Raney Day Thoughts

The other blog...

2009-10-30T14:38:00.007-04:00

For those of you interested in my non-musical doings and thoughts, there's two other recent posts on my other blog. The subject is herniated disc.

Check out here Other Raney Day Thoughts

Or click the link to the right

Enjoy!

Doug Raney vs. Jimmy Raney on Billie's Bounce

2009-09-12T16:42:00.012-04:00

For those of you who like to compare Doug to Jimmy, here's your chance to compare them directly on the same tune with these two videos posted on YouTube.

Interestingly, for those who say that Doug plays like Jimmy you would have to admit their approaches - although very similar- have some very noticeable differences in terms of tone and attack, time feel, melodic content and general phrasing style as evidenced by these videos. You'll note along with his signature complex bebop groupings, a Charlie Christian lick creeping into Jimmy's playing, while with Doug you have Parker's original counter line on the head as well as some modern chord comps and a hard bop descending II-V pattern to IV. Regardless, what you will find in both is a melodicism that sticks with you.

I'll leave it to the listener to choose a favorite (if necessary).

Enjoy!

Jimmy Raney plays Billie's Bounce

Watch on YouTube

Doug Raney plays Billie's Bounce

Watch on TouTube

Jimmy Raney Retrospective (Part1 Early Years)

2009-08-19T00:55:00.011-04:00

Happy Birthday Dad!

Below interview segment is from a Louisville jazz radio retrospective on Jimmy Raney with host Phil Bailey. I believe the date of the interview is 1988 if my recollection serves. The subject is Jimmy's first recording in 1948 with pianist, Al Haig and saxophonist Stan Getz. Some very interesting background on the recording along with the tracks. Most of this music should be commercially available on re-release under Stan's or Al's name.

Interview on Jimmy Raney's first recording

Pardon My Bop

As I Live In Bop

Interlude In Bebop

Diaper Pin

More from the retrospective to come

Doug Raney is now on MySpace

2009-06-22T11:19:00.005-04:00

Doug has a new page that I maintain for him.
Some nice tracks, videos and links

Check it out!

Time on My Hands...

2009-06-05T00:00:00.014-04:00

Back in the end of February, my cervical herniated disc (orig diagnosed in 2005) came raging back with a vengeance, affecting my right arm and shoulder so severely that it forced me to stop playing, reduce my computer work and cut out any type of strenuous physical activity. I am going to be documenting the specifics of this condition in my other blog Other Raney Day Thoughts. With the preoccupation and frustration of finding relief from this vexing medical issue, I find myself having difficulty staying focused on anything or follow-thru with projects and goals.

Recently a co-worker hipped me to one of the new types of products that fall under the category "mind mapping software". One of the goals of this software is to help more clearly mirror and assist with the brain's organizational and thinking process when creating and documenting tasks. It is much more intuitive than let's say a linear outline, which forces a conformity and presumes a degree of pre-knowledge to the scope and hierarchy of the task. Although I haven't reviewed the merits of the various products currently on the market, I am quite fascinated with the product, Personal Brain recommended to me. Like most people in this self-helpy generation I often document my goals on paper, rewrite, toss and rewrite again and then forget about them. Tonight I'm giving Personal Brain a crack at it and I've done a video capture for you to check out.

I'm currently using the trial pro version. Not sure exactly which features will still be available if continue with the free version. In the demo I've mapped out my various projects, and I'm shown navigating to a folder I've created for my friend Charles Monteiro's music project and then drilling down to the tunes, and notes and attached finale files for the tune sketches. It's somewhat hard to see in blogger video view. If possible it might be best to use the download video option so that you can see a larger screen rendering (for example in Real Player)

***Update: a more in depth explanation of PB Pro version's capabilities is given in Bruno's current blog on it.Click here for details

Replay of early post

2009-05-22T13:59:00.002-04:00

For anyone who missed it a while back in my first blogs, I am resurfacing this memorial tribute to Jimmy done on NPR. Jim Hall (who was interviewed on it) was kind enough to alert me to it and give me a cassette of it.

Jimmy Raney Memorial Broadcast on NPR 1995

Blog Change

2009-05-10T14:26:00.006-04:00

In an effort to keep more of a consistent blog message and align that with the audience I have created here, I have created another blog for non-music posts and offloaded the existing non-music posts. My interests extend beyond music ofcourse, but almost all of my recent posts have been more non music related. Some of this is due to my recent medical issues forcing me to stop playing; regardless, these type of posts are probably of less interest to the Jimmy & Doug Raney followers both old and new. The blog page is Other Raney Day Thoughts.

Doug Raney on Youtube

2009-03-28T16:37:00.007-04:00

Young guitarist Joel Svensson did an admirable job on the transcription of Doug Raney's solo to Four but don't you think it's about time we got a glimpse of the real deal!?? This clip was from a concert in Louisville, 1995. Also on the gig were pianist Phil DeGregg, bassist Tyrone Wheeler and drummer Norman Simmons. Note Doug's concentration and how he is singing each phrase silently (watch his cheeks). Doug is da bomb! Watch the new Doug Raney Video on You Tube! and view the commentary.

The Raneys and Pets

2009-01-28T15:29:00.012-05:00

This blog is dedicated to my black labrador, BJ's best friend, Tanzi, a rhodesian ridgeback owned by my friend and colleague Charles Monteiro.

I received the heartbreaking news the other day that Tanzi contracted lymphoma. There was never a sweeter, gentler dog and I and my dog both love him (which is rare for him given he is pretty particular).

Everyone wish Tanzi well on his 26 week therapy to lick this. You can visit Charles' medical log about it and see some other great pics of the handsome fella. If any of you might have any knowledge or info to share on Tanzi's condition please visit the page and send an email to the link provided.

The Raneys have always adored animals. When Dad was a boy he had a dog named Snuffy Smith. He also had a rabbit and several other animals according to my grandmother. Later on he took a shine to cats, having seven of them near the end of his life. He would let them run around in the back yard. He kept his garden uncut (He often commented that he wanted his backyard to look like Monet's garden, much to the chagrin of his neighbors who would murmur about his unkempt habits). As creative as he was as an artist, he was not so much so with his pet names. They were quite perfunctory: Blacky, Yellow Kitty, Felix etc…

Felix was his favorite. He had a daily "making-bread-on-belly" ritual with Dad as the master would recline on the couch. The activity would end with a couple of head brushes against my father's nose. The other two cats had funny schticks as well. For example Yellow Kitty would completely circumnavigate the livingroom across all possible above-ground perches without touching the floor (jump the table, cross to the couch, up to the top of book cabinet, the entertaiment center, the window sill...you get the picture).

Whenever any one of them passed on, it would send Dad into the worst tailspin psychologically. Unfortunately they outlived him and our friend guitarist Mel Deal and his wife Becky were nice enough to adopt them and bring them to their big house in Nashville for their remaining years.

Doug and I were always cat people, too. Doug brought home a cat from the schoolyard in the sixties with his first "can we keep'm??" plea bargain. He was either named after comic/actor Orson Bean (whom Dad knew from his Blue Angel days) or Orson Welles, not sure. I liked to call him "Orson Being because he had human like habits; he was the only cat I have ever seen that sat up on his haunches like an old lady in her easy chair. Orson's other endearing habits were slipping his head between my pen and my homework assignment. He used to allow me to wear him like a yoke across my neck, gripping his two pairs of paws. The other hilarious thing was the "crazy kat boomerang routine" where all the sudden he would get bats in his belfry and tear ass across the wood floors. But since it was a small apt with twists and turns, Orson had a rebound wall that would make the 90 degree turn into the living room a breeze. It also made for ever higher and higher paw prints on the wall.

My second cat Kodak was very similar in behavior and temperament to Orson. Almost dog like in his friendliness. He loved to sit in the center of the table to be where the conversation energy was happening. Licking my bicep until it was raw was another of his favorite pastimes. The night I had to put him down was awful for me. I just got home from a gig. I cried for days after.

Given the somewhat canine behavior of my previous cats, I was somewhat prepped for dog ownership. Although I wasn't prepared for my Dog BJ to be so interwoven in our lives and daily routine as he is now. Will devote a bit more space to him on a future blog.

Cheers

Jon

Jimmy Raney speaks again! on Youtube

2009-01-12T22:54:00.007-05:00

It's a great pleasure to present pieces of Jimmy's marvelous 1993 master class to the world, finally. Those who enjoyed the first video a little while back will enjoy this one as well. As per usual, it's not just about music, but rather the thoughts and insights of deep human being with understandings of things that most of us have to catch up with. As always a breath a fresh air. Again there are analogies made between language and music as I alluded to in follow up comments on the previous blog. Using your ear and learning from people who do it well is the key. Pay attention to what he says about transcription and playing solos on your instrument.

You can watch it here or get a little better view at the youtube link below it.

Enjoy!

Jimmy Raney on Chords & Scales

Jimmy Raney, 1993 video lecture, Youtube and yadda, yadda...

2008-12-29T10:42:00.008-05:00

Ok, I've joined the youtube video uploaders generation. Guess there's no turning back:) I figured as long as everyone else seems to have copies of tapes of Dad and are posting them, that I might as well join the throng. Although I'm sure the calvacade of posts, "more please, please, pleaase!!!... etc" is inevitable. Anyway now that I have my vhs to dvd converter and the latest MS movie maker it shouldn't be too hard.

And here is the Youtube link to video snippet
Funny ending on it. Enjoy!

Concerts and Coughing

2008-12-21T13:42:00.011-05:00

Recently, I re-discovered this little solo excerpt from a live concert from 2000. Although at the time I was pretty annoyed, when I listen now, I can't help but crack up at the gentleman in the audience apparently in need of a lung operation during the performance.

When I think on it I realize now that coughing during a concert is an established nuisance universally tolerated but secretly despised by performers and other audience members alike probably since the dawn of time.

Picture if you will, the archetypal moment with all performers throughout the ages: bear skinned caveman over mastadon bones, angelic youth in a toga with aulos, Franz Liszt & Bugs Bunny in tux and finally myself at piano - arched back, clubs raised, hair and long ears thrown back, with arms raised ready to begin when suddenly...

"HAACKKKKKKKKKK...cough..cough ..COUGGGGGGH!!... kaff....................kaff kaff!!

What is it about quiet moments requiring rapt attention that elicits the worst coughing fits imaginable? Any ideas?

I think most of us would have liked to have used Bugs' "take matters into his own hands" solution featured in below video. But I guess the rest of us will have to imagine it in our heads.

Enjoy

Bugs Bunny and Franz Liszt
Jon Raney

To a Fan

2008-12-20T11:07:00.003-05:00

Just a note. The other day I got a very nice email/note to my Jon Raney website email from a pianist fan from Boston, MA. I reviewed it and was about to answer it the following morning, but somehow the email just vanished. It was nowhere to be found. I asked the admin at 1&1 email to try to recover it but they could not.

So, to the fan out there hailing from Boston, MA thanks for the note and sorry for misplacing your email and I hope you visit again to the blog or jonraney.com.

Sincerely,

Jon Raney

Creating Jazz Lines

2008-11-21T15:41:00.021-05:00

(by Jon Raney © 2008)

Modern Jazz lines are frequently comprised of a combination of 2 to 3 elements in a phrase unit consisting of:

scale fragments
arpeggios and/or harmonic intervals
auxiliary tones (neighbor & passing tones, turns)

Scale fragments are typically these types of 4 note constructions, consisting of either 4 consecutive notes or 3 with a skip: 1234 1235 1345

They can be applied modally: 3456 5672 7123
Can be root-reinterpreted (really the same thing as a mode):
1235 in C = 3457 in A-7
Can be varied in terms of:
- direction: 1235 = 5321
- note order: 2135
- intervallic construction: 3 (6th down) 5 6 7
Or any combination of these basic manipulations

Arpeggios are typical triadic, seventh or extended, and root reinterpreted:
135, 357, 13579 Eb over F = F9sus (7 9 11)

Manipulations of triads can be effected the same way as scale fragment with changes in direction, order and interval (also inversions):

3 (down) 5 6 1
5 3 1 7 (up)5

Auxiliary tones in jazz are generally simplified to neighbor, passing tones and turns. Passing tones are bridging notes between two tones. Neighbor tones are notes that move to a specific target tone either above or below. In jazz, neighbor tones are usually in pairs referred to as double neighbors or enclosures (Ex: b2 7 1) Multiple passing tones are frequently used in bebop lines to connect one chord tone to another (for ex. 5-#5-6-b7-nat7). Turns are similar to neighbors but they are inclusive of the target note itself (see bolded) 2 1 7 1

To gain facility in combining these elements and expanding line vocabulary, a useful technique is theme and variations. In a jazz context, this involves a practice of taking one part of a melodic line as fixed and then varying the latter half. This helps build variety and idea possibilities which help keep the interest both for the soloist and the listener. Below are various II-V I examples that take this approach. The examples here are only in C. The student will need to transpose the phrases to other keys. Note also that ex# 1-4 are one measure II-Vs and ex 5 is 2 measure example.

Ex.1 Uses 1234 on D-, U.S inverted E triad over G7 and finishing double neighbor

Ex. 2 Same start on D-7, U.S Db7 arpeggio down, harmonic interval and double neighbor (one chromatic)

Ex. 3 with Ab-#7 over G7 arpeggio

Ex. 4 with D-7 arpeggio and 1/2W dim over G7

Ex. 5 1234 SF, 5 7 9 11 arpeggio over D-7, U.S. Ab-9 over G7 and passing tones

More examples next time!

Hangin' with Mike Kanan pt 2

2008-09-28T13:19:00.044-04:00

For those of you digging on some of Mike's little gems of advice you will have an opportunity to receive them yourself in person if you are in the New York area on Sunday, October 19th.

The Art of Accompanying and the Art of Being Accompanied
Master Class with Alexa Fila & Mike Kanan
Joe Solomon Studio
1133 Broadway, 6th fl (at 26th St) Room 621, NYC
phone: 212 741-2839
email: joesolomio@yahoo.com

Brief description: ...
"A Full set with these two wonderful artists will be followed by 30min Q&A. The final set will offer an opportunity for vocalists to sit in with Mike. If he or she wishes, each singer may solicit commentary and guidance from these two masters of the vocal jazz art form..."

JR: So you like these kind of chords (I start playing Abmaj7 chord phrases as inversions)

MK: Right, exactly. Well now uh... well anyway which direction do want to go with this. We could talk in about twenty different directions with this:) Where'd should we go?

JR: Naw, this is good for me. You've already given me two nuggets (of info) that I'm going to be using. It's going to be paragraph one, paragraph 2..

MK: (Laughs) ok! Good. Do you want to talk about accompanying for a minute?

JR: Like doing introductions and stuff? Could you rattle off some type of typical introduction that you like? Like a ballad for let's say. Any key.

MK: Alright. I doubt if I'm going to say anything you don't already know. But...It's just about being clear and leading in. Sometimes I do that better than others. Sometimes I finish an introduction and everybody's going...

JR: "That's it?"

MK: "Huh?" "And we come in where?"...(laughs)

JR: (laughs)

MK: Just do like the simplest thing possible. And then maybe you can change it. So it's clear.

JR: Yeah

MK: So if you just start with something really simple and then... (Plays an intro on G pedal with Cmaj to Do 2x then plays Eb-7 Ab7 phrase to D-7 G7b9 Cmaj6/9)

JR: So you went from one key and went to another...

MK: Well if we're in C then maybe I'll go into Ab (plays Ab13 sus) for a second.

JR: Ok. (MK continues to play). That's interesting. So it's like the relative minorish or major or something...

MK: I'm not thinking of anything like that. I'm thinking in terms of color If we're starting with this G pedal we could go (starts playing a different pattern that goes down via the b5 root: C/G to F#-7b5, F-), And the next chord would be C/E.

JR: Right

MK: But you could also. (Repeats the same chord phrase intro starting on C/G, F#-7b5, F-) But then you go minor instead (plays C-/Eb rather than C/E)

JR: So you went C minor mode there?

MK: Yeah. Just for a moment. That's how I think about intros. They don't have to be fancy. They don't have to have the kitchen sink. They just have to be clear and then maybe just one small idea that's a surprise.

Click below for an audio sample of above segment of the interview:
Mike Kanan playing C major ballad intro

JR: Right

MK: Just a little modicum of creativity. That's all. For me, I'm 45 now and really now just coming to terms with what I can leave out of my playing.

JR: Right..

MK: And how important that is. And that's maybe as important as anything I do play. Especially with singers. One of my favorite drummers is Jeff Williams? Don't know if you're familiar...

JR: Yeah. I know who he is.

MK: He lives now mostly in London, but... Great drummer. Great comper with his left hand. And he's a drummer that can play tons of shit all over the drumset. And loud. But for me, he never feels like he's in the way. It always feels completely transparent and completely wide open and he can shift gears at a moment's notice. Like if I color a voicing a certain way, I hear it coming out of the drums.

JR:Uh-huh. Like a cymbal shimmer or texture he chooses...

MK: Whatever. It might be a rhythm. He's listening so intently to everything I'm doing.

JR: Right

MK: So I asked him once. "How do you do that? How the hell do you comp like that?" And when I finally got him talking he said something that really stuck with me that I applied to piano. He said, "One thing that really took me some time to learn was if I'm comping and I play an idea, I don't need to play the whole idea. I can just play part of an idea. I don't have to finish it."

JR: Hmm

MK: You know? Think about that for comping. Like if you have some idea, for example if the singer or the horn player just did that then I'm going to do this.

JR: You get too involved in your own thing.

MK: You get too involved in your own idea and you're already behind where there are currently.

JR: Right

MK: So I found if I was going to play some fill like... (plays overly long phrase)Ofcourse that's a pretty long fill. But then I realized I could play like (plays shorter phrase). Just the first part of an idea and then leave it. And usually it sounds complete anyway. (click sample below for audio snippet of this part of conversation)
Mike comping phrases compared

JR: Some players have problems submerging their personality for the greater good. Even really good ones. And they get so developed. Although sometimes there's a place for that. For example a simultaneous dialogue. For example that record Affinity where Bill Evans is doing a lot of comping but it has so much personality that it's ok because it's kind of like a counterstatement. That can be ok if you're at that level. But if you're not, you can be too much into your own thing.

MK: Right. There's a real easy way to understand that whole issue. Sing with another piano player.And particularly with somebody who's not a skilled accompanist. You'll find out everything you need to know about how hip you're going to be.

JR: That's interesting

MK: I remember trying that out with a friend of mine years ago. And both of us were trying to do all kinds of hip stuff.

JR: And you were saying,"You're getting in my way..."

MK: He sang a tune and I was doing all kinds of goofy shit. And then I sang a tune and he did all kinds of goofy shit. Not intentionally. It's just that's what we were into at that time.

JR: Uh-Huh

MK: And then we finished and look at each other and say "You know all that goofy shit (you did)?" And he finishes and goes "Yeah that's really not good." (Laughs)

JR: Right

MK: But how would you know that unless you (tried that out)... And that's another thing for accompanying. You have to learn to sing a little bit. Not to be a singer. But I'll do it in sessions alot. I'll you know... If we're playing. I'll just sing a tune. Not to be a singer. I'm a horrible singer, but.

JR: I can never remember all the lyrics.

MK: That's another thing. You have to learn the lyrics. Now you can say well I'm submerging my personality. But all of us should be doing that. Including the singer...to the song

JR: Yeah

MK: In truth when everyone is doing that. And that happens in the best way, that's when everyone's personality comes out. Or perhaps something deeper than the individual personalites.

JR: Well, when Red was playing(saxophonist Red Horndstrom whom I referred to in previous posts)I kind of go back and forth about what style I'm going to use. Like the first night I stumbled upon a kind of propulsive, thematic style that I felt gave him the right kind of bounce underneath him that I tried to do the second time I played with him and couldn't do it but then Ed (Fuqua)was insisting that what I was doing this time was better... that I was listening and stuff. And I went well, I'm just not hearing that. I was trying to do what I was doing the first time. And then when you heard me I was totally underplaying.

MK: So that was the third time you played with him.

JR: That was the third time. I knew him before that. I met him previously on some of my gigs.

MK: My take is on it was in the first set--and I really wanted to stay for the second set--because already on the first tune (of the second set)... Just after talking and getting all that warm feeling from everybody, my interpretation was that he just unwound, let his shoulders down and said ok everything's fine and then I thought he sounded fantastic. The first tune of the second set--and then I had to go-- but that one sounded better than the whole first set. So I only imagine from there it continued to get better.

JR: Right

MK: But I thought your comping was just a model of good taste. I thought it sounded great. It didn't sound submerged. It sounded fully present and...

JR: Hmm.. See as a pianist I just have no perspective on that
(Especially given what I mentioned previously regarding my reaction to his presence in the audience)

Next time: Mike's Metronome Exercise

Hangin' with Mike Kanan, partI

2008-07-09T09:59:00.020-04:00

Mike Kanan is a great accompanist. But he's pretty humble about his achievements in this regard. I personally find accompanying a vocalist extremely challenging and was definitely primed to get some first-rate advice from a pianist gigging with some of the major vocalists out there. But surprisingly his whole approach is very down to earth and his philosophy about it is very practical and has been arrived at by working things out over time, as well as through discussions and experiments with fellow musicians (to be referred to in follow-up parts).

As some of his comments might suggest, one of his most important assets may be his grounded personality. Even the practicing he does, by his own account, is not very advanced, but rather very specific and grounding in its purpose. So all in all he's a very grounded person personally and this pervades in his musical approach and the impression he gives to others which works well for him and those who hire him.

Which creates a sort of hilarious contrast to me. Because I'm sort of the roller coaster semi-nervous personality type. Case in point. When I arrived at his studio I realized I had dropped my cellphone back in Queens. This prevented me from being able to call him to open the door. When I got on the F train I had my headphones on and I was fiddling with stuff per usual and I thought I heard something drop. I looked at the platform and saw nothing so I thought it was my imagination and let the doors shut. It wasn't my imagination. Funny thing was later I went back to the platform and it turned out it had fallen in the gap between the train and the platform and it was lying on the tracks. I jumped down to get it with people staring at me, thinking I had lost my mind. In a fit of masochism I thought about "What if a train came bearing down on me, would my arms go all jelly on me as I tried to hoist myself up?" For a second I felt that weakness then ended my nut-job fantasy and hoisted myself up, half-giggling to myself. The phone was fine. Pretty sturdy little thing. Lousy phone but it can take a pounding apparently.

Below is the first part of what should be several installments of my get-together with Mike

JR: How did you manage to become the preferred singer's accompanist these days?

MK: Well I don't know about that...

JR: Did you just kind of fall into it?

MK: More or less. I've gotten some gigs that way and it's wound up...whatever... It's something about my personality that seems to function well in that...(type of setting)

JR: Well it has to be more than that. Singers can be real divas. If they don't like you, they'll tell you in no uncertain terms.

MK: Some. Although I have to say just about everyone I've worked with has been really good. The two principal well known ones -Jane (Monheit) and Jimmy Scott have been great to me personally and --just in terms of working with them-- it's very easy.

JR: How do you approach rubato accompaniment? Don't you find that a little bit challenging?

MK: I do. That's the hardest. You went right to the hardest thing.

JR: To figure out exactly where to be and...

MK: Yeah. It's hard. For me, rubato playing is playing in time.

JR: Yeah

MK: And that's the thing I think most people miss. If I'm doing a song with a singer and she says, "OK let's do this rubato" and I don't know the song, the first thing I say is "let's do this in tempo first" then do it rubato

JR: That's interesting.

MK: Because how am I going to get a sense of the phrasing?

JR: Well... sometimes they'll phrase it differently rubato.. where they "back-phrase" etc.

MK: That's the whole point. There has to be a starting point.

JR: Do you feel that's develops over the course of your relationship with a singer or..

MK: Of course it does...

JR: Or does it kind of like (snaps fingers)

MK: If you're lucky that kind of falls into place. If you happen to have this magical connection to a vocalist, sometimes that just happens. That's happened very seldom with me. And I'm still learning how to play rubato. I still think that I'm so-so.

JR: Really

MK: But, somebody like...

JR: Well you've done duets with her so you must've done a fair amount of that kind of thing- intros and

MK: Yeah. But Jane and I have been working this October will be 8 years. So we've had chance a lot of time to work a lot of things out.

JR: right

MK: And Jane is the kind of singer who pretty much does the same thing each time

JR: She gets her thing down

MK: She gets her thing down, whatever her interpretation is and she'll stick with it. For the most part. She'll change little things here and there. She--just as a specific case-- she's very clear about what she wants and with her it's very much-- she's in front. She's directing things.

JR: Who calls tempos? Does she?

MK: Ah.. Usually... well. You mean in a band setting?

JR: Yeah. You get up on stage and (snaps fingers). Because that's another thing that's difficult too. Calling the right tempo. To have a good tempo memory

MK: Definitely. I suck at that

JR: Really.

MK: That's one of my least favorite things.

JR: I used to work with this vocalist named Barbara King and always remember I used to feel that --in retrospect--"Oh, I my God I counted that off way too fast". Or "I counted that off way too slow".

MK: My feeling about tempo...I think that singers should count off the tempos. Most of the time they don't want to. I think there's two reasons for that. A lot of them are just insecure about their band leading skills, which is unfortunate. And like in Jane's case, she doesn't want to be the one counting the tempos. She wants it to-- her background is musical theatre-- so she wants everything to be like a show and the tunes should just start.

JR: Well she has two sides though. She has that and her jazzy side. She has the ability to go either way.

MK: Yeah. But well anyway we're getting into so many different topics all at once.

(This was sort of bad interviewing on my part. The point I was trying to make but being completely unclear about is that I understood Jane also had a reputation of being well schooled jazz musician and not a typical diva so counting off stuff shouldn't be an issue for her. But the main miss I made here is if Mike doesn't like counting tempos and Jane wants the tunes to just start, how do they start? and by whom? Guess we'll need to follow up with that at a later time)

MK: (continued)The tempo thing. My feeling about that is I hate being married to one tempo for a tune. I always feel like, we're in a different place every time. What came before the tune. What's going to come after it. How is the audience responding? Maybe they need to be goosed.

JR: Right

MK: I mean there's so many different things that affect tempo. But ultimately the singer is the one who has to phrase and has to tell the story. So the singer really should be the one determining the tempo. Maybe that's going to happen ahead of time.

JR: So if you were to, let say on- do you do Alfie? (he did a duet with Jane on her last album)

MK: We haven't done it in some time

JR: if she were to ask you to introduce it what would you do?

MK: Well that one was rubato. Do I even remember? How did we start this. (Sits back at the piano)

JR: What key?

MK: "A" major.

JR: A major? Wow

MK: I think what I was doing with that was I was starting in some another key and she would talk over my introduction (Starts playing light high chords descending in inversions in Ab major) So I'd be doing whatever and then at some point I would just (plays a low and resonant E7#9 chord)

JR: transition?

MK: And then I would try to lead the E natural in (the melody cue note) and she would sing the first phrase (sings, "What's it all about, Alfie?") And then I was just play that first sus chord and then we were off.

JR: OK.

MK: Where did you hear that?

JR: No. I've never heard it

MK: So how did you know about it if it wasn't on the Cd?

JR: What happened was I was surfing, looking for the album on Amazon and... What was it called? Surrender? And I decided to look at the liner notes for the album on Amazon and they referred to the cut of Alfie which..I was going, "that's not on the album".

MK: Oh that's right they didn't put that on the album. There's a whole story about that record

(Explanatory note. At that point Mike thought perhaps I was present for one of Jane's live performances of Alfie--and so his demonstration of how he handled the tune live with chords, patter,signal chords etc was what he showed me. What I was hoping was he would should me how he voiced and handled the studio version, which I have yet to hear because it is not available on most -I believe- online purchase versions)

More next time!

Hangin' with Mike

2008-07-08T10:31:00.016-04:00

It wasn't my intention to interview Mike Kanan per se as pick his brains about piano. But given his greater stature in the music biz the questions just flowed on my part and with my my new toy the Zoom digital recorder in tow, I was able to capture the whole event.

I had first seen and heard Mike several years ago on a TV broadcast of vocalist, Jimmy Scott, where he performed his accompanist role and feature solos letter perfect. I was very impressed with his professionalism. He has since made several records with star jazz vocalist Jane Monheit. His work on her last album, Surrender is spot on and it includes some more pop and Brazilian influenced material. The first time I heard him in person was probably at least 2 years ago, where he was peforming with bassist Joe Martin and drummer Dwayne "Cook" Broadnax (an old cohort) at the midtown jazz piano haunt, Sofia's. I had just started becoming part of the rotation of jazz pianists that play there. It's quite intimidating to be part of a list of pianists that read like who's who of jazz piano.

As is typical of Sofia's, there were several people sitting in: a European fella who performed admirably on Hancock's Dolphin Dance and a tenor saxophonist who joined the band when Mike took the reins again. What I was impressed with was Mike's definitiveness and rhythmic certitude, nailing the pocket both in his comping and solos. This can be a deceptively difficult task at Sofia's where a. sometimes it's difficult to hear and get a blend and b. it's hard to swing on the Sofia's piano which has wear and tear from constant use, light action and a certain amount of unevenness that can throw you off. For whatever reason (fear, intimidation, shyness etc) I didn't introduce myself but waved to Cook.

I first came into contact with Mike through the omnipresent social networking site, MySpace. He had sent a friend request (which normally gets pretty freaking tiresome) and I responded with a "hey man, thanks for request" type reply. He then responded and commented about our mutual acquaintances, Ed Fuqua, Eric Halvorson and Eliot Zigmund and also some kind commentary on the few cuts on my page. He had also mentioned he hoped to catch me play but given I'm only a part-timer I told him the likelihood was that I would catch him first. The reality was his showing up at one of my gigs would be cause for a certain amount of anxiety. It was a lot easier just to let him listen to my tidy little recordings.

Later on the game was brought to me. I was asked to perform with saxophonist Red Horndstrom for small a concert&lecture at bassist/teacher Joe Solomon's studio at 26th st. Red, Ed and I had performed at Sofia's and Joe cooked up the idea of Red giving a lecture/performance to his students after seeing us play. Drummer, Chris Roselli was added for the gig. Performing in front of students is one thing but in the middle of a tune, Mike walks in the door and it completely threw me. Joe and Mike know each other thru the Tristano/Mosca circle. We were in the middle of starting the tune I Fall in Love to Easily but it's one of those tunes that it's easy to Fall Into the wrong minor II-V if you're not completely focused (I Should Care is like that too). And that's what happened. I weasled my way out of my misstep on A-7b5 but the game was lost. I was completely out of it. So there I had done it. I f##$d up in front of a fellow musician whom I respect. For me that's the cardinal sin, especially if you don't know them because as the commercials say, "you never get a second chance to make a first impression". I let off steam by acknowledging his presence to the audience and recover modestly on the next tune.

When I finish the set I introduce myself to him, make light of my performance and we shoot the breeze. He compliments me several times on my playing and frankly I'm shocked so I don't know whether he was being polite or whether he really thought I sounded good. But a day or two later he reiterates his compliment by communication via MySpace email. I was delighted. Maybe I'm better than I think. I then ask if we could talk shop about some piano stuff and he suggests we get together at his Brooklyn studio. I will have a transcription of some of the highlights of the get together next time.

Across the Barline and Beyond (another Jimmy Raney book preview.. Still workin' on it!)

2007-11-19T00:14:00.000-05:00

One of things that I must repeatedly emphasize about Jimmy Raney is his unique improvisational abilities as it relates to rhythm, and in particular his mastery of the more subtle and beautiful asymmetrical rhythm. It's mind boggling how his monumental achievements in this area could've gone so largely unnoticed.

I have noted in prior blogs his mastery of 6/4 and 5/4 phrases over 4/4.
See here: Jimmy Raney's polyrhythmic concepts part1
and here: Jimmy Raney's polyrhythmic concepts part 2

In this blog's example, 5/4 and 6/4 are used in combination, which is definitely more complex(!), but Jimmy Raney handled such things with ease. The example is a phrase from Jimmy's mind blowing solo on "Anthropology" from Live In Tokyo recorded in 1976. It occurs on the last 8 bar section (25-32) of the first solo chorus. This particular phrase seeims fairly simple on the surface but it really opens up pandora's box if you really look into it:

Taken in parts this part of the phrase clearly implies 6/4. The first starts on the 2nd beat of the bar and the second on 4th beat of the next measure. A third iteration of the phrase (if it were to occur) would start on the 2nd beat of the next bar. It's important to deal with each phrase from attack point to attack point. In other words, silence is also part of the count.

Interestingly enough however, the very beginning of the phrase starts with a phrase 5/4, then proceeds with one phrase in 6/4 and then (what I interpret) as an implied phrase of 6/4. If the 3rd phrase is interpreted as 5/4, then you still would have the interesting 5/4 6/4 5/4 combination (5+6+5=16beats=4); that would divide the 8 measures in half with the first measure (29) of the next 4 bars as a bar of silence.

The phrase in bar 30 to my ears has an implication of 6/4 given both it's length and shape. The ascending portion of the phrase is 2 beats and the descending portion is 4beats. My interpretation of meter has to do with direction. If there is a change in direction I hear a metrical implication. In the book, Jimmy talks about how certain types of accent are built into the grouping and phrase direction. So for example an 8th note scale built with 3 notes in sequence (e.g. 123, 234 etc) or arpeggios going up 3 notes and down 3notes (e.g. 135,642 etc) implies 3/8 meter. The last note (Db) I consider the downbeat of the next implied 6/4 phrase that completes the entire phrase and brings you to the next chorus.

In strict analysis some may debate my grouping and interpretation of silence. However the big picture is the division of the 8 measures into 2 units. To my ears, I hear the 3rd phrase as "spilling over" and finishing through measure 29. If that's the case, then the 8 measure phrase is divided asymmetrically into 5 + 3. In the original manuscript, Jimmy provides an example that does this very thing, 5+3. So this type of phrasing is clearly something that he has assimulated and uses consciously. In eighth note counts what this means is 20/8 followed by 12/8. Where the 20/8= 5+6+6+3 (or perhaps 11+9) and the 12/8 as 6+6. Even if you don't buy this, the first grouping: a 5/4 6/4 5/4 grouping is clearly not your garden variety rhythmic approach!

Man Vs. Machine

2007-11-13T15:44:00.000-05:00

Do you have a love hate relationship with computers and technical gadgets? I know I do. At times it seems like the gadgets have their own spirit and intentions and in some cases (as in below story) openly defiant. And forget about the manuals. I want to constantly shoot the authors of them. And gadgets always screw up at the same time don't they? Which is contributing to my personal persecution theories...

Case in point. I bought a Motorola 2.4 ghz cordless phone w/ answering machine. I was happy with the purchase and got it for a good price. But for some reason it would not correctly update the day and time stamp for incoming messages: it was always one day behind the current one. What started out as a simple quest to reset and fix became an unwinnable war between man and machine.

To start off, we manually reset the date on the unit to Saturday 10am. We hear it. We're not hallucinating. The answering machine said "Sa-tur-day 10 ay-EM!" We call the phone and leave a test message : "Hello this is a test of the answering machine". We listen back to the message and the answering machine defiantly reports "New message sent Fri-day 10 ay-EM". We try it several times with the same result. Even setting it to Thursday. The machine, like a defiant child responds, "Wednesday, 10 ay-EM(?)" almost with an upturn in the voice to pose and interrogative as if to say, "Had enough, human?"We decide to trick the machine by setting it one day ahead since it insists on putting it one day behind. Makes sense right? Wrong. You know what the box said? You guessed it. "Fri-day, 10 ay-EM! Now I'm completely confused. Is time not relative for these little machines? If I tell it that it's Sunday, shouldn't the little demon accept my appraisal? Does it know I'm lying? Who's in charge here??

Anyway it became my theory that there was a bug in the machine and somehow had an internal calendar set for 2005 rather than 2006. I looked at my old calendar and confirmed in fact that January was one day behind in terms of numerical day of the month and its day of the week. Eureka! I thought. So I slog through the manual for some time (Again no love lost there to Mr. Manual writer) to find a way to reset the complete date including year for the phone. After achieving this I'm certain I've licked the problem. I reset the machine, the phone and leave a message. "New message....sent.......FRI-DAY, 10AY-EM! At this point it's about time I take the answering machine to the back alley and rough it up a bit. But like death and taxes I'd resigned myself to Mr. Motorola's wishes to remain in yesterdayville and focus on other things with the unit.

Well at least I can change that awful blaring default ring tone to another one more pleasing. After scrolling through the classics and testing them out, Mozart, Handel and others we decide on Lizst. Catchy and soothing. But when we call the phone we are somehow treated to the Motorola's perverse form of musical counterpoint: the base ringing the default tone and the handset ringing Lizst! And on top of that there is no way to control the volume level of the ring for the base. Once again I consult Mr. Manual and of course there is everything but practical function explanations on there. Troubleshooting? Well I'm sure you've seen the explanations. "Make sure the unit is plugged in.." and the like.

What I had first viewed as an attractive, stylish machine with it's silver lines and umber/orange LCD, now struck me as a kind silver metal armadillo in sunglasses that wanted to do its own thing. "Screw you, anthro". Needless to say I boxed the little dickens in a generic container with lots of bubble rap and now it's on its way back to the merchant and eventually to its next unsuspecting owner looking for a good deal on a refurb. Perhaps it will encounter talking Chucky somewhere in the gadget warehouse in need of an answering machine , who won't be quite as civil or forgiving as I.

(This story was first published in 2006 on the somewhat useless portal & blogspace, Yahoo 360)

When At a Loss for Words...Post Pictures

2007-11-13T13:45:00.000-05:00

In the absence of any substantial thoughts/ideas on my part, click below MySpace link where pics were posted recently: Jon Raney MySpace page. Guess which ones are camera phone shots...uggh. Some great old photos of Dad as though. They are snapshots of the originals which were auctioned off by EBay. Read prior blog about EBay.

Click the "pics" link below the sidebar photo when you get to MySpace page.

(Sorry, you need to login or sign up for MySpace in order to see the photos)

Communication in the Internet Age

2007-11-06T23:04:00.000-05:00

The pre-e-mail and Internet world is difficult to imagine now after years of its entrenchment in our daily lives. I was musing about when the first rudimentary email was launched at my former employ, the now defunct Guggenheim Museum Soho. E-mail and Internet communication occupies this vast space between mailing written letters and yakking it up on the telephone, along with everything in between: chatting, both written and voice enabled, message boards and... oh yeah blogs with reader commentary.

With the addition of graphics, audio and live hyperlinks to other sources of related interest, electronic correspondence is a whole new accelerated communication paradigm. It's simply different when you "speak" to someone and have the ability to backspace an incomplete thought or retract and reforumulate and throw in a picture and a hyperlink. You "occur" differently to someone else. You can develop an entirely different personality. Personally I like to appear more intelligent than I actually am:) If we could all edit the way we spoke and not say, "Er, um.. what I meant was...etc" and offer cogent detailed examples of our opinions without missing a beat in live discussions, we would truly create different impressions.

But with this form of communication comes wierdness, too. Trolls are an odd lot of people, they land on a message board, crown themselves king of the board, insult people, incite a riot and have themselves banned. What makes these people tick? Or fail to tick? I have no idea. Here's one example on Talkbass occurring on a topic of walking bass line roots: Talkbass trolls A banned poster called nothinggod is the troll in this little drama.

It's peculiar how quickly people can get their hackles up over dumb comments. Here's a recent example at MySpace (I decided to let the aspiring bassist and record collector duke it out). I mean I love jazz but is this endless back and forth worth this kind of an effort? Not sure. Unfortunately, e-correspondence can also bring out some of our worst traits. People can become emboldened and curiously insensitive through the Internet cloak and friendships can end easily over an Internet argument.

Yet another new thing was invented by accident: "the endless discussion". And no one will ever give up on making their point if someone else disagrees. No one wants to appear to be an idiot and will try their best to "save face" to the personal exhaustion of others. Below link is to another Talkbass thread that is bordering on a "flaming war" (now a closed thread). It was probably one of the longest I have ever seen. But aside from a few bruised egos, if was also probably one of the most interesting discussions I've ever participated in: Anybody want my SF gig? See if you can plow through it.

One positive is I am getting messages from people I hadn't heard from in years because of my presence on the Internet. An old flame, an ex-student who resumed studies, someone I met in a jazz clinic 26 years ago, and a ex-roomate/college buddy from the early 90s who wants to hook up and do a recording. Also people looking for Jimmy Raney landing here (I mentioned how I met Christian Egeskov). Finding people, especially professionals is easier now given the necessity of having one's own "Myname.com" for self-promotion. You simply type someone's name in Google or where applicable, put a dot.com or dot.net on the end of their name and see if you get a bite. This is obviously easier than making directory assistance calls to national 411. And people find me by "Googling". I might even get the Google spider bots started by Googling myself. Maybe vanity is not such a vice after all. In the end it could be good marketing:)

The Recording

2007-11-01T20:41:00.001-04:00

Tne J-maan... makin' records...
The Rainster... playin' tunes
Of his own..
with a band...
the BAND-maan
Havin a hard time
makin' records
playin tunes..
of his own...
with a band...
He's a complainster
The J-maan...

90's SNL characters aside. I was discussing on my forum (in my usual self-critical fashion) a recording done with bassist, Ed Fuqua and drummer, Eliot Zigmund. Sax and trumpet were added on 3 tunes: father and son team Dan & Tatum Greenblatt. (See also Charles Monteiro video snippet of session). I also enlisted old pals, bassist, Mario Rodriguez, drummer, Todd Isler and guitarist Billy Newman on a couple of more latin oriented cuts.

So how did it go? For starters let me say this: I was more organized than I ever had been in my life:). I booked 2 separate dates. Nearly every peace of music was written in Sibelius. I uploaded all the parts as .tif files and accompanying mp3s to my share site for the musicians to review and learn. (there was no rehearsal for band#1, 2 rehearsals for band#2) This is a partial score of the Sibelius file for my guajira type tune Sumbate:

For myself, I bought an easel and put down all the tunes with a day by day worksheet study: level of difficulty, parts needed, what to practice. I practiced diligently every night after work and on the weekend. With all the preparation and practice, regretfully I would have to say I learned these hard lessons:

Don't do a recording without rehearsing.

Don't put rhythm section musicians together who haven't played together. Even if you have played individually with each of them and given them the music in advance.

Don't expect miracles on new material. Especially harmonically complex music.

Take control of your own music. Otherwise it's chaos.

Take care of yourself physically. Don't assault your physical well-being for the sake of getting that last lick worked out.

More tomorrow...

My Double Life

2007-10-31T23:06:00.000-04:00

Some time ago I spoke about my full time day gig at ThomasNet. At that point I was still getting the hang of everything. I was suddenly put in the html driver's seat with license to throw the switch to send our newsletters to hundreds of thousands of subscribers. After some trial by fire, I feel pretty comfortable with everything - even last minute email blasts with lots of edit change requests.

But this does not mean I am ready to say I'm an html expert on my resume by any stretch. I am a functioning newsletter production manager, but my html design skills are in need of an upgrade. Ask me to construct a table and I'm slouching at my computer for hours. The reality is I still don't understand everything about html and even less about CSS - and the latter is the basis of the way most pages are written. But I hate looking at CSS and figuring out how it controls everything. To be fair, I have no decent html editor resident on my computer. I downloaded this free editor N-Vu and try to work with it, but more often then not, I just end up moving stuff around and making a mess. So I continue with repurposing other people's code, pushing my dirty break tags into copy, chucking in my little href's and crossing my fingers. More often then not I am shocked that it works. RSS and xml feeds? php? That's for "other people".

What about music. Well, recently in September I took some time off. I arranged all my music, practiced diligently, hired musicians, gave them Sibelius generated music, and shared everything on a download page. I was more organized than I've ever been for a recording. How did it go?

More tomorrow...

Preparing for Success? I think not...

2007-10-30T23:32:00.000-04:00

Often I wonder if there is a way to predict and bring about- through preparation- a successful performance. But the older I get the more I feel it's not possible. Why? Well, tell me truthfully whether you have had one of these experiences:

1. You were well rehearsed but played worse than you usually do
2. You were well rehearsed but not spontaneous
3. You didn't practice at all and played great
4. You did a lot of practicing and played very well and felt practicing paid off.
5. You were not prepared at all and played like shit
6. You were really looking forward to playing but then it was a disaster
7. You were really not looking forward to playing and it turned out really well

Can all of these things be true objectively speaking? I'm sure many people will try to find explanations to support "preparing for success". But at best I would think that even detailed opinions would be at best, speculative. And also people like to take credit for things in hindsight that may have been just a fortunate convergence of positive factors.

And what about listening back to recordings? Has this happened to you:

1. You thought you played really well and you didn't
2. You thought you played really bad but it turned out to be really happening.
3. You heard something that you thought wasn't happening then later changed your mind
4. You heard something you really liked but found after a while-nothing in it.

For the most part, I used to follow the idea that immersion into the music was the best guarantee. But a recent experience where I felt immersed in the music and comfortable only to be disappointed in the result brought me back to square one.

I guess I will have to grow to accept that there is no formula and the the results speak to whatever the certain and peculiar interaction of moments and intentions dictate; also that it is also possible to perceive something differently as time goes on. The only truth seems to be complete variability and perhaps freeing yourself from dependence on "good results" or perceived good results is the only thing you can attempt to do.

Jaco Pastorius

2007-10-28T21:46:00.002-04:00

In my early years, I got heavy doses of Jimmy Raney, Bill Evans, Bob Brookmeyer, Cannonball Adderly, Pat Martino, Stan Getz and whatever records my brother Doug inherited from Dad. Doug put many albums on reel to reel tapes (the mp3s of yesteryear in terms of packin' your favorites on one unit). Plus I heard my brother making recordings, jamming with himself and transcribing solos by Dad, Charlie Parker and Sonny Stitt. Sometimes half speed.

When my brother left for Europe, that's pretty much where my head was at in high school. I listened to the same records and it was all great but very traditional stuff. I would wear out records such as Live in Tokyo and Montreux II. Then my friend, bassist Steve Schwab put on this record called Jaco Pastorius it turned my head around. He played me "Havona" from Heavy Weather after that. Zawinul is a master player and Shorter was keen commentator and part player in the band but even as a pianist I was still listening mostly to Jaco. I was particularly blown away by "Used to Be a Cha Cha" from his debut album and ofcourse that unique but lyrical blowing on "Donna Lee". I had heard the tune tons of times before, but never like THAT. I now had a new hero in addition to my Dad.

I then picked up Pat Metheny's album Bright Size Life with Jaco and that started a new current for me. Now I was into jazz fusion. I was not really blown away by Billy Cobham, Jean Luc Ponty or Mahavishnu, prior. I liked it but it was very techno sounding. But when I heard Heavy Weather and Black Market I really became a fan. There was just a lot more feeling there. I also liked Pat Metheny's group. Some people thought they sounded too "happy" or pop, but I liked the feeling they had and they were obviously top notch musicians. Mark Egan had that Jaco sound even if he wasn't quite Jaco himself. I went to see both Jaco and Pat Metheny at Carnegie Hall and saw Pat at the Bottom Line and the Beacon Theatre.

To me this new fusion style was hip, electric but yet informed by jazz. Plus I was young and searching for new things. It's just before Jaco, nothing really impressed me besides my favorites: Hancock, Evans, Corea, Raney, Getz, Powell, etc. I listened intently to the local jazz station and I got my first dose of the tune, "Punk Jazz" with Tony Williams beginning cymbal smash and Jaco's scorching solo. I also remember Downbeat giving the album one star and thought that was ridiculous. I also remember the Heath Brothers criticizing it in a Downbeat blindfold test and saying Jaco's playing was mostly about technique. Please...I liked the album Mr. Gone and still do. And if there's anyone that should be a jazz purist it's me. I remember savoring the album Night Passage from the school library. When Jaco quit the band and started doing Word of Mouth for some reason I just tuned out. Perhaps it was a good thing I did. Because so much bad shit was happening to Jaco from about 1983 onward. I would hear stories about him from Doug and other people--at clubs like Bradleys and such. I remember him sitting on the Great Lawn in Central Park in his bare feet with some friends listening to our street band a year before his death in 1987.

Recently, I read the Bill Milkowski biography and fell under Jaco's spell again. I had this great longing for him to be alive again. I felt genuine sadness at his great rise and fall. Someone should really make a movie out of his story. For example when you experience the rise of a great talent and then all the sudden their life goes to shit. I felt this recognition for three people in the jazz world: Jimmy Raney, Bill Evans and Jaco. I don't know why. The latter two I never met, but somehow I feel like I had. It's funny when you listen to someone's music constantly how it makes you feel like you know them. There is a humanness about the sound of Jaco and the range of his instrument is right in my vocal range. I feel a resonance there from his great melodic phrasing and general pathos. I knew he was an egotist, but I have known many in my life time and the more off-the-wall types--you almost had to go along with them. You gave them the slack almost because you recognize they are living life in a different way. Completely their own way. They are so confident that they make you feel like perhaps you are the one that's crazy--or perhaps just less real or honest with yourself.