Everything can be practice

I played a graduation today.

It was a concert band setting, light classical and the inevitable "Pomp and Circumstance"...a LOT of consecutive quarter notes, imagine the "motor" behind the melody and that's what I was playing. This would be a tempting place to go on auto-pilot and mentally visit the Azores as we repeated the melody over and over, but something about the way we were playing the quarter notes reminded me of something from my undergrad days. My teacher Stephen Duke has an exercise that he called "The Scale and Arpeggio Exercise", the specifics of which are to deep to go into here. Suffice to say, that a portion of it involves tapering notes to silence in time.

I decided to take this few minutes of playing quarter notes and be hyper aware of my note lengths, taper, and attack. Could I make each taper the same length? Could I control the taper in such a way that there was true silence between each note? Could I EXACTLY match the tapers of my colleagues?

In playing this passage while asking myself these questions, I was able to take a simple gig in terms of technique (in terms of "fast fingers") required and make it into a valuable practice session in instrumental control (every bit as much "technique", yes?).

It can be tempting to mentally check out from time to time on simple music. But, if we look deeply enough, there is a lesson every time we pick up our instruments.

Primary Sources and Modern Inspiration

I have been slow to warm "modern" musicians. I think I can trace this attitude back to when I was in high school and I really began to get serious about listening to jazz. My father had a record collection that included Miles, Trane, Herbie Hancock, among others. By the time I was 15, I was pretty clearly ensconced in the Trane-Wayne-Sonny-Joe universe. My first year of college, I was probably the only one there who hadn't been wearing out Brecker's "Don't Try This At Home." I say this all by way of realizing that my musical world view is seen (heard?) through a lens in which most of what I hear in my head as an example of an ideal is at least 50 years old.

I have, of course, come to love the entire spectrum of music, but jazz recorded between 1957 and 1972 will always hold a place in my heart as the TRUTH.

I love to listen to many musicians on the scene today, but for study and inspiration I always find myself going back to the primary sources. How about you?

John Coltrane

I have been listening to the master a lot these days.

Specifically, "Meditations". It has taken a long time for me to really be able to appreciate some of Trane's music from his later period. I've come to hear that the music on this recording, while being very abstract, contains some of the most intensely beautiful melodies anywhere on record.

Consider the following from the "Love" movement:

What really touches me is the relatively simple way that Trane treats the melody (starting around 2:20). The simple, almost child-like melody with increasingly dark and shifting colors never fails to grab at my heart as does the absolute conviction that Trane plays with.

Just beautiful....

Happy New Year!

Farewell 2010...hail and well met to 2011! I spent the last hour of 2010 listening to this. I'm rather embarrassed to say that, while I've know about the Bill Evans episode of Piano Jazz for quite a while, I hadn't heard it prior to this evening. What a great conversation. The playing is absolultly beautiful and hearing Bill talk about his processes is a treat. His thoughts on structure should be required listening for all musicians.

Here's an excerpt from The Universal Mind of Bill Evans where he discusses and demonstrates more of the same.

Music Other Than Jazz

I have A LOT of unread stuff in my RSS reader.

One of the subscriptions I try to read regularly is The Atlanic's culture feed, on which I found this this morning. I had not heard of John Vanderslice previous to today and I have full intentions of making Pixel Revolt my next iTunes purchase. It did get me to thinking, though...how much music do I miss by being SO focused on jazz all of the time. I understand the current trend of jazz musicians taking current material as their source material, but most of my listening remains focused on the perfecters of the art, i.e. Joe Henderson, Trane, Wayne, and Sonny. Additionally, most of the "modern" folks I listen to are steeped in that language as well. The modern guy I'm listening to most these days is Rich Perry.

But, the purpose of this post is not to debate the artistic merit of old vs. new or jazz vs. everything else. My discovery of John Vanderslice today was a joyful one to be sure. It reminded me of how much other music is out there that I love. For instance, REM and U2. I have some stuff from these folks on my workout playlists and every time they come up I remember how much I love that music. The Decemberists are another example.

How about it: what music other than your "favorite" inspires you?

I should read the stuff in my RSS reader more often...

Happy and Merry...

Jazz Advice

Jazz Advice is the kind of website that I think the internet was made for. A wealth of good information from folks who know and it is interactive. You can pose questions to the hosts and they will address them with an article. I've just begun to dig into some of the stuff on the site and it is just great information. A most helpful tool.

I came across this website through Eddie Rich's blog. Eddie is a great saxophone player and you should really seek out some of his stuff. Thanks Eddie, for turning us on to this great site!