I think the title pretty much sums it up. Let’s first go with something classy, Duke Ellington. who in 1960 recorded a jazz interpretation of “The Nutcracker” by Tchaikovsky. The video below is of the Overture, opening with a descending…
Yearly Archives: 2018
A Short Selection Of Holiday Themed Music That Doesn’t Suck
Tagged with: Christmas Music, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Run-DMC, The Nutcracker, The Waitresses, Vulfpeck
Posted in Classic Rock, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Classic Rock, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
A Haiku For The Holidays 2018
Something Different For The Holidays This Year Music Is A Gift The New Jazz Spasms – Tradition (Fiddler On The Roof)
“May All Your Dreams “. . . : Brian May’s Star Licks Guitar Video
Continuing with the Queen theme from my previous post, the video below is from a series of instructional videos fthat were made in the ealy 1980’s called Star Licks. Besides Brian May, the series featured well-known musicians such as Steve…
Tagged with: Brian May, Insrructional Guitar Video, Queen
Posted in Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Queen For A Day . . . : Bohemian Rhapsody On Classical Guitar
I haven’t seen the movie yet but with the recent release of the Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic, I thought it would be a good time to share this great video of classical guitarist Edgar Cruz playing a solo guitar arrangement of…
Tagged with: Bohemian Rhapsody, Classical Guitar, Freddie Mercury, Queen
Posted in Classic Rock, Classical
Posted in Classic Rock, Classical
“Getting Off The Root” . . . : Digging Deeper With Jeff Antoniuk
As I’m doing my own deep dive into jazz bass playing, I’ve been working on my bass soloing. As the material has a much faster harmonic rhythm than the rock/blues/funk tunes that I usually play, I’ve noticed that many of…
Tagged with: Bass Soloing, Improvisation, Jazz, Jazz Theory, Jeff Antoniuk
Posted in Improvisation, Jazz, Music Theory
Posted in Improvisation, Jazz, Music Theory
“That Which Does Not Kill You”. . : Recent Adventures In Jazz Bass Playing
I have written about my returning to playing bass after a prolonged period of playing the Chapman Stick Guitar. One of my immediate challenges in actually find people to play with. I hate going to jam sessions. You wait for…
“He is poetry, he is innocence, he is energy, he is Flea!” – Flea at the Pathway to Paris, 09/14/2018
With that great introduction from none other than Patti Smith, the bassist extraordinaire Flea (born Michael Peter Balzary) proceeds to give a short but beautiful solo set playing bass and trumpet. The performance is loosely divided into three sections with…
Tagged with: Bass, Flea, Looping, Pathway To Paris, Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Posted in Bass, Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Bass, Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“Give the drummer some” . . . : What Makes John Bonham Such a Good Drummer?
Forgive me for I have sinned. I will admit that that I got in Led Zeppelin relatively late. I partially blame high school tribalism for it. You see my group of friends were the freaks. We were into the Grateful…
Tagged with: drummers, Drums, John Bonham, Led Zeppelin
Posted in Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“Hey Bulldog” . . . : From Forgotten Orphan To Cult Favorite
I remember when the Beatles movie “Yellow Submarine” came out. I went to see it with my older brother and a couple of his friends when I was about eleven years old. I watched and liked the Saturday morning Beatles…
Tagged with: Beatles, Hey Bulldog, John Lennon, Lady Madonna, Paul McCartney, Yellow Submarine
Posted in Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis, Music Theory
Posted in Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis, Music Theory
“My Bass Space” . . . : The Fender Precision Bass
For the last several years I have been focusing my musical energies on mastering the Chapman Stick, an endeavor that I have written about previously. Recently I decided to take a break from that instrument and return to my primary…
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