Thursday, August 22, 2024

August 20 - Caught a whopper!

This is what may happen if you keep showing up to be a part of the Jazz Community in Edmonds.  Big Thanks to Zac Clute for gifting me this gorgeous salmon last night at our Wednesday Sea Jazz Jam!  Seems to fit the Gone Fishin' Jazz Colony Theme perfectly :)




COMBO UPDATES:

iReel Combo - (choir room) 

We decided to run through our two tunes multiple times to get everyone some practice improvising. 

Over Doxy, at the end, we are tagging the ending, and we will have a brief final chord to noodle on. 

One thing we discussed over “Maiden Voyage” was how you can have a specific pitch that you like to hit, or resolve to, and how moving away from that pitch and returning to it builds melodic tension. This can be an effective method of improvising. An example of this is Coltrane playing “Hackensack.” 

We also discussed doing some arranging on “Maiden Voyage.” We decided to crescendo on the bridge, and we gave the horn players some harmony parts. The rhythm section also has a specific way to comp over the soloists, being to keep the rhythmic motif going over Ari’s solo. Then, we can branch out over the other soloists. The piano should be going into the higher registers and embellishing things over the bass solo. We also are going to cue the end of the final vamp.

Other than that, that’s it!  - Liam Salas

8/20

Wave! Submitted by Alex Weber

Today, we locked down details for each song for the gig. 

1. Surprise! (Maybe)

2. Wave: 
A) Isabel and Mabel
A2) All
B) Alex and Mabel 
A3) All, with new articulations
Solos: Mabel plays original changes, others play little sunflower changes
The head again, then to coda

3. Centerpiece:
1 chorus unison
1 chorus harmony
Solos, 2 choruses each
Call and response 
1 chorus unison
1 chorus harmony
Ending

Remember, for the ending (in concert pitches):
Mabel Bb B C
Arden G Ab A
Alex F Gb G
Isabel Db D Eb

Plus, a bonus photo of our poem here:

Good Bait Combo

This week our group was a little on the small side. We decided to work on Avalon a bit by ourselves and then combine with Eisenmenger’s group. 

We ran the melody to Avalon a couple of times, then practiced either playing the roots, the melody, or walking a bass line. All three methods are a great way to become comfortable with the changes. 

After that we combined with Eisenmenger’s group, and played through Maiden Voyage.

Notes from that discussion: 

Dynamics count - play the bridge louder, then pull back for extra drama

After that we worked on Doxy a bit, and found a stanky way to play the ‘bridge’ of the tune. Lot’s of attitude and a big sound make a difference. We then took turns improvising over 8 bar sections of the tune. 

Notes from soloing
have a plan going into a solo, and look for key notes like 3rds and 7ths to anchor around
Repeat the same material if it will fit across multiple chords
“enclosures” sound hip. Practice enclosing the chord tones with the adjacent notes. 
Example: in Bb, the 3 chord tones are Bb, D, F. This can be enclosed like:
C-A-Bb, Eb-C#-D, G-E-F etc
- find a note that sounds especially good on your instrument and incorporate it in the solo

Finally we played through Avalon, and Conner’s group joined in on the solo choruses. Andrew briefly demonstrated pre-bebop drumming techniques. 

Notes:
again aim for those anchor notes. Over a 2-5-1, play a pretty melody in the key, then aim for the leading tone somewhere in the 5 to lead back to 1. This will make the solo sound coherent and planned. 

Exercises:
play through all 2-5-1 in all keys. Start from the root and outline the chord
Play those same 2-5-1’s but don’t start from the root, and aim for the notes that change in the next chord
Play a solo using only quarter notes to give yourself time to think about the voice leading

- submitted by Andrew Fox
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