The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #51

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #52

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    Very reminiscent of Campilongo and Nels Cline. Also Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy.

    I wouldn't say he's just playing noise. There is very clear logic in what he's playing. He uses repeated melodic cells with rhythmic displacement, non-diatonic patterns. He organizes his solo in the same way as any great soloist: moments of increased tension/dynamism vs resolution/rest. There's one part that is especially "noisy", which is around 1:40, but that's just weird because of his rhythm and the wide intervals: nothing Dolphy didn't do. The bit starting around 2:01 is cool and hints at free interpretation of melody. He abandons the harmony to move his gesture around chromatically. Coltrane did this (less recklessly at times) in his later stuff. Lage accentuates the tension by bending the pitch out of tune.

    Love it. Very creative. Sorry there weren't any 2 5 1 licks to analyze or pentatonic superposition, or tritone subs. Just a band navigating through some music using their ears. "Theory" is the last thing that would help you to dig this solo.

    Basically, what Elvis said.

  4. #53

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    Quote Originally Posted by matt.guitarteacher
    I guess he just got through binge watching Longmire or something. :-)

    When I was very young, basically I had to UNDERSTAND things musically, especially on a melodic/harmonic level et cetera, to really get into them, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. But I didn't really get anything as much from just pure groove, basic tone, or emotional content etc. I was kind of oblivious to the raw, gutbucket aesthetic on most things for example. I never understood how anyone could LOVE a tune merely based on the great tone of the snare drum etc.

    If you want to be a nerd and analyze, it's tension/release in a basic ABA type structure. (Basically all about the drums , and everything else is extra credit.) :-)

    It's a groove tune, and harmonic and melodic is kind of secondary. It's very "in " in the beginning, in terms of groove and everyone being locked down to a basic straightahead feel . The middle section with the solo goes "out" rhythmically in bass and guitar at exactly the same time that it's basically going "out" harmonically. Then, back "in" and locked down rhythmically like the beginning.

    All about the drums and the feel. More groove-based, and gut-level raw angst than melodic anything. All that guitar stuff is just filler fluff on top. :-)

    (Takes nerd hat off.)

    Watch a couple of seasons of Longmire.
    Dang. The Longmire allusion is a stroke of genius. How I miss that show. Fortunately we have books.

    I can't say I "enjoy" this track, but it strikes me. It's worth listening to. It is telling me something, but I'm not yet sure what.

    Franz Kafka famously wrote, of books, in this case:

    If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammer­ing on our skull, why then do we read it? So that it shall make us happy?…we should be hap­py if we had no books, and such books as make us happy we could, if need be, write our­selves. But what we must have are those books which come upon us like ill-fortune, and distress us deeply, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen inside us.

    There is a place for the "ugly" in art, by which I mean that which upsets and imbalances us. My own son in college wrote an essay about this and said something I think is kind of brilliant:

    Perhaps the solution lies in the affinity of art with human nature. Executed skillfully, art allows us to view our own human condition, to explore the possibilities of our own depravity or greatness. The beauty lies in the tension. Art exists in a complex relationship with those who view, each affecting the other. The ugliness of art rests in its corruptibility, but with out this possibility it would lack its power. As art is the mirror of man, our treatment of art reflects our civility.

  5. #54

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    Quote Originally Posted by citizenk74
    I know, right? My problem is I sometimes boing when I should gwarr.
    My wife said that about me last night when... wait... better just stop here.

  6. #55

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    Having read the comments before listening i was expecting much weirder. Straight forward groove with a solo that was more sound and tension than melody... he's done tracks like this before.

  7. #56

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    I liked it. The more ear training I do, the more outside sounds inside.

    The real question remains: is he using Benson picking or a compressor?

  8. #57

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  9. #58

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    Way back, before developed much respect for different tastes, we started casually mocking the modern sounding music and musicians with my brother. So we "played" some for fun. Improvised. It was very silly. But it worked for me for some reason.. and for him also although he didn't wanna talk about it later

  10. #59

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    Not sure if it's jazz, but maybe it is. It certainly seemed to have rock influences with the aggressive electric guitar.

    Regardless, I liked it. I had to listen to it twice. The performance required considerable skill, that's for sure. The mood, attitude, and style were in sync.


    Edit - third listen:

    Lage's playing was top notch and his solo possessed a well conceived and well executed climactic tension and release. Can't ask for much more.

    My only complaint is that the drummer didn't end quite soon enough. Just a smidge earlier would have been perfect. About all the trudgin' had been trudged by the time the guitarist and bassist laid out.
    Last edited by Jazzstdnt; 09-14-2019 at 12:31 AM.

  11. #60

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    Quote Originally Posted by FatPick
    I liked it. The more ear training I do, the more outside sounds inside.

    The real question remains: is he using Benson picking or a compressor?
    Was reading how Dennis Sandole used to get students to transcribe Webern.

    Must try that, I’m sure it would open up my ears.

  12. #61

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    I have liked Lage's playing on other things.

    It didn't occur to me that the problem is that I don't understand it. That would imply that somebody could explain it to me, or something, and then I'd like it. I doubt that.

    To me, it sounds like some players who are well schooled in more conventional music who are experimenting with something outside of the usual conventions.

    A very experienced musician once said (in reaction to me using fuzz on a bop tune) "some music, you just play for yourself".

  13. #62

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rsilver
    This seems like the type of stuff you can get away with only after you’ve established yourself. The audience will cut you some slack.

    “The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively-- because, without this humble appliance, you can't know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a 'box' around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?”

    Frank Zappa


  14. #63

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    Quote Originally Posted by DonEsteban
    “The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively-- because, without this humble appliance, you can't know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a 'box' around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?”

    Frank Zappa

    Typical Zappa.
    .
    .
    .
    Brilliant.

  15. #64

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    You know the older I get the less interested I am in understanding art, the more interested I am in having an emotional reaction. Which may change on repeated exposure.

    I think the emotional reaction is the only important one in art, everything afterwards is retroactive justification.

    If I really like something as a musician I can always dig into it later, maybe find a reason why. That’s analysis and it’s hard work.

    I like this recording. Lage often talks about Evan Parker and Derek Bailey. You can hear the influence here....
    As I get older, both an emotional experience becomes more possible, but I realize how important it is for artists to push the intellect... or art doesn't evolve

  16. #65

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    The very first time I heard Summertime, 40 years ago, it was Albert Ayler's version. I wish Ornette Coleman had the possibility to record four quartets in quadriphony so, Julian Lage is pop music to my ears... ;-)

  17. #66

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    I totally dig the OP video! It's young Frisell-inspired playing, with a very rock edge, which is big plus! Bravo Julian! He is distancing himself even further from most contemporary jazz guitarists. This Lage is no Lund.

  18. #67

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    No one understands jazz, don't worry about it