Today was move-in day for the first of two week-long Aebersold Workshops. Many of the rhythm section players arrived earlier in the week for the two-day drum and bass workshops in addition to players here for The Man‘s two-day improvisation primer. The staff had a very reasonable call of 10:00 am today (after a much-needed early end yesterday) and we prepared for registration.
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Lynn Seaton just played an arco/vocal solo a la Slam Stewart on a blues that knocked my socks off! I wish I had recorded it to share with my (few) loyal readers. Wow!
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I took the minors to lunch at Taco Hut (much to their chagrin) for the second day in a row. It’s not agreeing with me one bit. After lunch, there was much moving of furniture. Rooms needed to be re-arranged to accommodate the classes and combos of the camps. This was the part of the day I choose to forget. It was exhausting and I’m glad it’s over.
Tonight was the last dinner on the meal plan. Meals are served on the campus of UofL at Masterson’s, which I am told is not at all unpleasant, but gets tedious for those of us on the two-week plan. Dinners at Masterson’s are accompanied by faculty concerts. Our own Jack Wilkins played in a quintet featuring dueling tenors, guitar, bass, and organ. The truth of the matter is, I was a little too exhausted to give it my full attention. There were, however, a few moments where the quintet burned so hard…well, I’ve never been a very vivid writer, use your own good jazz analogy.
Evenings at the Aebersold camps feature three sets of faculty concerts. I was blessed to miss the first set (it’s not as bad as it sounds) because Rich Armandi pulled me away for a lesson. The best part of this camp is the amazing faculty that avail themselves to us almost non-stop for the entire week. Rich is a Chicago area bassist that, as he says, is focused on being a strong utility player, knowing as many tunes as possible and playing in time and in tune with an excellent sound. We talked a lot about vomit, the Gary Karr exercise that, when played by a room full of bassists, has been known to induce vomiting. We also talked about using large muscles to maximize sound production. I’ll write better notes on the lesson tonight.
The second set was:
Lynn Seaton.b
Phil DeGregg.p
Steve Barnes.d
Tim Armacost.ts
Dave Stryker.g
Jennifer Barnes.voc
You already heard what I think about that.
Starting now is:
Don Braden.ts
David Hazeltine.tp
Antonio Hart.as
Rufus Reid.b
Steve Davis.d
Barry Ries.p
I’ve got more important things to do than type….more later.
[...] long day, long night. Many of the rhythm section players arrived earlier in the week for the two-day drum and bass workshops in addition to players here for The Man?s two-day improvisation primer. The staff had a very reasonable call of 10:00 am today (after … [...]