this is interesting. just created a playlist at 8track.com featuring some songs i like a lot. not sure how it works or exactly what the rules are. like can i talk about who plays on each track, what stands out about it for me, etc? anyway, give it a listen and let me know what you think.
I recently watched Icons Among Us: Jazz In The Present Tense on DVD and can’t wait to see it again. Discovered some new musicians, and new music by people I haven’t listened to in awhile. I love the ongoing “what is jazz” debate and appreciated the film showing different perspectives without choosing sides. It’s a really cool film with excellent performances by a diverse group of current day musicians. Highly recommended!
I recently came across James Mahone’s Practice Portal blog. James writes about music, and frequently includes mp3s and, often, lead sheets and solo transcriptions. Three examples:
Letters to Herbie, by pianist John Beasley, presents a number of well-known Hebie Hancock songs in a fresh light, with a little help from Christian McBride on bass and Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums. I especially love “ 4 A.M.,” with McBride channeling Jaco Pastorius’ original performance, and “Eye of the Hurricane,” but it’s all good! I think it’s also one of the best jazz recordings of 2008.
The CD also contains “Bedtime Voyage,” an interesting combination of Herbie’s “Tell Me a Bedtime Story” and “Maiden Voyage.” The YouTube video below features a version recorded in April 2008 by Beasley with Trevor Ware on bass and Bill Wysaske on drums:
On Sunday (3/19/06), I had the opportunity to attend SFJAZZ’s Keith Jarrett solo piano concert at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. I’ve loved his recordings for what seems like forever, and have taken every opportunity to attend the SFJZAZZ performances by Keith, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette.
Nevertheless, I didn’t get tickets for the solo concert. $100 for orchestra seats was part of it, but mostly I prefer working bands to solo performers. Still, when friends called with extra tickets, it was impossible to say no.
The first set consisted of six totally improvised pieces. After a bow to the audience, Keith sits at the piano and lets his fingers figure out what they’re going to play, without preconceived ideas. Arpeggios, scale runs or random notes. Where’s he going? It’s hard to tell.
January 12th 2010 Conan O’Brien Says He Won’t Do ‘Tonight Show’ Following Leno on twitter, conan is god. everyone loves this statement. everyone except, that is, me. conan seems high-minded, resolute, principled. except he's sticking the shiv into leno. twisting it. drawing blood. hitting bone.simply publishing this ("people of the world") is a power play. he steals the ground from leno, casting him as the villain. casts his team against leno's. blames leno more than nbc.leno is in an untenable position. he can't win the p.r. game against conan at this point. or if he can, i'm not sure how he does it. nbc if frakked. otoh this is all their doing. they had choices to make and they tried to avoid them. choices have consequences. by not choosing, they've damaged leno, conan, fallon, and the tonight show franchise. which, was, of course, a choice, albeit a demonstrably bad one.
January 2nd 2010 The Health Care System Should Give People Good Advice About Health after watching half of food, inc., it's clear frum doesn't go far enough. and as a committed conservative, it's pretty clear he wouldn't want to go far enough. feed that guy some high fructose corn syrup, will ya?
I recently watched Icons Among Us: Jazz In The Present Tense on DVD and can’t wait to see it again. Discovered some new musicians, and new music by people I haven’t listened to in awhile. I love the ongoing “what is jazz” debate and appreciated the film showing different perspectives without choosing sides. It’s a really cool film with excellent performances by a diverse group of current day musicians. Highly recommended!
Nevertheless, I didn’t get tickets for the solo concert. $100 for orchestra seats was part of it, but mostly I prefer working bands to solo performers. Still, when friends called with extra tickets, it was impossible to say no.