And all that jazz

[Pinch]

My forays into jazz have yet to "take", but every now and again I feel I should attempt the task. 

Any recommendations? 

[jdgm]

Classic jazz (swing, bop etc) or fusion?

Guitar or other instruments?

A good place to start is always 'Kind Of Blue' by Miles Davis.    More modern; "In A Silent Way".

Pat Metheny's 3rd album (white cover, Pat Metheny Group on ECM label) is another good starter.

Or - more conventional - Kenny Burrell, "Midnight Blue".   Grant Green "Idle Moments"....how about late-period Django on electric - look for the 1953 "Blues For Ike" session.  

Don't expect to like all of it all at once!

🎺🎷

Edited October 17, 2022 by jdgm

[kidblast]

 

I was invited (before the covid circus) to be part of a quartet that accompanies a choral group.  Swing, JAzz Standards, Big Band is their wheel house.

If you're a classic rock / blues guy,  Like I am,  it's a whole new endeavor.

go in baby steps, get your head around it all.  it's wildly different.

and Swing is not easy,,  lots of chord changes and those tunes MOVE really fast,, miss a measure, and it's hard to catch up.

gotta know  inversions and get comfy with "Comping" chords.    don't need to play the entire chord,, just the triads  

Lots of flat keys too, lots of  these songs are written for horn sections. 

when is the last time you've had to jump to  a CbMaj9b5..  ?   Wait? What??  aint that a Bmaj9b5?   here's my head exploding. 

It's good to push the boundaries..  

I'm loving the challenge

 

 

[Rabs]

Is this considered Jazz? (rock fusion?)

 

[sparquelito]

 

[Whitefang]

18 hours ago, jdgm said:

Classic jazz (swing, bop etc) or fusion?

Guitar or other instruments?

A good place to start is always 'Kind Of Blue' by Miles Davis.    More modern; "In A Silent Way".

Pat Metheny's 3rd album (white cover, Pat Metheny Group on ECM label) is another good starter.

Or - more conventional - Kenny Burrell, "Midnight Blue".   Grant Green "Idle Moments"....how about late-period Django on electric - look for the 1953 "Blues For Ike" session.  

Don't expect to like all of it all at once!

🎺🎷

Miles is a good ida.  But too, there's Coltrane.  "Giant Steps" a good starter, a bit later move up to "Africa/Brass". 

And as you'd be listening to saxophone, try out anything by Charlie Parker.  Lots of good compilations out there.  Most say he was the greatest alto player.  Phil Woods is another.

Burrell  is good for guitar.  So is Joe  Pass.  Herb Ellis for the smoother, milder side.  Di Meola and McLaughlin for fusion.  Grover Washington's "Reed Seed" is a good example of a more modern take on jazz.  Has a bit of fusion in the mix too.

Try listening to older stuff by Sonny Rollins or Monk.  Milt Jackson on vibes.   But these days......................

Go to Wiki and get a list of jazz artists names, then hit YT to sample some of their work and see if you can find just what you like.   Personally, I like all sorts of styles, and from many different eras. 

Here's a taste of Grover Washington for example...  (from "Reed Seed")

Whitefang

[Sgt. Pepper]

Two words:

Miles Davis .

Two more:

John Coltrane.

[brad1]

Did anybody else think this was a thread about Queen?🤔

[Sgt. Pepper]

26 minutes ago, brad1 said:

Did anybody else think this was a thread about Queen?🤔

What kind?

[brad1]

52 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

What kind?

Jazz was a Queen album

[Sgt. Pepper]

13 hours ago, brad1 said:

Jazz was a Queen album

I know I own it. All I wanna do is bicycle . . .  bicycle 

[Whitefang]

14 hours ago, brad1 said:

Jazz was a Queen album

"All That Jazz" was also a movie title.  

 

19 hours ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Two words:

Miles Davis .

Two more:

John Coltrane.

Three more----

Bird;

Diz;

Cannonball.

!

Whitefang

[badbluesplayer]

Jazz is blues plus swing plus improvisation.  Just do all that stuff.

[jdgm]

I've posted this one before but it's worth doing it again -

Yogi Berra on Jazz -

 

Interviewer:  Can you explain Jazz?

Yogi:  I can't, but I will. 90% of all Jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong.

Interviewer:  I don't understand.

Yogi:  Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can't understand it. It's too complicated. That's what's so simple about it.

Interviewer:  Do you understand it?

Yogi:  No. That's why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldn't know anything about it.

Interviewer:  Are there any great  jazz players alive today?

Yogi:  No. All the great Jazz players alive today are dead.  Except for the ones that are still alive.   But so many of them are dead, that the ones that are still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead.

Interviewer:  What's the difference between theory and practice?

Yogi:  In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.  In practice there is.

Interviewer:  What is syncopation?

Yogi:  That's when the note that you should hear now happens either before or after you hear it.  In Jazz, you don't hear notes when they happen because that would be some other type of music.  Other types of music can be Jazz, but only if they're the same as something different from those other kinds.

Interviewer:  Now I really don't understand.

Yogi:  I haven't taught you enough for you to not understand Jazz that well.

[Sgt. Pepper]

I remember I took a Jazz History class in college. The professer asked "What Is Jazz". I said "Difficult.

[Pinch]

Thank you guys, will check out the suggestions 

[Whitefang]

14 hours ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

I remember I took a Jazz History class in college. The professer asked "What Is Jazz". I said "Difficult.

Didn't your professor add that when asked that same question, the legendary Louis Armstrong answered,

"If you have to ask, you'll never know."     ? If not I assert that professor was grossly delinquent in his duty. 

Whitefang

 

[jaxson50]

Jazz is a rich art form, the best way to learn about it and appreciate it is to listen to  various artist from all the styles of Jazz. 

The easy way to do that is listen to Jazz Beyond the Sky, from the roots of Jazz to the biggest names to the new artist and everything in between 

https://tunein.com/radio/Jazz-Beyond-the-Sky-with-John-McCarthy-p473800/

[badbluesplayer]

I thought this was about how to play jazz, not what jazz to listen to, lol.  😄

[Sgt. Pepper]

What ever you do don't listen to Kenny G.

[Whitefang]

21 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

What ever you do don't listen to Kenny G.

I used to joke  about that.  Tell my wife I didn't like Kenny G as much as I did his Father.  She'd ask, "Who was his Father?"  and I'd wryly answer;

"Why, DADDY G, of course."  🥴

Gene Barge was a respected session man on sax, who was popularly known( and mostly to musicians) as "Daddy G".  Notice, he's one of the composers on that single and likely the one on sax.

What bothered me was.......

My first name is Ken, my middle name is Gary.  And my wife would often refer to me as "Kenny G" 😝  Plus, as a wedding photographer, I'd have to endure, at the reception, the "dinner music" played by wedding DJs would ALWAYS begin with.....

Besides, I I wanna listen to soprano saxophone, make mine-----

Or the aforementioned Grover Washington Jr.

Whitefang

[Sgt. Pepper]

My fear in life is that I get stuck in an elevator with Kenny G on repeat and they can't get me out for several hours. I think when they would finally came to rescue me, I would be curled up in the fetal position in one corner of the elevator drooling on myself and babbling some strange language. 

Edited October 21, 2022 by Sgt. Pepper

[Sgt. Pepper]

Here is what jazz became in the 80's. How did we ever survive?

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

But seriously listen to Miles Davis - Sketches Of Spain, B-itches Brew, In A Silent Way, and Kind Of Blue. John Coltrane - Blue Train, A Love Supreme, Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, Ballads. Dave Brubeck - Time Out, Time Further Out. There is so much jazz out there. I saw at my Jr. High School before he died, The Count, and not the one from Sesame Street. I'm taking about Basie. He and the schools music teacher were good friends and he played at my Jr. High School. I still have my ticket stub. Hell yeah he played One O'clock Jump.

[Whitefang]

1 hour ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

My fear in life is that I get stuck in an elevator with Kenny G on repeat and they can't get me out for several hours. I think when they would finally come to rescue me, I would be curled up in the fetal position in one corner of the elevator drooling on myself and babbling some strange language. 

I'd probably be sucking my thumb.  

1 hour ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Here is what jazz became in the 80's. How did we ever survive?

 

Oy.  Yeah.  What's called "Smooth" jazz.   There are some good stuff in that genre, but sadly, you have to torture yourself by listening to much of it to find it.

42 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

But seriously listen to Miles Davis - Sketches Of Spain, B-itches Brew, In A Silent Way, and Kind Of Blue. John Coltrane - Blue Train, A Love Supreme, Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, Ballads. Dave Brubeck - Time Out, Time Further Out. There is so much jazz out there. I saw at my Jr. High School before he died, The Count, and not the one from Sesame Street. I'm taking about Basie. He and the schools music teacher were good friends and he played at my Jr. High School. I still have my ticket stub. Hell yeah he played One O'clock Jump.

Basie at your Jr. high!  How cool was that?  But don't limit y'self to Miles.  As the horn goes there's several others.  Thad Jones, Fats Navarro, Maynard Ferguson,  Chet Baker.  Nat Adderly.

Odd that some of the Miles you bring up are his Fusion forays.  And their acceptance among the "purists" were not great.  But yeah, IMHO, they're excellent.

Whitefang