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Post by Kapitan on Jan 14, 2021 22:14:59 GMT
How about some virtuosos from a later decade? Here are Chick Corea (piano), John Patitucci (acoustic bass) and Vinnie Colaiuta (drums) from Tokyo in 1992. Every one is just a master at his instrument. It's really humbling to watch...
[Edit: in track two, Corea is playing percussion to kick it off and Patitucci has switched to electric bass, so my initial description was apparently limiting and inaccurate.]
And also funny: compare Corea's sharp style to Colaiuta's zubaz and tank top!
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Post by jk on May 13, 2021 21:05:52 GMT
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Post by Kapitan on May 15, 2021 22:18:19 GMT
Really enjoy that, jk. Reminds me of nothing so much as Zappa's jazzish albums in that same early '70s period, as he was recovering from being attacked in London. Like The Grand Wazoo.
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Post by jk on May 16, 2021 9:14:21 GMT
Really enjoy that, jk . Reminds me of nothing so much as Zappa's jazzish albums in that same early '70s period, as he was recovering from being attacked in London. Like The Grand Wazoo.Glad you liked it, Cap'n. I agree they have something in common, but both do things the other wouldn't dream of doing. I've been working my way through Giant Box. After a dreamlike cover of Joni's "Song Of The Seagull", Don's own "Free As A Bird" is a real rip-snorter once it takes off. Hang on to your hats!
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Post by Kapitan on May 30, 2021 12:30:54 GMT
This quintet features the highest consistent level of improvisation by any band ever, in my opinion: Miles Davis's second great quintet, with himself, Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. Each of them was a brilliant musician and top notch improviser. Their solos are songs.
It's even more amazing when you consider Williams was just 18 and Hancock 24 at the time of the below show.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2021 16:36:16 GMT
I've never been much of a jazz listener, and my knowledge of the genre is very limited, but I have been developing an interest since watching the movie Whiplash. Anyone see that? Stars Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons. The soundtrack music is not too bad, at least for college jazz band material.
Anyway, I have quickly skimmed through this thread and I can see that I'm going to need to take a closer look when I get more time. Lots of great discussion here and plenty of music for me to check out.
Of course Take Five comes right up in my YouTube searches, and I've been venturing in from there.
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Post by jk on May 30, 2021 19:01:43 GMT
I've never been much of a jazz listener, and my knowledge of the genre is very limited, but I have been developing an interest since watching the movie Whiplash. Anyone see that? Stars Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons. The soundtrack music is not too bad, at least for college jazz band material. Yes I've seen it. Excellent film! My way into jazz was by way of this track. At the risk of repeating myself, I first heard John Coltrane's "Afro Blue" on a French jazz radio programme in early 1965. I haven't been bitten by the jazz bug and I don't think I ever will be. Now and again, I get floored by an individual track -- beginning with this one:
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2021 17:03:03 GMT
I've never been much of a jazz listener, and my knowledge of the genre is very limited, but I have been developing an interest since watching the movie Whiplash. Anyone see that? Stars Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons. The soundtrack music is not too bad, at least for college jazz band material. Yes I've seen it. Excellent film! My way into jazz was by way of this track. At the risk of repeating myself, I first heard John Coltrane's "Afro Blue" on a French jazz radio programme in early 1965. I haven't been bitten by the jazz bug and I don't think I ever will be. Now and again, I get floored by an individual track -- beginning with this one: Wow, I've heard that melody before, and it took me a minute to remember where. The Doors Absolutely Live. In the middle of the song Universal Mind the band breaks into this as a solo! Interesting.... Oh look out, I'm learning things!
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Post by jk on May 31, 2021 17:50:40 GMT
Yes I've seen it. Excellent film! My way into jazz was by way of this track. At the risk of repeating myself, I first heard John Coltrane's "Afro Blue" on a French jazz radio programme in early 1965. Wow, I've heard that melody before, and it took me a minute to remember where. The Doors Absolutely Live. In the middle of the song Universal Mind the band breaks into this as a solo! Interesting.... Oh look out, I'm learning things! So am I! I wonder whose idea that was? Fascinating -- thanks, sockit. I've linked the track in question in the Doors topic...
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Post by jk on Jun 7, 2021 21:33:36 GMT
I was introduced to Duke Pearson by my guitarist friend Carlo from Fresno. It led me to the epic title track from DP's 1968 album The Phantom. Try sitting still to this! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_(album)
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Post by jk on Sept 5, 2021 9:33:37 GMT
Here's one I find myself returning to at day's end. This Wes Montgomery video puts it all in perspective and smoothes away the imperfections of the day. The bassist, Richard Laird, who died two months ago, was later a founding member of Mahavishnu:
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 5, 2021 13:38:23 GMT
Wes Montgomery is fantastic, somehow both hugely influential and yet more or less unique. I'd call him the third of three foundational jazz guitarists.
His sound is always smooth and his material leans toward what you might call lounge music or easy listening, so I think despite his prodigious talent, he isn't necessarily looked at with the same ardor as musically and culturally challenging artists like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, or Thelonious Monk.
The use of his thumb rather than a pick softens that sound; it always amazed me he could play single lines so well like that. And that leads to essential mention of his soloing style: most often he'd begin with beautiful single lines, then go into his trademark octaves (again with his thumb), and sometimes lastly soloing in chords the way pianists like Bill Evans or Dave Brubeck did.
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 5, 2021 20:26:41 GMT
Wes Montgomery ... I'd call him the third of three foundational jazz guitarists. For the record, the other two I'd mention here are Freddie Green and Charlie Christian.
Freddie Green, who played guitar for Count Basie for decades, is probably the single most important big band jazz guitarist in history. His style of playing three- and four-note chords on every quarter note--often switching chords or voicings on every beat--became the standard. He brought a highly stabilizing rhythmic approach that also fleshed out the harmonic texture of tunes. Beyond that, Green was a first-rate comper, meaning he could "comp" (i.e., playing backgrounds to soloists) better than anyone.
Here is an example of Green's style.
And here is an interview by Minnesota's legendary jazz journalist Leigh Kamman of Green from 1978.
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 7, 2021 19:04:03 GMT
The third of the three foundational jazz guitarists I had in mind, Charlie Christian is something of a godfather of bebop guitar. Born in 1916, he would die just 25 years later, in 1942.
He was hired by swing clarinetist Benny Goodman in 1939, joining one of the first racially integrated bands. Christian used an electric guitar--rare in jazz at the time--which allowed him to be heard as a soloist rather than just comping as part of the rhythmic base. While he preceded the bebop era, he both played with pioneers of that school such as Kenny Clarke, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk, and played what could be considered early bebop. (He is even said to have come up with the term, though, like rock and roll, it's one of those terms everyone and his sister is said to have invented.)
Here is a 1941 recording of Christian playing with Dizzy Gillespie at the famous Minton's. It is an example of bebop before bebop, if you will.
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Post by jk on Sept 13, 2021 19:37:01 GMT
I was introduced to Jim Beard (b. 1960) by my long-standing saxophonist colleague Pjotr, who has introduced me to so much jazz fusion and other music I would never have encountered otherwise. This is the title track * of Beard's 1991 album Song of the Sun, featuring the guitar chops of one Jon Herington, whom I was lucky enough to see perform with Steely Dan in Lucca in July 2007: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Beard
* Looking through the *Discogs credits*, I can't for the life of me discover who's playing drums on this track...
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