Ain’t it the Gospel Truth
Posts tagged Jazz
Day One of MSJC Jazz Concerts is Done!
Dec 10th
Yay – the first of the two MSJC concerts is done. Now only 4 taxing concerts left.
I think I had a decent night – much better than I originally expected. My confidence in my lip has been waning over the past few months but I think I made it through. Although my note accuracy isn’t what it should be, the tone and tuning are certainly there. And I’m not just going on my impression/memory – I have a recording to go by.
Here’s my quick solo during “Take Some Time” – tomorrow I’ll try to come up with a better ending:
[wpaudio url="http://www.gospeljohn.net/wp-content/uploads/Take-Some-Time-Excerpt.mp3" text="Take Some Time Except"]
So I think the reason I had a decent night came from two things. I located my lip balm that I haven’t been using but should have. It was in my black striped shirt. I really needed that chap stick because my lips have been bad for weeks. Secondly, I had a nice 20 minute warm-up. All sorts of notes including a lot of high stuff but also some low range “warm down” notes. A little bit of everything, but not enough to tire out.
And I also traded Joe a Bach 10C mouthpiece for something called TrueTone 7D mouthpiece. That sucker is fat… It’s good for ballads where you don’t want to go full on Flugelhorn but you want that mellowness…
Tomorrow’s another show!
Popularity: 2% [?]
The Weird Strange Divide between Classical and Commercial
Dec 8th
As I prepare for yet another “Hell week” in terms of playing (5 days of straight VERY taxing performances), I start thinking of the massive divide that exists between the world of the “Classical” Musician and the “Commercial” (Jazz and Pop) Musician.
I was becoming somewhat aware of this back when I was playing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in my conversations with the classically trained musicians (the violin/viola/flute). I revisited that very world once again when I played the Messiah last night.
Okay, quick side note – I really don’t get why a lot of trumpet players fret when it comes to playing the Messiah. A trumpet player plays maybe 4 or 5 numbers during the Messiah (we only got to 3 because they didn’t do “The Trumpet Shall Sound” – even then, as a 2nd player, I wouldn’t be playing). It’s pretty straight forward music – a little difficult to play with that classical “baroque tone”.
Anyhow, I got to play with an excellent trumpet player also from that classical world and I got to see that divide again. To simplify the explanation I’ll go over some of the differences and I’ll use the word Jazz in place of Commercial (sorry, I’m not in the mental state to make them funny – they’re just observations).
- Classical Musicians have Beethoven, Stravinski, and Debussy / A Jazz Musician has Miller, Basie, and Nestico
- A Classical Trumpet Player owns an Eb Trumpet / A Jazz Player owns a Flugelhorn
- A Classical Player talks about recitals that went bad / A Jazz Player talks about gigs that went sour
- A Classical Trumpet Player is inspired by Maurice Andre / A Jazz Trumpet Player was inspired by Maynard
- A Classical Player has to study Claude Gordon Technique / A Jazz Player has listen to a lot of records
- A Classical Trumpet Player has to count hundreds of measures / A Jazz player waits for the cue or just “feels it”
- A Classical Trumpet Player talks about playing Mahler / A Jazz Trumpet Player usually won’t remember who the arranger is
- A Classical Musician tries to interpret what the composer was trying to say / A Jazz Musician says what he wants to say
- A Classical Musician plays the passage the same every time / A Jazz Musician has a lot more leeway in how the show goes
- A Classical Musician wears a tux / A Jazz Musician wears a black collared shirt (but only if he has to dress up)
That’s all I can come up with now. I’m sure I could write some funny ones but I’d have to stoop to a lot of stereotypes. Although a lot of what I wrote borders on the stereotype – there’s a lot of nuggets of the divide that I see between the two worlds.
Bah, now I’m rabbling. It’s been a tough few weeks and it’s going to be a tough 5 days of performances.
Popularity: 3% [?]