Jason Lyon Music

Category: c) Musicianship

  • Skeletal Comping

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    Jason
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    Confession time. I actually enjoy comping more than soloing. It’s like a fascinating, constantly shifting, multi-dimensional puzzle to solve, with no limit to the possible solutions but your own imagination. Co-operating is as important as leading. Playing not just the piano, but playing the music. Here’s something I find interesting. Listen to a recording of…

  • Little Niles

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    Jason
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    Somebody recently sent me this video clip of the band doing a Randy Weston number last year. It’s a great tune and deserves to be played more often. Tony Kofi (as), Jason Lyon (p), Henry Gilbert (b), Joel Prime (d)

  • Beatomania

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    Jason
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    A very good YouTube video resource here. Rick Beato is an Atlanta-based jazz, classical and rock musician turned engineer and producer. He’s just as much at home talking about Allan Holdsworth or Pearl Jam as Stravinsky or Hans Zimmer. He knows his AKG C414 from his Mozart K466. He is currently producing a video series that comprehensively, generously, vigorously and engagingly marches through…

  • How to Rehearse

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    Jason
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    January is a good time for nagging, I find. And often restating the bleeding obvious, even to yourself. The main point about rehearsals is that they should be efficient use of everyone’s time. THE GOOD A good rehearsal involves everyone looking at the charts you’ve brought along, maybe asking a few questions, then running it…

  • A Backstage Emergency in Fairytale Land

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    Jason
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    .. he Narrator has called the denizens of fairytale land together for urgent talks. He’s not in the best of moods. He casts a weary gaze around the green room and speaks. “Right, I’m told we’ve got a problem on our hands. Tonight’s story is supposed to be the Three Little Pigs, is that right…

  • A Musician’s Guide to Black Tie

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    Jason
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    Jazz musicians usually chafe against the whole idea of dress code, but for some gigs dem’s de rules, pal. Since many musicians don’t really dress, they just add glue to their bathwater and run through a pile of laundry, I thought it might be worth a rundown on how to get black tie right. This…

  • Pal Tony

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    Jason
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    Did a great gig with our friend Tony Kofi last week. Hell of a player, and a lovely guy. He brought along a stack of really interesting tunes and called a few of them in an ad hoc order as the mood and need for contrast seemed to dictate to him. It was only as…

  • Tooning Note (and Laser Elephants)

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    Jason
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    Tooning note… ah, the classic Aebersold call to arms… Actually the Aebersold playalongs are very good and I wish they’d been around when I was starting out. But this post isn’t about that – yet again, I’ve opted for a cheap gag headline. This one’s a tip for singers (and accompanists). In this day and…

  • Don’t Shoot Yourself, You’re the Pianist

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    Jason
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    Somebody got me Ronnie Scott’s Some of My Best Friends Are Blues for Christmas. It’s a fun little read, and there are bound to be some anecdotes that will be new to you, even if you think you know all there is to know about that long-ago scene. (Incidentally, the shabby downstairs hangout used to be…

  • Hark All the Herald Things You Are

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    Jason
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    Christmas is upon us. Festive thingies to you all, and may you realise that something you’ve always wanted is something you already have. In what is starting to become a welcome little tradition of our own, we have the fabulous singer Anita Wardell with us again for our yuletide special on 21st December at Brasserie…