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Scott: Never knew about that Herbie disk. I may have to check it out.

Hearing Chick and Herbie would be great. I heard them play a concert together in Chicago many many moons ago. They recorded an album from that tour. My recollection is that it was fantastic.

Scott, clearly you got the bop idiom down. You even have it down uptempo. So that was impressive. Whatever style of playing one chooses, when you master it, it really makes you shine. Maybe we don't hear you much with bop tunes because we're always doing the unusual tunes like Naima, etc. that are not suited to the bop idiom. Perhaps you should be posting music that fits more often as we're seeing a hidden side of you.

I guess it's like me playing over bop tunes. It sounds different then when I play over Body and Soul. Like different approaches it seems.

I've never even realized how far I've gone with developing my bebop sensibilities. I may have erred here in skipping this portion of my education. I lack that side of the vocabulary to broaden my sound.

Among our little group here, probably no one else is bebop oriented.

Beeboss - I don't think you sound like a bop player either (though I know you love that era).

Actually, I think it was the C below middle C--probably at or close to the tenor break on your piano, and in that case those are tricky to get to sound like the surrounding scale.

Scep, you never warn us that you've got new recordings posted on you box.net. I'll check it out.

Scep! Nice energetic Solar(#1). Impressed with your unisons! You don't sound bebopish either though the vocabulary is there a little (unlike complete absence in mine). Great work. That a jam? BTW - each one of you plays an interesting variation on the head. Some copying may be necessary (by me) .

The Solar #2 has an even better feel. The relaxed swing is really happening.

Very pretty version of Body and Soul and I loved that unusual rhythmic feel for solo piano. Your acoustic touch is really good. I think that your playing sounds really good and melodic with less 16ths then this proves it.

I love everything from Jelly Roll Morton through to Aaron Parks and Tigran Hamasyan. I don't really gravitate towards bop, and if I do have a preferred style it would be an ECM vibe I think. I do believe it is important as far as possible to assimilate the older styles of jazz language but I have no time for jazz that tries to recreate times past, I want to hear something fresh and new and would like to play in that way if I am able to. Obviously all players should be able to improvise well over bop compositions but I really prefer players who don't play the bop cliches. In my own playing I really hate some of these cliches but often I can't stop them coming out, I fear some run too deep to eradicate them. What would be perfect would be to know and be able to play all the cliches but then to be able to choose not to actually play them.

I enjoyed the vibe on that one as well. Nice.

I hear you and as you already know, I sound pretty unusual (though I never realized it before). But you've assimilated bop and made choices. I haven't even done that.

I asked my teacher about this and he said that I need to master it because it is part of what jazz is. He also told me to start working on Walking bass (a neglected area). Not necessarily Walking and soloing but walking plus comping.

Now obviously I haven't gravitated towards bop and I don't think my teacher implied it as negative, but maybe as a way to inform my choices. By the similar token, someone only into bop may need to explore other territories too to expand their knowledge.

BTW - Beeboss, since you're talking about the ECM Vibe, KJ really draws a lot from bop. Really heavily actually. Something absent in let's say, Brad Mehldau. Brad will pull from Bop as he needs but in his regular playing he's moved on. I was listening to his version of Solar and this one clearly he did with bop roots.

Hey I wanted to share this... I'm living for 4 months in France without piano so I got myself a melodica and a keyboard! Been trying to bend notes and hopefully achieve some arabic touch.
Here's Caravan.

http://www.box.net/files#/files/0/f/144203162/1/f_1076805294

Link doesn't work Klink.

Hmm do I have to pay at box.net to be able to link it direct?
Try this I guess.
http://www.box.net/shared/6mru3nm1bgaqk0u4svc7

det fungerar toppen!

Klink,
I really liked that. You get great sound out of the melodica. Very well played. Did you play some kind of horn instrument before?

That is so cool sounding! You sound like a horn player.

Sounds like you have pretty strong bebop roots too.

Obviously you had to mic the melodica in but the rest of the sound is so clean that it sounds like they were recorded directly without a mic. So how did you record it?

Pretty funny ending

I did another version of Skylark for youtube
You can find it here if you like.....

http://youtu.be/K2j4IHB6W9g

You surely got the ECM Vibe there Beeboss Even, the active switching from melodic to harmonic playing that KJ often does. Very nice.

You forgot your pencil...

Yes it was very beautiful Dave B. All those transcriptions you did of KJ must have infiltrated into your thinking process.
You threw everything at it - nice juxtaposition of scales, repeated motifs, repeated notes, blues.
One of my favourites amongst your vids.

Thanks, glad you liked it

Thanks Knotty and JW. I don't play any horn instrument but I think the melodica is a great learning tool for phrasing and breathing beetwen phrases and it's fun! You should get one, they're not very expensive.

Anything but the melodıca is midi and loops from Logic and Garageband.

Interesting remark about bebop, I think the melodica lends itself more to lyrical playing. It's so nice to be able to hold long notes! Harder to phrase it like bebop, easy to run out of air.

Klink, I found the Ipad Garageband pretty much can be the equivalent of a melodica (minus the breathing). I was thinking of even plugging it into an amp for a gig People might find it entertaining. Piano sound is actually good. Plus the backing track can be built right in there. Or I attach a little AKAI Midi keyboard which is EXACTLY the size of a melodica (feels like it too - squishy keys ).

I guess when you don't have a piano around you'll try everything. I got it because I went on a cruise and had nothing to play on.