Jack Pezanelli Materials/Music thread

[Hippias_Major]

HI!

I saw that other people were posting about Pez. He was a teacher of mine too for some time and he was of great influence to me.

Can we share some of his concepts/materials to better understand his music/teaching?

I remember telling him that this was one of my favorite recordings ever. His reply was something funny like " Yes, this album was recorded with a bourgeis middle class audience in mind"

[Jimmy blue note]

I started a thread on his non functional hybrids, but that's nowhere to be found. That was a long time ago. In short, he had a harmonic concept unlike anyone else I've ever studied with. He was very concrete and very abstract at the same time. He took a major triad and created 9 possible bass notes that the slash chord could use (3 are going to be doubled notes of the triad itself, so not so exciting or useful).
To each of these hybrid chords he had a distinctive quantifiable amount of tension based on the conflict with the overtone series in the triad. He had a chart by which chromatic bass notes could be used to "dial in" any amount of tension. In this way he would "paint" a narrative of harmony as he told a story in music.
These chords were non functional, meaning they didn't follow the tonic, dominant... order but rather harmonized every melody note you wanted to impart an amount of tension to, and that chordal moment would create 'soothing tension like water at lakeside' or 'great tension like a tree falling on your leg'. And he'd paint his solos that way.
I got so much from Pez. This is the one that's consumed my studies the longest. You should have heard him do a chord solo.

[Jimmy blue note]

Back when I used the name TruthHertz, I began two threads that were quite active and dealt with non functional tensions in hybrids, slash chords and intervallic choices and their aesthetic effects.
Non Functional Harmony Practical approaches including Pomeroy dissonance
which was a thread that dealt a lot with Mick's approach and one thread on Pez's hybrids. Must not have been deemed of interest because that thread is unfindable, but I outlined the hybrid materials and tried to start some interest for a while.
If I find any PDF's on my computer, I'll post them.

Hippias, when did you study with him?

[Hippias_Major]

Hi Jimmy!

That would be amazing to checkout! Seems like a lifetime of work. I might look for a thread on Mick Goodrick materials if there isn't one already.


By the way I met Jack in 2017! What a great guy. I had some private lessons and ensambles with him. I still remember many stories he would tell about meeting and playing with great players like Jaco (at some sandwich shop in Boston or somewhere else? haha)

When did you study with him?

[Liarspoker]

We talked about Jack's approach to using triads over bass notes for non-functional reharmonization during the Modern Guitar Harmony monthly Zoom meeting last night.

I wrote this today to help others understand the concept.

Hope it helps.