Jazz Smugglers Master Workshop

Jazz Smugglers Master Workshop
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Thursday 30 January 2014

JAZZ IS DEAD? QUINCY JONES INTERVIEW




Quincy Jones. 2 years older than me. One of the jazz greats. (Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Ella, Sinatra, Michael Jackson - "one of the most influential jazz players of the 20th century" wrote Time Magazine. He and I have so much in common. Mostly years.

= = = = = =

We'll have a chance to welcome two new players on Sunday and maybe a third the following week. Best behaviour lads. No rude jokes, they might be Vicar's sons. No binge drinking during the workshop, no shooting up either. No lewd behaviour. Kevin Chris and Reg, come on in.

We had a wonderful time last Sunday, one of the best ever for me. Andrew produced some really sweet and interesting  arrangements for playing tunes, and Geoff played some of the nicest lines I've heard him play. We all could work a bit more on this business of feeding each other in exchanges.

We have not had a chance to play on pentatonics, although we planned to last week. Lets try another go on Sunday.

(For reference. On maj and 7 chords they are 1 2 3  5 6 and on minor chords they are 1 345 7
It is the easiest scale you can use for improvising) For the hotshots, we'll ask you to play some short patterns outside.

Lets do it on a regular 11 V 1 song. Why don't we try it on I've Grown Accustomed to her Face in Eb con. This is a lovely song from My Fair lady - I'm thinking of doing tracks from this show for next year's Smugglers concerts. Song seems to use every mode of Eb concert.

Ain't no Sunshine Am con. Wasn't this great last Sunday? It came out of nowhere, Paul suggested it and wow! we were off in a funk version. Must be something to do with the drummer. Or maybe Vic's new bass, breaking the time. Whatever it was it worked.

Beginning to see the Light in C Con. This moves around a bit. Geoff do you want to see if the harmonies can be simplified a bit? Slightly awkward key changes as they stand in this BIAB version.

Black Coffee in Db con. A raunchy old blues, which shifts around semi-tones.


Blue Bossa. Lets get everyone trying out hand percussion. Looks easy but it isn't.

John

Jazz Smugglers in West Sussex
Jazz Smugglers workshop, West Sussex

For the moment we are full again, until someone drops out. There are about 11 of us each week.

This site is to help the Jazz smugglers workshop group and provide information about the following weeks work. We will be working on widening our range of playing styles as individuals, working together in a band, and practising the more difficult things. You need to be able to read.

If you have a Facebook account can you LIKE our band page on Facebook please,
FACEBOOK JAZZ SMUGGLERS SUSSEX BAND 

and LIKE our workshop page as well.
FACEBOOK JAZZ SMUGGLERS WORKSHOP BOSHAM

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation. you can sign up directly to this blog site as a FOLLOWER, bottom rh side panel, you'll get all the posts.

Monday 27 January 2014

WE NEED TWO MORE FRONT LINE PLAYERS PLEASE

Someone has unfortunately had to drop out recently and that has left us with two spaces for newcomers to the workshop.
Do you know anyone who would like to play on Sunday evenings? Good group. Gigs available. We specialise in working together and with each other, as well as soloing.
About 4 miles South of Chichester. 7.00 to 9.00 Sundays. Email me please John at:
jazzsmugglers@yahoo.co.uk

John




There are about 10 of us each week.

This site is to help the Jazz smugglers workshop group and provide information about the following weeks work. We will be working on widening our range of playing styles as individuals, working together in a band, and practising the more difficult things. You need to be able to read.

If you have a Facebook account can you LIKE our band page on Facebook please, 

and LIKE our workshop page as well.

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation. you can sign up directly to this blog site as a FOLLOWER, bottom rh side panel, you'll get all the posts.

Thursday 23 January 2014

ONE OF THE GREATEST JAZZ LINE-UPS OF ALL TIME



Ever been with someone who talks too much, goes on and on? How B O R I N G is that? Well that is what jazz sounds like if we fill up all the space with notes. We need tension and release lads.

I'm on about leaving time, no hurry, this week. Listen to the spaces in this recording. None of them are in a hurry, but particularly Monk and Gillespie. Neither are afraid of silence. Particularly Gillespie, renowned as one of the fastest jazz players ever.

Thelonius Monk has lots of time, no hurry, he makes space. Dizzy Gillespie, he has no hurry in the opening song either. Also he is playing like Monk echoing him with those odd intervals. Very clever. Gillespie has no problem with putting in long silences in between some very fast runs. Listen to his unaccompanied solo starting at 26 minutes, and to his space at minute 29.

Art Blakey drums, Sonny Stitt alto. Danish born, Kai Winding trombone, for me, always the best with JJ Johnson. How do you get all those notes with just two bits of metal sliding into one another?

But for me it is a collection of individual soloists, wonderful as they are, they just take turns. No Interplay. Few harmonies. Just picking up their cheques at the end of the gig. But they are, were, the Greats.

Geoff, any ideas for our Jazz Show with this one?

WORKSHOP SUNDAY
We will play How Insensitive and The End of a Love Affair together, using Geoff's charts. See how we get on. Separate email on that.

Also bring sheets for:

Autumn in New York in F con
Beautiful Friendship in C
Beautiful Love Dm con.
Billie's Bounce f#7 con

John

The Jazz Smugglers bands in Sussex
The Jazz Smugglers workshop, Bosham, Sussex

For the moment we are full, until someone drops out. There are about 10 of us each week.

This site is to help the Jazz smugglers workshop group and provide informtion about the following weeks work. We will be working on widening our range of playing styles as individuals, working together in a band, and practising the more difficult things. You need to be able to read.

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation. you can sign up directly to this blog site as a FOLLOWER, bottom rh side panel, you'll get all the posts.

Thursday 16 January 2014

PLAYING OUTSIDE PENTATONICS


This is what the pentatonics sound like.



This is what playing outside the pentatonics sounds like. Eat your heart out Pat Metheney.




Major pentatonic scale written out. Just 1  11  111  V and V1
Minor pentatonic written out  1  m3  1V  V  V11

We might do this for a few weeks. Concentrate on the most melodic sounds in the major and minor chords, that is the pentatonics. For the advanced showoff players, use the pentatonics and play outside then in.

We have SIX SONGS FOR SUNDAY. Learn them all off by heart....... (yeah, right)

The end of a love affair. New.  Watch and listen to Chaka Khan 
How insensitive. New  Listen to Diana Krall on it
Dindi
It Could Happen to You
Summertime
How High the Moon
I can’t get started
A Foggy day
They Can’t Take That Away

We have great singers on Sunday! Hooray! The tunes will sound nice. The girls and the rhythm section will be in at 6.00 on Sunday. Hopefully we can get them to stay on a bit after the workshop starts at 7.00.

John
Ps.
Geoff, you may be interested in this. "Do you want to come to the Hare and Hounds next Tuesday, Terry is playing," I just asked Gillian. "Who is the soloist?" she asked and I told her.
"Oh no," she said "I don't like trumpets, too loud"
Then she added, "But I don't mind Geoff"
Tributes don't get better than that, pal.

Jazz Smugglers in Sussex
The Jazz Smugglers workshop, Sussex

For the moment we are full, until someone drops out. There are about 10 of us each week.

This site is to help the Jazz smugglers workshop group and provide informtaion about the following weeks work. We will be working on widening our range of playing styles as individuals, working together in a band, and practising the more difficult things. You need to be able to read.

If you have a Facebook account can you LIKE our band page on Facebook please, 
FACEBOOK JAZZ SMUGGLERS SUSSEX BAND 

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation. you can sign up directly to this blog site as a FOLLOWER, bottom rh side panel, you'll get all the posts.



Monday 13 January 2014

OK GEOFF. YOU WIN. WES MONTGOMERY. BRILLIANT



Last night was as brilliant as ever. Packed with interest. Everyone involved.

The workshops I've been to have all been one player taking a solo chorus, then hanging around thinking about porn site until it is his turn again. 17 people in one group there were, each one got to play about three times in 2 hours. Usually there were just one or two songs. We did 4 last night.

You guys are good.

During the evening someone said that Bobby Wellins did not like guitars, I said I can't recall many really top guitarists who held me (ok, now I think of it, Pat Metheney, and Jim Hall a bit) and I actually preferred listening to our Dave.
Geoff said try Wes Montgomery. I did, and Geoff is right.

One thought about Dave. His solos are always full of different ideas, they just tumble out. Really interesting to listen to. Have a serious listen to him next time on this point. (You are getting the hang of dots, Dave....those pesky black things)

Dave, hear the Youtube recording above. For this Interplay gig, can you and I work up something similar as part of one song. It seems to me if you play a light solo, and I mix up the chords and the voicings and vary the timing to go with it it might sound ok. Perhaps over Little Sunflower or Mash. Shall we try it one evening?

I'll circulate next Sunday's programme when I've heard back from Maria about songs she'd like to do.

John


The Jazz Smugglers bands Sussex
The Jazz Smugglers workshop, Bosham, Sussex

For the moment we are full, until someone drops out. There are about 10 of us each week.

This site is to help the Jazz smugglers workshop group and provide informtion about the following weeks work. We will be working on widening our range of playing styles as individuals, working together in a band, and practising the more difficult things. You need to be able to read.

If you have a Facebook account can you LIKE our band page on Facebook please, 
FACEBOOK JAZZ SMUGGLERS SUSSEX BAND PAGE 
and LIKE our workshop page as well.
FACEBOOK JAZZ SMUGGLERS WORKSHOP BOSHAM

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation. you can sign up directly to this blog site as a FOLLOWER, bottom rh side panel, you'll get all the posts.


Tuesday 7 January 2014

JAZZ DUET. Desmond and Brubeck. Listen to this

This song is never played now but was a big hit in its day, Buddy Can you Spare a Dime? It was the anthem of the 1929 Depression.


Listen to the way they interplay on the tune and in the final section.

Brubeck's odd solo. Clever. He had very badly damaged his nerves in a swimming  accident and had been pronounced dead at the hospital. For years he was severely restricted from playing individual notes. This accounts for the chordal patterns in his solos.

Their earlier recording of this song had been criticised for sounding too optimistic despite its minor key.

This 1954 recording is more downbeat, but you can't keep Desmond down for long. Listen to his repeated patterns. At the end they copy each other's lines playing together. Then they finish with the rondel they used at the start.

This is what I call a proper duet.

An alternative form of the round is to use an ABAB song, and just repeat the first A section while the B is being played. For the workshop, what song can we try this on? Here's that Rainy Day? (changes key) Four? Bit easier, but a key change for at least 1 bar. Ladybird maybe? Shall we try? What do you think Geoff?

John

The Jazz Smugglers bands in Sussex
The Jazz workshop, Bosham, Sussex

For the moment we are full, until someone drops out. There are about 10 of us each week.

This site is to help the Jazz smugglers workshop group and provide informtion about the following weeks work. We will be working on widening our range of playing styles as individuals, working together in a band, and practising the more difficult things. You need to be able to read.

If you have a Facebook account can you LIKE our band page on Facebook please, 
FACEBOOK JAZZ CHICHESTER BAND 

and LIKE our workshop page as well.
FACEBOOK JAZZ WORKSHOP BOSHAM

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation. you can sign up directly to this blog site as a FOLLOWER, bottom rh side panel, you'll get all the posts.



Friday 3 January 2014

STEVE IS RIGHT. WE THINK TOO MUCH

This man Roland Kirk could not read  music.
Does our brain get in the way of our playing?

Steve Turner wrote when he imaged what people disliked about jazz. "1. Most Jazz soloing comes from the brain and not the soul and therefore not easy to follow for an uneducated audience."

Now it is not often that you've heard me say this. And I'll probably never say this again. But, on this one occasion, I'll admit, I agree with Steve.

I had a pal who played trumpet just by ear at the old Sussex University Jazz workshop run by a famous alto player. My pal was very good, sounded great. Couldn't read a note of music. He was murmured at for not being bothered with any theory, "You'll never be able to play anything complicated just by ear" I'm coming to the conclusion that is just ....(rhymes with halls)

I knew another pianist who played in pubs any song they called out. Harmonised chords and all.

Errol Garner never read music or knew jazz theory.


Neither did Chet Baker.



Nor Django Reinhardt
,

 or Art Tatum.


Pianist Dave Brubeck's mother was a piano teacher but she could not teach him to read. He was nearly expelled from music college when they found out. He played odd tones, odd chords, odd timing. He learned later in life. Here with Paul Desmond, (who could do anything, at any time)


The Jazz Smugglers bands in Sussex
The Jazz Smugglers workshop, Bosham, Sussex

For the moment we are full, until someone drops out. There are about 10 of us each week.

This site is to help the Jazz smugglers workshop group and provide informtion about the following weeks work. We will be working on widening our range of playing styles as individuals, working together in a band, and practising the more difficult things. You need to be able to read.

If you have a Facebook account can you LIKE our band page on Facebook please, 
FACEBOOK JAZZ SMUGGLERS SUSSEX BAND 
and LIKE our workshop page as well.
FACEBOOK JAZZ SMUGGLERS WORKSHOP BOSHAM

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation. you can sign up directly to this blog site as a FOLLOWER, bottom rh side panel, you'll get all the posts.






Wednesday 1 January 2014

JAZZ. THE FIVE THINGS PEOPLE DISLIKE MOST

I'm asking you to imagine what other people would say about jazz - not what you would say. Normal people. People not into 11 V1 V 1's. People who don't Am from in a hole in the ground type of person. Think of people who are not jazz players, people whose views of jazz are based on listening to it occasionally, or maybe being forced by someone to go to a pub or jazz concert.

What do you think these normal people would say, if you asked them to list the FIVE THINGS THEY DISLIKE THE MOST ABOUT JAZZ, and also the FIVE THINGS THEY LIKE THE MOST.

Just put your answers down in the comments on Facebook, or comments here. You can nick some of these if you like them, and add others.

Here are my imagined DISLIKES by ordinary people. (not mine, remember)
Many of them may say that jazz sounds like a jumble of tunes
Others may say jazz is too loud
Some may say it is not easy on the ear.
Some may say that jazz solos are too long
Some may dislike trad and specific styles of jazz

Here are my imagined LIKES by people
Jazz is easy on the ear
Jazz sounds clever
Jazz is great as background music
Jazz can sound very exciting
Jazz players looks good when they signal to each other

Happy New Year to all our readers

John
My past membership of the Market Research Society is at risk here. No representative sample, no pre-testing of the questionnaire, ugh! awful! Just vox pop. Who cares? Go for it.

POSTSCRIPT.
Here is what Geoff Valenti said on Facebook. I totally agree with everything he said.
Dislikes
1. They don't understand what the soloist is playing

2. They can't hear the tune during the solo
3. Too fast / too many notes.
4. It's all too self indulgent
5. Too many / too long solos during a tune.

Likes
1. Most people seem to like saxophones
2. They like tunes that they know
3. They prefer vocal numbers to instrumentals
4. They like to see the musicians enjoying themselves / making it look easy.
5. They used to play an instrument, and it reminds them of those times.


AND HERE IS WHAT STEVE TURNER WROTE IN FACEBOOK.
Dislikes
1. Most Jazz soloing comes from the brain and not the soul and therefore not easy to follow for an uneducated audience.

2. Jazz can be very self indulgent and solos can go on and on.
3. Its difficult to play a different style for each solo and therefore each tune can be repetitive.
4. Jazz is rarely put on as a show and therefore it relies solely on sounds not visuals unlike pop/rock/soul etc.
5. drum and bass solos become dull if overused (sorry guys).
Likes
1. Jazz is undoubtedly very clever and usually free or non expensive to see.
2. Great mood music for restaurants not needing your full attention.
3. You get more players for your money 
4. There are many different styles of song played at the same concert making it more interesting.
5. Most people can appreciate the work and effort that has gone in to mastering an instrument.


I AGREE WITH THIS AS WELL. When we play i think we think too much. I've got to know where the chords go so thoroughly before I can stop thinking. Maybe we should always do some blues in the workshop and then get everyone just to free off and play what they feel. I also agree strongly about the visual impact, at the considerable risk of getting slammed by jazz pros for this nonsensical view. 
I wonder if we should do a short discussion group on video camera and then post it on YouTube. Brave enough lads?

The Jazz Smugglers bands in Sussex
The Jazz Smugglers workshop, Bosham, Sussex

For the moment we are full, until someone drops out. There are about 10 of us each week.

This site is to help the Jazz smugglers workshop group and provide informtion about the following weeks work. We will be working on widening our range of playing styles as individuals, working together in a band, and practising the more difficult things. You need to be able to read.

If you have a Facebook account can you LIKE our band page on Facebook please, 
FACEBOOK JAZZ SMUGGLERS SUSSEX BAND 

and LIKE our workshop page as well.
FACEBOOK JAZZ SMUGGLERS WORKSHOP BOSHAM



In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation. you can sign up directly to this blog site as a FOLLOWER, bottom rh side panel, you'll get all the posts.