The mid 1950’s were not the best of times for Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. While dominating jazz from the late 1920s through to the 40s, his post war recordings suffered in comparison. In addition, changes in popular culture were…
Blog Archives
“There’s A Riot Going On” . . : Duke Ellington’s Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue At Newport Jazz Festival, 1956
Tagged with: Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue, Duke Ellington, Jazz, Newport Jazz Festival, Paul Gonzalves
Posted in Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“When Sunny Gets Blue” . . : Pat Martino 1944 – 2021
Pat Martino, jazz guitarist extraordinaire, passed away recently at the age of 77. Pat started out in the Philadelphia jazz scene, playing in the soul jazz organ combos of Charles Earland, Don Patterson and Jack McDuff. You can certainly hear…
Tagged with: Jazz, jazz guitar, Pat Martino
Posted in Improvisation, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Improvisation, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
A Haiku For The Holidays 2020
Yeah, This Year Sucked Big We Can Only Look Forward And Hope For The Best
Tagged with: Haiku, I Got Rhythm, Jamband, Jazz, The New Jazz Spasms
Posted in Country/Bluegrass, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Country/Bluegrass, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Midnight Blues . . . : Support Kenny Burrell
During the fifties and sixties, there were a trio of jazz guitarists who (to me at least) epitomized that zone between bebop and blues, Grant Green, Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell. Kenny Burrell came from Detroit, a scene in the…
Tagged with: Blue Note Records, Jazz, jazz guitar, Kenny Burrell, Midnight Blue
Posted in Blues, Improvisation, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Blues, Improvisation, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“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…
“Walk This Way” . . . : Cool Walking Bass Videos From Reverb
When you ask someone to imagine a jazz tune in their head, I bet that the imaginary tune has a walking bass line. It’s that steady, pulse keeping, melodic thump that will make you tap your feet, nod your head…
Tagged with: Bass, Chrisian McBride, Jazz, Paul Chambers, Ray Brown, Reverb.com, Scott's Bass Lessons, Walking Bass
Posted in Bass, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis, Music Theory
Posted in Bass, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis, Music Theory
Dawg Music : The Bluegrass Jazz of Dave Grisman and Friends
From the bluegrass/Dead nexus of the previous post, I noe move on to a sub genre of music as singular as it’s name, Dawg Music. The term is what mandolin player Dave Grisman called the music on his 1977 album…
Tagged with: bluegrass, Darol Anger, David Grisman, Jazz, Tony Rice
Posted in Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“Blues for New Orleans” . . . : Duke Ellington, the New York Public Library and Me
So here I am, fourteen years old and just starting to get into jazz beyond the contemporary bands of the day. I wanted to go deeper but the the number of records one can buy on a fourteen year old’s…
Bright Moments: Rahsaan Roland Kirk Live At the Keystone 1973
The very first jazz musician I ever saw live was Rahsaan Roland Kirk at the Village Vanguard. It was December 1973. I was in high school and just getting into straight ahead jazz, transitioning out of my jazz-rock phase. My…
Tagged with: Bright Moments, Fat Waller, Jazz, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Saxaphone, Villag Vanguard
Posted in Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
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