Listen to Learn - Learn to Listen!
Summary of July 12, 2016
Next week: New York trumpeter Nathan Eklund and "Autumn Leaves" - please memorize tune and including chords and lyrics.
http://www.nathaneklund.com/
The July 12th - Session began with a performance of "Cape Verdian Blues" by Horace Silver .... performers were Taryn Zickefoose (drums), Michael Glynn (bass), Andrew Fox (piano) and Steve Mostovoy (cornet)
Special Kudos to Andrew Fox for learning to play Jazz Piano this year ... WOW! Not bad for a conservatory trained Bassoonist.
Clinic including call and response plus listening to timeless recordings including "Love for Sale" by Oscar Peterson, "On Green Dolphin Street" by Miles Davis
Thanks to Max Bennett for this summary of Steve Mostovoy's talk:
Notes from Mostovoy lecture:
- Soloing with a purpose (there are lots of improvisation tools)--- starting with the melody as an idea, trying to sound like somebody, etc.
- Have conversations with your heroes - play with recordings on a regular basis and lift ideas from your favorite players. Do you ever notice when you play with recordings the artists will channel something out of you?
Carnival Combo warmed up by playing through "Sonnymoon for Two" and having each of the kids take a couple of choruses. Andrew Fox gave a few suggestions for improvement (avoiding the root, repeating a riff, playing everything with conviction). We then read arrangement of Autumn Leaves and worked on the accuracy and intonation in the stop-time ensemble hits, then played it down again so Stuart could take a chorus. In the last ten minutes they played through the head of Little Sunflower, and Alex Dyring spoke about form.
After the masterclass with Steve we split the group up. Gordon led the group in a rehearsal and improvisation class over Little Sunflower.
We focused a lot of our rehearsal time on Autumn Leaves, and more specifically on how to navigate through the chord changes effectively. This included figuring out the arpeggios as they relate to the chord and the chord quality, the similarities between chords and their arpeggios, and how to use these notes to improvise using melody and rhythm.
After the break for the clinic we focused more on One By One, and took special care to focus on the similarities (and there are many) between it's harmony, and the harmony from Autumn Leaves. Because of this we can use many of the same notes and approaches to playing on One By One as we used on Autumn Leaves.
We have an arrangement by Mr. Carey of Blues By Five for four horns that didn't have time to get to.
Homework for the week is to learn the chord changes and arpeggios to the next four bars of One By One. This is the kind of song which has a lot of repeated harmony so learning in blocks of measures is beneficial because we can then apply those blocks to many different parts of the tune.
Jory
Motian Sickness listened and played through Hackensack a few times. The groove is everything. We also played through Nebee's arrangement of There Will Never Be Another You.
Homework for next time:
The Full House group was mostly away for Drum Major camp. We worked over the tune with guest visitors Luis Ross and Joel Steinke. We attempted to memorize the tune and took turns soloing. We also worked on Mamacita. We agreed to add an extra chord on the blowing that wasn't apparent on the leadsheet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFkQ0By8N1g
This week Straight Life worked through the same songs as last week, with the addition of "All The Things You Are". Since most of the group was missing this week, we decided to push back the decision of our set list to this next week. Our "Homework" this week was for each person to choose three songs from the list and put together their own set list. Then, each of us will present our set list to the group and we'll all vote on whose set list we like best.
Summary by Nathan James
Summary by Nathan James
Big Thanks to the Edward Kim Family for the amazing meal afterwards :)
Next week Jack Hillman's providing TACO BAR :)
I liked how Steve Mostoy emphasized the importance of playing in the character of the tune you are playing at a given time. Lots of jazz musicians tend to often forget this and go off on their own tangent when soloing, and this can sometimes add an extra dose of excitement and adventure for the listener and players, but it can also detract somewhat from the creation of a cohesive musical whole. I find it boring when a musician plays completely inside a tune's character/harmony, but equally as unengaging when they disregard it altogether (some artists though, such as Ornette Coleman, are able to make this more interesting than others). The recordings provided were phomenal examples of the concept Mr. Mostovoy was trying to get across. I know as I listened to the recording of love for sale, due to the fact that Oscar Peterson stuck so closely to the melody in his solo, the deviations he took from it where made even more exciting. This is a concept I've heard stated many times, but definitely one that I still need to work on.
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