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I worked with Joe Diorios book Intervallic Designes over the years .. Creamer extends some of that kind of thinking..
while the sound of invervals may open some doors to extended improvisiation exploration..they have to be intergrated into your vocabulary and used with
some skill..after you work with them for a bit they tend to become boring if not used in a harmonic/melodic way..
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01-29-2020 03:29 PM
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They sound to me like good "get away" lines. I've put some of them under my fingers and since they are using 12 notes I can use just whichever I want starting anywhere, I just phrase it differently accentuating different notes everytime. Like making chromatic scale sound like Major scale. If that makes sense...
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A belated response here. I studied with Dave Creamer on and off for four years, 1976 to 1980. In that time I collected about two books' worth of his exercises (beautifully notated by his girlfriend, I recall). The range of the material was incredible: from standard (but immaculately constructed) ii-V7-I lines, to intricate chordal studies, to melodies built on fifths, on fourths, and on seconds, to whole-tone scale and diminished-scale melody studies, to 12-tone scale lines -- not to mention various picking techniques. The time and practice required to absorb this material was extensive. I considered it my graduate school of guitar -- I had already been a good blues-rock guitarist, but study with Creamer was ear- and mind-expanding.
Just before that time he had been in a Bay Area band called Listen, with saxophonist Mel Martin and the phenomenal steel-drum player Andy Narell. They produced, I think, one album, and it's well worth checking out. Creamer penned at least one of the tunes.
I lost touch with Creamer after that, but I did catch him at the Oakland jazz club Yoshi's around, I think, 2014. It was a quartet with another guitarist, who I'm pretty sure was one of his students. Creamer sounded great that night.
True, he's not widely known. He keeps a low profile. I learned about him only through a thin grapevine of guitar players. But that discovery was fantastic for me.Last edited by tlathrop; 03-19-2021 at 10:19 PM. Reason: fix error
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Dave's website is up. I'm listening to one of his videos as I write this -- it's great. Harmonically advanced, moody, beautifully played. Can't think of anybody who sounds like him.
He's taught in the Bay Area for many years. One of my friends studied with him 30 years ago -- Dave gave him a lot of 12 tone exercises.
I recall hearing Dave at Larry Blake's on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley, also around 30 years ago. I recall it as a great set.
Sometime after that, I heard him in a trio format at a street fair in Walnut Creek. Sadly, nobody was paying him any attention. The music was not street-fair accessible.
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Originally Posted by jzucker
cheers!
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Originally Posted by jzucker
Starting a phrase late
Yesterday, 11:19 PM in Improvisation