The Bare Necessities

Happy Wednesday Folks!!

I am sure if anyone actually checks this blog they must notice the influx of posts recently....Well I have been trying a little harder so there.

Last night I was the first rehearsal of a Flamenco band I was recruited for out of New Haven. Some serious cats in this band! The instrumentation is me on brass, classical guitar, cello and tablas and tunes written by the members. The group sounded great! Even with tunes fluctuating between 9/8 to 7/8 to 5/8 to 3/4 meter in one section of music, it has been nonetheless enjoyable and challenging. Stay tuned, we have a performance coming up soon!

So i have been showing the Jungle Book to my students this week because at first I was behind on my grades and such and thought I deserved, and so did the kids, a little break. Well this has become quite a hit in class. I have kids dancing and singing in class. Its funny how some things work so well with them when something very similar doesn't. For instance, I did a rhythmic lesson with them last week using the rhythms from West Side Story's tune "America" and the kids loved it. We chanted, clapped and moved to the switching rhythmic groups that make up the song. Then I showed West Side Story and the kids lashed out in complete revolt!! I put on a cartoon no matter how old and they get so into it.....

...or is it because the Jungle Book just has amazing music to it??

The Bare Necessities is by far one of the best, catchiest songs ever composed. It puts me in such a good mood every time I hear it!! The kids have been singing it in the hallways. Its like God Damn Sesame Street in the building!!

Any way, enjoy your hump day folks, go download the Bare Necessities and scratch your back, the weekend is almost here.

The effect of an album

Over the course of my CD collecting years I have obtain a fair amount of listening material. Starting with my early obsession of punk rock records including local and national acts, to my Miles Davis record grabbing in High School, to my religious allegiance to Blue Note in college, my conversion to Impulse in Grad school, and my search for new and original music in adulthood, I have been delving my ability to listen to every sound I can find.

Some albums of course I often return to with a consistent feeling of awe and amazement. One such album is Herbie Hancock's The Prisoner from 1969, featuring Johnny Coles, Joe Henderson, Garnett Brown, Buster Williams, Tootie Heath and others mixing the sounds of then Herbie's sextet which pre-dates the Mwandishi band with a nonet sound with added bass trombone, alto flute and bass clarinet.

I remember buying this album very late in my Herbie collection. I must have been 23 or so and I had been so eager to obtain all of Herbie's catalog, and two albums from the blue era were left: Speak Like a Child and The Prisoner.

A friend had burnt me a copy of Speak Like a Child and I can still feel the disappointment I had felt when I first listened to it. It is another sextet album with Thad Jones on Flugelhorn and he didn't even solo! None of the horns soloed in fact and I remember that driving me crazy. I had read how Herbie used the horns as a textural effect and during that period I was so mad. I felt like it was a tease of an album. Later as my ears matured I grew to love the album and one of its tracks, "Toys" became my favorite jazz composition to play.

I was hesitant to get the next album for fear of more disappointment, so for a year or so I put off getting it. When I finally did, and I am sure it was victim of impulse buying, I loved it. It was the first time I had heard Johnny Coles and thought his playing was so perfect for the sounds the band was making. Joe Henderson proves over and over he can play in any style or form and sound as buoyant as ever. The texture the horns make over the playing and the grooving are mesmerizing and Herbie's use of the fender rhodes is so cool you crave to hear it.

The tunes have great melodies and this brings me to my point. It seems the tunes on this album are being played more and more by modern players. Just recently on his debut release, Drummer Dana Hall plays "I Have a Dream." It is clear that the sounds of the original are so modern even all these years later that the tunes when played now, sound like they were written tomorrow.

These tunes seem to get within my soul, I feel hypnotized every time I hear them. Pretty funny for an album that I procrastinated.

Here are some recordings from recent albums that feature tracks from "The Prisoner:"

I Have a Dream; Dana Hall-Into the Light

Firewater; Jim Rotondi-New Vistas

The Prisoner; Uri Cane-Toys

from Speak Like a Child

Toys; Uri Cane-Toys

Speak Like a Child; Kendrick Scott-Reverence

Tuesday Album Covers: One Sexy Motherfucker

My hero Eddie Henderson released a series of albums in the mid to late 70's that were in the cross and blend of disco and funky jazz. Apparently these albums were a hit in the UK and still are over there.

No one seems to remember the actual covers.

Love You Doc.

This is the back cover.

Tuesday Album Cover

With the upcoming Spring Heeled Jack reunion this spring, I thought I would share one of my favorite album covers in rock.

Photos IV: Happy Birthday Bill Frisell

The nerdiest man in jazz.

Tuesday Album Cover, better late than never.

Tuesday Album Cover: Happy 80th Birthday Ornette

One of my favorite Ornette albums; cover and music.

News From The Neighborhood

So I have been noticing over the last few weeks how inconsistent my posts have been and how they seem to be a such a poor quality compared to my past posts. If you have been reading this blog, I apologize and hope that I get my shit together, sit down and write out some decent stuff.

I have been working hard to press on in a constructive way essentially the 3 bands that are taking up my life currently. I have my acoustic quartet which is made up of a very consistent and talented line up. Most of the work we play though has been restaurants and bars which I can say now is starting to get a little stale. Its the atmosphere, not the music that's stale. I would like to play more adventurous music, newer standards and of course originals but unfortunately this band is in a rut of playing the kind of jazz I call money making music. With the help of a newly hired agent, I hope that this band will start to get work where it deserves: more in a club setting than at some suburban restaurant with an audience that is barely listening to us. If you ever catch this band, see us at Park Central in Hamden, the one rowdy jazz oriented bar in CT where we really get to stretch out.

My goal for this band is to take it in a more original vibe. I want the band to play my own compositions as well as from members in the group. We all have such different approaches yet we work really well. We just need to get in some rehearsals and things would really come together i think. The pianist and myself seem to be completely on the same wave length in terms of our musical back ground and where we would like to be. Our drummer is a disciple of Philly Joe Jones and its evident in his playing which what more could you really ask for? The bassist is what I call a ponderer. A musician who is always looking for not quite the right approach, but the most artistic approach.

Another band I am trying to move along is the Dharma Bums. As posted before, I grew up in the Ska scene and I wanted to continue that style music going in my life. Unfortunately its been a slow process and juggling a 7 member band has been hard to keep track of. This group really surprised me. Within our first 3 weeks of practice and rehearsing we were ready for our first gig but due to snow, we had to cancel.

Third and lastly, is my electric project. Due to the fact I listen to almost every form of jazz I always find myself saying "Hey I want to try that!" This group is comprised again of a trumpet quartet but with electric bass and a drummer with more of a rock background. This band's goal is to play that grey area between rock and jazz. Not your typical jazz fusion band with a lot of notes and lame song structure that won't ever end; more of the Miles Bitches Brew, Herbie Mwandishi vibe. The approach I am starting with is to play a few originals and then songs by previously said musicians, open for a few jam bands to get some exposure then work our way up....kind of like in a MMW way. I hope to add effects to my horn and bass as well.