Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Tim Price Bloggin' For Rico- Jazz Repertoire

Tim Price Bloggin' For Rico- Jazz Repertoire

Listen to the You Tube video first ;

Tim Price Jazz- Jazz Repertoire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vsarjAoQtE

The following tunes are among those most commonly played by jazz musicians. I have made an attempt to categorize them based on how they are usually played. Most of the compositions are by jazz musicians, except for the ones marked "standard".

You should try to become familiar with as many of these tunes as possible. Most of them can be found in the Real Book or in Chuck Sher's books.

All Blues blues, modal
All Of Me standard
All The Things You Are standard
Anthropology rhythm changes, swing
Au Privave blues, swing
Autumn Leaves standard
Beautiful Love standard
Beauty And The Beast rock
Billie's Bounce blues, swing
Black Orpheus Latin
Blue Bossa Latin
Blue In Green ballad, modal
Blue Monk blues, swing
Blue Train blues, swing
Blues For Alice blues, swing
Bluesette 3/4, swing
Body And Soul ballad, standard
C Jam Blues blues, swing
Caravan Latin, swing
Ceora Latin
Cherokee swing
Confirmation swing
Darn That Dream ballad, standard
Desafinado Latin
Dolphin Dance modal, non-tonal
A Foggy Day standard
Footprints 3/4, blues, modal
Freddie Freeloader blues, modal
Freedom Jazz Dance non-tonal
Four swing
Giant Steps swing
The Girl From Ipanema Latin
Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat ballad, swing
Have You Met Miss Jones standard
I Mean You swing
I Remember Clifford ballad, swing
I Thought About You standard
If I Were A Bell standard
Impressions modal
In A Sentimental Mood ballad, swing
In Walked Bud swing
Just Friends standard
Killer Joe swing
Lady Bird swing
Lullaby Of Birdland swing
Mr. P.C. blues, swing
Maiden Voyage modal
Misty ballad, standard
Moment's Notice swing
My Favorite Things 3/4, modal, standard
My Funny Valentine ballad, standard
My Romance standard
Naima ballad, modal
A Night In Tunisia Latin, swing
Nica's Dream Latin, swing
Nostalgia In Times Square swing
Now's The Time blues, swing
Oleo rhythm changes, swing
On Green Dolphin Street Latin, swing, standard
Ornithology swing
Recorda Me Latin
Red Clay rock
Round Midnight ballad, swing
St. Thomas Latin
Satin Doll swing
Scrapple From The Apple swing
The Sidewinder blues, swing
So What modal
Solar swing
Some Day My Prince Will Come 3/4, standard
Song For My Father Latin
Speak No Evil modal, non-tonal
Stella By Starlight standard
Stolen Moments blues, modal
Straight, No Chaser blues, swing
Sugar swing
Summertime standard
Take The "A" Train swing
There Is No Greater Love standard
There Will Never be Another You standard
Up Jumped Spring 3/4, swing
Waltz For Debby 3/4, swing
Wave Latin
Well, You Needn't swing
When I Fall In Love ballad, standard
Yardbird Suite swing

The process of internalizing music is a matter of
slow repetition of very small segments of a piece of music or a
technique of playing the instrument. This repetition ingrains what is
being learned deeply in our subconscious. The goal is to work on
something until it seems to play itself. Once a musician has a repertoire, they can go out and play with many others.At least this is how it has worked for me,and many others through the decades. Being a complete musician goes well beyond the notes.

The first step in practicing something is to understand what areas of
the piece or scale are less familiar to us, what we used to think were
the hard parts. The next step is to spend time visiting and revisiting
those areas until our fingers, ears and breathing become comfortable and
familiar with them. Sound too simplistic? Maybe it is, but it is true.
( example B- Stan Getz playing " Early Autum". )

It may take weeks or months or sometimes years for our
bodies to allow these actions to occur without conscious thought.
One of the most important steps in this process of learning is to not
look at a printed page of music. Play things without looking at the
music You might say, I can't memorize things so easily. Well this is
NOT memorization. This is learning something very deeply. Play a small
portion of a phrase over and over. But while playing it, use your EAR
and LISTEN to the music you're playing. Then try to sing the phrase away
from the instrument. Try to play the phrase starting on different notes.
If this seems overwhelming take another approach.
Sing the first few bars of the song Happy Birthday. Now play the song on
your instrument starting on any note. Now once you figure it out and it
feel comfortable, play it starting on other notes. When this feels
comfortable playing the tune on all twelve notes you can feel confident
you know that tune.
(( example C- listen to Monk play solo
on some basic song ))

Only work with very small segments of music and don't move on
to other areas until that one area is thoroughly learned.
When we ingrain the techniques of playing an instrument and understanding the
rudiments of music so thoroughly we
remove the need for conscious thought to help us execute the music.
( This is the start of the Alpha State. )

At this point one's unique voice can be expressed through the music. Master
means to learn something so thoroughly that one always executes it
correctly - This type of
practicing can seem to take a long time.

Your the time spent internalizing something is shorter than one thinks.
Try to remember the times when you practiced a piece over and over and
there were a few passages that were always difficult which never felt
quite right. You perform the piece and kind of get through those
passages and say , glad that's over. But a month later
you have to play the piece again for a gig or and those same passages are no
easier.
If one took the time to properly internalize that music it would not
only always be with you but any of the problems that were conquered
while spending time with the piece would carry over to other pieces that
have similar challenges.
The more material which is learned in this
thorough manner, the easier music in general starts to become. When
enough stuff is gained, most music played will be done with little or
no conscious thought, thus allowing one's voice to happen.
This will happen because there will not be any technical hurdles to
conquer in the music or on the instrument.

When practicing, don't try to conquer an entire work at once. Live with
a small passage until it becomes easy.

If a mistake is made, then go back and spend more time working the passage
slowly until you don't have to think about what you are doing.

Have patience,listen to what you play-find the problem areas and
fix them via slow repetition. Also enjoy the process of practicing
and the sounds you produce.

Jazz is food for the soul and this
includes music made while practicing.

Think about it- it's THAT easy !

Be thankful for another day on the planet.Music and life are a gift!
Put positive energy out there, and be glad you have the ability to play music and enjoy your life.

Till next week- strive for tone-and do something good for someone else- Tim Price

Monday, August 22, 2011

Tim Price Bloggin' For Rico- Todays student needs substance !

~Improvising means creating music that is spontaneous, of the moment, and uniquely your own. So think of it as the instrument becomes a process of self-discovery, finding out what your music really sounds like. You develop a period of looking within, stripping away the excess and listening for the simple voice that really is our own. It’s there, listen for it. I wish I had arrived at these ideas earlier in life. It would have saved me a lot of unnecessary toil. But like it is sometimes said, you are ready when you are ready. These are very important topics- are YOU ready?

Being able to improvise on I GOT RHYTHM changes appears much more as a puzzle or study that must be negotiated than as an opportunity look within and reach for new sounds you hear. Improvising means creating music that is spontaneous, of the now, and your own. It will not get played if you yourself don’t play it, and try.

You have to focus your practicing for maximum progress towards creating a powerful forward motion as a player. Add personal guidance of a master teacher and artist, and you’re poised to grow as a musician and as a performer. This is the way I learned with master players-educators like Charlie Mariano, Charlie Banacos ( I was lucky to study with Banacos since 1994 till 2010 ) Sal Nistico, Joe Viola, Andy McGhee and John LaPorta.These men were a beautiful category of a jazz pro who both knows what he is doing, and is willing to share. Thank god for them!

Today's student needs substance ! Plus how to focus practicing of improvising on the essential elements,the actual substance of what to play and how to develop it in your personal style, and dealing with practicing of specific vocabulary. It's what I call, what to shed! Then you got to understand jazz is part of culture. Bird, Prez,Basie,Pee Wee Russell, Roland Kirk, Duke, Hawk and all those giants who gave something to culture. What did they have? They had the the building blocks of jazz improvisation. MELODY ! Then guide-tone lines, and melodic Rhythm. Real world building blocks of jazz improvisation.

IN A WORD- BASICS THAT WILL LAST YOUR ENTIRE CAREER!

Also check out the new ... TIM PRICE JAZZ VIDEO...captured/recorded and filmed last Monday by great friend/ former student Nathan Bellott. ENJOY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4LFnzsMYW0&feature=share

Till next week- Put positive energy out there!

~ Tim Price

www.timpricejazz.com

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Tim Price Blogging For Rico-Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter- " Nica's Dream".

It’s a misty night in 1969 in Boston, I'm standing outside the Jazz Workshop on Boylston Street waiting to go see Thelonious Monk. A silver Rolls-Royce parks right in front of the club, behind the wheel is a beautiful brunette, a chinchilla stole draped over her shoulder and a cigarette holder between her teeth. Before she turns the Rolls off she takes a long hit from a silver flask, she exits the car and down the steps into the famed " Jazz Workshop". The Jazz Baroness has arrived!

As a teenager, I read liner notes on records, and articles in Down Beat about this famed woman of jazz and there she was before my eyes. As I remember back to that week of hearing Monk every night for a week! ( Charlie Rouse put me on the guest list, that's another blog unto itself. He's one of my hero's as you might have known.)

The Jazz Baroness was raised in fairy-tale splendor, Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild de Koenigswarter (known as “Nica”) piloted her own plane across the English Channel, married a French baron, fought in the French Resistance, and had five children. Then she heard a recording of Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight.” Inspired by the liberating spirit of jazz, Nica left her family, moved to Manhattan, and began going to the city’s jazz nightclubs non stop.

The tabloids first splashed her name across the headlines after Charlie Parker died in her hotel suite—a scandal that sadly cast a dark shadow over parts her life. Press be dammed,she became a legend as the major force as a woman she was. Not only a woman that was immensely beautiful, but strong emotionally, mentally brilliant beyond words, and a complete positive force for those she cared about! What a brilliant one of a kind woman! Wow!! Nearly a score of jazz compositions have been written in her honor, including two of the most beloved classics of the genre: Horace Silver’s “Nica’s Dream” and Monk’s “Pannonica.” Any jazz student or musician worth their salt, should know those tunes, without a lead sheet, by the way. Also some other amazing tunes written for her ; " Nicas' Tempo"" by Gigi Gryce, Sonny Clark- " Nica", Kenny Dorham " Tonica", Freddy Redd " Nica Steps Out", Kenny Drew " Blues For Nica". One of her abstract paintings was even used as the cover art for Bud Powell’s 1961 album " A Portrait Of Thelonious" - That Bud Powell recording might be one of the greatest Monk tributes I ever heard.

As an avid fan of 1950s jazz, I had read about "the Jazz Baronness," Pannonica de Koenigswarter, an heir to the Rothschild fortune, in numerous articles and books about the people who populated the New York jazz scene in those days. When I read about the publication of "Nica's Dream," the first book-length biography devoted this patron of modern jazz, I downloaded the book to my Kindle and looked forward to a great read. Having finished it yesterday, I have to say I am so inspired by this book. I am going to buy the hard copy too.

This is a must read! There are some genuinely interesting episodes and adventures as well as touching anecdotes that demonstrate her genuine affection and esteem for the many great musicians she befriended. But it is that very episodic quality, which continues throughout the book, that ultimately makes it an interesting read rather than a great one.

In this book, " Nica's Dream" author David Kastin has spent the last few years immersed in the world of "Nica" - as those who knew her well referred to the jazz baroness. His biography is beautifully written, endlessly fascinating.

It is Nica's connections to the jazz world - to sax legend Parker, to the fabled keyboardist and composer Monk, to Art Blakey, to Bud Powell, to a veritable Who's Who of bebop and modern jazz players - that drew Kastin to his subject.

March 12, 1955, after several days of convalescence the baroness (with periodic visits from the hotel physician), Parker collapsed and died. "Bird" was 34. The tabloids went wild: "Bop King Dies in Heiress' Flat!"

At the moment she first heard a recording of Monk's "'Round Midnight" - on a 1951 visit to New York from Mexico City, where her husband, Baron Jules de Koenigswater, served as France's ambassador - Nica's life changed. "I couldn't believe my ears," she said almost 35 years later, recounting how she asked her friend, pianist Teddy Wilson, to play the record over and over and over again. "'Round Midnight' affected me like nothing else I ever heard."

Nica left her husband in Mexico and moved to New York with the oldest of their five children, a teenage daughter, Janka. They took lavish digs at the Stanhope Hotel. Nica began frequenting the jazz clubs, became friends with the promoters, the owners, the musicians. Before long, the "Jazz Baroness" - chic and sophisticated, free-thinking and free-drinking - was hosting jam sessions in her suites, sneaking the hungry, often broke, artists up the hotel's service elevator.

Soon after Parker's death, Nica was asked to leave. She found a similarly luxe living situation in a hotel on the opposite side of Central Park.

The baroness' "moveable feast" of a jazz salon resulted in more than 400 hours of annotated and archived recordings: Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Sun Ra, Lionel Hampton, Donald Byrd, Horace Silver (whose song, "Nica's Dream," Kastin took for his book's title) - they all played for Nica. It's an epic and extraordinary aural document. The "Pannonica Collection" remains in the hands of her heirs, and has, until now, been unavailable.

"Nica's Dream" would make for a great movie - although there's so much here that a miniseries might be more accommodating. But it certainly makes for a great book. Kastin has served his subject well, offering a rich and tumbling portrait of a force to be reckoned with - no dilettante or groupie or interloper, but a woman who was inspired by, and in turn inspired, many of the reigning figures of the jazz universe.

I think any author would have had difficulty with the organizational problems inherent in telling 'Nica's story. There are only so many ways you can tell the reader that she was a Rothschild, that she drove a Bentley at breakneck speeds with a cigarette holder clenched between her teeth helping musicians get to gigs or get out of trouble, and was a decent and caring human being. In this case, it is enough to make for an interesting and sometimes engaging read. a great biography.

Beyond her long cigarette holder, leopard skin coat and infamous Bentley. These objects by which she was identified were not symbols of her glamour but of her mystique, speaking not of who she was, but of the world she left behind. She made jazz a better place and she stood for something without putting a spotlight on herself !

~ You owe it to yourself to read " Nica's Dream" by David Kastin

Till next week- Tim Price

PS ;

THAT SAID,

In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, Pannonica de Koenigswarter, known as Nica, was a constant and benevolent presence on the thriving New York jazz scene. Known as the Jazz Baroness (she was born into the wealthy Rothschild family and later married a French aristocrat) she befriended such giants as Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Barry Harris, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Bud Powell, and many more. She inspired over twenty jazz compositions, bailed musicians out of jail, and even acted as a booking agent.

I literally could not put this book down. It is fascinating, well-written, and immensely entertaining. It may be the best jazz "biography" I've read.

She also collected wishes. Over the course of a decade, Koenigswarter asked three hundred musicians what their three wishes in life were, jotting them all down in a notebook. At the same time she took hundreds of candid photographs, saving them all. In Three Wishes, Koenigswarter’s forays into the psyches and lives of these legendary jazz artists are made available in America for the first time. GET THIS BOOK TO DEAR BLOG READER!

Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats by-
Pannonica de Koenigswarter

.
Pannonica over course of a decade, collected wishes from some 300 musicians; alongside vibrant, smoky Polaroids, these wishes--though plenty go to money, health and more wishes--provide a brief glimpse into each subjects' dreams: Julian "Cannonball" Adderley wishes for a jazz artists' subsidy organization; Dinah Washington wishes for triplet girls; and Charles Mingus wishes for "enough to pay my bills, but that's absolutely all." Not everyone wishes deep: Bill Hardman wishes for "a crazy old lady". Many wished for money.

Sonny Clark wanted “all the Steinways”, Oscar Peterson wished he could “play the piano the way I want to”, while Miles Davis simply answered, “to be white”.

The person to elicit these extraordinary and intimate responses was Baroness Pannonica Rothschild de Koenigswarter, or Nica as she was known. Friend, landlady, muse and manager to some of the greatest jazz musicians of the twentieth century, Nica remains somewhat of a mythical figure.
Her name ghosts through the jazz canon.She dedicated her life to giving musicians a voice and helping to end both the fingerprinting of nightclub musicians and the controversial ‘New York Cabaret Card’ system, an obligatory performance permit, which could be revoked on the smallest infractions. And yet, hers was also a name once tainted by association with rumour and scandal.

I encountered Nica once in Philadelphia, outside of the long gone " Grendels Lair" club on South St in 1975.

I was outside talking to Wilbur Ware after a set, that he did with Barry Harris. The club turned over and everyone had to leave. Ware was also a Monk musician, and as I was talking to him he was speaking to Nica. She was amazingly cool and friendly, for sure she was the driver for the Barry Harris band from NYC. So we are passing Nica's flask around, talking. They head back in and she said, come on follow me. She just goes past the door guy, gets me a seat at the bar right aside of the band. A better seat than I had before! She buys me a scotch, and heads back to the corner to talk to Barry and Charles McPhearson. As I passed her on the way out, I said to her thank you so much. I wanted her to know how much I appreciated it, and she smiled and said " Your very welcome". What a wonderful asset to this world she was, and what she did for music.

This world needs more people like Baroness Pannonica Rothschild

de Koenigswarter.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Tim Price Blogging For Rico Reeds-Bright Moments For Rahsaan Roland Kirk. A trip to Rahsaanapolis ! Get your rip, rig & panic on.

Rahsaanapolis awaits you!

Today on the Rico Blog is the day we remember the great instrumentalist

Rashaan Roland Kirk, who was born on August 7th ( yesterday) 1935.

He was one of the most important musicians in jazz, now then and always. Check his history here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahsaan_Roland_Kirk

As a assignment for ALL those interested, please go buy -

Rip, Rig & Panic

How can you miss with this band!

Roland Kirk - Tenor Saxophone, Stritch, Manzello, Flute, Siren, Oboe, Castanets
Jaki Byard - Piano
Richard Davis - Bass
Elvin Jones - Drums

You can even get a 2-for CD here; At CD Universe. Downloads too!

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1177275/a/Rip,+Rig+And+Panic%2FNow+Please+Don't+You+Cry,+Beautiful+Edith.htm

This CD combines two of Roland Kirk's most celebrated albums. Rip, Rig and Panic is renowned because of the astounding line-up, Jaki Byard on piano, Richard Davis on bass, and the redoubtable Elvin Jones.In this respect it provides listeners,a good overview and trip into Rahsaanapolis.

This said, it would require a truck equipped with extra heavy-duty suspension to deliver the box set providing a comprehensive tour of Rahsaanapolis. Kirk was a man of profound contradictions, relentless experimentation, and an unquenchable appetite for music. He has been largely overlooked by jazz historians (to say nothing of the public!) and unfairly tagged as a novelty act because of his propensity for playing multiple horns simultaneously and actually making his own reed instruments out of bits and pieces of other reed instruments. But also listen to his gentle side- he was capable of playing music so fragile and beautiful check out " I Talk With The Spirits".

Who else could take you from Sidney Bechet, Don Byas, and Fats Waller and have the trip make sense? Kirk played everything he touched, and he played with unparalleled intensity. His flute playing was amazing, but his tenor sax work was simply off the map. Kirk belongs in the pantheon with Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, and John Coltrane - indeed, he's already there, it's just that the mainstream hasn't noticed yet. I'm not aware of any Rahsaan Roland Kirk CD that isn't worth the price of admission, but for veterans and first time visitors to Rahsaanapolis alike, this CD is a must have. Rico Blog readers get it now!

Are their musicians like this anymore? The experience is uncommonly artistic and uncompromising but never strains the ear or mind. As a free-range whole, Kirk was a poet's poet, clearly and constantly musical, with the mark of unsurpassed integrity.Give it up to Rahsaan.

I am lucky to be one of the few people who has all the Roland Kirk records on original vinyl. Including the rare stuff with Tubby Hayes and James Moody. In 1969 I saw him sit in with ZAPPA and The Mothers Of Invention at the Boston Globe Jazz Festival. He played Zappa's stuff and jammed on " Louie Louie".

Needless to say...it was the best version of that tune I ever heard. HA!!

IN 1970.....I lived in a apartment building in Boston, a now famous building a lot of us lived in called " Holmes Hall" on Hemenway st in Boston down the street from Berklee. Jam sessions day and night, all kinds of sounds daily and great musicians there.Ray knew Kirk very well and took us down on a Sunday to hang.

In the midst of the hang, someone ordered a pizza. The guy shows with the pizza and dropped the change as Roland Kirk paid him. AT THAT POINT....Kirk .reaches down , and picks up the change and hands it to the guy. I had to know how he did that, I asked him. He was still going by the name Roland then, he looks at me and sais " EARS BABY". I am very lucky. He was the musician that influenced me to search out stritch and saxello and expand my woodwind mind set at an early age as well. Thank you sir for that sonic message!

Remembering a late great master innovator, bright moments indeed.

~ Tim Price

Roland Kirk - Rip, Rig & Panic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMg6Cy1Kh3o&feature=related

Roland Kirk - Alfie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47VSwCMhZ8I&feature=related

Roland Kirk - Slippery, Hippery, Flippery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7WvonH_Oxc&feature=related

Buddy Guy, Jack Bruce, Roland Kirk, Jimmy Hope & Ron Burton Supershow Live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW7mCDmP644&NR=1

Monday, August 1, 2011

Tim Price Bloggin For Rico- " All The Things You Are".

.

Tony Martin introduced “All the Things You Are” in Jerome Kern’s last Broadway musical, Very Warm for May, which opened November 17, 1939, and closed after only 59 performances. As a result of bad and spiteful

reviews, the Alvin Theater was kind of empty on the second night. But from this emerged what many regard as Kern’s finest composition.

No mater who you play with, study or listen to, this tune is a jazz standard. If you can't play this, you can't play jazz. It's that simple.

If Bach had written a melody like this, chances are it would have been a “cantus firmus” in the bass with counterpoint.