy concepts, taken from the jazz solos of major artists, which beginners could use right away to make creative solos. It's always nice to see other other educators are approaching the teaching of jazz.

Now it was 10 AM, and I was now able to get into my room. Instead of going to sleep, like a normal person, I went down to the Exhibitor's hall to look at merchandise. After spending a great deal of my own money on the trip to Atlanta, I had very little intention of making any purchases. However, it's always fun to browse. I tried a nice Roy Benson pocket trumpet. I stopped by the Chuck Sher booth, and had a nice conversation with both Sher and the great pianist and educator Mark Levine.

Mark Levine

During the two days I was in Atlanta, I saw two really great clinics. One was given by trumpeter and educator Michael Mossman, entitled "Get Your (Ensemble's) Groove On!" Mossman talked about clave, and tips on how to get young rhythm sections to play latin grooves in a more authentic fashion. Drummer Carl Allen gave a wonderful clinic about how important the ride cymbal is to jazz. Allen played recorded examples of different jazz drumming legends( in a sort of blindfold test fashion....I guessed pretty well...) and talked about the subtle differences in their approach to the ride cymbal beat. It was cool to see drumming legend Joe Chambers(who has an AMAZING ride cymbal beat) sitting in on the clinic.

Earl MacDonald, David Valdez, and I gave a panel discussion called "Blogging With A Purpose." We had a decent turnout, although Dave Liebman was giving a clinic at exactly the same time, so I'm sure that was where most people ended up. However, our presentation went well. In fact, I actually learned much about the technical aspects of blogging from MacDonald and Valdez. Saxophonist and historical expert Loren Schoenberg happened to attend the panel discussion, and he gave me some great feedback.

Antonio Hart

I heard some nice groups; I heard Antonio Hart play with a wonderful student group from Chicago High School of the Arts. I also heard the University of Manitoba faculty ensemble (I used to teach there) which featured bassist Steve Kirby, guitarist Larry Roy, trumpeter Derrick Gardner, saxophonist Craig Bailey, pianist Will Bonness, Quincy Davis on drums, and vocalist Anna-Lisa Kirby. I was extremely impressed with the overall sound of the band. The U of M band, billed as the Northern Alternative, has the luxury of performing at a jam session(they called it the Wednesday Night Hang when I was there) every week; there is no substitute for this regularity. Furthermore, I was especially enthralled by Will Bonness' virtuosic abilities.

I wish I had gotten to hear more music. I also wish I had gotten to PLAY! (It's quite odd for me to travel somewhere and not touch an instrument of any kind.) I had some nice conversations with friends new and old; I met Bobby Brown, one of my favorite guitar players. We ended up talking about our kids, mostly. And I spoke at length with Davey Yarborough, saxophonist and beloved educator from Washington D.C. ( He was there to accept the John LaPorta Jazz Educator Of The Year Award.)

I had a really great time at JEN. I think it's a welcome replacement to the IAJE Convention. I still think that these things tend to be too expensive, especially when you consider how much flights and hotels cost these days. Still, I think I would go in the future. Hopefully I'll get to play as well as present next time....

And Jack DeJohnette is…?

2013-01-06T21:05:00.001-08:00

This was written two months ago for a jazz magazine published in Oregon. I recently recorded a trio record with Jack DeJohnette and bassist Larry Grenadier. While listening to the rough mixes, I remembered this article and thought it might be worth reprinting here.

A few years ago, a classical musician asked me about my professional activities beyond teaching. I proudly mentioned that I had recently been touring with drummer Jack DeJohnette. "And he is…?" was the reply. I was slightly caught off guard; Jack DeJohnette, at least to jazz musicians, is as known as almost any other major figure in jazz. Indeed, he's a direct link to jazz history; From Baby Dodds to Sid Catlett to "Papa" Jo Jones to Max Roach to "Philly" Joe Jones to Tony Williams to Elvin Jones, Jack DeJohnette is the next logical name on the list. If you say "Jack" to a jazz drummer, he knows exactly what you are talking about.

I thought for a moment and answered; "Jack DeJohnette is …uh....the Yo-Yo Ma of jazz drumming." "Ah! I see," responded my classical comrade. At least, for the moment, I impressed someone with my affiliation. Now that I think about it, I think comparing Jack DeJohnette to Yo-Yo Ma actually falls short. If you were to draw a correlation between jazz instrumentalists and classical musicians, you would have to think bigger. I would say that DeJohnette should be compared to one of the great composers, like Debussy, or Stravinsky. I justify this by saying that DeJohnette truly has his own "language" of drumming. Yo Yo Ma, while one of the great performers on the cello, still, at the end of the day, plays other people's notes and rhythms and dynamics. DeJohnette, with his through composed, constantly evolving, conversational, interpretive drumming, has created a new way to play music that transcends drums.

Jack DeJohnette's drumming style is in some ways enigmatic, because his sound is immediately identifiable;

and yet, there are few DeJohnette "clones." This is because DeJohnette's entire conception of music is very spontaneous. You can hear many young drummers play these days and you can say, "Oh, he's playing a "Philly" Joe Jones lick," or "That's an Elvin Jones lick." DeJohnette's playing is more of a philosophy with few preconceived notions. And yet I insist that he has influenced a generation of drummers as well as non-drummers. Again, if you say to a jazz drummer, “play like Jack,” you will get them to play a certain way.

Part of the trick is that Jack DeJohnette began his musical career as a jazz pianist; in fact, we was already doing gigs on piano in Chicago when he decided to switch to drums as his main instrument. (DeJohnette is well documented as a pianist on a recording entitled “ The Jack DeJohnette Piano Album”, which I had on vinyl years ago.) I believe that jazz drumming is perhaps different from other types of drumming because there is so much more of a need for the drummer to “shape” the music as well as keep time. Therefore, the more a jazz drummer knows about melody, form, harmony, and musical emotion, the better they can “shape” the performance. DeJohnette is always listening to what people are playing and supporting soloists and band members with relevant musical commentary. (I remember years ago, saxophonist Gary Thomas told me why he loved playing with Jack so much. “He never lets you down.” Another way of saying this would be that he follows a soloists intensity with complete dedication, as if it were his own solo that he was accompanying.)

As I write this, I am waiting at the gate of my flight from Heathrow to New York City (the second of three legs back to Portland. I started this morning in Tbilisi, flew 5 hours to London, found out my flight was cancelled, and resigned myself to a later flight and a 24 hour layover in New York as my only option), as we just finished a two week tour which was mostly in the U.K., but also included Poland and Georgia. I’m thinking back to some of the great musical moments we had as a band. But it’s also interesting to observe DeJohnette off the bandstand as well as on. Jack is extremely fit for a 70 year old man; occasionally I find myself lengthening my stride to keep up with him as we walk through airport terminals. Jack is intellectually agile as well; on the road in Europe, he’s rarely without a copy of the International Herald Tribune. We talk politics as much as music.Of course, when it comes to music, Jack is into anything and everything from European classical to Indian to Blues to Bebop. He knows a lot of songs from a wide variety genres; you might catch him singing Beatles tunes or Motown classics during a sound check. Furthermore, Jack always seems to be genuinely curious about new music and younger players(which is probably how I got in the band…)

I see this energy and open minded awareness manifesting itself on the bandstand every gig. DeJohnette is pretty easy going as a person, but as soon as he sits at the drums, you know something important is about to happen. You know that when the music starts, he won’t “let you down.” And the nifty thing is that DeJohnette can be really super intense without being overly loud. (One of the many unique things about DeJohnette’s approach is his use of “dry” ride cymbals. His ride cymbals don’t have what we call a “washy” sound, where even after the cymbal is struck, there is still a lot of ringing tone. This actually cuts the onstage volume by a huge margin, and it actually makes it easier forDeJohnette, as well as the other musicians onstage, to hear the music without everything getting washed out.

As a bandleader, DeJohnette leads much like Miles Davis and other Miles alumni who became bandleaders: hire great musicians and let them play how they play. DeJohnette rarely gives musical direction. If jazz musicians are already playing on a high level, why not let them play? Obviously, this approach won’t work for every situation. But think about it; why would Miles Davis tell Wanye Shorter how to play? I believe that the less that’s spoken, the more comfortable musicians will feel; therefore, you’ll get the most out of them.

Since I started playing in DeJohnette’s band, many musicians have asked me, “what does it feel like to play with Jack?” I think it’s a great question, because how music “feels” really gets to the heart of the matter. It’s also possibly the most intangible part of music and art. DeJohnette has a time feel which is very consistent, yet also flexible. He’s got one of the deepest pockets, and yet it’s not metronomic or predictable. How would I teach a student drummer to play this way? I haven’t figured that out yet. ( I remember when I was teaching the drum students at the University of Manitoba. I was assigning them the Alan Dawson Rudiment Ritual and page 38 of the Ted Reed book. Then I played a week with DeJohnette at Birdland. I remember thinking that I needed to completely revamp my approach to teaching drums.

But getting back to the question: what does it feel like to play with JackDeJohnette? It feels like magic. It feels extraordinary. It feels like you are floating on air. It feels like you can play anything. It feels like the walls of musical limitation have dissapeared. It feels like you want to sing and clap and dance. It feels like a runner’s high, or maybe some other type of high. If you were tired before you got onstage, you suddenly have energy. It feels like you’re on top of the world.

We played in Cambridge last week. Backstage, right before the show, Jackmade a comment that we should “try to take shorter solos.” I jokingly said, “ Why don’t you try to play worse?” I got a good laugh with that, but it’s true. Time flies when you are having fun, or playing with great musicians. When we play concerts, 2 hours feels like 10 minutes. You never want to stop.