From the LATimes:
Neal Hefti, a former big band trumpeter, arranger and composer who worked with Woody Herman and Count Basie and later composed the memorable themes for the movie “The Odd Couple” and the campy hit TV series “Batman,” has died. He was 85.
Tag: Jazz
Jazz Side Of The Moon
Here are the ingredients of a great album and recording:
1. Great songs….Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon…..check
2. Good arrangements of said songs…..check
3. Great players…..check
4. Record everything live, with a single microphone and no digital “wizardary” (not Pro Tools *gasp*)…..check
The sound of the album is great (seriously, no Pro Tools). Tunes are great. Just……..great! When is a “Jazz Side Of The Wall” coming out? I think a jazzed version of Comfortably Numb would be rather cool.
Check out the album Jazz Side Of The Moon by Sam Yahel, Mike Moreno, Ari Hoenig, Seamu Blake on iTunes or CD via Amazon.
9.5/10
Live Jazz Concert Recordings
Sometimes on the internet, you find some great sites. This is one such site. “You Are What You Hear” is a great site that has concert recordings from great artists such as Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, John Scofield……to name a very few. Well worth spending some time getting some of the recording here.
I think the best recording is the Michael Brecker : Montreal Jazz Festival 27.6.2001. Simply amazing.
Ralph Moore – Bye Bye Blackbird
Another transcribed solo by Kenyon Carter. Ralph Moore playing Bye Bye Blackbird off the Album “Ralph Moore and Ray Brown – Moore Makes 4”
Ralph Moore - Bye Bye Blackbird (49.9 KiB, 283 hits)
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Album iTunes link, Amazon link
Song iTunes link
Bob Mintzer – Listen Here
Transcribed solo of Bob Mintzer on Listen Here off the album “Bob Mintzer Quartet – In The Moment”. Transcribed by Kenyon Carter.
Bob Mintzer - Listen Here (47.3 KiB, 185 hits)
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Album iTunes link, Amazon link
Song iTunes link
Stan Getz – The Way You Look Tonight
Transcribed solo of Stan Getz on The Way You Look Tonight from the Album “Ultimate Stan Getz” (probably on another albums/compilations too). Transcribed by Kenyon Carter.
Stan Getz - The Way You Look Tonight (83.3 KiB, 515 hits)
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Album iTunes link, Amazon link
Song iTunes link
Eric Alexander – Solid
Kenyon Carter sent some transcriptions to put up. The first of which is Eric Alexander on the song Solid off the album “Eric Alexander – Solid”. Enjoy!
Eric Alexander - Solid (72.6 KiB, 306 hits)
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Album iTunes link, Amazon link
Song iTunes link
Jazz Piano Site
One of the best tutorial sites I’ve seen. Doug McKenize’s Jazz Piano Site. If you play piano, or want to play, or just get better, check out his videos he has up.
Very well done!
Talking Jazz
I came across this website:
New from musician, author, journalist Ben Sidran, Talking Jazz includes an eighty page booklet with essays from writers, critics and musicians, classic photos from Lee Tanner, and 24 compact discs featuring conversations with 60 jazz greats, recorded during a five year period for Sidran’s award winning NPR program “Sidran On Record”.
I’m wondering if anyone heard this collection, or perhaps the original NPR broadcasts. Any good?
John Coltrane Reference Book
Here is a review of the forementioned John Coltrane Reference Book.
Porter combines meticulous scholarship with an eye for telling details, the revealing and necessary details about Coltrane’s life and music that constantly open up new perspectives. There is no gratuitous quoting of literary figures irrelevant to Coltrane, or bizarre factoids (the attendance at a New York Museum of Modern Art Chagall show the year Coltrane’s classic quartet recorded at The Village Vanguard (see page 69 in Ratliff).
Though the price is still daunting……$150
Recorder Jazz!
I’ve been doing some research for an upcoming article on the Akai EWI, and I’ve been researching Masato Honda. This is the guy, I believe, who played the famous Cowboy Bebop Tank! Alto Saxophone solo. He is also a master of the EWI, frequently playing it with the group T-Square. Anyhow, I came across this video of him playing four recorders with T-Square. Amazing stuff.
I think the most ingenious thing was the “stand” he had them on, and using a vocal microphone to amplify them. Oh, and running them through an effects processor towards the end.
UPDATE: 1/6/08: BTW, if anyone knows exactly what Masato Honda’s EWI setup is/was, that would be great to know. It looks like a 3020, but most of the youtube clips I’ve seen he has his EWI colored, so…..
Michael Brecker EWI Video
Ah youtube. Great to find these little gems.
The John Coltrane Reference
There is a new Coltrane book out by Lewis Porter, Chris DeVito, David Wild, Yasuhiro Fujioka, and Wolf Schmaler.
Few jazz musicians have had the lasting influence or attracted as much scholarly study as John Coltrane. Yet, despite dozens of books, hundreds of articles, and his own recorded legacy, the “facts” about Coltrane’s life and work have never been definitely established. Well-known Coltrane biographer and jazz educator Lewis Porter has assembled an international team of scholars to write The John Coltrane Reference, an indispensable guide to the life and music of John Coltrane.
The John Coltrane Reference features a a day-by-day chronology, which extends from 1926-1967, detailing Coltrane’s early years and every live performance given by Coltrane as either a sideman or leader, and a discography offering full session information from the first year of recordings, 1946, to the last, 1967. The appendices list every film and television appearance, as well as every recorded interview. Richly illustrated with over 250 album covers and photos from the collection of Yasuhiro Fujioka, The John Coltrane Reference will find a place in every major library supporting a jazz studies program, as well as John Coltrane enthusiasts.
At a whopping $150 for 608 pages, is this a must own for Coltrane nuts?
Oscar Peterson Dies At 82
One of the greatest pianists, Oscar Peterson, died today. I was lucky to see him once in concert. Amazing. He was probably around 75 at the time. He made it look easy. He will be missed.
Boots Randolph’s Rock And Roll Saxophone
Boots Randolph’s Rock and Roll Saxophone – Techniques and Fundamentals for Today’s Players by Boots Randolph and Mike Shannon is 63 pages that try to show you how to play rock and roll like Boots. Not that Boots playing could in any way be condensed down to so few pages.
The first part of the boot, about 20 pages, deals with scales. Major, minor, blues, dorian, mixolydian, in thirds, fourths and arpeggios. Nothing new. Then the book moves into long tones, and has a little discussion about how tone/ear training is important. It is worth reading.
Page 30 on out gets into the stuff you wanted to know, how to play Rock and Roll saxophone like Boots. The book goes over Growls, Slap tonguing, Throat trills, pops, and vibrato in addition to a bunch of other things. There are some excellent examples of what these sound like on the CD. Then there is an excellent discussion about altissimo, and how to do it, when to use it, how to practice it, and
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