JGBE Virtual Jam (Round 32) - In a Mellow Tone

[ragman1]

I quite like this. Makes you smile, it's happy music. Probably a lot of people would just think it's old fart's music but I don't. It takes a lot to drift round a tune happy and relaxed. The young are too intense :-)

Incidentally, this is how I do it. It's what they do too but I didn't get it from them. It's fairly obvious but that's the point. No nonsense stuff. Just the way old farts like it.

[lawson-stone]

A dozen or so years ago there was a very famous jazz group in Poland.
The band consisted of outstanding musicians and any of them could be a leader.
Everyone was arguing and criticizing each other.
They played for several years together at various international jazz festivals.
In the end, the band broke up.
Playing with a regular group is a serious challenge.

The Harvard University Business School once did a very detailed study of what makes "teams" (in business) effective. They were surprised to discover that teams that had the most talented people were not always the most effective, partly because those very talented people were more concerned about their own role than about the success of the team. The best teams had very talented people, of course, but they were concerned about the ultimate outcome, the work of the group. It wasn't "group-think" either; it was a healthy commitment of talented individuals to a group goal.

Ironically they discovered in their research a single point that appeared in every discussion about how successful teams selected their members. They all said "We don't hire assholes." The book is called The No Asshole Rule by Robert I. Sutton and it's a classic study of how effective teams work.

Maybe it applies to musical ensembles as well? If you have a band consisting of all super-stars who are always checking themselves in the mirror, as it were, always worried about their own role, then likely the band itself won't cohere. But solid musicians who are nevertheless not "super-stars" might just work better together and produce a more compelling final outcome in the music.

I know one example of "super-stars" who worked together with amazing results. Frank Sinatra did his album "L.A. Is My Lady" with a full orchestra conducted by Quincy Jones. Every single musician was superstar. George Benson in guitar, Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, Joe Newman, Frank Foster, and Lionel Hampton, Major Holley--all amazing talents. But they worked together and the sessions are on VIDEO on YouTube. It's thrilling to watch them play, to watch the interaction, and hear that fabulous music. "Mack the Knife" never got a better performance.

I think that is the exception, but it shows that these "superstars" were also "super-people" who knew how to make it happen as an ensemble.

Sorry for the rambling...

[John A.]

I apologize for yet another posting on this. I continue to try to work out how to play the changes and not just do arpeggios... not sure I succeeded here but I think I'm more comfortable with the song's structure at least.

The picture... it was a HAWT Day in Israel. We'd been excavating on our site since 4:30 AM. The sun was high, it was about 11:30 AM and we had still maybe 2 hours left to dig... it was dry, choking-dusty work. I looked up and saw this van tootling up the tel toward us. They stopped, and opened up their van into a SMOOTHIE BAR. Seriously, ice-cold fruit smoothies... FREE. We all slurped up smoothies with a generous portion of dust and dirt from the tel on our faces, hands, shirts, hair, and in the smoothies, but wow, it was relief! They then just drove off. We had no idea where they came from, who they were, or where they went.

Curious business model...

Your feedback, if you aren't tired of my clips, is welcome.

That's a really good take, Lawson. Pretty much everything sounds intentional, time was good, no sense of stumbling around trying to find right notes.

[Peterson]

Looking forward to the next tune!

Meanwhile, if anyone has any feedback on my take I’d appreciate it

[ragman1]

What are you peering at, Peterson?!! Get it off the page. Your lines are solid, nice jazz language, etc. You've got that done but you could do them quicker than that, I'm quite sure of it. Not racing along, just more lively.

Turn it into a confident performance. And once you get stuck into it won't take long. And you'd be so-o-o-o proud of yourself :-)

[Peterson]

What are you peering at, Peterson?!! Get it off the page. Your lines are solid, nice jazz language, etc. You've got that done but you could do them quicker than that, I'm quite sure of it. Not racing along, just more lively.

Turn it into a confident performance. And once you get stuck into it won't take long. And you'd be so-o-o-o proud of yourself :-)

iReal I know, it’s a bad habit! I want to let go of the page but I’m a slow learner.

Thank you for the feedback and encouragement!

[John A.]

Looking forward to the next tune!

Meanwhile, if anyone has any feedback on my take I’d appreciate it

The time is solid, execution is tight, and the notes are are right.
But the phrasing is on the repetitive side (pretty much the same rhythmic figure much of the way through, a lot of going up in intervals and coming down in steps, almost no triplets).

I would suggest consciously working in other rhythmic ideas, e.g. use more triplets, try some 16th note runs, start phrases on random beats, hold notes across bar lines, ostinatos, just to shake yourself up and break out of some of patterns. Let it sound weird/wrong for the sake of experiment and variety. Try it faster, too.

[lawson-stone]

That's a really good take, Lawson. Pretty much everything sounds intentional, time was good, no sense of stumbling around trying to find right notes.

Thanks John. "stumbling around trying to find right notes" is going to be the title of my new, yet to be written book on jazz improvisation! I'll credit you in the preface for the title!

[ragman1]

iReal I know, it’s a bad habit! I want to let go of the page but I’m a slow learner.

If you like a particular tune a lot, or if it's particularly straightforward, memorising it is easy. Otherwise it's a matter of repetition and deliberately trying to get it into the memory. I used to keep a crib sheet in my pocket and go through some things in my mind, over and over till I'd got it. It happens eventually but it does require commitment.

Actually, reading it all the time is worse than just a bad habit. It means your attention is continually divided. You can never really abandon yourself to playing the tune because you don't know it. To put any expression into a tune isn't possible as long as you're distracted trying to get the basic structure together. No one can play something they don't know.

Sorry, not having a go at you in any personal sense but these things are very true. I mean, you must have worked quite hard to get those lines together so why spoil it now?

[Danil]

Besides of other good things these jams helped me to discover Sunnybass tracks. He is so good - it is as close to playing with another person as it can be, completely different feel when learning a tune.
So here is a result of a sudden urge to participate. The head is played in rather unimaginative way - i barely learned chords and melody and didn't want to ruin a perfect bass line (and couldn't help myself omitting it - those tritones are magic). Sunnybass is the man.

[TOMMO]

Besides of other good things these jams helped me to discover Sunnybass tracks. He is so good - it is as close to playing with another person as it can be, completely different feel when learning a tune.
So here is a result of a sudden urge to participate. The head is played in rather unimaginative way - i barely learned chords and melody and didn't want to ruin a perfect bass line (and couldn't help myself omitting it - those tritones are magic). Sunnybass is the man.

Well done and welcome!