Bit of fun this week. I sat in on a gig the other night and the singer called Mack the Knife. It’s an interesting one because it’s harmonically very simple – just the four main chords of the key, but…
Blog Archives
Meet Aimee Nolte
Gang, this is Aimee; Aimee – the gang. She’s a prolific YouTuber (channel here) and I recommend you spend a couple of hours in her company. There’s not a lot she hasn’t already covered, or doesn’t plan to cover, but I’ve…
Beatomania
A very good YouTube video resource here. Rick Beato is an Atlanta-based jazz, classical and rock musician turned engineer and producer. He’s just as much at home talking about Allan Holdsworth or Pearl Jam as Stravinsky or Hans Zimmer. He knows his AKG C414 from his…
1959 and All That
There was a documentary a while ago on 1959 as the year that changed jazz for ever. It focused on Miles’ Kind of Blue, Brubeck’s Time Out, Mingus’ Ah Um and Coleman’s Shape of Jazz to Come. Of course, jazz…
Tagged with: Ah Um, Brubeck, Coltrane, Giant Steps, Kind of Blue, miles, Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Shape of Jazz to Come, Time Out
Posted in b) Harmony & Comping, e) Rants & Ramblings
Posted in b) Harmony & Comping, e) Rants & Ramblings
The Value of “Huh?”
I was recently asked about how to play the second chord in Jobim’s Wave. I don’t think my correspondent would mind me saying that he’d got himself rather tangled up in analysis and choices of diminished chords. Here’s where the…
Dominant Ice Cream
I’ve been asked to post something about how jazz musicians play fast and loose with V chords when comping. And boy, do they. Well, I’ll start by observing that the chord alterations we’ll look at are also used in contexts…
The Third Rail
Or the noble art of electrocuting yourself and living to laugh about it Jazzers of a certain vintage used to refer to what we mostly now call “avoid notes” as “the third rail”. It’s a train analogy. The third rail carries…
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We play every Wednesday night, 9 to 12.30, at Toulouse Lautrec in Kennington, South London. It starts as a gig then becomes a jam. We welcome and accommodate all, but please do have a squizz at Thoughts from the Piano Chair of a Jam Session.
Illustration by Sue Harding
June guest soloists
7 Sara Dowling voc
14 Ed Riches gtr
21 Duncan Eagles tenor
28 Tom Ridout tenor
More info on guests here
For London-wide jazz llistings see 
