Wynton Marsalis Concert Report

Sat in the front row. Couldn't see anything except the piano, bass and saxophone section (which is half the band, but not including Wynton, so not too bad). These guys REALLY know how to play. Unbelievable. It was just fabulous. Check it out:

This is what the papers had to say.

How can this be interesting?

Last night I watched what turned out to be an incredibly interesting movie, "It Might Get Loud". You wouldn't think that three guys talking about music and specifically, about the influence of electric guitars on music, would be something worth watching. Then, when you learn that the three guys are Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White, well, you might be inclined to think, maybe, just maybe it might be interesting. But I'll tell you what, that movie was damn near incredible. You just can't believe the stuff those three guys share during the movie, and the music, well, it goes without saying it's great. The insight that expands on the music, it's just stunning.

The movie starts out with Jack White nailing some boards together. He wraps what looks like a straightened bed spring around a nail at one end, nails the other end to the far end of the board, jams a Coke bottle under it, nails a small block of wood to the larger piece, nails a pick up onto the small block, plugs the sucker into an amp, grabs a pick and a piece of pipe, and lays into it with a raunchy, twangy, electric buzz that sounds better than any garage band you'd care to name. He throws the stuff down, looks at the camera and says, "Who needs to buy a guitar?" After that, you can't help but watch the rest of the movie.

My two biggest impressions and how they relate to jazz: one, 90% of the music they talked about and cited as their inspiration was blues or blues-based. (Jack White's favorite song of all time is a guy singing the blues and clapping - no band, no accompaniment, nothing. And it's a real record!) And two, The Edge is by far the closest thing to a jazz musician, as he talks about things like voicings, inversions, eliminating notes from chords to change the sound, and a whole plethora of things that jazz musicians talk about all the time. No wonder U2 has the appeal that they do. They're the jazziest troupe in popular music!

I'm serious: put "It Might Get Loud" on your Netflix queue, your Blockbuster list, or your Red Box target list. You won't be sorry.

Admitting to going a little crazy of late

The job is literally killing me, sending me to the doctor every week as bad things happen to my body, such as my arm going numb one night (better now, thanks), gaining eight pounds in two weeks (dropped four since), and even losing a crown from my wisdom tooth. To cope, I just decided to keep myself occupied with music. And since I’m studying jazz arranging, I’ve been focusing on big band stuff to keep my muse energized. Here’s what I’ve acquired, just in the last two weeks:



By far the CD getting the most listening right now is Abdullah Ibrahim’s Bombella. The WDR Big Band just blows Ibrahim’s arrangements right out the door and halfway up the street. If you could hear the sound of energy, this is what it would sound like.

A close second is the Bill Holman Big Band compendium. Talk about fun music! I’ve only listened to about five songs so far because I can’t stop myself from going back for seconds and thirds. The thing is just amazing.

In third, I have to go with Buddy Rich for two reasons: one, he and his bands embody the west coast sound and are similar enough to Stan Kenton as to be confused with those great works, and two, his version of Love for Sale is probably the best ever recorded. Brilliant.

And this recent trend gave me a good idea that I’m happy to announce here: I’m doing away with the Yoity Tot “B” List and breaking it out into The Yoity Tot Big Band CD list and the “regular” Yoity Tot CD list. It’s going to take me a little bit to put those together, so keep watching this space for that change.

Keep it jazzy, folks!