July 14

Listening

Did some practicing today but, mostly listened to music all day/evening. I'm listening to a lot of things that I studied in the past with Marc Copland. Started listening to a T. Monk tune called We See. Repeated listening and singing the melody. I'll "put it on the horn" tomorrow.

Sample of my listening today:
Tom Harrell - Look to The Sky Cd
Studied most of these solos before so I'm
just starting to sing them again. Love
Kenny BArron's playing on this album.

Tom Harrell/Bill Evans
We'll Be Together Again CD
(Again, reviewing a lot of solos)

Bartok for Children

Clark Terry
Havin' Fun CD

Tribute to Strayhorn CD
Singing melodies and bass lines
A number of these tunes I want to start doing on gigs.

Keith Jarrett
Poinciana
Just In Time
All of You

Miles Davis
Round Midnight CD
reviewing a lot of solos (singing)

Miles Davis
Someday My Prince Will Come CD
reviewing solos especially Hank Mobley's on
Old Folks (one of my very favorite solos ever!)

Gary Bartz
My Shining Hour
(Love his vocabulary)

Booker Ervin
The In Between
The first "jazz" lp I ever owned. I love Booker's playing as
much as ever.....reviewing/singing his solos. Also, Richard Williams is
playing great trumpet on this album. One of my favorite players. I remember hearing
him live with Clark Terry when I was in junior high school.

Chet Baker
Once Upon A Summertime CD
Maybe my favorite Chet recording. His solo on A Song Is You is a classic.
Also, I've been a huge fan of Greg Herbert (tenor sax) since first hearing this
recording. Sadly, Herbert died young. It was obvious that he listened to a lot of Trane and Dexter but unlike most of the young cats out of that school, he didn't over play. He really exercised some restraint. Beautiful player....

The Best Thing For You
Some great playing by Chet, Kenny Barron and Paul Desmond

Dexter Gordon
Doin Alright CD
Reviewed/Sang a lot of Dexter's solos and Freddie Hubbard's solos

1955 CD
Singing solos

Coltrane
Stardust Sessions
Love Trane and Wilbur Harden's solos on this album. I mention Wilbur Harden when people ask me my favorite players. Everybody says, "Who?"

Freddie Hubbard
Byrdlike
One of my favorite Freddie recordings.

Kenny Dorham
Quiet Kenny
reviewing/singing solos

Lee Morgan
Memorial Album
This album "rocked my world" around 1978-79

Was really a great day of listening. When I was studying with Copland, I was always learning new solos. Had to walk into the lessons and sing the solos with the recordings. It was a great way to absorb the jazz language. Since living in Japan, I've gotten away from doing some of those things. As a result of doing this blog everyday, I'm feeling the urge to get back to those things that I used to do daily to help creativity.

June 29

Reading
Was taking a look (again) at "Zen in the Art of Archery" today. This is probably the most important book I've ever read relating to playing my instrument. I recommend this book to anyone in the arts. As I read this book, I just substitute the word trumpet every time Herrigel uses archery.

"What is to be done? How does skill become "spiritual," and how does sovereign control of technique turn into master swordplay? Only, so we are informed, by the pupil's becoming purposeless and egoless. He must be taught to be detached not only from his opponent but from himself. He must pass through the stage he is still at and leave it behind him for good, even at the risk of irretrievable failure. Does this sound as nonsensical as the demand that the archer should hit without taking aim, that he should completely lose sight of the goal and his intention to hit it? It is worth remembering, however, that the master swordmanship, whose essence Takuan describes has vindicated itself in a thousand contests."

Zen in the Art of Archery - Eugen Herrigel, pg 72

Art
Wassily Kandinsky
I'm a HUGE fan of Kandinsky's work. I started reading this book of Kandinsky's today. This is a follow-up to his first book, "Concerning the Spiritual in Art." In these two books, he outlines the dynamics involved in his painting regarding texture, time, and even drawing parallels between color and musical pitches and the emotional effects.

"Composition V" 1911 - Wassily Kandinsky

Music
Chet Baker Interview
In college I really got into a deep Chet "thing." Probably lasted from 1980 to 1983 when I had moved to Washington, D.C. I was never into the stuff Chet did in the early years. I was very attracted to his playing just before he died. He spent all that time in Europe after having new teeth put in. I thought his playing in the later years had really changed. To my ears, his sound had become darker and more soulful. He was always a person that had a good balance of space in his melodic lines. I think in the later years, he had really mastered the use of space. His improvisations really remind me of a painting. His use of space along with the harmonic color and his vocabulary was very much like a painter.


Chet Playing Cherokee in Antwerp
I included this video cause it's nice to hear Chet "fly." A lot of people would be surprised to hear him playing like this on Cherokee. A lot of people only associate Chet with My Funny Valentine and other moody ballads. That's something I like about his playing. He could play as fast as anyone but, he wasn't the kind of player that felt a need to have to show you that all the time. Maybe cause he had reached such a level of maturity and detachment, he didn't have to be "up in your face."

I remember reading something pianist Hal Galper mentioned in the liner notes of a recording I was listening to a lot in the early 80's. Galper was talking about his time working with Chet in Europe. Galper talked about how Chet was a master at not playing too much.

"Chet always knew how to leave the audience wanting more."
Hal Galper

Performance at OPCM

Free Rein, a performance at OPCM on April 3, 2009 from mxxx palmer on Vimeo.

Poetry Reading: Ted Kooser


Stevie Wonder wrote this tune for Michael Jackson
I Can't Help It (Live)


Edward Elgar
I started looking into Elgar's life and music today. Here is a rare clip of him conducting his own incredibly famous "Pomp and Circumstance."
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