Tag: jazz
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Lies, Damn Lies & Marketing 2.0
Don’t Mess With Mr Inbetween. For my cynical, sarcastic and often downright rude rundown of some of the cheap flimflam tricks musicians use to promote themselves, see here. Here though, are some further observations, and this time … it’s digital. Let’s say you’re an act or a venue and someone’s approached you offering to promote…
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Crunchy Chord Voicings
Here are some distinctive, three-note crunchy piano voicings for the left hand that you may not have considered. They’ve been used by pretty much everyone, and are a nice option when you want something in between the stark, macho bebop shells and the full, rich perfume of the four-note rootless jobs. They’re incredibly flexible, which…
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What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
How do jazz musicians learn, hear and think of tunes? They do it the way we all understand, read and speak. In chunks and in links between chunks, not word by word. Even when you put a new chart in front of them for the first time, they don’t read a chord at a time,…
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Anita Wardell and Vocalese
We had the pleasure of singer Anita Wardell performing with our house trio last week. I’ve always had bags of time for this lady and it was a really enjoyable gig – thanks Neets, it was a blast. Any time you’re free, our arms are open wide. There’s a jazz vocal practice that Anita is…
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Super Locrian Meets the Dastardly Half Diminishedo
What do you play on a minor II in, say, C minor? D half-diminished, some kind of Ab7 or some kind of D7? Do you know the difference? Or, perhaps more importantly, do you know the similarity? This week I’ll look at some ideas from Bill Evans (jazz’s very own Clark Kent, and okay I’ll…
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Rooting for You
Piano students experience a great leap forward in the authenticity of their sound when they discover the classic rootless voicings. For a breakdown of what they are (and why they are what they are) see Rootless Voicings from Scratch. They happily get on with the business of: Using them in the RH over a LH…
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Branford Shoots From the Hip
Someone recently flagged me this 2012 Jazz Times interview with Branford Marsalis. I’ve always loved Steepee’s stuff, and certainly no pianist can afford to ignore the contributions of the late Kenny K and the current Joey C. Didn’t come as that much of a surprise, but it was certainly a pleasure to see that he takes no prisoners when…
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How Strange the Change…
…from major to minor. I sometimes get “Dear Auntie Jase” emails, and I think it can be useful to post the results of the correspondence (anonymity guaranteed of course). If you have any questions, do contact me and I’ll try to help more than confuse. So you’ve learned your II V I stuff in the…
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‘Whoops’ Arithmetic
or how to play major 7ths on dominants without getting fired. There’s a point in Miles’ autobiography where he recounts arguing with Charlie Parker. Bird told him you can play any tone on any chord, Miles disagreed and was proven wrong at the gig they went to that very night. On a blues. Miles admitted…
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Laying Out
It’s that time of year. Time for some reflection and writing, catching up on the bills, taking the cat for her shots, putting that doorknob back on… God, might even get round to some practice. Got a bit of a shock last night when someone called Cherokee (my chops are a bit soggier than I…
Jason Lyon Music 