An Exciting Weekend of Music ahead…

Suzy and I are looking forward to an exciting weekend of music and family. I’ve purchased three new sax quartet charts from professor Russ Peterson including his just finished Lil’ Darlin’, ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’, and ‘Georgia On My Mind’. Greg won’t be making it but Tina has agreed to sit in. Life is good.

NicoleBarnesNicole Barnes, a professor of music at Western Washington University, is staring in a recital on Sunday. We’ve seen Nicole perform before and she is really a stellar player.

Nicole Barnes is a recent graduate from the New England Conservatory, where she received her Masters degree in saxophone performance.  In 2005, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Bachelor of Music in Orchestral Instruments degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. 

Ms. Barnes was the first undergraduate in the United States to premiere David Kechley’s “Restless Birds Before the Dark Moon” in 2004.  In 2003, Nicole won first place in the 12th Annual Concerto Competition at the University of Washington.  As an international performer, Ms. Barnes has toured the Netherlands with the Boston-based Thump Saxophone Quartet and in 2004, performed for large audiences with the University of Washington Saxophone Quartet in Japan. 

Nicole has also been a guest performer for many well-known groups, such as the Boston Civic Orchestra, the Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra and the 2006 Tanglewood Contemporary Orchestra.  To further her musical career, Nicole has attended master classes with Harvey Pittel, Eugene Rousseau, Ken Radnofsky, Jean-Marie Londeix and the Rascher Saxophone Quartet.  Her previous instructors include Tracy Knoop, Michael Brockman and Ken Radnofsky.

We are also attending HMS Pinafore at the Second Story Rep where a number of our friends are playing in the pit orchestra. You might remember that we have played in the Second Story Rep pit orchestra for “Anything Goes” in 2007 and “Chorus Line” in 2008.

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Tower of Power’s in town… again!

Jazz Alley is hosting the Tower of Power at the end of the month. That’s where you go for some very funkilious music if you are in the Mood.

top

Roy’s Place, a music studio for rent run by Kennelly Keys are offering a TOP horns clinic on May 2.

“No matter who you are, where you live, or your taste in music, Tower of Power will find you. And once that happens, it’s all over. You will come to believe not only that soul music is the salvation of us all, but that Tower of Power is one of those rare bands who can claim to be the real deal, 100 proof, aged-to-perfection, ground zero Soul. And the thing is, they’re everywhere now.”

Read more…

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YouTube as a Musical Reference

image I use YouTube.com a lot as a musician. If I have a new chart to work up or a solo to cover in a jazz band, I’ll go to my CD collection and YouTube to find something I like. Part of that research is done through my YouTube portal at http://www.youtube.com/Gandalfe where I keep my musical bookmarks, subscriptions and the videos I’ve posted.

Once a month or so I get an email from YouTube with highlights from the people who’s videos I subscribe to and it looks like this. From there I cherry pick the new videos and listen to them, promote them on Twitter or Facebook.

Many of the YouTubeage videos that I’ve discovered for vintage jazz are performances I would have never seen, often taken at jazz festivals overseas, or recorded years ago off of black and white TV. Fascinating stuff, if’n you ask me.

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New Project: Add Swing Dance Music to setlist

swingdance I am working with the Eastside Swing dance club to set up some playing opportunities for my various Big Bands and combos. This is a new opportunity for us and the music is a big genre for us to explore. So I am looking for some new charts to buy for the various bands.

I started a thread in the Woodwind Forums and got a lot of pointers there. One of my favs is http://www.swingarchive.com/ and I’ve bought three combo charts to check out the quality of the arrangements. They are Lil Darlin’, Moten Swing, and Cute all of which are Basie numbers. I do like Basie.

The lady in charge likes music like this plus the Charleston and Boogie Woogie. I’m trying to build a book of 50 charts. And I’m not finding an easy way to locate this sheet music at the normal places. I’ve found some sites with these kind of listings:

           Title – Artist – Time – Year – Dance

  • Walkin’ On the Moon The-Dream & Kanye West 4:15 2009 WCS
  • Everyday I Have the Blues (Chatman) The Clark Terry Quintet Feat. Carrie Smith 4:52 2004 Lindy/Foxtrot
  • No Llores – cha Gloria Estefan 4:11 2007 Cha
  • Bleeding Love -swustle Leona Lewis 4:22 2007 WCS/Hustle
  • You Already Love Me – 2step Toby Keith 3:32 2008 2 step
  • Crazy Little Thing Called Love Queen 2:44 1994 ECS
  • Spotlight Jennifer Hudson 4:10 2008 WCS/Hustle
  • Going Back to Louisiana – wcs ecs Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown 4:41 2001 WCS/ECS
  • Kelly Ray – swustle Raphael Saadiq 3:30 2008 WCS/Hustle
  • Georgy Porgy Eric Benet featuring Faith Evans 4:40 2007 WCS/Hustle
  • Because of You – nc2 Reba McEntire & Kelly Clarkson 3:44 2007 NC2S
  • Don’t Be Cruel Elvis Presley 2:05 1956 ECS
  • Circus Britney Spears 3:12 2008 WCS
  • Spanish Fly Eric Benet 4:30 2008 WCS/Cha
  • Love That Girl – wcs Raphael Saadiq 3:04 2008 WCS
  • Abracadabra Robin McKelle 3:34 2008 ECS/Foxtrot
  • Push Enrique Iglesias 3:52 2007 WCS
  • Just Dance Lady GaGa 4:02 2008 WCS
  • Free Fallin’ (Live) John Mayer 4:24 2008 WCS
  • My Baby Just Cares for Me Nina Simone 3:36 1958 Lindy/Foxtrot
  • That’s the Way Love Is Kenny Lattimore 4:13 2008 WCS
  • Good 2 U – blues Dave Mason 4:32 WCS

But locating the charts looks to be a big project.

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Come blow your nose…

ShawnFeeneyCom A friend on Facebook pointed this artwork of Shawn Feeney from his Musical Anatomy site. (Thanks Terry Hummer.) With apologies to Jimmy Van Heusen, "Come blow your nose, come blow your nose with me…"

“Musical instruments are prosthetics for body parts we never had. They can extend and transform voice, gesture, and exhalation. The mystery of their forms is matched by the invisible oddity of their sounds. But what if the prosthetics were unnecessary? This series imagines bodies with musical anatomies, referencing musicians from a variety of genres and traditions.”

Shawn is also working on some other projects like BFF which is 127 composite drawings combining people with their friends.

As I read his bio I wasn’t surprised to find that he is a musician:

“As a bass guitarist, composer and/or improviser, I have performed with musicians such as Jack Dishel (Only Son), Regina Spektor, LoVid, Shawn Phillips, Paul Buckmaster, J. Peter Robinson, and the Austin New Music Co-op, in venues from NYC’s Town Hall and The Stone, to the American Repertory Theater and the Austin Museum of Digital Art.”

What is his undergraduate degree in you ask? Music through Harvard College.  But of course. :o)

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Crazy Rag – National Saxophone Choir (sax octet)

Having played all the types of saxes show here from Soprillo to contrabass sax (thanks Jay) I can tell each come with their own idiosyncrasies and challenges. But playing the sopranino made the soprano easier to play. And playing the soprillo made the sopranino seem easy.  :o)

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NYT: Geography of a Recession

Interesting quote that caught my eye, “Unlike the last two recessions — earlier this decade and in the early 1990s — this one is causing much more job loss among the less educated than among college graduates.”  Read more.

job

I keep looking for indicators that we’ve reached the bottom of this recession/depression. But I’m not seeing anything that indicates the trend line angle is less steep or that we are bouncing yet. There is a lot of pain out there. I’m still getting two to three emails from friends on the unemployment rosters, some for the first time in their lives. Last week I learned one of my friends got hired with a good company. But most just have interviews so far.

Who would have predicted this two years ago. Actually there are always people who predicted correctly and in most cases incorrectly.

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GIANT SAXOPHONE IS SO LARGE PLAYER STANDS ON LADDER (Jun, 1924)

GiantSax_1924 I often put things in my blog, okay like 90% of the time, that are all about me being able to find them in the future. So it is with this picture (GIANT SAXOPHONE IS SO LARGE PLAYER STANDS ON LADDER (Jun, 1924) from Popular mechanics in 1924. I followed this link from a note in Facebook from Terry Hummer, writing professor and saxophonist enthusiast.

Terry sez, “It did work. It required 3 players: one for the upper stack, one for the lower, and one to blow. Three of these instruments were made; they were melted down for the metal during the war, so no longer exist. They were a Conn company advertising gimmick, but they really did work. Accounts of witnesses report that “it sounded like an earthquake.” No recordings were ever made, alas.

There was an article about these instruments (double e-flat contrabass saxes) in Saxophone Journal years ago.”

To bad it was melted down for something as sax as a war. And to have made three of them is at the very least astonishing. Anyone else think the young lady looks like a billboard?

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Jazz Soup Lines

Reading Harri’s (owner of SOTW) blog titled: Jam Sessions in USA and Greater Helsinki Area and was struck by the differences and indeed some of the sameness encountered at Jazz Jams overseas.

Alexei Zoubov, now an American jazz musician, writes in his piece titled Soup Kitchens and Jam Sessions, "Nevertheless, the image of a soup kitchen (or bread line) pops out in my mind at jams more and more often lately.

I guess that has partially to do with the present bad economic situation. There are less and less gigs, especially jazz gigs, less and less jazz clubs. And the expansion of jazz education produces more and more young players that just can’t find any spots to play jazz.

Except for jam sessions. These are the places where hungry for playing jazz musicians can get their “bowl of jazz soup” for free, or “at a reasonably low price” (see the definition of a soup kitchen above).

They sign up on a list, sometimes pay $5 or so (nothing bad about that, the money goes to the house rhythm section) and thus form a line to play a few choruses in a couple of songs."

P1010694 Sometimes I wonder if the jazzers I run with know how lucky they are to know so many great musicians and play in so many bands. We conduct sessions about twice a year and talk about doing it more than that. It’s usually a potluck where invitees bring some food and drink. And usually we’re reading out of Real Books.

Sometimes there are so many musicians at a jam that I don’t play or play very little. My favorite jazz jam was one where very few people showed up. So those playing got more time on the ax and those listening got more food.  :o)

I was actually able to record that session and my favorite part comes at minute mark 7:35 where I’m finishing a solo and Doug on trumpet comes in behind me. I’m surprised at first and then play an accompanist role which turned out kinda nice.

 

I often bring some four-horn charts to do to, but to date haven’t been called upon to hand them out. They are in the binders which I use as backup books for my combo, the Dissonance, a Jazz xTet. The idea there is that you get a four part arrangement and then solo sections that can be repeated a number of times.

Reading the Real Books is okay, but the cats I hang with don’t really do the four part harmony on the fly very much, so the protocol is to read the head, solo, solo, … and the close with the last reading of the head. If I’m on bari sax I will try to play an interesting bass line.

The success of any given jam session is usually based on the quality of the musicians and luck. But there are some down and dirty rules which if applied can almost always improve a session. Grant ‘King’ Koeller captured them in a blog post titled, Jam Session Etiquette.

My favorite is of course, “11. If there is more than one horn present don’t all play the melody in unison. Use different harmony parts and chord tones to create interest.” Getting a like-minded group of in tune and alert musicians together can be a real challenge. But once you find these folks, you tend to invite them into your bands and back to the Jazz Sessions for just a little more jazz soup please.

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Note the location of this poster :o)

AllweSax

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