Frequent listens over the last year or so:

I can only imagine this is what it must have been like to see the John Coltrane Quartet (just a little before my time).

The best news? You too can watch and listen to this performance:

Songs performed:

1. 2 Down & 1 Across (Songbook)
2. Chief Blackwater (Standard Of Language)
3. Organized Colors (Simply Said)
4. Sing A Song Of Song (Songbook)
5. Medley – Kenny Garrett (ss) & Benito Santiago (p)
6. Happy People (Sketches of MD – Live at the Iridium)

some new, some rediscoveries, and a few old faves. haven’t exactly worried about order but shuffling works nicely. let me know what you think.

what, you haven’t tried rdio.com? if you love music, you owe it to yourself, and doesn’t cost anything to try. works for me!

Christina Taylor Green was born on September 11, 2001 and was among those killed in Tucson last Saturday. After listening to President Obama talk about this idealistic nine year old and seeing a bit of the news coverage of her funeral today, I couldn’t help thinking about Tom Harrell’s “Wise Children.” I have no idea what motivated this mournful tune, but it certainly fits the occasion. I especially liked these words from the President:

Imagine — imagine for a moment, here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that some day she, too, might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council. She saw public service as something exciting and hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.

I want to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us -– we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.

Wise children indeed.

Update: On rdio.com I created a playlist containing songs inspired by the events of 9/11. It’s since been updated with songs inspired by Hurricane Katrina and, today, songs that seem fitting for the events of Tucson, and especially the death of Christina Taylor Green:

My music discovery/listening/acquisition/sharing regimen is in a state of, well… It’s not in flux; that’s way too negative. In many ways, things are better than they’ve ever been. No, thanks to technological advances, how I do those things is changing.

I try to find music I’m interested in, new or old, in a variety of places. I usually buy what I want to have permanent access to. That’s been the pattern almost from the beginning, starting with 45s, then vinyl albums followed by CDs. Digital music ended up on series of ever-smaller and yet more spacious ipods.

The iTunes Music Store started a transition to downloading music, with the vendors expanded to include emusic.com, Amazon, among others. Bye-bye, Tower Records!

Lala.com seemed almost perfect for finding and serendipitously discovering new music. Most importantly, Lala evolved into a great place to meet people who shared an interest in my favorite spot on the long tail. Lala added community to the music mix.

Communities have sprouted on a variety of other services (with varying degrees of success), including emusic.com, mog.com and, now, Rdio. There’s also Apple’s Ping. The thing about these services is they’re designed principally to sell music, or eyeballs. They’re about making money selling a product. That’s where their development time goes.

Maybe providing social networking tools (necessary to facilitate growth and maintenance of communities) costs these services more than it creates in additional revenue. Not sure. Lala seemed to get the balance right, until Apple came along and ruined it. Perhaps the Lala model was unprofitable or unsustainable, but Ping represents a gigantic step backwards.

Some aspects of Rdio are particularly galling. For example, let’s say you create a playlist containing a few songs. Later someone leaves a “review” on the playlist (a comment or question). You might not discover their review until weeks later because there’s no notification that the review was posted. Without notifications, opportunities for conversation (and community) are lost.

There are also serious problems with the Rdio user interface. Suppose you search for a song entitled, “Solar” (a great Miles Davis composition that’s been covered hundreds of times). Rdio informs you there are almost 2400 such songs, but the first 22 it lists have some other title. Most don’t even have “solar” in the title. More song titles contain “solaris” than “solar.” Several are merely songs by a band whose name contains “solaris.” Bug or feature?

I can’t speak about their numbers and have no idea how Rdio’s business model is working, but even with fewer useful features, the Rdio community seems even stronger than Lala at this point (maybe that’s because memories of lala are fading). Rdio remains useful despite its flaws because the competition is worse, it has a growing catalog, and it has a vibrant and growing community. But there’s something else…

One. More. Thing.

Late last year I hooked up an Apple TV to my audio receiver and television. That allowed me to access and play my entire digital music library through the stereo for the first time. Shortly thereafter, Apple updated its operating systems to include Airplay which permits music and video streaming from iPhones and iPads to the Apple TV. With the introduction of Airplay, I could stream Rdio from the iPhone to my stereo¹.

For me, major change. I can listen to music I don’t own through a great sound system. The iPhone version lets me carry Rdio tracks with me on my long winter walks. Now I find myself questioning whether I need to buy and download a new song or album rather than just use the subscription model.

Rdio is good. Rdio + Apple TV + an iPhone with synced Rdio music: much better! All that and community too? Priceless!

BTW, there’s a great template for Rdio: just copy more of what Lala was doing!

¹ AirPlay streaming also works with other music service apps, including Pandora, MOG, and Last.fm.

I love how Herbie describes Miles’ reaction to him playing a “wrong chord!” This seems like verification for a Miles quote I heard about long ago. Asked what he does when he plays a wrong note, Miles, in his raspy voice, said, “I play it again!”

More info:

• Icons Among Us: Jazz In The Present Tense home page (photos and video)
• IMDB page
• New York Times Review (4/19/2009)
• All About Jazz article

• Icons Among Us on Amazon.com

Enjoy!

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:

• Yusef Lateef’s Koko’s Tune
• Kenny Garrett’s Rendition of Trane’s Liberia

• Abbey Lincoln’s Bird Alone (including a transcription of Stan Getz’s great solo)

A lot of other stuff is there and he adds new posts all the time. I’m really looking forward to tackling Bird Alone; it’s a great ballad.

As always, of course, ymmv. Enjoy!

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.

The notes fly. He’s searching for a vamp, a groove, a motif. Not searching exactly so much as making himself available to it. Patterns will emerge. Eventually I become comfortable with what I’m hearing. It begins to sound interesting, although I still have no idea what it is. Keith knows, doesn’t he?

It’s magical, if only for a moment. And then he’s done. We applaud. Keith stands, putting his hands together as in prayer. Another perfunctory bow. And then he sits down, does it again, only different.

The second piece had a slow tempo and was more melodic from the start. It reminded me of "Old Folks", a beautiful ballad Keith performed with Gary and Jack as an encore at an SFJAZZ concert years ago. Keith sings along. Nice!

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Next comes fast paced arpeggiated scales, bric-a-brac ramdomness, the notes blending together into a soundscape. This reminds me of a Chick Corea/Herbie Hancock piano duet concert almost thirty years ago. As an encore, they made their pianos "talk" to each other. Sound without melody. You couldn’t make out the words, exactly, but we were treated to a real conversation. You could understand the meaning, the emotion of what was being said, like overhearing snippets of a conversation in another room. Keith seemed to produce that kind of conversation all on his own. It was real…

And the set continued like this. The songs were fairly brief, not like the extended pieces featured in "The Köln Concert" recording. This may partially be concession to an illness — chronic fatigue syndrome — that prevented him from playing for two years and limits his endurance. But it’s also an artistic choice [see discussion in first LA TImes article linked below].

After intermission, Keith approached the microphone, said he has nothing to say and began walking toward the piano. Halfway there, he turned around, returned to make a few political remarks. He let us participate in the joke…

In the second set, the audience especially responded to a blues that based on the first two bars of Charlie Parker’s "Nows the Time." The concert concluded with four encores, and they were all special.

Magic Happens

The second encore was perfect. Keith didn’t play individual notes. Rather the notes combined to create a "wall of sound," rumbling, moving around the piano. It evoked the feeling of a chant or mantra, maybe a prayer. Eventually he began to pierce through the soundscape with single, higher-pitched notes. Reminded me again of the Corea/Hancock "talking pianos" and also Charlie Haden’s "American Dreams." This was the highlight of an incredible evening. Since the concert was recorded, I hope to hear it again!

Keith concluded with two standards: "It Might As Well Be Spring" (and it was just a day later) and "As Time Goes By."

Just Excellent!

1. Keith Jarrett’s Wikipedia entry
2. Jarrett rallies, as have the acoustics: LA Times article describes Jarrett’s new approach to solo concerts.
3. His fluid improv: Keith Jarrett sets aside structure and just goes where the music takes him at Disney Hall (LA Times)
4. Jarrett Takes a New Tack (San Francisco Chronicle)
5. Fresh Aire Interview of Keith Jarrett