The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #76

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    Hi Doc what is this GASongBook? tried googling did not get anywhere

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #77
    Great American songbook

  4. #78

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Don't think Paris is any better than London. Lots of door gigs. Great city for sure.... But i know some who have made the move and are considering moving back.

    The EU thing may prove problematic for foreign musicians here. Not sure what will happen with the economy short term.

    London is expensive, but it has the functions scene and is (or at least was) a very open city for non nationals. I don't think Paris would be as open, but I'm surprised by how friendly it has become compared to its bad reputation.
    I won't be getting involved but things may slowly turn around in the US.
    'Swing' is culture and so is funk. Swing isn't dead. There may be growing interest in funk culture now. That's good for jazz. I think clubs should have a variety of music. If funk comes back it should mean more jobs for jazz musicians.
    It won't happen over night. We seem to have hit rock bottom in the US. There's nowhere to go except up as far as music.

  5. #79

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    Quote Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
    Chicago?

    There's probably a handful of jazz clubs at best.
    Chicago is the center of jazz music actually.

  6. #80

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    Quote Originally Posted by audlegend
    Chicago is the center of jazz music actually.
    Are you from 1925? ;-)

    (I actually have no idea, is it?)

  7. #81

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Are you from 1925? ;-)

    (I actually have no idea, is it?)
    Here's the scene in a nutshell:

    Straight Ahead


    Jazz Showcase
    Green Mill
    Andy's
    Pete Miller's (restaurant mainly)
    Winter's (just opened up, sounds promising, have heard great reviews as an excellent music space)

    Free-avant gurade:

    Constellation
    Elastic
    Hungry Brain



    I might have missed something, but that's it in a nutshell: small, barely surviving, mostly North side.

  8. #82

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    I think Chicago might have one of the biggest "good players" to "places to hear them" disparities going.

  9. #83
    We need to get John Travolta to do a jazz music themed movie before he leaves the planet. Look what he did for disco with Saturday Night Fever, and for country music with Urban Cowboy. Both of those movies spawned cultural fads which and were catalysts for those musical styles to explode.

    I'm only half joking here. While Travolta is too old, the right movie about jazz could potentially resurrect it's popularity.

  10. #84
    That sure wouldn't be Whiplash.

  11. #85

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    Fusion sure seems to be suffering a not so slow death these days.

    We were house band at a seafood dinner club in the early 90's. Paid really well. Once that gig ended (they went of business), we were pretty much only able to get music festival gigs. Played some jazz clubs on our CD tour. Got a couple of "interesting" write ups from some music critics. We did some bars, but had to add some more main stream stuff to do that. We took the approach of adding the most difficult, technical song from any given main stream artists we covered, but alas our vocals pretty much sucked and we had to heavily signal process just gain some acceptability on them. After 1996 or so, I just took on students hear and there until official retirement this year.

    As a jazz musician these days, you almost have to win an audition with somebody that has already had success to get anywhere at all with it. Sort of always been that way, but even more so now in my opinion.

  12. #86

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    So just my take as 59 year old musician who lives in the Twin Cities,Minnesota. As a teenager I lived in new Orleans, and there was no real Jazz Scene, just Tourist Dixieland. While the Marsalis family has made some in roads I don't think it's a Jazz Scene. In 1976 I attended Berklee College in Boston,Mass. Things were much better there especially being close to N.Y. Pat Metheny was just starting out and Jazz Fusion was in full swing! Some years later I visited Boston and the scene had mostly disapeared.
    I moved to Minneapolis in 1977 and found a great local music scene and a beautiful city as well. But just like everywhere the Music Scene is almost dead here as well. I think it goes beyond Jazz Scene, it's pretty much over for most musicians. Entertainment IS the driver, and it no longer requires musicians to help sell it. Just like any industry automation has replaced the workers. The difference in this case, musicians are the ones who provided the MAGIC!

  13. #87

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    No one mentioned Toronto, Quebec City or Montreal. Quebec city was once a Jazz town wasn't it? There were a few Jazz clubs in Toronto in the '90s.

    The music scene isn't good around here (Kalamazoo, Michigan). Musicians play for free or very little money now days. And if one lands a gig, it's almosts always a one nighter that may repeat once a month. There was once a bit of a Jazz scene here ('70s).

    I never had a decent day job myself and pretty much made a living playing gigs. So it's mostly doing a solo at retirement homes for now. I can slip in some Jazz once in a while, but not much.

  14. #88

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    Was out on the town last night in Melbourne. We have over 10 jazz bars.

    Saw a bebop quartet over 50 people down the road some young guys playing just caught the end but could not get in so packed place was going off people maybe 10 people outside at the door over 100 inside jam packed lucky to get your drink up to your lips.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  15. #89

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    Quote Originally Posted by Stevebol
    I won't be getting involved but things may slowly turn around in the US.
    'Swing' is culture and so is funk. Swing isn't dead. There may be growing interest in funk culture now. That's good for jazz. I think clubs should have a variety of music. If funk comes back it should mean more jobs for jazz musicians.
    It won't happen over night. We seem to have hit rock bottom in the US. There's nowhere to go except up as far as music.
    i am not as convinced that rock bottom has yet been reached based on the latest album sales stats. we do seem to be headed in that direction though.

    historically, when art scenes have had the money drained out of them the competition has become more about some aspect or aspects of the quality of the art itself as opposed to being about popular success. the silver lining is that it could end up being a great time for jazz at some point in the next few decades -- with no chance of commercial success it seems like it could turn into a period with a lower proportion of people fighting over scraps hoping to get famous and more people who just genuinely love the idea of fully emotionally and intellectually-engaged improvisational folk music. on some level that's all jazz is. could be a new era for jazz altogether.

    as far as cities... DON'T COME TO PORTLAND great players great people no jazz clubs anymore

  16. #90

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    Speaking only from an amateur's perspective (i.e. I have a non-music career), we are lucky in Vancouver, B.C., Canada to have a pretty solid jazz scene. In addition to our excellent local players, the main local jazz promoter has strong ties to NYC, so we get quite a few NYC jazzers up here. Peter Bernstein's coming up next month. Harold Mabern is playing this coming weekend. Etc.

    I heard some great jazz in NYC last year, but I wasn't blown away in comparison to our local scene.

  17. #91

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    I'm in the San Francisco area.

    Really good players can keep busy gigging. Well, that may be more true to bass and drums than guitar (because not every group needs guitar).

    But, to make a living at it is difficult. It seems to take a busy gigging schedule and a busier teaching practice. Probably a spouse with a job too, but most people don't talk about stuff like that, so it's hard to know.

    There are a lot restaurant and cafe gigs (whatever "a lot" means), but they pay poorly. Perhaps even worse, traffic, parking and tolls can make going out to play pretty aggravating.

    That said, one thing that seems to be thriving is a rehearsal big band scene. Out here in the sticks of the East Bay, even, there are a bunch of big bands. Usually, they meet once a week and may even gig occasionally. A lot of great players populate these groups. But, it's about music, not money.