Mastering a Jazz Standard Melody

[Patrick2]

Here are a few rough tracks from new CD... no mix etc... These are basically One Takes, we talked about arrangement then recorded. Will be fixed in mix... it's cheaper.

Reg . . . neither of these play beyond a very short portion of the intro.

[vhollund]

Great work Reg
I really dig how you melt in with the others
Lotsa good advice here too to pick from, from everyone

I like to see the melody in writing when learning, and take note of at least every phrases starting note, and see all of the notes as intervallic value in relation with the played chord and the overall changes.
When i work at my reading, try to play melody and changes right away.
And try transpose each melodic phrase in the solo

If playing unprepared and unknown songs(jam), I can only hope I'll have enougth time to make out the points of tonality, so that I'm not playing the changes blindly from one end to the other in a safe and boring way.
It does not always happen which can be quite frustating because you are underperforming then.
But thats a whole other subject/problem how to deal with jams and playing with people you don't know etc.

[Patrick2]

Hmmm . . . I wonder why I can't get them tp play for more than 10 seconds.?.?

[vhollund]

Works fine here

[edh]

Hey Reg, Xclnt tunes, love the latin flavor. The band is tight and your playing is great. Lots of stuff to try and get in my skull.

Thanks for the tunes.

I would love to hear more tunes from you.

edh

[Reg]

Thanks... Here's another tune... again rough mix, was fun to read through, by the end we started to lock in. The Pn was busy so I was really looking for space to fit in during solos...

[targuit]

Listening to track 7 now - nice tune and playing.

Jay

[edh]

Very cool Reg. love the feel.

[jtizzle]

I don't want to derail the thread, so I'll say only that I find this really interesting! I hope to buy you a beer and pick your brain the next time I'm in NYC, jtizzle.

Hey, I'm always down for a beer and good conversation. Let me know when you're here!

[Reg]

Here's trashing another melody... earlier this year...

[Jazzdvd]

thank you everybody for replying there is alot of good information in this thread.Thank you

[Jonah]

Don't get me wrong. Wynton is a monster. He just isn't pushing anything anywhere. He's kind of stuck in one sound which is very disappointing.

I do not find it dissapointing at all.
And for me does pushing... it depends on what is meant by pushing.
Probably it is just a matter of mentality. I do not care about innovation at all. Never did actually.
Some people want to make shifts from one thing to another, looking for new sound, new something.....
some just keep coming back to the same idea because they still have have something to say with it...

I would say I care about true - not new...

In general for me this is person that is important, if there is person it will be new anyway - because a person is unique and new.

Wynton e spoke the language of old like actually he was born yeterday and native with it... for me it is the greatest tribute.

Listen to Jason Moran's Fats Waller project. It's VERY rooted in the Fats tradition, but it just sounds so good. You can tell that it's trying to push places. And Jason's own music is very moving, and also extremely rooted.

Thanks for it, I listened to it.
But this is exactly opposite to what I meant. It sounds to me like absolutely different stuff... like deliberate innovation, even provocation maybe... not for me.
Very high artistic level - not doubt - great competence and knoledge of originals.

But I do not feel it actully rooted in the Fats tradition at all... probably if I did not know the words I would not even recognize.

For me it is not even jazz - kinf of 'fused' style - pop-funky-jazzy-new age but not jazz...

I accept I might miss something... maybe I will catch it later.

[christianm77]

There's a lot to be said about the Tristano school, which sadly books cover in two pages while flying through "cool jazz". And back into the topic, I haven't heard many musicians play melodies like those cats could play. There's something to be said about 2 horn frontlines (Lee and Warne) playing these insanely difficult melodies and sounding like they're phrasing as one instrument. Lee is another guy that I think of that can play the hell out of a standard melody also.

That's one of the things that attract me to that school. The melody playing is really fantastic, great detail. Also very much a worked out approach to teaching, which is great too.

I don't that what is taught is actually really Charlie Parker bebop IMHO. It's kind of the tidied up version. The rhythmic aspect is not generally taught.

I agree with pretty much everything else you say though.

[christianm77]

Thanks... Here's another tune... again rough mix, was fun to read through, by the end we started to lock in. The Pn was busy so I was really looking for space to fit in during solos...

Great playing man, very much enjoyed....