A spectacular vindication of the principle that there are 'no wrong notes- only wrong resolutions' is Dave Liebman's wild rendition of the sound of music classic 'My Favourite Things'. About halfway through his solo the guitar-and-bass rhythm section cuts him loose to explore freer territory with lots of emotive honking - and somewhere in there Liebman cuts loose on a huge abrasive flurry of notes that stretch the tenor sax range from the squeaking highs to the gasping lows and ends with a huge 'plonk' on the 3rd of the tonic chord.
At this point, all is truly right with the world.
adam
Monday, March 26
Monday, March 19
Southbridge
Went to jam at jazz@southbridge tonight with shawn. Played two long pieces, Softly as in a Morning Sunrise and what is quickly becoming my signature tune, Soul Cowboy.
Overall I think it was a pretty good jam, in that there weren't any harmonic clams or sudden dry spots and everything sort of flowed, but I think it was also lacking a bit in coherence. I tend to noodle or play a lot of outside licks when I run out of ideas. Comping was predictably bad - too soft, out of time and repetitive - will have to work on that. Mario Serio said I had 'nice lines' (although i'm sure he was just being nice - i need a reason to feel good) and I got a free drink from some guy who turned out to be an SSO player (!). Ken, I think.
Anyway, I've decided on an after A levels project. I'll need to get a band together to see if we can tackle the late-50s music of Miles Davis (pre-electric period, second great quintet) or any post-bop kind of styles. I've pretty much figured that's where I want to go musically from now. Of course it's still a bit far off, but a guy can dream! Mark will be in UK by then, so i'm taking offers for a bassist slot.
adam
EDIT: Martinis taste fucking awesome. Should have ordered one for myself. In fact, will do just that when I turn 18.
EDIT: I'm also looking for a trumpeter. But don't bother unless you are excellent.
EDIT: I will call my band Sex Machine. In honour of the late James Brown, and also inspired by the fantastic US band Sex Mob. The word Jazz originally had a lot of sexual connotations, if you all didn't know.
Overall I think it was a pretty good jam, in that there weren't any harmonic clams or sudden dry spots and everything sort of flowed, but I think it was also lacking a bit in coherence. I tend to noodle or play a lot of outside licks when I run out of ideas. Comping was predictably bad - too soft, out of time and repetitive - will have to work on that. Mario Serio said I had 'nice lines' (although i'm sure he was just being nice - i need a reason to feel good) and I got a free drink from some guy who turned out to be an SSO player (!). Ken, I think.
Anyway, I've decided on an after A levels project. I'll need to get a band together to see if we can tackle the late-50s music of Miles Davis (pre-electric period, second great quintet) or any post-bop kind of styles. I've pretty much figured that's where I want to go musically from now. Of course it's still a bit far off, but a guy can dream! Mark will be in UK by then, so i'm taking offers for a bassist slot.
adam
EDIT: Martinis taste fucking awesome. Should have ordered one for myself. In fact, will do just that when I turn 18.
EDIT: I'm also looking for a trumpeter. But don't bother unless you are excellent.
EDIT: I will call my band Sex Machine. In honour of the late James Brown, and also inspired by the fantastic US band Sex Mob. The word Jazz originally had a lot of sexual connotations, if you all didn't know.
Wednesday, March 14
Sunday, March 11
THOMPSON BIG BAND BASH
Hello to the diminutive readership of this blog! I'm performing at the BOTANIC GARDENS on the 25th of march with thompson jazz band. It's at 5 pm so come and watch! And don't miss the Thoroughly Embarrassing Guitar Solo either.
Ulysses is killing me. Day 3, i'm at page 21 - which is a good 7 pages a day. To tell the truth I don't quite understand Joyce's writing at all. He has a certain sense of humour which is pretty absurd, but no LOL moments, so far.
Also, he uses 'scrotumtightening' as an adjective. Whee intellectually degenerate happiness!
adam
Thursday, March 8
a heap of broken images
Just went to Kinokuniya today to pick up a copy of Ulysses! I feel excited at the prospect of slogging through the 600-odd page nightmare. Interestingly, I was talking to Cheng at the Lit (J) section - we couldn't find a second copy of Ulysses which cost less than 30 bucks - and we wanted to change the terms of our massive Ulysses-reading suicide pact to something like a Portrait of the artist as a young man-reading suicide pact and then Cheng said
- No, but Ulysses is the challenge
and some random woman said, NO, Finnegans Wake is the challenge
which came out of the blue but was roughly consistent with what I'd been told. Hmm.
School is a miserable slog. Everyone comes, everyone goes, nothing happens, it's awful. But I know i'll have to start studying at some point which is a TERRIBLE prospect but inevitable I guess.
I just read Abby's blog and it got me Thinking. I complain a lot about school but if it ever came to the crunch I doubt i'd give it up. I mean, I could probably do without studying. Or homework. Or insidious references to invisible poultry. But School... maybe not. I think it's become too much a part of me that when I'm finally cut loose I think i'll take a few months if not a whole year just adjusting to the shock of not having to wake up in the morning and grope about for my uniform or having to wander about the house half-naked in the unholy hours of the morning griping about yesterday's frisbee game in which I sprained my knee. That's a scary thought.
It's scary that despite my unspoken promise to myself that I would never let school become my life, I've gotten emotionally involved in it (and it's a terrible thing to be emotionally involved with the enemy). There are some baggages i'll be leaving in the corridors of RJ, and Raffles Institution.
I didn't ask for it. I've tried for years to make school inconsequential because I can't deal with responsibility, so that I could do it with my eyes closed. There's still things which, against my better judgement, I like about school. And i hate that.
adam
- No, but Ulysses is the challenge
and some random woman said, NO, Finnegans Wake is the challenge
which came out of the blue but was roughly consistent with what I'd been told. Hmm.
School is a miserable slog. Everyone comes, everyone goes, nothing happens, it's awful. But I know i'll have to start studying at some point which is a TERRIBLE prospect but inevitable I guess.
I just read Abby's blog and it got me Thinking. I complain a lot about school but if it ever came to the crunch I doubt i'd give it up. I mean, I could probably do without studying. Or homework. Or insidious references to invisible poultry. But School... maybe not. I think it's become too much a part of me that when I'm finally cut loose I think i'll take a few months if not a whole year just adjusting to the shock of not having to wake up in the morning and grope about for my uniform or having to wander about the house half-naked in the unholy hours of the morning griping about yesterday's frisbee game in which I sprained my knee. That's a scary thought.
It's scary that despite my unspoken promise to myself that I would never let school become my life, I've gotten emotionally involved in it (and it's a terrible thing to be emotionally involved with the enemy). There are some baggages i'll be leaving in the corridors of RJ, and Raffles Institution.
I didn't ask for it. I've tried for years to make school inconsequential because I can't deal with responsibility, so that I could do it with my eyes closed. There's still things which, against my better judgement, I like about school. And i hate that.
adam
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