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Showing posts from September, 2014

Louis Armstrong on "Basin Street Blues" + Lester Young on "All of Me"

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Per the requirements of the Master of Music program in jazz performance at The New England Conservatory, I'm required to take three "Jazz Studies" courses to graduate. This semester, I've elected to take 66% of them: a course on "Jazz Styles" (note the problematic nature of each word, as well as when taken together) and a course on Bird and Bud. For the aforementioned J—— S—— course, a weekly component of the class consists of transcribing and playing along with transcriptions, which I'm happy to do, as you might have guessed. The first solo I transcribed was Louis Armstrong's majestic pass through "Basin Street Blues," recorded in 1928 as part of the Hot Fives series of recordings. The next solo was a late Lester Young solo from Pres and Teddy  (1956): "All of Me." Having transcribed more early Lester than late Lester, I thought I'd check out the other end of his career, which is often characterized as being less valuab

More On the Origins of Bebop: "Max Is Making Wax" (or, "Bop ba ba di ba do di la be de bop")

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From an interview with Dizzy Gillespie in Art Taylor's Notes and Tones : Where did the term be-bop come from, and what are your feelings about it?   Duke Ellington once told me: "Dizzy, the biggest mistake you made was to let them name your music be-bop, because from the time they name something, it is dated."   They who?   Whoever named it; I don't remember who named it. I think it came from when we were on Fifty-second Street. We didn't have names for all our tunes, so I would say: "De bop da du ba di baba de bop," and they thought I was naming a tune or something like that.   Bop ba ba di ba do di la ba de bop.   Yeah. That was the introduction to "Max Is Making Wax." That's funny. I hummed the introduction, and you started the chorus. I guess it just happened from the way we used to hum things instead of saying the name of the tune. Say you play a number that goes be-bop. It just developed into that. I never thought o

Concerts or Clubs?

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In Notes and Tones , Art Taylor asks Max Roach whether he prefers playing clubs or concerts. Roach replies: "I think it depends on the development of a person. As you develop, nightclubs are good. When I felt I wanted to play every second, it didn't matter where I played as long as I played, because I wanted to learn. But at my present age if I didn't know anything about the instrument by now, it would be ludicrous for me to go into those little joints and play like I used to. There are other people now who need that kind of experience. Today I prefer to play concerts. First of all, I have prepared myself for that. Second, it's economically much more rewarding, because you can get more people into a concert hall; therefore you can ask for more money. You can do things musically on a broader scale, because a concert hall can accommodate so many people that you can afford to add other things. However, I think nightclubs are good proving grounds for people who feel t