Tom Harrell Quintet, Village Vanguard
Tom Harrell-tpt
Wayne Escoffery-sax
Danny Grissett-p
Ugonna Okegwo-b
Johnathan Blake-d
I saw their 2nd and 3rd sets last night. When I walked in a little after 9 they were playing Cherokee! Both sets seemed to be a mix of standards and Harrell’s compositions. Wayne Escoffery was burning. His sound is so clear and fluid…I decided last night I need to work on long tones.
Lesson #3
- Check out Pentatonic Scales for Jazz Improvisation.
- Try chromatic movement, pentatonic side-slipping.
- Bob Mintzer, Funk Etudes.
- Garzone’s In the Funk Zone.
- Bergonzi’s Pentatonics, vol. 2
- Practice fingers close to keys.
- Work on major and minor pentatonic scales.
Lesson #2
- Have horn checked for leaks.
- Work on harmonic scales.
- Work on a Sonny Stitt transcription.
- Keep fingers closer to keys.
- Pick another song for chord analysis.
DONE
- Buy a leak light. Tool for trouble-shooting. http://www.musicmedic.com/catalog/products/tool-lt100.html
- Read up on reed adjustment:
- http://www.hopestreetmusicstudios.com/articles/adjusting-saxophone-and-clarinet-reeds
- http://www.saxlessons.com/reedadjustment.htm
- Reed knife or pocket knife with sheep foot blade.
- Sandpaper – #400 “wet-or-dry.”
- Buy mirror. Don’t puff your cheeks.
Spotify
Just discovered this. Oh my god. I might buy the $4/month plan. If only I could get the tracks into Amazing Slow Downer so I can transcribe them.
A good sax tech
Be careful who you choose. There are few good techs out there. Seek referrals from professional musicians. Call a few techs and ask them questions, then go with your gut instinct. Don’t rush: better to take your time and find someone who can do a good job. And make it clear to them that they are not to change a single thing about your horn beyond what you request them to do.
All Of Me – Lester Young
The first 16 bars of Lester Young’s solo on All of Me (Take 3) from This Is Jazz, Vol. 26 – Lester Young.
What I love about this version, besides the fact that Billie Holiday is singing on it, is how Lester Young tells a story with his solo. There is so much feeling in his sound…read the lyrics and listen to the solo again and you’ll almost hear the words coming out.
All Of Me
by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons
All of me, why not take all of me?
Can’t you see I’m no good without you?
Take my lips I wanna lose them
Take my arms I’ll never use them
Your goodbyes left me
with eyes that cry
How can I get along without you?
You took the part
that once was my heart
So why not take all of me?
Your goodbyes left me
with eyes that cry
Now I’m lost without you
You took the part
that once was my heart
All of me, why not take all of me?
Can’t you see I’m a mess without you?
You took the part
that used to be my heart
So why not take all of me?
River
River
by Joni Mitchell
It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
But it don’t snow here
It stays pretty green
I’m going to make a lot of money
Then I’m going to quit this crazy scene
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby cry
He tried hard to help me
You know, he put me at ease
And he loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I’m so hard to handle
I’m selfish and I’m sad
Now I’ve gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Oh, I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I made my baby say goodbye
It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Cleartune
If you have an iPhone or iPad but don’t have a tuner, you can turn your device into one with this app. This one really works.
The Tuning CD: Equal Tempered vs. Pure (Just) Tuning
It helps to remember something by explaining it, so here’s my crack at summarizing the issue:
Western music uses equal tempered tuning where an octave is divided into 12 equidistant steps: 100 cents between each step (or interval) to be exact. The problem is that this is a man-made system. In nature the intervals that we hear in music are mathematical ratios that can be different than the equidistant intervals found in equal tempered tuning. The note E played in tune with an electronic tuner will actually sound sharp when played in the context of a major 3rd interval in a C major chord.
If you’re wondering why equal tempered tuning is used at all, it’s because a piano tuned to the key of C using the pure (just) system will only sound nice in that key; when you go to a different key, it will sound wrong because the intervals are still based on C. Equal tempered tuning is a compromise, allowing you to play in different keys, but the intervals will still sound pretty close to the pure intervals. Since the piano is the pillar instrument–for lack of a better word–of Western music our ears have become accustomed to a major chord played on the piano having a sharp major 3rd in it.
[The source of this summary is Tom Ball's "Using Drones to Improve Intonation"]
If you’re a piano player, you don’t have to worry about this…there’s nothing you can do, but instrumentalists who can bend the pitch of notes will want to strive for pure intonation.
Enter The Tuning C.D. Each track “sounds a sustained drone of octaves and fifths. The octaves are in equal temperament while the fifths are pure.” Play a note against the drones so that there are no beats. And try to stay sane. I know I can get really frustrated with intonation issues on the sax, but I hope over time this will get better.
Kerry Politzer
Saw her group the other night with her husband George Colligan on drums and David Valdez on sax. This was at The Blue Monk, a basement club. I don’t remember much of the first set, probably because I sat at the bar at the other end of the room. I moved closer to the stage for the second set and it was very good. Some tunes I enjoyed very much were Saida and Dilemma, a new tune that I believe she hasn’t recorded, yet. I bought one of her CDs at the end of the show: Watercolor, in her words a “Bill Evans-ish” album in a trio format. I’m going to listen to it tonight. Check out her discography on iTunes and listen to a few samples.