Jazz Smugglers Master Workshop

Jazz Smugglers Master Workshop
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Wednesday 26 February 2014

A WONDROUS DUET. ON HARMONICAS!




Toots Thielemans and Steve Wonder. Bluesette,

2 geniuses. How much they enjoy what they do. Its like a drug playing this stuff,.listen to the Isn't she lovely quote at 1.45 then watch as he is joined unexpectedly by Stevie Wonder on stage. They are so enjoying what they do. Toots keeps coming in and out of the tune.

Toots, Belgian, has played with all the greats. Miles Davis, Charlie Parker. Every time you hear a harmonica in a film track it will be Toots playing.

Our new workshop tenor player told us about this video. Thanks Chris. Great idea. We'll do this song again on Sunday.

SONGS FOR THIS COMING SUNDAY
Bluesette
All the things you are  Ab
Sunny Am and Bm
April in Paris
Bernies Tune Dm
Lullaby in Birdland Ab
Greensleeves. F

John

Jazz Smugglers bands Sussex

Jazz Smugglers workshop, Sussex


We need some more players again. Anyone know anyone near Chichester?

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.






Wednesday 19 February 2014

NO THEY CAN'T DO THIS. CAN THEY?

Normally you would expect Times readers to be moderate sensible people, not given to stupidity, mindlessness. Not many dolts amongst the letter writers either, would you agree?
Well, there was this correspondence about Prince William's idea about the Royal family giving back its collection of ivory antiques to save the elephants in Africa. Can't see exactly how it would help myself, but nevertheless the heart of the lad is in the right place. They listed a number of items made of ivory which could be dissed. Then this clown wrote "Let's start with pianos"
Well, I'm against that, in an unbiased way of course.

LESS IS MORE.
THE USE OF QUIET IN JAZZ

Chet Baker. Listen to the silences the highs and the lows. Listen to the mood of the song he expresses.
We are going to have a go at a Chet Baker song on Sunday, Bernie's Tune. His mood on that is quite different. Hear it on Spotify.
On this CD listen to the way the flute player, Herbie Mann, touches on the strong notes of the tune in his solo. I'd love to have a flute player in the workshop.
The wonderful Bill Evans on keys. He popularised the use of rootless chords in piano and guitar. Neither Dave nor I use roots.

I heard Geoff on Sunday play short stretches which sounded like this. He mixed up long notes and short notes. Sounded really good so did the whole of the trio plus Maria.

For next Sunday we will do this lot. Or not, as the case may be.
All of you in Eb.
Ain't no Sunshine Dave funky intro: do melody. Xng 4's;  Am Try 3 bars/tacet again
I'm old fashioned. F 
All the things Ab 
April in Paris C The changes are awkward I find, don't you?
Bernies Tune Dm
Bluesette. Bb 3/4 song. This will test you. 

John
Ps. Got a bad cold, worse even that the cold Vic had. So be nice.

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

We could do with another one or two just to dep for the ones who find it difficult to turn up every week. It will make it crowded on the odd night but that won't matter.

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.

Thursday 13 February 2014

WE WILL SING THESE SONGS BACK TO BACK. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

We plan to do both of these songs n our new Smugglers Concert. 8 bars of one followed by 8 bars of the other and so on. The first is about turning down someone who says "I love you". How Insensitive by Jobim of course. Geoff told us of these videos..

BUT we plan to have two our vocalists Maria and Nettie singing them alternatively to each other! How 21st century is that! All in the name of art. They'll be singing back to back if the plan works. What do you think ladies?

Steve Turner would be proud of the showmanship. By the way he has landed a gig for his SKA band at Glastonbury this year.

How Insensitive could have been the theme song of  Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto
since when they started their affair they were both already married. I'm not making light of it, it is always a horrible mess.




This one is by the lovely Julie London. Never any scandal about her - that we hear of anyway.




One of the nicest things about this job is that I get to listen to a huge amount of jazz on YouTube and Spotify.

John

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

We've got room for one more good jazz player, front line. 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.

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 12 February 2014

I'VE NEVER HEARD THE FRONT LINE PLAY BETTER





Steve Evitts has kindly let us show this video of his on YouTube. Thankfully we have got rid of that awful first one when we played what sounded like the Dead March of Saul. It sounded awful, but Steve has taken it off YouTube.

Last Sunday evening workshop. The song was Ain't No Sunshine. Great funky song, set up by the rhythm section.

Steve Turner on tenor played the tune, Andrew on alto and Geoff on trumpet. They played harmony lines behind it. They had no arrangement to work to, just an understanding of how each other played. But it was perfect. Long and short lines, I don't know who set them up but they were both together. Looking at each other had something to do with it I'm sure.

Andrew said afterwards that it is about listening to each other but I think there is something beyond just that. I think it is about understanding, feeling and anticipating. These two have developed a really good understanding of each other, and it shows.

Isn't it funny that in any jazz performance there are some magical moments, magical song renditions? You only need a few in an evening to make it memorable. This was one of them.

Steve played the tune with a great deal of feeling. I'm very sorry indeed to lose him from the workshop, but he has a very successful musical career to look after and there is only so much spare time. Any time Steve, we'll be pleased to see you again.

Our old friend Reg came along. He and I were at the Chi college jazz workshop ten years ago. He joined in the original Smugglers workshop for quite a long time. He played really well on Sunday amongst people he did not know and some songs he had not played before. Congrats Reg and welcome back.

Dave sat in on Bass guitar in place of infected Vic. Thank you Dave, really good to see you. You too come again when you want.

During the evening we tried playing without the music. Front line did better than the rhythm section, but that is because they only have to find one note at any one time, and we chordal players must do something with 7 fingers once or twice a bar. We must try that again because we learnt something from it. Can't remember what exactly.

We played a nice version of I've Grown Accustomed to her Face. Tenor embellished the tune out of time, guitar following, and bass coming in at bar 24. Built up the whole song beautifully.

We did I'm beginning to see the light, with its complex changes. Sounded nice.

WE'LL DO THESE ON SUNDAY
All of you in Eb. Forget the charts I've sent out already. Eb.
Geoff, once again, has stepped in to re-write chords and melody of this Cole Porter song. Thanks Geoff, Brilliant.

Ain't no Sunshine Dave funky intro: do melody. Xng 4's; 3 bars/tacet again.
I’m old fashioned. This one with feeling.
All the things Ab  All the chords you've got as they say. Tricky changes
April in Paris
Bernies Tune Original Gerry Mulligan/Chet Baker number. Fancy it Paul on bari?
Bluesette.3/4 song. This will test you.

John

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

We can make room for one more. If you know of someone who plays to a reasonable standard and can read a bit then please tell me.  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, 
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.


Tuesday 4 February 2014

THREE NEW PLAYERS LAST SUNDAY. REALLY GOOD.

Chris on tenor, Henry on alto and Kevin with his trombone made it memorable. None of them were intimidated in any way, good playing, nice solos. Thanks guys. Henry can't make next Sunday but we'll be joined by an old pal on clarinet, Reg. One of the founder members of the Jazz Smugglers workshop is Reg.

Some of our regulars have been devastated by lurgi, car failure whatever. Hope you are ok now lads, we missed you.

We've found a new arrangement, Andrew! We'll have to play it for you. When we played Ain't no Sushine we exchanged fours, but each of us left bar 4 quiet. So the exchanges were linked by a series of breaks. Only the bass was heard. It sounded really good, really good tension.

Maybe it was only because of this song that it worked, but we'll try it out again next week on another. Actually, we didn't get it as funky as we did last week. Maybe we should get Dave to do a funky intro.

Can you work that out Dave, just to set us up with broken time? Actually Dave can you play the tune? See this chap. Jazz Guitar on Ain't No Sunshine...  Can you get us anywhere near that feel in funk?

We found a nice new song which might interest Maria. "I've Grown Accustomed to her Face" from My Fair Lady. We set everyone up to play pentatonics but the hotshots went for playing outside a little. That sounded lovely, really good. The whole song plays on modes of Eb concert. We'll do this again next Sunday with our old hands joining in of they have recovered.

We also did Blue Bossa. That was mostly an excuse to get everyone playing hand percussion instruments. That worked very well. (Much much better than our old hands when they did it....)

We did not get around to I'm beginning to See the light, nor Black coffee. We'll do those next week. We'll also have a go at All of you the Cole Porter song.

This is the original Bill Withers version of Ain't no Sunshine. 44 million views on YouTube!





Here is a jazz funk version. Think it could be funkier really.



See you all Sunday. 7.00 Don't be late! Michael Gove suggests that I should give you all 100 lines if you are.
(I used to use a multi nibbed pen which were made in the Science department. No flies on me matey, though you can see where they've been)

John

Jazz Smugglers band
Jazz Smugglers workshop, Chichester, 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 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, 
Smugglers Band Facebook
Smugglers Workshop Facebook

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.