Some people may not find this to be of any real significance, but a jazz artist just won Album of the Year at the GRAMMY’s! Herbie Hancock’s River:The Joni Letters received the nod after 44 years of jazz-absence in the category. Absolutely amazing!
You’ll be missed.
On Thursday, the wife and I, two cats, my brother-in-law, and his newlywed bride will all take a road trip to Cleveland to spend Christmas with our families. It just so happens that both of the jazz clubs in town are featuring bassists while I’m home. Unfortunately, they’re both the same night!
Dave Morgan, Youngstown State faculty member and Cleveland Jazz Orchestra composer/bassist will be performing his tunes with a nonet at the Bop Stop this Friday. As Dave and Jack performed at our wedding reception, I had to give top bill to the Tom Knific Quartet, which is playing at Night Town Friday night. Tom is the chair of Western Michigan’s jazz department. I’ve secured a lesson with Tom for Saturday morning, pending schedules and Dave Morgan pointed me in the direction of a very generous Jared Craig, who is lending me a bass with which to practice for the week and a half I’m home. I’d love to get a lesson with Dave, too, if time permits.
When it rains it pours! I spend so much time at home laying around, watching TV - this will be a good opportunity to practice, learn and hear some live music! I wish I lived in a town with a real jazz club or two.
DJA is taking a trip north for a Secret Society North hit at IAJE 2008. I’m really excited to see him on a panel discussion with Neil Tesser (Listen Here) and others entitled “The Blog.” It’s disappointing that there aren’t more people involved in major scenes blogging the way Darcy does. It seems like he’s out every night, either playing or attending another great hit in NYC.
I’ve mentioned before that I first met Darcy at the last IAJE conference, where we were often internet kiosk neighbors. I intend to liveblog this year’s conference, if the schedule accompanying my new position with the CJC permits.
All this is meant to serve as introduction to something I want to spend more time looking at: Darcy is using a service called Fractured Atlas to assist with travel to IAJE Toronto. Fractured Atlas is a non-profit organization that…well, here’s what they say:
Fractured Atlas is
a non-profit organization that provides services and support to artists and arts organizations.
Fractured Atlas is
a community of artists and arts groups from every discipline across the country and around the world.
Fractured Atlas is
an innovator in the use of technology and 21st century business models to empower the community we serve.
Your donation to Fractured Atlas, on behalf of Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society North, is a tax-deductible way to assist these deserving artists make their way north. This is an amazing service I will be looking into for future use myself. In the meantime, I’ll be sending a few dollars Darcy’s way to ensure we get to see DJA’s Secret Society at IAJE.
Good to see Michael Formanek becoming an active member of the Peabody Bass Blog. I’m looking forward to his addition to an already superb collective bass blog.
I’m well aware of the excellent Rufus Reid interview videos at jazzdoublebass.com, but was not aware of last month’s article at allaboutjazz.com. Rufus is a giant among bass players. His book, “The Evolving Bassist” taught countless jazz bassists how to fulfill their role in an ensemble.
If you study consistently and are thorough, you should know when you are in control. All members in the group desire a positive, confident and consistent posture by the bassist. The desired musician has what everyone wants and needs to make the ensemble the best.
I’ve heard Rufus say it in person, and he repeats it here: The bassist has the power to destroy an otherwise excellent ensemble.
When one says they are a jazz bassist, it is assumed they know how to ‘swing’, can play the ‘blues and rhythm changes’, know numerous standards and jazz tunes, can play fast, can play in any key well, etc. Those attributes become crystal clear rather quickly if they are, in fact, under control. Your musical savvy is known immediately or not.
I’ve spent plenty of times fooling myself into thinking I possessed these qualities only to be called out for not having my “stuff” together. It’s humiliating and can be a real turning point is a musician’s career - it was in mine. I’m still working on getting it together and have appreciated direct help from Mr. Reid in doing so.
In the article, Reid outlines four important facets of effective jazz bass playing:
“The pulse is intangible to the touch but can be felt incredibly when executed properly.”
“When the bassist plays a song ‘a cappella’, one should be able to render the melody and harmony as suggested by the music. ”
“All bassists must be clear to one’s self before one can be truly clear to our listeners.”
“(It) is the player’s choice to respond or not, but actually hearing the event go by while you are doing what is expected of you is the important thing to establish a musical thread throughout the group.”
Please do youself a favor and read the whole article. In the meantime, I’ll include the www.jazzdoublebass.com videos here:
A classmate of mine and I are both preparing “Three Short Stories” for Double Bass and Piano, written by Bill Mays and recorded by the composer and John Goldsby
on Goldsby’s “Tale of the Fingers.” The first two “stories” of this suite both involve challenging arco sections (both written and improvised). Because of this, the idea of jazz arco playing has been at the fore of my mind for some time.
Goldsby and Lynn Seaton gave a great pair of demonstrations on the subject at the Aebersold camps and I’ve been working to apply some of their principals (particularly in the blowing section) to this piece (and my playing in general). I’ve had three great classical bass teachers over the last several years and considered the right-hand portion of this piece a given; not quite the case.
The anecdotal evidence seems to be that jazzers prefer German bow to French and I find myself among the presumed majority. All things relating to the German bow and it’s earthy grip pique my interest; there are myriad ways to unlock the musicality of the larger-frogged stick. The PBDB blog’s “Great German Bow Guide” took me to a website I’ve bookmarked but not yet explored: Robert Oppelt’s personal site. On his “Get A Grip” page, he outlines eleven different grip-types for the German bow and, next to the demonstrative photo, explains what he considers the weaknesses and benefits of each grip. Among these is a Streicher-style grip and my predominant grip (#11). I would have preferred he more detailed descriptions of each grip, including their origins and names, but this serves an an excellent resource that was not available when I first picked up the bow.
Whatever way you choose to play your double bass, I would highly recommend Paul Brun’s book “A New History of the Double Bass.” In it, he outlines one of the most nagging questions in the string family - why in the world do bassists play with that funny-looking bow?!
By the way - while you’re at Bob’s site, check out his tips.
***offensive language ahead***
Loosely transcribed at AAJ:
”I don’t speak Italian, but I hope that somebody who speaks English tell those a**holes to shut off those f***ing cameras. Until you don’t do it, music won’t be at its best and you will have spent your money for nothing. I’m speaking to you, you, you, and you, and also you up there. If I see one single flash during the concert, I and Gary and Jack reserve to ourselves the right to stop playing and leave this goddamn city. It’s your privilege to be here, not mine”.
What is the performer’s relationship with the audience? Do musicians of a certain caliber possess the right to castigate their audience? Daniel Biro doesn’t think so and expressed his views here.
It’s amazing to think that audience members put up with this.
The following is probably one of my favorite jazz bass Youtube finds. It’s a nine-part feature of a Ray Brown masterclass with English students. It has a watermark in the top left corner, some credits at the end, and is dubbed in French. The cuts appear to consider only filesize, as no effort appears to be made to create cuts that fit the flow of the video.
All that said, there are so many jewels from Brown in this video. Even without the lecture portion, this video is an education in jazz bass. Brown’s wit and charm allow him to lay down the law with his charges while maintaining a light, friendly discourse.
Do yourself a favor and stop to watch them all right now:
I:
II:
III:
IV:
V:
VI:
VII:
IIX:
IX:
There’s a discussion about it at Talkbass in this thread.
I’m in David Baker’s theory class right now. Baker is the chair of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Department of Jazz Studies. Just check out the first paragraph of his IU bio:
David Baker studied with J.J. Johnson, Janos Starker, and George Russell. He has been honored with nominations for the Pulitzer Prize and the Grammy Award. Mr. Baker has received the Down Beat Magazine’s New Star Award, Lifetime Achievement Award, Jazz Education Hall of Fame Award, the National Association of Jazz Educators Hall of Fame Award, and the National Endowment for the Arts American Jazz Masters Award.
Baker is tough and demanding, but one of the sweetest people you’ve ever met. If you don’t get him on the phone, there’s a good chance you won’t be getting in touch with him. He’s an extremely active teacher who has better things to do than sit a computer all day (I know what you’re thinking…). He and his wife, Lida, are the royal family of the camps. It is such an honor to get to spend time with them. I told Dr. Baker last night that, even though my chops (and ears) aren’t up to his theory class, I am getting so much from it and will be taking it home to shed. My Sony MD recorder is sitting beside me, capturing every story and moment. This is one of the great treasures of the workshops.
The house was packed for Moody, but let up ever so slightly for subsequent sets. I’ve been trying to get a shot like this all week.
This week’s Wednesday night concert at Masterson’s features the incomparable James Moody. Also playing are drummer Jonathan Higgins, guitarist Dave Stryker, and Organist Bobby Floyd. You should be here right now.
Moody conducted a saxophone masterclass today and will be hosting a flute masterclass on Thursday. We are honored to have such a living legend here with us for the week.
Only at Aebersold!
1…If you know Jamey Aebersold, you know he likes to take pictures. He tells me he uses the SnP method of photography - Shoot and Pray. He gets some good shots that are featured throughout the buildings this week. Unfortunately, he snagged one of a visible stunned me and had it placed prominently on the bulletin board in the lobby of the school of music.
It’s been a running deal to place captions below it. I believe the one here is “INCONTHEIVABLE!” Let me know if you have any good captions.
2…At least one camper has come to me and said “you’re the guy with the blog, right?” If you are reading this and attending the Aebersold workshops, come up to me and let me know. It’s very gratifying to meet readers (long time or new) in real life. I’m the guy in the picture above, say hello.
I ran into Chris Fitzgerald in the hall today and he commented on the amusement my posting brought him. I came into this very determined to post consistently, but quickly lost momentum. It’s kinda like watching DJA liveblog BoaC and seeing the fatigue set in, but mine’s not nearly as entertaining. Well, I promise to do my best to be a bit more consistent. I’ve already posted a couple times today. Don’t hold me to it, though.
I haven’t encountered any other livebloggers yet, but I did catch a post by Thomas Howard chronicling his experiences. It is so great to see people with backgrounds in rock, pop, and classical music coming to these workshops and making great headway as jazz musicians. I’m awful with names; when Thomas posted at Talkbass to let me know he wrote this post, I had to check his myspace for pictures to recognize who he was. We had several conversations while he was here and I really enjoyed the bit of time I had to get to know him.
This thing really is a brotherhood.
We had a bit of a respite last night (following Transformers with Anotonio). The week starts back up today. I just had a less than pleasing audition, but this is one of those few low-pressure moments where it doesn’t really matter.
At the end of my audition, Friesen had me play my bass backwards (RH on the neck) for a slow blues. Boy, did it go poorly! Afterwards, Friesen reminded me that this was pretty much how I played when I first picked up the bass. “See how far you’ve come?” he asked. That made my day.
Where else can you see Transformers with Antonio Hart?
Things have been much busier than expected and I haven’t had the time to write as I desired. I’ve been recording a lot of my experiences for a big audio dump and possible podcasting. While you’re waiting, here are some bass shots:
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.
It’s funny to see so many musicians playing the same instrument in one room. Campers are rehearsing as I type.
…and the staff fooling around:
