Jason Lyon Music

Tag: jazz

  • Cueing at the Alphabet Soup Kitchen

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    Jason
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    Yup, that’s spelled correctly. Cueing. I’m not talking about the delightful British pastime of standing in line for something and drawing a perverse comfort from covertly bitching about how ugly and stupid the people ahead of you are. Nope. Cueing musical parts. It’s more an issue in extended classical pieces than in jazz, but some…

  • Re Person I Knew

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    Jason
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    Except I didn’t know him. This is the title of a Bill Evans piece dedicated to jazz producer Orrin Keepnews, who died last week just shy of his 92nd birthday. It’s an anagram of his name*, and seems an appropriate heading for an obituary. Keepnews was a contemporary with Jack Kerouac at Columbia, later a journalist,…

  • Just Give Me What’s Going Out Front…

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    Jason
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    These are the seven words a live sound engineer really doesn’t want to hear. I used to be guilty of saying it myself… So why doesn’t Darth Fader want to hear you say this? Because what you’re asking is practically impossible. I’m all for bands in small and medium venues playing “mostly backline” or “as…

  • Deciphering Jazz Chord Symbols

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    Jason
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    Jazz relies on a shorthand system of chord notation, which is not universal, not standard, and not terribly logical or consistent, at least at first sight. This article is intended as a brief general guide for people who are new to this quixotic system and aims to give you a grounding in what any given chord symbol…

  • How Not to Sit In

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    Jason
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    Don’t like to be personal round here, so I’ve kept the following story as anonymous as possible (so as to protect the guilty). But it’s absolutely true and it illustrates almost perfect technique in how to piss any band off… Anyway, on a gig a while ago, a guy approached me during a break and…

  • I’m Sorry…

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    Jason
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    There are many institutions of British humour that have achieved international recognition – Monty Python, for instance, and for a slightly older generation, The Goons. This post is about a radio classic that has been running longer than both and is every bit as wonderful but perhaps not quite so widely acclaimed abroad. It’s called…

  • Merry Christmas

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    Jason
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    …to all seventeen of my loyal readers It’s that time of year again… Time flies. It irritates me as much as the next person when the supermarkets start stocking mulled wine in September, but actually I started planning the gig roster for these crucial couple of reindeer-bothering weeks way back in October. Currently booking February……

  • Circling the Square

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    Jason
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    I’ve been asked to post something on piano fingerings for jazz. I’ll do my usual – half-answer the question and then talk about something I think is far more important. With precomposed music, you work out a fingering in advance but it’s largely based on standardised ways of working with scales and arpeggios. With improvised…

  • Newsflash: Musicians are People Too

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    Jason
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    I’ve played both parts, about 10 years apart, in the following little playlet: Enthusiastic music student approaches band member in the interval or afterwards. “Loved the way you guys reharmonised the bridge on chorus seven; the unorthodox dynamics in the codetta; the way you quoted Ligeti during that Benny Golson tune…” “Did we really do…

  • Playing Presto Assai Can

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    Jason
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    When I was a fluffy and precocious piano student, before my classical chops succumbed to middle-age spread, I once had a fantastic lesson with a visiting Russian prof that has stayed with me to this day. I was a flashy young buck, and much enamoured of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies at the time. The one I happened…