Last night's lesson

Which was actually two nights ago, as I'm posting this a day late.

Last night's piano lesson was one of the better ones I've had in recent memory. Part of that was because, even though I didn't show much progress in the songs I've been working on, I really did practice during the week, so, my playing was (vaguely) improved. (At least, my instructor said so, and hopefully, he would know and wouldn't say so just to make me feel good. Although, maybe he did. Anyway...) Part of that also was we went over time a bit because he had to take care of some business during my regular lesson time, so we spent some time looking at a fascinating piece by Gottschalk called "Le Banjo". It is not for the meek and we ended up looking at it because I was asking about some methodologies for playing more of a stride accompaniment, especially to go with You Took Advantage of Me, which I was unable to play any bit of stride on, although I rendered the chords adequately enough. Stride has really been confounding me, so last night's lesson was very productive in giving me some perspective and some ideas. Finally, the main thing I got out of last night's lesson was that: a tangible method for playing stride, which I can practice at home on my own at my leisure and which will hopefully make me sound better. It isn't pure stride but instead uses extended fingerings in a pattern, making it easier to play by keeping the left hand on the keyboard while allowing enough room for the right to have space to fill in some notes of the chords. I was anxious to try it, but not anxious enough to attempt it right after getting home, because as I said, last night's lesson was pretty long and I was pretty tired when I got home. But, that gives me something to work on tonight.

Mel Torme Joins the List

Some things you may or may not have known about Mel Torme:
-He co-wrote the words and music to The Christmas Song (made famous by Nat "King" Cole). He claims he and his partner finished the song in about 40 minutes.
-In addition to writing over 250 songs, he also wrote a biography of Buddy Rich, a novel, and three autobiographical works.
-His nickname (which he didn't like very much) was "The Velvet Fog".

So, if I needed any justification for putting him on the Yoity Tot CD list, there it is. Simple fact of the matter is, Mel Torme Swings Shubert Alley is a really fun, highly exuberant piece of music entertainment and true to its name, every tune swings. I really only bought it because it wasn't that expensive and I never expected Mel to become a pseudo-hero of mine, but he did, and he did it in short order. This CD is hard to put on the shelf. It helps that I'm working on one or two of the songs that are on the CD, too. You know, you can listen to Sinatra anytime, but the same goes for Torme. Like I said in my amazon.com review, growing up, his was one of those names that you heard all the time, but you could only really associate it with "older people's music" and when you got older, you just never expended the effort to find out what he was all about. I bought the Shubert Alley CD on a whim, and it was after that I began to learn more about him. Like so many things in being late to jazz, at least I'm able to get on the boat the second time it pulls into the harbor. My entire life would be different if I'd figured out about jazz and people like Torme back in, say, 1972 instead of 2007.

Three-day weekend practice sessions

Or what I'm working on right now.

Surrey with a Fringe on the Top. Still trying to get it going. The chords are tightly spaced and the tune moves quickly and just playing that one repeated note for most of the bars gets irritating pretty quick. I'm trying to do more like Tyner's version, playing triplets and throwing in an E-flat to brighten it up a little. Still, the chords are giving me trouble. When I've had enough of that, I go to

You Took Advantage of Me. This one I'm having even more trouble with, mainly because the chords are so dense and I often have to stop and think about them (at this stage). Eventually, it will smooth out, but I'm using this song as my stride exercise, taking advantage of the chromatically moving bass line. This is one of my major weaknesses, and it will take more than a few minutes to work out of it. So when I get tired of sounding completely bad, I go to something just a little easier, like

The Blue Room. I play this like the Ella Fitzgerald version, with no chords on the first and fourth beats, with the chord changes coming on beats two and three, like a horn section punching in. When I played it at my lesson on Wednesday, my instructor, who'd never suggested I play that song or heard me play it, said it was the most "complete" sounding thing he'd ever heard me play (in nine months of lessons). Which is good, because it is. Of course, he cautioned me not to get too attached to that one style and to not overdo it, but he said that because he knows I get lazy and tend to stay where I'm at, once I reach some degree of facility and decent sound.

Today and tomorrow, while working on those tunes, I'm also going to pull the drill books out, especially the stride book. I bought some Bud Powell CD's today, but it will take a while for them to get here, so my aim is to work on the stride method and then hopefully be able to try some of the (easier) things that I will no doubt find on the CD's once they arrive. I just continue on, baby.

Tomorrow, I'll also make some additions to the Yoity Tot list, I think.

More Yoity Tot CD's

Today, I’m up for some additions to the Yoity Tot CD list. To wit:

Night Train by Oscar Peterson. I could easily have put this in the first bunch of CD’s that I posted and I couldn’t tell you why I forgot about it, because by far, this is one of my top five most often played CD’s. I like it because it is up tempo, it has a great variety of songs, and Oscar’s performances are always so reliable and true. Mrs. S loves Hymn to Freedom, but I’m partial to the jazzy little rendition of Volare, which is not covered nearly enough in the jazz pantheon, I reckon.

Time for Tyner by McCoy Tyner. After my experiment, this dropped right into my playing rotation, and I’m pretty sure it went something like five or six days in a row in my car, which would be something like five or six complete play-throughs, before I decided to listen to something else, and only then because I started working on Surrey with the Fringe on Top and I wanted something other than McCoy’s perspective. (Wynton Kelly and Billy Taylor’s versions are just too high to aspire to, for not, so I’m now listening to Mel Torme Swings Shubert Alley’s version, which gives me the words, which helps with my phrasing.) Anyway, McCoy is a solid standby in our dinnertime music rotation, and like Oscar, a favorite of Mrs. S and I both.

I changed my mind

Here we are, two weeks later, and I still haven’t sorted the yourmusic.com situation. They assure me they are working on it, but in the meantime, the credit card I had on record with them expired, and I missed yet another selection of mine, Wayne Shorter’s Speak No Evil, one I was really looking forward to getting. Right after that, I got a rather rude, automatically (I think) sent e-mail that simply announced, “Dear ERIC, We have cancelled your subscription because of multiple unsucessful [sic] attempts to process your Music Queue shipment using your default credit card.” I rejoined by clicking on the link they sent, but I regret having done that. I should have left well enough alone. My plan now is to just buy the CD’s I want, when I want them, probably using PayPal to make the payment, and screw everything else having to do with yourmusic.com. I’ll still introduce you to them to get a free CD, if you are a glutton for punishment like I am, but I hereby officially withdraw my recommendation of their service.

First Listing

Here are my first listings on the Yoity Tot CD List. If you want to find out more about what I think about these CD's than just the brief comments I have below, I suggest you visit my profile on Amazon and browse through my reviews there. Or, of course, you can always drop me a comment or e-mail asking for some exposition, and I'll be happy to provide you with some.

Jazz In Silhouette is, without a doubt, my most frequently listened to CD. Since the very day I bought it, it has always been in close range and when I don't know what else to listen to, this is one that I can turn to and be happy I did. It's a wonder I haven't bought more Sun Ra CD's since, but I'm sure I will soon.

Saxophone Colossus was in the rotation at my poker game last night, and everyone enjoyed it when it came on, including me. One of my guests even knew some of the "Mack the Knife" lyrics and rattled them off reasonably in time when "Moritat" was playing.

Afro-Cuban is a recent acquisition that impressed me right out of the box. It just has so much going for it, without being an overly "ethnic" flavored CD. Just great jazz.

The Billy Taylor Trio's self titled work is one of those overlooked, often forgotten CD's, for some reason, but I just never grow tired of it. The song selection is really good, having a mix of familiar and not so familiar works, but the sound is just really satisfying. Another reliable CD that I pull off the shelf with a good bit of regularity.

Somethin' Else by Cannonball Adderley features Miles Davis and another great selection of songs. This is a nice CD to have for when you are in the mood for Miles Davis but don't want to put on Kind of Blue because you are in an upbeat mood. It really sizzles.

Kind of Blue is arguably the greatest jazz recording of all time. There are some I listen to more, but it's hard to say anything is better than this CD. It really turned me back toward the heart of jazz. Bluesy, passionate, "listen so you won't be disappointed later" kind of music that you feel inside.

The Cole Porter Songbook sung by Ella Fitzgerald was a turning point in vocal jazz because it brought together one of the era's greatest (if not THE greatest) female vocalists with probably the quintessential American song writer of the last century. There are few people who can listen to a Cole Porter song and not feel some reverie and respect for his work, and when Ella sings with the high quality orchestras assembled by Norman Granz (and others), the result is nothing short of jazz history.

Portrait in Jazz by Bill Evans is probably not his best work, but it has a selection of songs on it that I really like. "Witchcraft" and "Someday My Prince Will Come" stay with you a long time after you listen to Bill snap them to attention and make them swing. (Plus he's got Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian behind him, what became the model of jazz trios for years to come.)

And finally (for now), Have a Little Faith by Bill Frisell gets in for some amazing guitar work that doesn't sound like guitar, plus his wonderful takes on Bob Dylan ("Just Like A Woman"), Madonna ("Live to Tell") and Aaron Copland ("Billy the Kid").

Oh crap, and I almost forgot, The Sidewinder by Lee Morgan. Pick me up, spin me around, and play me some blue notes! Yet another CD I can put on anytime and never be disappointed or second guess my selection.

Birth of the Yoity Tot CD List

I had a comment on this blog the other day from "Tim", a fellow alumnus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He suggested that I ought to consider composing my own list of best jazz CD's, and he sent me a link to one on The New Yorker website. I immediately considered that to be an excellent idea. While I drive my own jazz music purchases through an almost fervent attention to the Penguin Jazz Recordings Guide's Core Collection, I've found a few recordings that I like at least as much as the ones on that list, and of course, I've found a couple on that list that do absolutely nothing for me. And since such lists are purely subjective opinions of the individuals preparing them, I figured I have nothing to lose by going out on a limb and telling people I like "this one over that one" for whatever reason suits me. If anybody complains, well, I just tell them, that's fine, please ignore my list.

So, having determined I would go ahead and compose a list, the next challenge I faced was coming up with a name for it. I tried to think of something that would reflect the subjectivity of the list, namely, I didn't want to be presumptuous by calling my list something like "These are the best jazz CD's ever" or "Eric's authoritative list of the best 25 jazz recordings of the last 50 years", or anything like that. I wanted the title to suggest that all listeners of jazz have to take it upon themselves to define their likes and dislikes and act accordingly - that is - true to their own nature. I don't know if I am some kind of genius or it was purely lucky happenstance, but amazingly, and seriously, I came up with what I consider a suitable acronym embodying these thoughts and intentions on my very first try. The acronym is "YOITY" (yoy-tee). After playing with it a little further in my head, I expanded it to YOITY TOT (yoy-tee taht). It stands for, "You Owe It To Yourself To Own These CD's".

That, was the easy part. Now comes the hard part of preparing and defending the list. Plus the structure. Should I include single CD's only, or box sets? Should I limit myself to specific eras? How many should I put on the list?

Here's what I'm thinking: Anything goes. I think basically, I'm going to limit the number to 25, and I'm going to make the list based on the CD's that I have played most often over the previous sixty days. I might even keep a "Serie B" (that is not missing an 's'; it's an Italian soccer, er football, term for "B League") list of, say, ten or twenty CD's that were in the top 25 but got dropped out because of other recordings getting more play time. At least, that is how I will approach it. For starters.

As for actually composing the list, I can think of five CD's that will go on the list right now:
Kind of Blue by Miles Davis
The Cole Porter Songbook by Ella Fitzgerald
The Sidewinder by Lee Morgan
Jazz in Silhouette by Sun Ra
The Billy Taylor Trio by Billy Taylor
I'm pretty sure Portrait in Jazz by Bill Evans will make it as well. Other candidates (this is not the list, yet, this is just off the top of my head): Somethin' Else by Cannonball Adderley, Afro-Cuban by Kenny Dorham (that's a recent acquisition raking in a lot of playing time right now), Have a Little Faith by Bill Frisell, New Orleans Suite by Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington by Thelonious Monk, Night Train by Oscar Peterson, and Motion by Lee Konitz.

Time to look at the blog layout page to see where I'm going to put the list. Thanks, Tim. My readers and I thank you for your excellent suggestion!

Experiment Analysis: Part 2

I should have done further analysis before I wrote my initial results.

It turns out that I actually MISSED Little Madimba. I guess I overthought the experiment and figured Eldar had to throw in at least one Latin flavored song, or whatever, and never having heard the song before, I suppose I figured it was some esoteric stuff that Eldar dug up for his album. So much for that hypothesis. However, in my defense, I'd never heard African Village before either, and I pegged that as a Tyner song right away, so I don't think I was completely off base in my initial analysis.

Here's the playlist and what I hit and missed. I think I'm going to leave the analysis at that.

The conclusion is simply: Eldar and McCoy Tyner can be very hard to tell apart for the beginning jazz pianist or casual listener, so Mrs. S's comments about Tyner sounding like Eldar were not as far off the mark as I at first thought. And with that, the experiment is completed.

Soon, we start work on the Yoity Tot CD list. Stay tuned.

Experiment Analysis: Part 1

Well, we conducted the Tyner vs. Eldar experiment over the weekend. The two subject CD's were Time for Tyner and Eldar's self-titled CD, Eldar (yeah, no kidding). The experiment even had some controls. Mrs. S did a really good job of mixing up all seventeen tunes from the CD's, and the artists themselves had basically standards with a few songs that I was completely unfamiliar with, as well as some made up of pieces of other songs, so there was no possibility for me to judge the artists based on the tracks themselves. Both CD's were studio CD's and for the most part, the accompanists and pianos sounded similar enough that I could not tell the artists apart based just on sound. I have to say, these two CD's match up very well stylistically, technically, and artistically, and it made telling the artists apart solely on their piano chops very challenging.

Before I present the results, here's my analysis.

Tyner's work in Latin and African rhythms and songs stands out. I just couldn't picture Eldar playing Little Madimba, African Village, or Afro Blue (which wasn't on the experiment CD) or something like that. So when I heard something Latin-sounding, I could assume it to not be Eldar. Similarly, when Eldar does that keyboard mashing glissando up or down, there is no mistaking it, and I just couldn't picture Tyner doing something like that. Eldar also makes with the lightning-fingers riffs that, while I'm sure Tyner could do if he wanted, he doesn't, simply because that's not his style. So again, I had no trouble identifying any songs containing those kinds of things as Eldar songs.

Where I got into trouble was when they were playing classic standards at normal tempo with what one could call standard arrangements. There just isn't enough individual style there, at least, not when you just listen to the song for a minute or two. So I need to point out, had I spent, say two or three minutes per song, I think the results would have been different. Yesterday morning and afternoon, I listened to the Eldar CD and in some of the solo work, I heard things I didn't hear when we did the experiment. I think I probably made my decision too early on at least two, and probably three of the songs. (I will do a song by song breakdown and what I heard or didn't hear or thought I heard at a later date, after I've had a chance to listen to each CD .)

Finally, the results were: out of seventeen songs, I correctly identified the artist in eleven of them, 65%. I think that is close to being statistically significant, but probably is not. More interesting is that I was unable to identify the artist in four of the first five songs I listened to. Maybe if I had gone back and listened to the songs again after doing a once-through on them, I might have changed my mind or been able to listen more capably. Hard to say if that would have been the case or not. I think it is accurate to say that, in truth, I cannot tell the difference between Tyner and Eldar just by listening, unless they do something that is one of their trademarks or play a song that the other just never would do.

My final comment here, for now, is this started as a comparison of block chords and based on what I heard yesterday, there wasn't all that much block chord work on either one of the CD's. (Maybe block chords would have made telling them apart even more difficult. The ramifications are endless.)

Next post: a song by song, post-listening analysis.

Experiment controls

Just about two months ago, I wrote about how I had been listening to McCoy Tyner's Afro-Blue and Mrs. S, over a period of a couple of days, kept coming in the middle of it, going "Is that Eldar?" and how I considered the two different enough, even though they are both block chord specialists (of a sort), that I could tell them apart just by listening. But, I further commented, I was usually the one who picked the music and I was familiar enough with Eldar's Blue Note album and some of Tyner's other stuff that maybe I was telling them apart by subconscious clues. I devised an experiment where I would buy one CD each of Eldar and McCoy Tyner that I didn't have and wasn't familiar with, and I wouldn't look at the song list, and Mrs. S would load them in iMusic and randomize a selection of their songs and I would attempt to identify the pianist.

Here are the controls for the experiment:
1) Like I said, I haven't looked at the CD's and don't know what songs are on them. I can somewhat suspect the Tyner plays more standards and Eldar plays "free" stuff, so I will ask Mrs. S to try and mix in mostly just standards, but not knowing what's on the CD's, I'm not sure this is even possible.
2) When the Eldar self titled CD arrived from amazon, I didn't even open the packaging. I just gave it to Mrs. S. When Time for Tyner arrived, same thing, though I happened to see the Eldar CD sitting on the computer keyboard stand. So, I just piled it on top, again, not looking at either one.
3) In preparation, I have been listening to nothing but jazz pianists for the past week. Yesterday, my CD's finally arrived from yourmusic.com (what a story that was) and in addition to the Tyner, there was Jarrett Peacock DeJohnette's Live at Montreaux, which is what I've been listening to this morning. This past week has been a steady diet of Oscar Peterson and Thelonious Monk, but no Tyner or Eldar.
4) When conducting the experiment, I will arrange the room so that I can't see the computer screen or even a reflection of it. Basically, I'm going to sit with my back to the screen (so I can hear all the speakers, sub woofers, etc.) and, I'm guessing, have Mrs. S play ten songs (or more) for a minute or two each, listing them in order, and I will write down who I think is playing each one. She will not tell me if my guess is right or wrong until after I have listened to and guessed at all of the songs so that I don't use any feedback to tell who is playing.

Obviously, if the sounds and songs of the CD's are vastly different, like if one is live and the other isn't, the experiment will not be a success anyway. Same goes if the tonality of the instruments used is very pronounced or unique: I may not know who is playing, but I will know which piano it is and be able to match it up with previously heard songs and my pianist guess.

I suppose someone with a lot more experience than me couldn't even perform this kind of experiment, which is why I think this is such a great opportunity. Some time from now, who knows when, one hopes that my jazz knowledge and experience would be sufficient that I could guess virtually any pianist after hearing just a few bars. Then again, I'm not sure THAT is even possible in the first place.

The experiment is going to be this weekend. Stop back soon to find out how it went.

Play on the upbeat

I just got done managing my company through a rigorous four-day audit that was conducted in only three days. The highlight of the three days was being able to go to my piano lesson, even though it came at what was the end of the equivalent of a fourteen hour day, in which I hadn't slept for over 16 hours. It was not easy.

I played Don't Get Around Much Anymore and Blues for Alice, neither in a particularly good-sounding or facile manner. It was a struggle. My instructor threw me off my playing style by saying, "Play with a lighter touch" just before I start DGAM, which I play sort of heavy handed because I like to accentuate the no-chord areas and the oblique movements, so by the time he told me to go back to playing my normal style, there was just nothing left in the tank. We talked about syncopation and playing on the off beats, then playing on the upbeats, on BFA. I listened and watched, and thought I would be able to do it.

When I got home last night, there was nothing to do but keep playing piano, so I did. I couldn't hit the syncopation, and there was nothing doing with the offbeats, especially in the bars with triplets. I tried playing on the upbeats, and that seemed to work, but it didn't sound good.

Today, I had another twelve hour day, but the audit is over. Tonight I will watch the Cavs steal one from the Celtics, drink beer, and then I will try again to do something different with the tunes. Or maybe, I will take my upbeats to sleep and be done with it.

Great music service gets downgraded - slightly.

Some time ago, at the suggestion of my piano instructor, I began a subscription to yourmusic.com. This is a neat site where they resell brand new club edition CD's for just $6.99 apiece with free shipping. I joined because I didn't have many jazz CD's and this provides me with a slow but steady diet of new music. The service is nice because you don't have to do anything other than buy one CD every month, with no minimums, and you just keep a queue on the site and they send you the next CD from your queue on a specific day each month.

At least, that is how it is supposed to work.

All of a sudden, last month, my selection didn't show up. (It was actually a McCoy Tyner CD I need for the experiment I outlined on March 13.) Then one day, I got a funky e-mail saying they could not process my credit card. This sort of annoyed me, because the day before the e-mail, I used the card with no trouble, and I hadn't been having any issues with it, not to mention that fact that I successfully bought about $100 worth of CD's from yourmusic.com with that card over the last 5 months. I went to my account information on the website, and it said it wanted me to input my credit card security code. Unfortunately, the site had that box grayed out and I could not input the number. I sent a quick e-mail to customer service. The next day, I get a reply saying it is fixed, try it now. Same deal. I send another e-mail. This time there is a delay, but I get the "all clear" from them, and so, I try again. This time I am able to put in my security code, but, when I press the "submit" button, I still got an "unable to process" message. At that point, I figured something was wrong and they just weren't jiving with American Express, so I put in my Mastercard details and hit submit, and,

"Unable to process".

I send off some more e-mails to customer service, each getting a little pissier than the one before, and I keep getting reassurances that everything is fixed, but the site just continued to refuse my credit card. So, I went to PayPal, put money in using my Amex and placed an order with the "pay by PayPal" option.

Not ten minutes after I do that, I get an e-mail saying, we fixed the problem and are processing your order. Great, I think, now I've got two orders on the way. I fire off another e-mail to customer service telling them what happened and asking them to make sure they don't duplicate the order. A couple hours later, I check my order status, and the whole order is cancelled, even though they've got my money. One more e-mail, and I finally got them to reinstate my order. Now, I'm just waiting for the dust to settle and for my new Amex card and CD's to arrive before I try yet one more time to get things back to normal. Yesterday, Mrs. S told me that her regular monthly CD didn't ship because they were "unable to process" her credit card (which is a different number on the same Amex account as mine). Oh, well.

Truth be told, I couldn't find any other site where you can get brand new CD's for less than seven bucks, so I'm going to figure out how to get this service working again. That is to say, despite all my troubles, I still recommend this service. Everything was working fine until they goofed something up last month. I remain convinced they can fix their problems. After all, I'm offering them my business.

And if you are now thinking about signing up, drop me an e-mail so I can recommend you and I'll get a free CD when you join. That's the least yourmusic.com should do for me after all I've been through.

Learning obliquely

I suppose all jazz musicians are familiar with the Dizzy Gillespie quote where he says, "It's taken me all my life to learn what notes not to play", or words to that effect. I was thinking about that last night at my piano lesson, as we were working on oblique movement. Don't Get Around Much Anymore is what I would consider an easy song. Standard chord progressions, nothing too hard in the melody, long bars in which to solo, in short, the kind of song I like to play. (Ellington really works that way for me.) I had been working on the oblique chord progressions, but I couldn't make the one that goes down (C7-B-Bb-A7) sound good at all. I decided to play the song for my instructor anyway and let him show me what was wrong. All at once, actually looking at the music while playing, I realized: I was trying to play the wrong notes.

For some reason, even though the melody ends on an E before going to the oblique movement chord progressions, I had it in my mind that it ended on a C. So, my mind wanted me to keep the C in the chords, which isn't entirely necessary. I also thought that because the ascending oblique movement starts on C major 7th, the descending also started on C major 7th, but it actually starts on C7. That makes a big difference when the dissonant B of the major 7th is removed. And, because we're playing jazz here, we can actually put the C# on top of the C7th chord, and use it as the oblique anchor, since it is part of the A7th finishing chord. Amazingly, after two minutes of paying attention to the written notes and my instructor pointing out the obvious, I could play the song.

So, what's that got to do with Dizzy? Well, I gained some insight into what notes not to play: Don't play the wrong ones!