Play the melody, Miles, play the melody

[bako]

@ bako - Haha! Way to prove me wrong!

It wasn't my intent to prove you wrong. I agreed with your basic intent of your post.
I feel melody is a very important thing but laying down morality that it must be stated seems a bit overstated.

The image of Eric Dolphy playing Misty at a wedding made me laugh.
Although I think the problem is the limited parameters of what constitutes wedding music.
Eric was a most amazing musician and a major loss to our culture to lose him at such an early age.

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A fun exercise I've been playing with a bit lately is to sing the theme of the song while I'm improvising on it.
(a bit less fun for those within earshot of my singing)
It keeps me completely in touch with the melody, loosens my harmonic concept and challenges my ability to stretch the phrase structure while I'm stating the original phrase structure vocally.

[christianm77]

I don't know about Eric Dolphy, but I know for a fact the Coltrane Quartet did function gigs back in the day.

[NSJ]

It wasn't my intent to prove you wrong. I agreed with your basic intent of your post.
I feel melody is a very important thing but laying down morality that it must be stated seems a bit overstated.

The image of Eric Dolphy playing Misty at a wedding made me laugh.
Although I think the problem is the limited parameters of what constitutes wedding music.
Eric was a most amazing musician and a major loss to our culture to lose him at such an early age.

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A fun exercise I've been playing with a bit lately is to sing the theme of the song while I'm improvising on it.
(a bit less fun for those within earshot of my singing)
It keeps me completely in touch with the melody, loosens my harmonic concept and challenges my ability to stretch the phrase structure while I'm stating the original phrase structure vocally.

Agree with perceived overstatement. From my point of view, as a schmo who basically plays for himself and perhaps two-three gigs a year, the salient point is that it has to be fully internalized and possibly reflected in some way without explicit "restatement", no matter how abstract it can get.

By the way, the full George Wein quote was (to re-emphasize: Davis was asking Wein where he should take his music--he would take to Silent Ways and Bitches Brews immediately thereafter, in historical fact):

"Play the melody, Miles. Play the Melody. You know, like in 'Bye-Bye Blackbird'".


Needless to say, Miles continued to "play the melody", but said bye-bye to "Bye-Bye Blackbird" for good. (maybe he played standards again his final concert in 1991 with Quincy Jones and Wallace Roney, but the G.A.S. was ripped from his repertoire for good after this conversation with Wein. More or less.

[NSJ]

I don't know about Eric Dolphy, but I know for a fact the Coltrane Quartet did function gigs back in the day.

Here's a favorite story I heard of an atypical Trane gig. This must have been about 1961, and it was an all-day revue at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. All kinds of acts from all kinds of music played (apparently, this was not uncommon at the time to have such a variety show). The common denominator was that all the acts and the entire audience was Black. Except for like two people--my teacher, who was there playing guitar and backing this South African singer named Miriam Makeba. And, strangely enough, the M.C./announcer--the old bebop hepcat named Symphony Syd. Go figure. The man with the consummate 1940s voice!

Anyway, my teacher's getting ready for the gig in his dressing room, and suddenly, Elvin Jones runs in, looking for a place to shoot up. He was immediately told in no uncertain terms to GTFO.

(this was before Elvin met the Japanese woman who would become his lifelong wife and manager, and helped him get on the straight and narrow.