As an improviser, one of my main goals is to be able to play what I hear immediately. This is the basis of my improvisation education.
An improviser is a type of composer. One of the most important things a composer/improviser can do is to listen to as much music as possible and learn how to translate what he or she hears into a performance or composition. This will help immensely when one attempts to translate one's own ideas into a performance or composition.
You can start to develop your translating abilities by mimicking recorded sounds that are easy to recognize, such as major scales or blues scales.
Your first assignment is to learn and perform as little as two or as many as all choruses of Miles Davis' solo on "Trane's Blues" by listening to the recording, on the CD Workin'. If you do not have this recording, please purchase it here.
Miles uses notes from the C major scale and the C blues scale throughout.
C Major: C D E F G A B C
C Blues: C Eb F F# G Bb C
Listen carefully to each phrase as many times as needed. Practice each phrase on your instrument and then play along with Miles. Try to mimic everything exactly as Miles plays it -the rhythm, articulation, style, dynamics, everything. Do not worry about writing anything down. It is more important to listen and play back at this point.
If this solo is too difficult for you, please try learning the melody "Sonnymoon for Two" by Sonny Rollins. The CD, "The Best of Sonny Rollins" on Blue Note has a good recording of this as well as others. The melody is mostly a decending blues scale (minus one note) and repeats itself three times. Please do not use written music (you must rely upon your ears).
Have fun and please share your comments below.
Friday, August 11, 2006
FESTIVAL VANCOUVER MAINSTAGE SERIES
ARTURO SANDOVAL (Afro-Cuban jazz-trumpet legend) performs with Orquesta Goma Dura Aug. 13, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (603 Smithe), tix $29-59
Thursday, August 10, 2006
IRVIN MAYFIELD Tour information
Grammy nominee and DownBeat Critic's Poll Winner
IRVIN MAYFIELD (with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra unless otherwise noted)
9/9/06 Orono, ME TBA
9/14/06 Ames, IA TBA
9/15/06 Grinnel, IA TBA
9/16/06 Bloomington, IL TBA
10/20/06 Ithaca, NY TBA
10/21/06 Utica, NY TBA
10/24/06 Kerrville, TX
10/26/06 Tyler, TX TBA
10/27/06 Richardson, TX TBA
10/29/06 Lafayette, LA TBA
11/2/06 Springfield, MO TBA
11/4/06 New Orleans, LA PRIVATE (Quintet)
11/25/06 Newark, NJ NJPAC
1/22/07 Hays, KS TBA
1/31/07 Lebanon, IL TBA
2/1/07 Cincinnati, OH TBA
2/2/07 Indianapolis, IN TBA
2/3/07 Notre Dame, IN TBA
2/6/07 Stuart, FL TBA
2/7/07 Palm Beach, FL TBA
2/8/07 Miami, FL TBA
2/25/07 Torrance, CA TBA
3/2/07 Houston, TX TBA
3/6/07 Naples, FL TBA
3/10/07 Charleston, SC TBA
3/13/07 Charlottesville, VA TBA
3/16/07 Philadelphia, PA TBA
4/25/07 Palo Alto, CA TBA
4/26/07 Los Angeles, CA TBA
4/27/06 Santa Barbara, CA TBA
IRVIN MAYFIELD (with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra unless otherwise noted)
9/9/06 Orono, ME TBA
9/14/06 Ames, IA TBA
9/15/06 Grinnel, IA TBA
9/16/06 Bloomington, IL TBA
10/20/06 Ithaca, NY TBA
10/21/06 Utica, NY TBA
10/24/06 Kerrville, TX
10/26/06 Tyler, TX TBA
10/27/06 Richardson, TX TBA
10/29/06 Lafayette, LA TBA
11/2/06 Springfield, MO TBA
11/4/06 New Orleans, LA PRIVATE (Quintet)
11/25/06 Newark, NJ NJPAC
1/22/07 Hays, KS TBA
1/31/07 Lebanon, IL TBA
2/1/07 Cincinnati, OH TBA
2/2/07 Indianapolis, IN TBA
2/3/07 Notre Dame, IN TBA
2/6/07 Stuart, FL TBA
2/7/07 Palm Beach, FL TBA
2/8/07 Miami, FL TBA
2/25/07 Torrance, CA TBA
3/2/07 Houston, TX TBA
3/6/07 Naples, FL TBA
3/10/07 Charleston, SC TBA
3/13/07 Charlottesville, VA TBA
3/16/07 Philadelphia, PA TBA
4/25/07 Palo Alto, CA TBA
4/26/07 Los Angeles, CA TBA
4/27/06 Santa Barbara, CA TBA
Jazz on the Terrace - Dizzy Atmosphere
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, August 10, 11 & 12. Pasadena Museum of California Art, 490 East Union Street
Tickets $35. (626) 398.3344, www.pasjazz.org.
On loan from the Count Basie Orchestra, trumpet great William “Scotty” Barnhart brings the music of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie together tocelebrate the publication of his new book, “The World of Jazz Trumpet.”
Tickets $35. (626) 398.3344, www.pasjazz.org.
On loan from the Count Basie Orchestra, trumpet great William “Scotty” Barnhart brings the music of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie together tocelebrate the publication of his new book, “The World of Jazz Trumpet.”
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Recommended Recordings
Study In Brown by Clifford Brown
Kind of Blue by Miles Davis
Hub Tones by Freddie Hubbard
Hot Fives & Sevens by Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong - Verve Jazz Masters by Louis Armstrong
Eternal Triangle by Dizzy Gillespie
Sidewinder by Lee Morgan
Caravan by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
Roy & Diz by Dizzy Gillespie and Roy Eldridge
TrumpetJazz.com
Welcome to trumpetjazz.com!
The website is undergoing some changes. We have lost the bulletin board where you all conversed about trumpet topics, but hopefully in the near future that kind of fun-ctionality will return.
Until then, new articles should appear regularly on this site. I hope you will find them to be worth reading.
The website is undergoing some changes. We have lost the bulletin board where you all conversed about trumpet topics, but hopefully in the near future that kind of fun-ctionality will return.
Until then, new articles should appear regularly on this site. I hope you will find them to be worth reading.
With horn in hand, Jon Faddis is back in jazz's forefront
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent
Jon Faddis seems to spend more time directing orchestras these days than he does playing trumpet. Which makes the release this summer of his album "Teranga" -- and the tour supporting it that will bring him to Scullers tomorrow and Friday -- something special.
Faddis, 53, burst onto the jazz scene nearly 35 years ago and was hailed as a second coming of Dizzy Gillespie. He was a just-out-of-high-school kid who joined phenomenal technique with an amiable, audience-friendly personality. No less an authority than Gillespie himself declared Faddis "the best ever -- including me!"
Faddis's trumpeting is no less phenomenal now, but his directing various large ensembles -- he currently leads the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble -- limits his opportunities to show it off.
"As my wife tends to remind me," Faddis says during a recent tour stop in Atlanta, "one of the things that I do when I'm leading a big band is I tend to shine the spotlight on other members, more so than myself."
Faddis is far more comfortable in the spotlight now than he used to be. After roaring through apprenticeships in the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra and groups led by Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, and Gil Evans, Faddis spent most of his 20s supporting himself as a studio musician. This was in the late '70s and early '80s, a period in which work was scarce for most young straight-ahead jazz players. But Faddis says he could have been an exception.
"I was actually approached by [legendary producer] Norman Granz to put together a group and to go on the road," Faddis says. "But I think more than anything it was my own fear -- or fears, plural -- that kept me from going out and getting my own group and trying to live up to all of the pressures I felt at the time of being the next trumpet player. And studio music was, I guess, a pretty convenient escape from that."
So instead of taking on the role Wynton Marsalis would assume a few years later -- the young man with the horn calling people back to undiluted jazz -- Faddis began popping up in low-profile roles on high-profile albums by the likes of Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Luther Vandross, and Billy Joel, among many others. His horn was heard, too, on "The Cosby Show" theme, the soundtracks to the Clint Eastwood films "The Gauntlet" and "Bird " and on countless commercials.
A White House appearance with Gillespie in 1982 brought Faddis's attention back to live performance and, within a year, he was leading a combo that included saxophonist Greg Osby and pianist James Williams. His work leading big bands began with a celebration of Gillespie's 70th birthday in 1987, which eventually led to a decade-long run leading the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the group that in 2003 evolved into the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra.
Faddis maintained a quartet all along. For the past several years it's consisted of pianist David Hazeltine, bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and drummer Dion Parson. But he hasn't put out an album with one since 1991. The decision to shift gears and record "Teranga", Faddis says, is "not a conscious move to do more small-group playing, but it's a more conscious move to do something in my own direction, do more of my own music."
Hazeltine, for one, is glad to see Faddis doing so. "I've always encouraged him to play his original material," says Hazeltine, who's been playing with Faddis for about a decade. "He's got a lot of great compositions lying around."
All but one tune on the new disc are written by Faddis. They include a graceful waltz dedicated to jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker and his ongoing struggle against a life-threatening illness ("Waltz for My Fathers & Brothers"), a song paying tribute via high-note trumpet pyrotechnics to "some very, very important women in [Faddis's] life" ("The Hunters & Gatherers"), a bebop burner honoring Faddis pal and pianist Kenny Barron ("The Baron"), a ballad with guest guitarist Russell Malone celebrating Faddis's wife ("Laurelyn"), and a blues, featuring the comic mumbling of guest trumpeter Clark Terry ("The Fibble-Ow Blues").
Guest percussionists Abdou M'boup and Alioune Faye join the quartet for the album's West African-accented title track, whose meaning Faddis finds particularly significant.
"It's more than just a word," he explains. "It's a Senegalese way of life. It's sort of, I guess, a great manifestation of the golden rule. It's something started by the mothers in Senegal, ensuring that their children will not ever be without, or wanting. And the way it works is that if strangers come and ask for a favor or anything, you take them in and treat them as family. And that will ensure that when their children are somewhere else, they can be taken in and treated as family."
Jon Faddis seems to spend more time directing orchestras these days than he does playing trumpet. Which makes the release this summer of his album "Teranga" -- and the tour supporting it that will bring him to Scullers tomorrow and Friday -- something special.
Faddis, 53, burst onto the jazz scene nearly 35 years ago and was hailed as a second coming of Dizzy Gillespie. He was a just-out-of-high-school kid who joined phenomenal technique with an amiable, audience-friendly personality. No less an authority than Gillespie himself declared Faddis "the best ever -- including me!"
Faddis's trumpeting is no less phenomenal now, but his directing various large ensembles -- he currently leads the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble -- limits his opportunities to show it off.
"As my wife tends to remind me," Faddis says during a recent tour stop in Atlanta, "one of the things that I do when I'm leading a big band is I tend to shine the spotlight on other members, more so than myself."
Faddis is far more comfortable in the spotlight now than he used to be. After roaring through apprenticeships in the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra and groups led by Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, and Gil Evans, Faddis spent most of his 20s supporting himself as a studio musician. This was in the late '70s and early '80s, a period in which work was scarce for most young straight-ahead jazz players. But Faddis says he could have been an exception.
"I was actually approached by [legendary producer] Norman Granz to put together a group and to go on the road," Faddis says. "But I think more than anything it was my own fear -- or fears, plural -- that kept me from going out and getting my own group and trying to live up to all of the pressures I felt at the time of being the next trumpet player. And studio music was, I guess, a pretty convenient escape from that."
So instead of taking on the role Wynton Marsalis would assume a few years later -- the young man with the horn calling people back to undiluted jazz -- Faddis began popping up in low-profile roles on high-profile albums by the likes of Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Luther Vandross, and Billy Joel, among many others. His horn was heard, too, on "The Cosby Show" theme, the soundtracks to the Clint Eastwood films "The Gauntlet" and "Bird " and on countless commercials.
A White House appearance with Gillespie in 1982 brought Faddis's attention back to live performance and, within a year, he was leading a combo that included saxophonist Greg Osby and pianist James Williams. His work leading big bands began with a celebration of Gillespie's 70th birthday in 1987, which eventually led to a decade-long run leading the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the group that in 2003 evolved into the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra.
Faddis maintained a quartet all along. For the past several years it's consisted of pianist David Hazeltine, bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and drummer Dion Parson. But he hasn't put out an album with one since 1991. The decision to shift gears and record "Teranga", Faddis says, is "not a conscious move to do more small-group playing, but it's a more conscious move to do something in my own direction, do more of my own music."
Hazeltine, for one, is glad to see Faddis doing so. "I've always encouraged him to play his original material," says Hazeltine, who's been playing with Faddis for about a decade. "He's got a lot of great compositions lying around."
All but one tune on the new disc are written by Faddis. They include a graceful waltz dedicated to jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker and his ongoing struggle against a life-threatening illness ("Waltz for My Fathers & Brothers"), a song paying tribute via high-note trumpet pyrotechnics to "some very, very important women in [Faddis's] life" ("The Hunters & Gatherers"), a bebop burner honoring Faddis pal and pianist Kenny Barron ("The Baron"), a ballad with guest guitarist Russell Malone celebrating Faddis's wife ("Laurelyn"), and a blues, featuring the comic mumbling of guest trumpeter Clark Terry ("The Fibble-Ow Blues").
Guest percussionists Abdou M'boup and Alioune Faye join the quartet for the album's West African-accented title track, whose meaning Faddis finds particularly significant.
"It's more than just a word," he explains. "It's a Senegalese way of life. It's sort of, I guess, a great manifestation of the golden rule. It's something started by the mothers in Senegal, ensuring that their children will not ever be without, or wanting. And the way it works is that if strangers come and ask for a favor or anything, you take them in and treat them as family. And that will ensure that when their children are somewhere else, they can be taken in and treated as family."
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Hurricane-hit New Orleans celebrates Satchmo's birthday
NEW ORLEANS - Trumpets wailed and tubas boomed as New Orleanians danced in the streets on Sunday, on a weekend celebrating jazz great Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong's birthday and praying for the return of musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
"Without Louis Armstrong, we wouldn't really have a clue. He gave us a foundation," said Troy Andrews, known as 'Trombone Shorty', but whose trumpet solos brought down the house during a jazz mass at St. Augustine Catholic Church in the historic Treme neighbourhood near the French Quarter.
The service began with a call to prayer for musicians not yet home. Trumpeter Lionel Ferbos, 95, who had met Louis Armstrong, played with 20-year-old Andrews, testifying to both the history and staying power of jazz in the city.
Armstrong was an international hit playing jazz trumpet and singing hits such as What a Wonderful World and Hello Dolly.
Many New Orleans musicians still revere Armstrong, who was born August 4, 1901 but celebrated his birthday on July 4. He died on July 6, 1971. This year he would have been 105.
Musicians strive to make ends meet after Katrina because housing is scarce and expensive, and many smaller music clubs have closed. The storm killed 1,339, according to the National Hurricane Centre, and flooded 80 per cent of New Orleans.
"It's terrible right now because all of the musicians are scattered around the United States," said Ferbos.
That may not be apparent to tourists ambling through the French Quarter, where musicians play at all hours on the streets, and in bars and hotels.
During the weekend "Satchmo" festival, tents popped up at the French Market. Favourites such as Trombone Shorty and singer Charmaine Neville worked from wrought iron balconies on nearby Frenchman Street.
Morgan Clevenger, founder of the New Orleans Jazz Legacy Foundation, said the city had begun to appreciate Armstrong in the last few years but needed to work harder to preserve his legacy. "I celebrate Louis Armstrong any day of the week," she said.
Vocalist John Boutte, listening to the mass, said that despite the city's continued struggle, jazz musicians had to return.
"New Orleans is a power spot. I've been all over the world, but like Dorothy says, there's no place like home," he said.
- REUTERS
"Without Louis Armstrong, we wouldn't really have a clue. He gave us a foundation," said Troy Andrews, known as 'Trombone Shorty', but whose trumpet solos brought down the house during a jazz mass at St. Augustine Catholic Church in the historic Treme neighbourhood near the French Quarter.
The service began with a call to prayer for musicians not yet home. Trumpeter Lionel Ferbos, 95, who had met Louis Armstrong, played with 20-year-old Andrews, testifying to both the history and staying power of jazz in the city.
Armstrong was an international hit playing jazz trumpet and singing hits such as What a Wonderful World and Hello Dolly.
Many New Orleans musicians still revere Armstrong, who was born August 4, 1901 but celebrated his birthday on July 4. He died on July 6, 1971. This year he would have been 105.
Musicians strive to make ends meet after Katrina because housing is scarce and expensive, and many smaller music clubs have closed. The storm killed 1,339, according to the National Hurricane Centre, and flooded 80 per cent of New Orleans.
"It's terrible right now because all of the musicians are scattered around the United States," said Ferbos.
That may not be apparent to tourists ambling through the French Quarter, where musicians play at all hours on the streets, and in bars and hotels.
During the weekend "Satchmo" festival, tents popped up at the French Market. Favourites such as Trombone Shorty and singer Charmaine Neville worked from wrought iron balconies on nearby Frenchman Street.
Morgan Clevenger, founder of the New Orleans Jazz Legacy Foundation, said the city had begun to appreciate Armstrong in the last few years but needed to work harder to preserve his legacy. "I celebrate Louis Armstrong any day of the week," she said.
Vocalist John Boutte, listening to the mass, said that despite the city's continued struggle, jazz musicians had to return.
"New Orleans is a power spot. I've been all over the world, but like Dorothy says, there's no place like home," he said.
- REUTERS