Sticking with the plan

It's been quiet on the "learn jazz music" front. I've been practicing pretty often and usually for at least an hour, and often a lot more. A Child is Born is sounding pretty good. I still can't play Maiden Voyage worth a damn, but I can play the parts separately, so I just need to work on the rhythm a little more and then put everything together. I've also been going hard at the drills and I'm optimistic I'll be able to make my way through at least one drill book completely by the end of July.

This week, I'm taking two days off work, which will give me a five day weekend to work with. No piano lesson this week, since we did an hour last week, so those five days of practice should get me up to speed for next Wednesday's lesson.

Having exhausted all possiblities with Helen Merrill and Gordon Beck's No Tears...No Goodbyes, which is just not all that good, I'm currently listening to Larry Young's Unity. I forgot how good it is. I'm focusing on it because it probably needs to be added to the Yoity Tot CD list. We'll see how I feel in a day or two. When I posted four more reviews on amazon.com over the weekend, I noticed I hadn't done one for Unity yet, so I'm fixing to rectify that situation. There are more than 120 reviews in my profile now, probably about 80 of them being jazz CD's. Here's hoping all readers have a look (here's a link) and click on a few "yes" votes for my reviews being helpful. I'm looking to move up the reviewer rankings.

Progress on Maiden Voyage: A Report

Had another hour-long piano lesson last night. With only one week of practice between two, one-hour lessons, it was rough going, but still quite productive. We spent most of the time on A Child is Born, not only because I can actually play it, but because its intricacies are more varied and subtle. After all, it is a relatively simple ballad with several multi-bar phrases that repeat over and over, so it is challenging for the pianist to come up with something sonically interesting every time a similar bar comes along. We listened to the original and analyzed, played it through, listened, played again, so that almost half the lesson was on that song. Then we moved to MV.

Thankfully, my instructor knows my limits, so I was relieved when he realized I probably wasn't going to be able to play it then and there after just one week, calling it, "Oh yeah, our project." If I get lucky, I can play the intro in correct rhythm, but with my instructor behind me tapping to try and help me, I don't get lucky. I get confused. And of course, with that tricky rhythm, I can't possibly make the melody go, so, while pieces and bits are more or less tangible and useful, it only vaguely resembles the song that Herbie Hancock wrote. The good news, is that I did gain some insight and should be able to spend the next two weeks, which includes (for me) a five-day weekend, practicing enough to actually put everything together. We shall see in our next report.

The rest of the lesson consisted of a quick run-through of Falling in Love With Love, which I play Helen Merrill-ish, which is to say, schmaltzy and in the wrong time signature. (It's a 3/4 that I play in a quick 4/4 or slow 2/4, depending on if you're an optimist or pessimist). And, we did a quick blow-through of Ornithology, which has got to be the trickiest song I've attempted so far, but which, once I can play it, will be one of the gems of my repertoire, I'm sure.

One upshot: All that work on ACIB has made me leave Thad Jones in the CD player all week, further justifying its move into the number one position on the Yoity Tot list.

Moving On and the Real Purpose of Jazz

Okay, I'm somewhat recovered now. I've managed to listen to a few other CD's besides Helen Merrill these last few days, though I still let her sing me to sleep most every night. It was hard to put her aside, but I can't neglect my jazz education just for a woman. Well, not a recording of one, anyway. So, I went, in what I'm sure many people would consider, a completely different direction.

I've been indulging in the big band sound of Consummation by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. Stunning piece of work, this. I couldn't believe it. The opening track starts slow and builds gradually, very gradually, but when it gets where it is going, it picks you up out of the chair, slaps you twice across the face, then stabs your pancreas so it can't inhibit the flood of adrenalin pumping into your lackadaisical bloodstream, and so, rather than let you die, your heart and lungs fuss to keep up and burn energy and pretty soon, you're so mighty and high you're wondering who Helen Merrill is and why you ever cared. Fortunately, Thad and Mel know humans can't take much of this, so they throw in a few ballads and blues riffs to keep you settled, including one of the most beautiful songs ever written, A Child Is Born. It's just a great CD.

Since Thad honed his chops working for Count Basie, it was easy enough to switch over to The Atomic Count Basie, which is every bit as good as Consummation. I've only just scratched the surface of this one, so I can't write about its effect on my pancreas just yet, but suffice to say the drive in to work in the morning goes very quickly with this in the player. The vocal version of The Late Late Show is also a nice touch showing up on a big band, swing recording like this one.

And so, I still haven't learned how to stride on You Took Advantage of Me because I decided to instead learn to play A Child is Born, so we have the big band boys to thank for that advancement - or lack thereof - in my repertoire.

Let me just mention here, too, that in addition to A Child is Born, Steve Swallow's Falling Grace also contends as one of the most beautiful songs ever written, in my book, and I find the fact that someone who listened to and was involved in as much music as I was growing up never heard either one almost as implausible as the fact that both come from the American jazz tradition. Why, oh why, didn't someone tell me about this music? Why did I have to wait forty years to learn what it seems everyone knows?

The injustice of existence. Jazz was made to overcome the injustice of existence.

My latest, arguably greatest discovery: Helen Merrill

The road to jazz knowledge continues to be frought with difficulty.

After eating too much curry at a curry cook-off at lunch yesterday (eight different kinds of curry, including coffee, dumpling, kimchee, spinach, strawberry, and three others), it is no wonder my stomach woke me at 2:45 this morning. Sleep was not an option. I've been listening to Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown the last two days, and I listened to it again to lull me to sleep last night. In the darkness before the dawn, I've spent the last half hour or so perusing my Jazz Recordings Guide and the Internet for Helen Merrill CD's. Lord, I'm in love with Helen Merrill. People who are familiar with her work will know what I'm talking about. I'm at a loss to explain her singing and song-stering, all I can say is, I really love to listen to her sing. The voice: so pure. The timing: unhurried but right on. The phrasing: impeccable and un-imitatable. What's that, two words invented already because I can't describe her and her singing?

Of course, the version of the CD I bought has only seven tracks and is a frighteningly short thirty two and a half minutes. That's why it is easy to imagine my consternation at finding a "complete" with Clifford Brown CD that has 19 songs. Son of a --! I have to say, this is where the Penguin Jazz Recordings Guide really fails me. It just doesn't tell you what's what, as I've pointed out before. Would it have been too much to ask for one line saying: "Helen's really good, so if you think you might like her, look for the "complete" recordings"? It would have saved me 11 bucks anyway, because, I have to have everything Helen Merrill.

I'm in love.

Oh, and yes, you better believe she's going on the Yoity Tot CD list. Right at the top.