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and btw, thanks for introducing me to Pilc. Those masterclasses of his are amazing.
He said in one of them: Some people have a hard time singing lines. Some people have a hard time playing them. 2 different skills. Why did I never think of that? Do you see the part where he plays 4 notes and a walking bass, and you have to play it back? Interesting, no?
I'm going up to NY in a couple months, I've been trying to reach him to see if I could hook up. Any hint? I'd love to take a quick lesson.
There's a bit of power since I get the gigs and I can change the musicians around if they're a problem. Some singers I've dumped. As I meet new singers, my standards get better and I dump the lesser performers. It's a tough call sometimes.
But I am also responsible for the band's image. So oftentimes it goes beyond my own performance. I might turn into a bit player for the benefit of the group.
Trust me, you don't need to know the melody to "Fever". I'm so sick of Summertime now too that I wish I didn't know the melody. Anything the vocals do is not a tune I particularly energized to blow on. If I try to develop an idea, they'll just cut me off anyway and come back in.
and btw, thanks for introducing me to Pilc. Those masterclasses of his are amazing.
He said in one of them: Some people have a hard time singing lines. Some people have a hard time playing them. 2 different skills. Why did I never think of that? Do you see the part where he plays 4 notes and a walking bass, and you have to play it back? Interesting, no?
I'm going up to NY in a couple months, I've been trying to reach him to see if I could hook up. Any hint? I'd love to take a quick lesson.
I've never seen Pilc, but Ari and Johannes Weidenmueller (Bass Player) -- who I've talked to, both teach at the New School in NYC. So maybe Pilc teaches there too.
I'm starting practice on a trio. I'm going to work on this all next year. But trio is hard work. You have to carry the whole thing, other than for the break with the bass solo. I'm not good enough to be the focus.
The good news with a trio is that I would work on tunes I know well.
ah the perils of playing with a singer! I tried it and gave up. Most of them do have that prima donna ego thing and if you play anything out of line they give you a death stare! For my sanity I gave up bothering playing with them. They can't seem to grasp the fact that they need you more than you need them.
There are a few singers I do like, Gretchen Parlato, Esperanza Spalding, Laila Biali, Sophie Milman. The guys, hmm.. Jamie Cullum is ok. I like how he's transforming jazz. Harry Connick Jr and Tony Bennett, not really into. and Michael Buble, blah! how that guy ever got mainstream is beyond me. the girls love him though.
A funny andedote I read, when Tony Bennett was recording his new Duets 2 album, he cut a track with Herbie Hancock.
It ended up not making the record as Tony said Herbie's playing was "too out". Man if Herbie couldn't please him I don't know who could.
Tony's not as hip as you would think. He's coming straight from total swing, out of Sinatra and all. It's show biz not Jazz..Many a serious Jazz player couldn't hang on that gig--Joe Labarbera, Bill Charlap and other less name guys. Herbie probably sounded like Stravinsky to TB.
2005 NY Steinway D Yamaha AvantGrand N3X, CP88, P-515
Joe Labarbera stuck with him though. I think right after Bill Evans died.
I didn't know Charlap was his pianist...interesting side stories.
BTW - that's what vocalists do. Show Biz, not jazz. That's why they get on my nerves. I had an argument with a vocalist at a jam session last time. This woman wanted to control all the songs and not give us an instrumental turn. To her, we're still playing. It doesn't matter to her that we'd choose Stella and Footprints, and she'll choose Fever and Summertime.
She calls Route 66 and cuts me off at one chorus and starts back with the head. BLUES -- ONE CHORUS. 12 bars was all I got.
Singers. Love to play with them, I really enjoy playing accompaniment - being the orchestra behind them. On the other hand, good jazz singers are far and few between.
About practising; two weeks ago I made the decision to always use a metronome when practising - and to add 5 bpm per day. Boy o boy what a difference it has made! It's extremely annoying though. beep beep beep beep! But well worth it.
practice never ends. though the higher i get the slower the increments are, need to let the intrinsics acclimate themselves. you mean 2 and 4, simulating a tall-boy backbeat? no i don't. i don't want to fall into a 2-4 feel, more a 6 over 4 in tempo on time.
I've focused my practice often to the uptempo side and it's showing now in a little bit of technical facility. I needed to do this because at jams, someone will just make the tempo creep up and it used to panic me.
Maybe I should shift back to the slow side now. For awhile the slow side was harder but perhaps not so anymore.
Fortunately, no other person in the jams would count down anything faster than 200. But for some reason the bass player does it with me. Maybe because I don't back down
Mr PC at 240. Damn, I can't say what I play is musical anymore. Kind of like Solar. The form is so short that it just becomes a blur.
There are just so many rhythmic things to practice, fast, slow, different grooves and subdivisions, claves, talas, crossrhythms, metric modulations etc I am trying fast 5/4 at the moment. It is difficult not to get lost and it takes a long long time to really sink in.
something i've found beneficial, is having the metronome on 1 2 3 4 but with no accent on the 1, and practice shifting 1 2 3 4 > 1 2 3 > 1 2 3 4 5 > etc
Ha, no, actually I am trying NOT to play 3 and 2. More like trying to play freely across the beats and bars but without getting lost. Maybe I will post something up soon to give the idea of what I'm doing.
Originally Posted by chrisbell
Re Singers: this is something that I enjoy doing.
Is that you in the video Chris? Sounds very nice.
I must admit that I try to avoid doing jazz with singers but I do some other stuff with singers, like this …
Ha, no, actually I am trying NOT to play 3 and 2. More like trying to play freely across the beats and bars but without getting lost. Maybe I will post something up soon to give the idea of what I'm doing.
I see, maybe doing So What in 5 would be a challenge then . . . I don't either like the 3 + 2 (it all sounds too much like Take Five) . . or a very bad Balkan orchestra.
Yes it's me in the video clip, wearing my Jazz Black Armani shirt ---------------------------------------------- You do it like this (switch to Full . . choose the icon with the blue screen - fifth from the left):
