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Results for "Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog"
What, Me Worry? McCoy Tyner and the Pentatonic Scale
It may be the most ubiquitous scale in the world and arguably the oldest. Anywhere in the world, when someone carves a flute, plucks a string or twangs a piece of metal they inevitably stumble into some variation of a 5-note-pentatonic-scale. It sounds good. It offers simplicity, yet potential for tension and relaxation. You can use ...
The Jazz Seduce-O-Meter (PG-17)
Friends, I have seen the error of my ways and apologize for the sarcastic tone of my recent post on the scientific link between sex and jazz. Looking back at my own experience dispassionately, I see there is in fact a clear link between people's sex lives and their musical taste. “Getz-Gilberto" is guaranteed to get ...
The Unison. Matt Lavelle.
I'm not an expert on Alice Coltrane and her music,.but I do know that her music has reached out to me in the last few years,and acted as a guide in some way about how to process the relationship of spirit to music.Her music after Trane made the transition fascinates me,and I intend to ...
"Operators" Are Standing By
Some have castigated the recent alliance between Sony and the Miles Davis estate which offers “A mouthpiece replica of exactly the 'Gustat' Heim 2 model used by Davis especially created by Kanstul," t-shirts and other fascinating items. They even throw in 43 CD's.In fact, those corporate giants don't go nearly far enough in offering ...
Pixels Versus Pulp.
Deadbeat Aditorial Meeting One of my regular e mail bro's sent me a rant recently about what passes for the latest content in Deadbeat...aaah yes...Deadbeat. I'd almost forgotten about them. They are still in last year somewhere, tail wagging Lovano and the imploded industry line up game plan. Poor Deadbeat with fewer than 50 employees, ...
Safety in Numbers
The trigger for this was reading that today is Annie Ross' birthday. As far as I'm concerned (and it's a safe bet no one else is), there has never been a greater female 'parts' singer than Annie. Not just parts, but the vocalese solos she sang with Lambert and Hendricks. Fantastic range, intonation and phrasing. I ...
All Hail the Jazz Super-Stud
Pity the poor jazz musician. For about 75 years we were branded with a kind of anti-hero cultural status. To live up to that, we coughed up scores of booze-soaked and heroin-riddled deaths. Some-Artie Shaw, Harry James-were forced to march-step through scores of glamorous divorces.After that, the pressure eased off a bit. When people ...
Welcome to 21st Century Jazz. Matt Lavelle.
One thing it's taken me 20 years to learn is that the Trumpet is a FEELING.To really unlock it's secrets you have to feel the sound that comes through it.My relationship with the horn is that sometimes there's feelings I MUST confront.I walked into a club the other day with a burning in my chest that ...
Yo Canada.
I've had a lively correspondence going with one of the blog stalwarts and pillar of decency, Stanley Zappa, about Canada, his adopted home. He tells me about how their art support system works and I give him background on how it ended up the way it is. He sent me some questions from some convened panel ...
Life, Death, Resurrection and the Cornet
During a recent Nat Adderly listening session, I thought “Why play this style on cornet and not trumpet?" I was thinking of the cliched perception of the cornet, as personified by cornet greats Oliver, Bix, Bobby Hackett, Jimmy McPartland et al.The cornet sound is theoretically mellower and rounder than a trumpet's. The horns have ...
