PRACTICE PORTAL

Here are a few exercises for building finger strength and evenness. when playing these on the saxophone i concentrate on a couple of things in particular: i rest my fingers against the keys of the horn and try to change notes with firm, minimal movements. i usually practice these exercises using a metronome set to a pretty slow tempo (1/4 note= 90-120 bpm) and often practice them without sound… these are great exercises for developing muscle memory. you’ll likely notice an immediate difference in your playing after working through these for several minutes. practice them often to remind your fingers of the roles they play in your overall technique. all these exercises are written out in four note groupings but they should also be practiced using three note groupings…

UNITY, recorded under the leadrship of Larry Young for Blue Note records is one of those genuinely unique records that doesn’t quite fit into a niche. it’s an organ record that, to my knowledge, has no stylistic precedent. the music is a wide detour from Jimmy Smith organ school that was so dominant, instead drawing influences from more open-ended post bop concepts. yet the whole record is very funky in its own quirky way, and the loose, rowdy vibe never lets up mainly because Young and Elvin Jones create such exciting rhythmic friction and generate a wide, flexible beat that allows Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw dig in or float. the horns blend well and they exhibit great empathy. on “ZOLTAN”, the Shaw composition featured here, the transitions that Jones and Young make from straight eighth note grooves into swing are forceful and satisfying. ZOLTAN, which starts off the record, begins with an eight bar march rhythm by Jones. he’s then joined by the rest of the band. Shaw and Henderson play a unison pattern while Young plays a two note bass line under his right hand chords. the groove then switches to latin as Jones and Young set up the melody. the horns enter with the main melody, an eight measure unison riff built on a succession of second intervals. the horns repeat the riff and go into the bridge, where the feel switches to swing. the horns play long notes, bending the pitches with each other. the first melody is played once again before the soloing starts. the solos are blown over the 32 bar form of the tune. i couldn’t resist making the mp3 a little longer to include the blowing… check it out.

WOODY SHAW

ZOLTAN (mp3)

“SOWETO 6″ comes from the great Ralph Peterson record V, his second as a leader on the Blue Note/ Somethin’ Else label. it features some of the then rising stars of the mid 80’s mainstream jazz resurgence like trumpeter Terence Blanchard, saxophonist Steve Wilson, Geri Allen on piano and Phil Bowler on bass. the record is characterized by an aggressive, edgy swing offset with vamp-heavy afro-cuban grooves. the writing is interesting and unpredictable. i particularly enjoy listening to “SOWETO 6″ with its nice two horn harmonies, and the alternating feel and intensity between the two sections of the song. aside from Peterson’s strong drumming, Allen really shapes the sound of this band with her unique piano conception. her elastic rhythmic and harmonic sensibilties keep everything in the pot at a constant simmer. Blanchard sounds great throughout…

“SOWETO 6″ begins with the melody stated over a series of ii-Vs which makes its way into an eight bar vamp in Bb. the harmony moves to A for four bars where the bottom falls out of the groove as the harmony goes to F#, then by half steps to E. it sits there for another 4 bars and then moves into a hard, 16 bar afro-cuban groove in Bmin which features Wilson blowing over the top. the entire form is then repeated before Blanchard’s solo begins…

RALPH PETERSON

SOWETO 6 (mp3)

Here’s an article/ review about THELONUIS MONK: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL, a book by Robin D. G. Kelley. Written by David Yaffe and featured in the 1/11/10 issue of THE NATION…

“You know people have tried to put me off as being crazy,” said Thelonious Sphere Monk. “Sometimes it’s to your advantage for people to think you’re crazy.” He ought to have known. Monk was one of only a few jazz musicians to appear on the cover of Time magazine (others include Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington and Wynton Marsalis) and was celebrated as a genius by everyone who mattered. Bud Powell, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins could not have imagined (or transmuted) the language of jazz without him. Yet the pianist was also constantly underpaid and underappreciated, rejected as too weird on his way up and dismissed as old hat once he made his improbable climb. Performer and composer, eccentric and original, Monk was shrouded in mystery throughout his life. Not an especially loquacious artist (at least with journalists), he left most of his expression in his inimitable work, as stunning and unique as anyone’s in jazz–second only to Duke Ellington’s and perched alongside Charles Mingus’s…

VIEW ENTIRE ARTICLE

The main thing i’ve always enjoyed about JD Allen’s playing is his fat, focused, rich sound. here he is with his trio, live from the Vanguard, last summer…

From NPR’s Website:

“August 12, 2009 from WBGO – When tenor saxophonist JD Allen performed with his trio at the Village Vanguard on Wednesday night, he knowingly ran up against history’s shadow. The honor of fronting the first official album recorded live at the Vanguard — and still one of the greatest — belongs to Sonny Rollins, who ventured into the Greenwich Village basement club in 1956 with two different lineups of saxophone, bass and drums. It was somewhat unusual instrumentation, especially for its day, but those tapes remain exemplars of flexibility, freedom and driving swing.

It’s a lot for Allen’s own trio to live up to. But if his last two albums, I AM, I AM and Shine!, are any indication, that group has both the gusto and the gumption to deliver. WBGO and NPR Music were at the Village Vanguard to present the JD Allen Trio in a live on-air broadcast and online video webcast.

Recorded with bassist Gregg August and drummer Rudy Royston, Allen’s new Shine! takes an intriguing approach to songcraft. Allen’s tunes aren’t catchily melodic: They’re based on simple forms, fragmentary themes, open-ended motifs. But that suits Allen’s communicative trio well: Because the musicians are all ferociously creative players, improvisation blends seamlessly into scripted design, and tension swells and releases in noisy yet soothing resolutions. The songs are planned as relatively compact, all clocking in under six minutes (and often much shorter), and the vignette model packs the riches into dense, fleshy fillets. Allen rides the clattering waves: His tenor is capable of bruising workouts, though he often eschews them in search of round, sincere beauty.

Allen is a product of the modern Detroit scene, though he’s spent the majority of his musical maturity in New York. Serving under luminaries like Lester Bowie, Betty Carter and Jack DeJohnette — and maintaining an ongoing stint in drummer Cindy Blackman’s quartet — helped to increase his profile. But he’s come on especially strong with two releases in the last two years, both featuring his working chordal-instrument-less trio.

More than 50 years later, the format Sonny Rollins popularized favors the bold, resourceful musician who has absorbed the lessons of the last half-century in jazz. Allen isn’t alone in that camp: The last few years have produced a small surge in excellent saxophone trio recordings. But at the Village Vanguard, where the yardstick was set in the first place, his trio will argue its claim to the unofficial historical register.”