Tim Price Blogging for Rico- Melodic Improvisation & the abstract truth.

Back "in the day"..I created these studys to help students,sax players worldwide. Since then the "lessons" expanded to a free book & half worth of material. Sax on the Web > Saxophone Lessons with Tim Price > Melodic Improvisation Harri Rautiainen.."Oldies but goodies! Now revised lay-out." Sax on the Web > Saxophone Lessons with Tim Price > Melodic Improvisation http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/MelodicImprov.html Back "in the day"....LOL....I created these SOTW studys to help students,sax players worldwide. Since then the "lessons" expanded to a free book & half worth of material. Another thing was to get the people to understand the importance of BASICS. Von Freeman told me once, in the 70's in Chigago that if you knew major,minor, augmented and diminished...everything else was right there as well with WORK. Of course I expanded some things for players, to catch some of my harder stuff, such as _ http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Feb01.html 1969- I saw caught Monk & Charlie Rouse when I was 17 every night of the week-I heard elements in that band I never heard elsewhere. What got to me was how_IN_they could get and still sound far out. I could hear the tune, I got tight with Charlie Rouse. ( I was 17, had a fake ID as I was playing gigs since I was in 9th grade etc) Rouse was amazing, to the_classic_MK6- Link thing. But the lines came from the basics, ditto Wayne Shorter and the greats we love and hear everyday. Years later,I had the pleasure of meeting the great tenor player- BIG NICK. It was at a Guardala clinic,I brought him to. he was using a " post bop" piece but that was just a tool in this mans hands. ( He loved the piece) He was the guy Trane wrote BIG NICK for which is in all your fake books!!! We'd hang at the "China Song" in NYC, after gigs or to meet to shed during the day. ( see picture below) And Big Nick would kill shedding the UNIVERSAL BOOK. The SOTW studys I put up are things_most_players should know in one form or another. Nick & I would play stuff like this, take it into space, play it funky or even as a ballad. In real time NOT as a etude kinda thing. He also was into the FRANK VIOLIN piece. He had the music to that- and showed me what he hipped TRANE to in the piece. Again, as far out as THAT seems...if ya ain't got the basics...none of the other stuff makes sense. Ya know?! Even back, pre-Berklee for me. I could tell that knowing the basics had a essence that worked. At that point- it was learning stuff from records as there were no books or transcription services or internet. So you had to get next to the music, listen and play along. Playing those joints in my high school daze were an education... great memorys & saxophone DNA. An invasion of memories-and an education for me.LOL.. Many times I drift back to these times-I grew up in the city (Reading Pa) the world sure was different then. But playing those Jr Walker & Horace Silver tunes at gigs, along with Motown stuff and all was part of it. Simplicity and knowing. There were no APS for the chords, or real books- you had to learn- know and play. Another time period. Check junior here....so vivid a sound. Nice! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBY53...layer_embedded HE WAS...the thing.The cartoon image on the Jr Walker record always made me smile growing up. Autry DeWalt aka Jr Walker!! Music, life and compassion. You dig!:) Enjoy and work hard at what you love. ~ Tim Price www.timpricejazz.com

Tim Price Bloggin' For Rico Reeds- Roger Rosenberg & Baritonality.

Roger Rosenbergs new release is inspiring and totally enjoyable. My advise- go buy Baritonality now. You won't be sorry. Everything is here, a player with deep roots and committment to the art form. He plays his backside off on every cut- and the compositions are the kind of tunes that should be jazz standards. They are that great! Baritonality ( Sunnyside) is Roger's second CD as a leader. His sound is his own,I hear not only control but commitment to supreme musicianship. No cliches,but pure playing. Not only from study, paying dues and years on the scene but also a very expansive way of playing. I'm telling you, these tunes are just perfect choices,the title track and "The 8th Day" is case in point.Classic! Roger also plays on soprano on "Paradox") and bass clarinet on the ballad dedicated to Mike Brecker. There is world class support by fellow veterans—Mark Soskin (piano), Chip Jackson (bass) and Jeff Brillinger (drums)—as well as guitar groove by Peter Bernstein on the Landesman-Wolf beauty "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most." The support and swing from Chip Jackson purely defines his role in jazz as one of the masters of his instrument.This is also a great opportunity to hear Jeff Brillinger, one of my favorite players in this era.Mark Soskin is thoroughly ensconced in proceedings,beautiful comping and solos.Chip Jackson has something special happening every time he plays, I'm glad he's on this recording.Always loved what he played, and how he played it.You can hear these are musicians who've gelled on the bandstand before together.The band here is incredible! I loved the playing on "Someone To Watch Over Me" as much as the burning closer "Birds and Tranes." As I said before...Get this CD now. This is real jazz, done by an artist who deserves world wide attention. You can hear it in the music and compositions. Real jazz sessions like these show that great music is being played that can swing hard in straight ahead settings, and still have originality within it. Baritonality was produced by Walter Becker. Roger tours with Steely Dan, and has appeared on Two Against Nature, Everything Must Go, and Fagen's Kamakiriad and Morph The Cat.He is a first-call N.Y. session player and a highly accomplished woodwind doubler. His work has been acknowledged an NARAS MVP award. I've been enjoying Rogers playing for decades, and if you can find it search out the record he did with Chet Baker.It's called, Chet Baker Sings, Plays-Live at the Keystone Korner (High Note records 2003),and Roger is playing on baritone and and some really creative and fresh soprano saxophone on the Richie Bierach composition "Broken Wing." Other sessions that I enjoyed that he is part of are- John Lennons' Double Fantasy and Elvis Costellos' North. You can see by the diversity here, this is a player who is open minded and able to add his gift to a great amount of fantastic music. In closing,Baritonality by Rico artist and legendary New York City musician Roger Rosenberg is just what music needs. He is a creative master in the music of today,hear him! Till next week- Tim Price www.timpricejazz.com

Tim Pice Bloggin' For Rico Reeds- Tracking ( via improvising )

.....Tracking THIS IS SOMETHING THAT WILL IMPROVE YOUR PLAYING. . . . Tracking is the ability to listen to yourself. This is one of the most crucial things in melodic playing. Tracking is the ability to identify your own ideas and build on them. Music is not the combination of as many different ideas as possible in the shortest amount of time, (e.g. playing a lot of notes fast and all over the place) but, the flow and elaboration of a few ideas in a logical and coherent manner. The secret of tracking is to listen to yourself. Again, each idea should have a beginning and an end. Pause and listen to your last idea. Your next idea should be related to the last. Whether you repeat a rhythm, note, shape, or even stop and begin with a new idea, this will help you to direct your lines and phrases into a specific area. What you will hear coming out of yourself will be your own musical ideas. They are shaped by your feelings and the interactions of the people you are playing with, as well as your technical condition. All this will grow richer as you study more and practice harder and learn the repertoire. The secret is to create in the now, and not simply play all your memorized licks. The more you practice, the more you will be able to hear, and your abilities as a jazz improviser will grow and expand. Remember, what you hear is more important than what you know. ...... SUGGESTED LISTENING- CHARLIE PARKER ON DIAL. Volume 8 Recorded: Nov 8, 1947 – Sep 1948 The final volume of the series featured tracks taken primarily from a radio broadcast on November 8, 1947, where Parker played with Barry Ulanov and His All-Star Metronome Jazzmen. The group featured Bauer on guitar, Allen Eager on tenor saxophone,John LaPorta on clarinet, Fats Navarro on trumpet, Tommy Potter on double bass, Buddy Rich on drums, Tristano on piano, and, singing on "Everything I Have Is Yours", Sarah Vaughan.[7] Additional material was taken from a set with Tadd Dameron's Orchestra, featuring performances by Eager and Gray. LISTEN TO JOHN LA PORTA....On clarinet. One of the greatest in jazz clarinet and the teacher at Berklee who took the time to get "tracking" into my mind set as a young player/student. This man, played with Mingus and Bird.....jazz education needs more like him. Hope this helps you open some new doorways in what you do. TILL NEXT WEEK- Tim Price

Tim Price Bloggin' For Rico Reeds / The Song Of Singing // Singing the song.

The Song of Singing is Chick Corea's fifth solo recording, released in 1970. The album features a trio with Barry Altschul on drums and Dave Holland on bass (together with Corea making up three fourths of Circle). The setting of the album is free and spontaneous with a few scripted pieces to keep everything on track. The lone piece composed by someone not in the band, Wayne Shorter's Nefertiti is now considered a jazz standard. At 26 Chick recorded...his adventurous yet lyrical trio LP- Now he sings, now he sobs, establishing him as a significant pianist and composer. Over three days in March 1968, Corea recorded with Miroslav Vitous and Haynes and produced a total of 13 great performances only five of which were used on the original albums. The material ranged from soon-to-be Corea classics like "Matrix" and "Windows" to extended improvised pieces like the title tune to creative interpretations of Monk's "Pannonica" and "My One And Only Love". This music-is beyond category. Some of my favorite " power trios" are these two Chick Corea recordings. The point is here- Chick though influenced by Horace Silver and Bud Powell and the music of Beethoven and Mozart as well had arrived at a personal destination. He wasn't trying to be someone else, or spend his life doing tributes to people. He created an idiom, compositions and forward motion that is inspirational. My point is, saxophonists need to branch out more and listen to the content,attitude and personal conviction of other instrumentalists. Especially from preceding eras. Chick k in this era is a great case study- and even if your a classical player, this is something that will touch you.To me this has been an extremely valuable source that provides philosophy behind the approach, a conceptual frame-work to apply this philosophy, and detailed repertoire selection,development, and implementation. The relevance of the research into other instruments and musics is exceedingly valuable- and important. These days there is to much attention given to players who are playing well, and very popular but more often students have no idea of things outside of that idiom. At this time of the year ( May-June) I always think of the recording " The Song Of Singing"...that's about when I bought it And, from the inspiration side, I had seen and heard some amazing playing by Chick with Stan Getz, Miles and others.The music was fresh. As it should be, even the Shorter tune, was not a cover.Nor was it destroyed by a time-signature experiment in 66/3 over 9/8. ha! It was swinging, and on track. The cover, also was a huge feature of the BlueNote records catalog, as my friend Vinny Golia did the cover art. Any RICO REEDS fan should well know that, Blute Note covers are history. EG- Rico Reeds and Blue Note Records came together for a multi-year licensing agreement in which Rico will launched sax straps featuring Blue Note session photography and album artwork.Inspired by the great jazz standards recorded on the Blue Note label, each sax strap features the artwork from classic recordings and famous album covers. Three kinds of inspired straps are available now: True Blue, inspired by the 1960 classic featuring saxophonist Tina Brooks; Afro Cuban , influenced by the 1955 recording by trumpeter Kenny Dorham featuring the Jazz Messenger ensemble (Hank Mobley on tenor sax and Cecil Payne on baritone sax); and Black Fire, inspired by the 1963 Blue Note debut recording of jazz pianist Andrew Hill featuring Joe Henderson on tenor sax. Vinnys art work on this record always impressed me- as did his playing. ( Check out Vinny Golia as well- he is a unreal woodwind player, arttist, composer and friend) To arrive at a personal destination you have to invest in yourself. Study, practice and life. Think about this great quote as well ; The characteristics of a good musician can be summarized as follows: 1. A well-trained ear 2. A well-trained intelligence 3. A well-trained heart 4. A well-trained hand. Seems like the most practical, right? Let me go further in the essence of jazz, there must be a constant equilibrium. As soon as one lags behind or rushes ahead, there is something wrong. Check out the music of the of the 20th century, from twelve tone Schoenbergian music to Broadway; from “Mac the Knife” to operas; from Brecht to Lotte Lenya;Hendrix, Satie, Debussy, Cecil Taylor, composers, arrangers, anyone and anything prolific and interesting to you. By accepting that challenge with an individualistc, interpretive approach,you will broaden and deepened YOUR artistic core as an improvisational musician. Study, listen well to the association of how rather than what. In other words don’t let a musical idea,vision or concept get borne out of the fingers rather than the music itself, and the try to keep the highest musical value or useful when searching for oneself.Be the best YOU that is available at the moment. After all,our goal is creativity and the use of the imagination. We are trying to enter the realm of feelings and emotions through music, and to arrive at a point where your fingers go where the ear dictates.Hopefully this blog can instigate the artistic process in an attempt to have a coherent and unified vision of what an art form concerns. Play, study and approach what you do to the maximum. Look for inspiration beyond your own instrument. Check out the trio I speak of as well. Till next week- Musical nourishment which is "rich in vitamins" is essential for all. Lunch for your ears! ~ Tim Price PS- LISTENING IS PRACTICE TOO!!!