Hullo jazz fans. Apologies for the radio silence, I’ve been driving myself nuts on a film project. I’ve found time for a little bit of teaching too, and I’m always on the lookout for new approaches – some just click…
Blog Archives
Willie Thomas and Not-Quite-Pentatonics
Tagged with: jazz trumpet, jazzeveryone.com, Willie Thomas
Posted in a) Soloing Scales & Modes, i) Reviews
Posted in a) Soloing Scales & Modes, i) Reviews
The Universal Mind of Bill Evans
Jon Brantingham has just put a very good essay up at The Art of Composition. It’s an appraisal of an extended interview with Bill Evans, conducted by his brother Harry in 1966. The “Universal Mind” thing may sound a bit hippyish,…
Tagged with: Art of Composition, Bill Evans, jazz, Jon Brantingham, Universal Mind
Posted in e) Rants & Ramblings, i) Reviews
Posted in e) Rants & Ramblings, i) Reviews
Don’t Shoot Yourself, You’re the Pianist
Somebody got me Ronnie Scott’s Some of My Best Friends Are Blues for Christmas. It’s a fun little read, and there are bound to be some anecdotes that will be new to you, even if you think you know all…
Grumpy Old Jazzers
Regular readers will be aware by now that I have an occasional tendency towards the grumps. On that I’m unrepentant. My gig, my rules, mate. I’ve recently discovered a couple of blogs by other similarly minded individuals and I commend…
Priceless and Free
So Ornette Coleman has finished his Chronology. Rather than doing a standard obit, I think it would be more interesting to chat about what he did, which was and remains the subject of much confusion. WARNING: May contain unsubstantiated personal…
Tagged with: free jazz, harmolodics, obituary, Ornette Coleman
Posted in e) Rants & Ramblings, i) Reviews
Posted in e) Rants & Ramblings, i) Reviews
So What Intro
The Miles album Kind of Blue really was one of a kind. A fascinating, confident adventure that came back with the treasure in abundance – and the whole story is documented really well in a book by Ashley Khan (see here). (Khan…
Tagged with: Gil Evans, jazz, Miles Davis, So What intro
Posted in b) Harmony & Comping, h) Transcriptions, i) Reviews
Posted in b) Harmony & Comping, h) Transcriptions, i) Reviews
Everyone’s a Critic…
Jazz musicians will possibly know Nicolas Slonimsky for his Thesaurus of Scale Patterns. Famously, Coltrane practised out of it and I come across musicians today who still explore it. Just the other day, I was chatting to a saxophonist about…
Tagged with: critics, Lexicon of Musical Invective, Slonimsky
Posted in d) The Dark Art of Marketing, g) Classically Inclined, i) Reviews
Posted in d) The Dark Art of Marketing, g) Classically Inclined, i) Reviews
Re Person I Knew
Except I didn’t know him. This is the title of a Bill Evans piece dedicated to jazz producer Orrin Keepnews, who died last week just shy of his 92nd birthday. It’s an anagram of his name*, and seems an appropriate…
Tagged with: Fantasy, jazz, Landmark, Milestones, Orrin Keepnews, Riverside
Posted in e) Rants & Ramblings, i) Reviews
Posted in e) Rants & Ramblings, i) Reviews
Vi Hart & Twelve Tones
For some reason I can’t even remember, I was recently spurred to refresh some of the funkier stuff in my maths education. In my online quest after some of the long forgotten detailed bits behind the sublime Euler’s Identity (yeah,…
Ugo Delmirani
I do hope the grapevine’s wrong about this one – please let me know if so. I heard the other day that Ugo, a formidable pianist and stalwart in particular of the scene at London’s famous 606 Club, had ……
...appetising young books for sale...
Pents book is recommended reading on Gary Burton's Berklee course.
Jason Lyon on Music 