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Then again from a listener point of view I think quartet has a real lot to offer. piano trios are great to listen too when it is Jarrett or Bill etc, but a sax can really break up the sound and provide some well needed excitement and intensity in the music. I do wish that even Jarrett would sometimes play with a sax sometimes, as when he used to do that the music was often on another level of intensity. Variety is the spice sometimes.
Hey guys... sorry I've been out of the loop for awhile. I've been working on marketing and search engine optimization for my local teaching website. Trying to get some new students here in the Chicago area. I can only stand so much computer time per day .
Knotty... all your tunes are sounding good! I do think the drummer occasionally drags on Cherokee, but in his defense, alot of the soloists feel like they're pushing ahead to me. The vibe solo locks pretty good though. By the end the tempo is only slightly slower so there must not be too much dragging? On Giant Steps, maybe you could learn to play the head in two handed quartal voicings.
Jazzwee... Naima was nice. I agree that the guitar gets in the way sometimes. I would suggest just going for it when it comes to keeping your place. You'll either get it or you won't . Your lines are sounding good, nice development and use of space. On up tunes like Mr. PC you could try dropping out the left hand when you solo. This always helps me sound better on up tempo stuff. Then you can just stab some two hand chords between the lines every now and then.
Beeboss... excellent as always on the Gismonti tune. The groove is killin'! When are you going to make a solo piano cd? I want one .
On my end, I'm actually set to get together with some guys to play on Tuesday. Haven't played with anybody in about 2 years! I have an old friend here in Chicago that I played with in grad school... a drummer. We're actually looking at maybe getting a trio going. I'm looking forward to it!
Beeboss... excellent as always on the Gismonti tune. The groove is killin'! When are you going to make a solo piano cd? I want one .
Thanks Scott, glad you liked it. I am always thinking of making recordings but I have given up making cds. I have enough boxes of unsold ones underneath my bed already! It costs too much money that I never get back. I might set up a kind of 'print one up if I get an order' system if I ever get round to it.
Originally Posted by Scott Coletta
On my end, I'm actually set to get together with some guys to play on Tuesday. Haven't played with anybody in about 2 years! I have an old friend here in Chicago that I played with in grad school... a drummer. We're actually looking at maybe getting a trio going. I'm looking forward to it!
Sounds fun, good luck with it. I should get a trio going as well.
We let a horn player go over a year ago and have been playing as a trio ever since (except when we add our singer). The two things I find are that: 1. It's much more mentally exhausting to play a couple of sets. Except when you are comping for a bass solo, you're "on" the whole time. Head in, solo, head out. Also, you are clearly the focus of attention. 2. You need a healthy dose of confidence. When we started, I felt like I wasn't good enough to be the focus of so much of the music. I'm getting a bit better, but I still feel at times like it's too much me.
Where actually trying out a new sax player this weekend. I hope he works out, but there will be times, if he does, that I'll miss being the focus of attention in a trio, despite all that I said above!
We let a horn player go over a year ago and have been playing as a trio ever since (except when we add our singer). The two things I find are that: 1. It's much more mentally exhausting to play a couple of sets. Except when you are comping for a bass solo, you're "on" the whole time. Head in, solo, head out. Also, you are clearly the focus of attention.
There is that. But then again, I play solo piano which is even worse. An hour of that and I'm exhausted and you have to keep thinking of putting some rhythmic "something". At least with a trio that's one thing off the list. And you get the occasional Bass Solo break.
maybe keep your bigger band (slim it down a little maybe) for your gig and get a trio together for a few rehearsals and see how it goes. if the bigger band is fun to do and getting paid employment then that can only be good and it's best not to mess too much with a winning formula. just get a trio on the side and, if you enjoy it, try to get another gig with that. I am sure you will learn a lot even with a few sessions.
Well that's the problem. What I want may not be what the venue wants. Also, typically you'd want a quieter audience for a trio setting and if you listen to my recordings, it's loud.
Of course I can't control the paying gigs, so what I'll do is just intersperse trio tunes in the middle of the big group every once in awhile. At least to get a good feel of playing in that style.
BTW - although my group is big, I don't pay the extra guys. They just want to sit in. The paid members are the rhythm section, sax, vocals. But it sure is nice to get paid. Maybe it's why the musicians flock to me like honey.
Jazzwee... Naima was nice. I agree that the guitar gets in the way sometimes. I would suggest just going for it when it comes to keeping your place. You'll either get it or you won't . Your lines are sounding good, nice development and use of space. On up tunes like Mr. PC you could try dropping out the left hand when you solo. This always helps me sound better on up tempo stuff. Then you can just stab some two hand chords between the lines every now and then.
Thanks for the comments Scott.
I'll be playing Naima tonight at a gig. When I had my teacher listen to that recording, he trashed me pretty well. He called it "so-so". He wanted it even more melodic and not so scale sounding. So we'll see what it sounds like tonight. I've only had overnight to absorb what he taught me.
Scott, it must be really difficult to start from scratch with students. I really feel for you. But I'm really glad to hear you're getting together to play out. Maybe get a sax player to ease the load for a bit since you talked about some confidence issues before.
Keep us updated on what's happening and when you finally succeed in recreating your student base. Why did you move BTW?
Swing - I discussed this as an issue at a prior gig so this is the same drummer and I felt really swinging. He stuck to the ride cymbal pattern and it just felt right. Here's a couple of swing samples. I posted Autumn Leaves in the Autumn Leaves thread for posterity.
Ballad - this sucker was supposed to be double-time latin feel and the rhythm section didn't do that so it really screwed me up. The obscure rhythm used changed my whole hearing of the thing. I was planning on playing some simple melodies and I was just too confused.
Groove Tunes - I did a pretty extensive scat solo on Cantaloupe. Each time we do this, it's an adventure. I never know what's going to happen. Footprints -- I was going outside a few times but it didn't seem to work with the bass.
In all these, there was something wrong with my keyboard setting and it was sounding metallic all night and I just wasn't responding to it. I never got the round tone I was looking for and it was to late to figure it out. The touch setting was wrong.
Hey jazzwee, sounds good! The groove on the swing tunes is nice, especially Summertime. The rhythm section is locking in well on both tunes but the solos feel a little more skittish on There Will Never Be Another You.
I think the concept on Naima is really nice. You play some great stuff in there. The first time around on your solo was excellent, but after that it starts to get a little long. I guess it would have helped if the bass and drums set up a different feel then. It kind of gets a little funky later which is interesting . I've always preferred on ballads to just improvise half or 3/4 of a chorus and then do the remainder of the head out... just to keep from dragging it out. But on this tune, with a nice change in feel you could keep it going.
I like the slap bass on Canteloupe Island in the intro. Overall it's a tight groove on the head. And the scat solo is good. There are a couple of times when you start to hold a note while adding more to it. Maybe you could experiment more with that.
The bass line on Footprints is cool too. Is this a different bass player? He sounds good. Yeah, there are some weird harmonic moments here. Outside playing can be tricky. During your solo it seems to work a little better. Bass is catching on I think.
Do you guys ever change up the solo order? I noticed sax and trumpet aren't always in the same order but it seems like it's always horns, guitar, piano, bass. What about trading with drums?
Nice stuff. I think your playing is getting more developed. Maybe the horn players will catch up with you!
Scott, it must be really difficult to start from scratch with students. I really feel for you. But I'm really glad to hear you're getting together to play out. Maybe get a sax player to ease the load for a bit since you talked about some confidence issues before.
Keep us updated on what's happening and when you finally succeed in recreating your student base. Why did you move BTW?
I'm lucky that I'm able to continue teaching a few of my old students in Maryland on Skype. Hopefully things will pick up with school starting soon.
I'm actually more interested in doing a trio. I like being able to set the tone of the group. We'll see how it goes.
We moved to Chicago for my wife, who is a steelpan player. She's planning to start a youth music program here with some of her old friends from grad school.
Thanks Scott! Naima concept was all wrong from what I practiced Oh well. It caught me off guard because I'm looking at rhythm section with BIG EYES saying DOUBLE TIME FEEL. But they ignored me. So I was just trying to make it go.
Then there was the problem of the keyboard locked into 'Light Touch'. My presets got screwed up. So this tinny sound was coming out. This affected my playing all night. Like I couldn't articulate properly because the tinny-metallic sound would come out.
By the end of the night, I had already decided to dump my Roland FP7F. It turns out just to be a bad setting so it's fine now.
Anyway, these things just destroy the moment but I'm glad it didn't turn out badly.
We have a large group of regulars that show up at every gig. It makes it fun to play.
So you learnt some important things ... - know your equipment, so if your settings get changed you know immediately how to get the sound you like - communication on the gig can be tricky. If you want a certain arrangement then that is what rehearsals are for It sounds like your gigs are going well, you are getting paid and learning important things. Congrats.
For example, I wrote down on the set list (and even discussed way before), that I wanted Naima to be "Latin - Double Time Feel - at about 120". Maybe I should have said Bossa so there's less ambiguity about the Latin. When I asked the Bass player what he thinks double time feel means, he said 8 beats to a bar. So I don't understand how it ended up the way it did.
Another typical problem area has been form. Is it AAB or AABA? Do you play Take 5 through the whole chorus or solo on A only? These kinds of problems are sometimes based on history of musician's experiences so sometimes I'm not able to predict in advance.
I still remember my biggest boo-boo. The sax player played Windows in a different key. We sounded like free jazz that day...
Often I use Jam sessions as a way to try out tunes. But unfortunately, difficult tunes like Naima, Windows, Dolphin Dance, Tones for Joan's Bones, Very Early, Giant Steps etc. hardly ever gets played because there's always someone who can't play it. There aren't enough high level musicians jamming that those can be exclusive only to a certain level.
War stories anyone? That would make feel I'm not alone.
For example, I wrote down on the set list (and even discussed way before), that I wanted Naima to be "Latin - Double Time Feel - at about 120". Maybe I should have said Bossa so there's less ambiguity about the Latin. When I asked the Bass player what he thinks double time feel means, he said 8 beats to a bar. So I don't understand how it ended up the way it did.
Sometimes things don't go as they should. Maybe the drums or bass couldn't find their way into the new groove, maybe they just forgot what they were supposed to do, who knows. With the best will in the world unexpected things sometimes happen on the gig, so don't worry about it. Sometimes they are the best bits!
Originally Posted by jazzwee
War stories anyone? That would make feel I'm not alone.
Dave I think you are lucky to have another musical genius left to discover! To me Egberto occupies a very unique place and his music defies categorisation, part Brazilian folk part classical part jazz fusion all mixed up.
It sure is a beautiful tune. (Elling version is called: "And we will fly") Btw, on the same album: Night Moves, Elling wrote lyrics [Leaving Again/In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning] and created a song based on Keith Jarrett’s improvised intro to "in the wee small hours" from his 1994 trio recording, “At The Blue Noteâ€.
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. I've always preferred on ballads to just improvise half or 3/4 of a chorus and then do the remainder of the head out... just to keep from dragging it out. But on this tune, with a nice change in feel you could keep it going. 