Try to imitate drums in heavy metal songs. Let out your secret love for Linkin’ Park and Metallica, and just give your mouth a go. Put on some Emperor and see what noises you can make in an acoustically delicious shower. Let people stare while you rock out to System of a Down and make goofy mouth noises.

Also, heavy metal is underappreciated by a cappella dorks, as is punk rock. Builds character.

“Punk rock isn’t dead: it’s only comatose.”

Man, I love Paul Gilbert. Stupid-fast metal guitar always appeals to that pick wielding side of me, and he has such a sense of humor about it. I mean, look at those pants! That guy has to have a sense of humor about something.

Now watch this and just try to tell yourself that the intended effect is not exactly the same in both of these videos. The sound is different, the arena is different (har!), but the intended effect remains the same. You’ll have to turn this up a bit:

I love that while the bepantsed one whips his crowd into a frothy frenzy, the similarly brilliant technical fireworks of the Markov interpretation result in naught but a hearty “Bravo!” at the end.

If Paganini were alive today, he would probably play through three Metal Zone pedals cranked up to 11.5. Aside: Paganini was actually a guitarist as well, and composed many pieces for the instrument.

His general lack of available recordings has made him a less celebrated pianist than perhaps he deserves, as well as his unwillingness to fit squarely into the burgeoning bebop style of his contemporaries.  Jeff would certainly whine about Lennie’s big fat 10-note piano chords, and this recording showcases plenty of these in all of their crunchy glory.  What’s maybe most interesting to me about this particular recording (and I don’t have a title for it) is the way that Lennie’s chords are so very dense that they almost constitute entire modes or scales played at once.  The motion between them is difficult to decipher, but the movement is clear.

His melody lines are clearly articulated but tend to refuse to gravitate to the usual tonal homes of bebop.  I enjoy how chromatic his playing is; it certainly foreshadows his atonal ventures to come.  Such a strange syncopated jaunt this is!  And though it’s clearly in C minor, do I hear an Eb as the final bass note?

Also, seriously, is that drummer playing straight eighth notes?  Those wacky Germans!

I will have to study his educational methods more fully very soon.

It is the most successful solo jazz album of all time, but Keith Jarrett wants to see each of the 3.5 million copies of “The Köln Concert” stomped into the ground.

(via Metafilter).

Pretty please?

The first of many to come, I imagine.  I’ll be posting on this blog various jazz tunes in the form of recordings and/or sheet music — in the near future, I’ll be sticking to some ricky-ticky jazz classics from the prewar era if possible, since this music is much more diatonic and easier to learn.  The vocabulary gets into our heads rather naturally!

Lester Young, of course, was a giant of early jazz tenor saxophone, along with such names as Coleman Hawkins.  During his Basie years, Lester got a chance to record numerous times as featured soloist; on October 9, 1936, he laid down his first set of four tracks with the so-called “Jones-Smith, Incorporated,” consisting of Carl Smith (tp), Count Basie (p), Walter Page (b), Jo Jones (d), and occasional vocal tracks by Jimmy Rushing.  Oh, Lady Be Good!, a Gershwin brothers tune from the eponymous Broadway musical, was among them; it features the Prez at his finest — young, spirited, and clever.

The original track, Lester’s solo isolated, and then his solo slowed down:

Notice how very pentatonic Lester is.  He favors the 6th very heavily; on his G chords the note “E” stands out.  Look out for Ebs used mainly as passing tones — this qualifies as the b9 of the V7 chord, but it hadn’t yet developed the autonomy it would have under Bird’s fingers.  Lots of Lester’s licks begin on the third of the chord (as Paul Desmond’s did later), and arpeggiate up to the ninth.  There are also a few chromatic enclosures to learn.  Huzzah for the key of G!  Finally, look for rhythmic displacements of the same motivic material.  It’s syncopated hemiola.

Sheet Music PDF

This is fantastic!  Syllables aren’t important – the language is music.  The minor pentatonic is the basis.  You can see when the audience starts to get away from him and begins to applaud instead of investing themselves, and Bobby calls them back in a way that’s not rude and DOES acknowledge their appreciation, but he still strives with such certainty to maintain the shifted frame of mind shared by the room.  It’s magical because it’s like nothing this crowd has ever had the pleasure to participate in, and also so fearlessly.  They sit on the edges of their seats, eagerly anticipating whatever might come next, what new discovery the next note might hold; all the while, rising within them is surely a certain glee and elation.

Sensational!

Three cheers for Tristano!  What a distinctive touch. He was never afraid to hammer away, something that I saw Ed doing time and time again.  Lennie has also learned to swing hard between his two hands by pushing the bassline ever forward and causing the melody to appear further behind, although this results in a tendency to speed up.  Normally this type of rhythmic interplay would be between instruments.

I love watching how his hands have eyes of their own as they find their way across the keyboard–it reminds me of the endless scales and finger dexterity/flexibility exercises that are part of his method.  Now that I understand his blindness, I see how he would emphasize so strongly the fingers and their ability to walk around the keyboard.  It seems, however, that there might be room for another structured approach that is more intuitive and less rote.  Hopefully I’ll be able to fill that gap.

Finally, note how harmonically complex his playing is — his chords and scales are nearly treated the same, and melodic contour is difficult to pull out of densely stacked harmonies.  His freely improvised section has no real melodic motion; just harmonic and PAINED insistence. It’s fantastic.