Jason Lyon Music

Tag: jazz

  • Clearing Up the Leaves

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    Seems an appropriate time of year for this thought. The hardy standard Autumn Leaves… Harmonically, it’s a very simple tune. It’s basically just turnarounds in a related major and minor key pairing. So why is there usually either an unusually lengthy discussion before it’s played or a cock up? It’s all about the key, and…

  • Brasserie Toulouse Lautrec

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    A while ago, in a brasserie far, far away… THE FOURTHS AWAKEN Darth Vegfryer – Head Chef Florent Regent Count Orderticket  – Oliver Regent Kylo Knobtwiddler – Maitre d’ Nolan Regent Cantina Band and crew of the Millennium Lazybird: Dave O’Higgins (tenor sax) Steve Fishwick (trumpet) with the Jason Lyon Trio, featuring Alan Gibson (bass), Joel Prime (drums) Also featuring: Viviana Zarbo &…

  • Right, Said Fred

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    I’ve been working with a student recently who’s concerned about getting more out of her piano soloing. And my suggestion has been to commit piano heresy – practise with the right hand alone. Before the ghosts of generations of piano teachers break free from the special circle of hell reserved for them to torment me,…

  • Quite Frankly My Dear…

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    I was chatting to a musician the other day about nerves. She was horribly afflicted (visibly quivering) and eyeing the awaiting stage with a sense of dread. The conversation ranged a bit, but ultimately boiled down to a rather glib sounding piece of pep talk. In my view, the secret to a good performance is……

  • The Amazing Disappearing Jazz Student

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    A Suggestion for Practice It won’t come as news if I say that the best way to really get your jazz chops together is to transcribe. Nor would you be surprised to hear that playing along with the original recordings is also a good idea. But some of the most powerful practising I’ve ever done…

  • Less is More – Mixing Jazz

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    Been busy working on a little mixing duty recently and thought I’d share a few observations about recording and mixing jazz. The usuals apply – use the best and most appropriate mics you can; get your gain staging right so your waveforms don’t look like trembly bits of string; aim for as much separation as…

  • So What Intro

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    The Miles album Kind of Blue really was one of a kind. A fascinating, confident adventure that came back with the treasure in abundance – and the whole story is documented really well in a book by Ashley Khan (see here). (Khan has also written an excellent book dealing with A Love Supreme.) Of the tunes from this…

  • I Could Read a Book

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    Heard occasionally on the bandstand: “Oh come on guys, surely you don’t have to read THAT one?” Well, in theory we should all know just about every tune by memory. But this isn’t the ’50s and not even the busiest musicians gig every night anymore – and even when they do, it’s not always jazz…

  • This is Just a Four-Note Solo…

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    …built upon the same four notes, Other notes are bound to follow but not far from those four notes, Now the new notes are the consequence of the ones we’ve just been through, And you get more structure in your solo using just those few. There’s so many people who can play and play and play,…

  • The Jazz Waltzer

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    Nope. It’s not about the age-old argument about swing feel in 3/4 or 6/8. (Incidentally, Oscar Peterson once said he didn’t care about the distinction – he reckoned jazz musicians interweave the two all the time.) It’s a reference to a childhood memory. In my youth, long before the multi-million Disney extravaganzas, there used to…