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It has been my contention that the most valuable viewpoints come
from those who do. Thus, it’s logical to assume that any artist who is
surviving in this field, and doing it with success, is doing something
right.
The energies we all put into our craft; The years of apprenticeship and
the intense commitment to the horn, and the pure love of playing it are
paramount to the art form. This section of my D'Addario Woodwinds Blogs by Tim Price,
to all intents and purposes is a sort of portable omnibus of sax /
woodwind creations. Musically, verbally and spiritually. The music these
players create and talk about is a privilege to be a part of. The music
always has an infinite history and fertility, inexhaustible vitality,
and at the same time, a seductive power of temptation - which inspires
all of us who play – and offers the open-ended invitation to create as
much as we can. The results, the waiting, the practicing at all hours,
the talking of the music and constant study gives the music a breath of
spirit, endless in motion and evolution.
This weeks blog features a player whom I respect highly- Marshall McDonald. This is a player who I would call a master artist who's woodwind and saxophone playing, history speak for themselves. Face it, the street cred Marshall has is inspiring. Marshall began his tenure with The Count Basie Orchestra under
saxophonist Danny Turner in 1994 and now holds down the Lead Alto chair
famously held by the great Marshal Royal. Marshall has performed
concerts and jazz festivals world wide with the orchestra directed by
Frank Foster, Grover Mitchell, and Bill Hughes and Dennis
Mackrel.
Marshall’s unique ability to play all of the saxophones,
clarinet and flute has led to recordings and world tours with The Lionel
Hampton Orchestra, Paquito D’Rivera and the United Nation Orchestra,
Frank Foster and The Loud Minority Big Band, The Chico O’Farrill
Afro-Cuban Orchestra, The Illinois Jacquet Big Band, The Duke Ellington
Orchestra and Charli Persip and Supersound. Marshall has played every
sax chair except baritone in the Basie Band, he has played every chair
including baritone sax in the Lionel Hampton Band, and played and
recorded on alto, tenor and baritone sax with Paquito D’Rivera, and was
often found switching from the Lead Alto chair of the Charli Persip band
to the Tenor chair when needed.
Marshall has also performed with
The Bobby Caldwell Orchestra as the opening act for Vanessa Williams.
McDonald has performed in Broadway shows, including clarinet in JELLY’S
LAST JAM, Tenor Sax, Baritone Sax, Clarinet and Flute in the 1998
production of STREETCORNER SYMPHONY and in 1999 he performed on stage in
the musical KAT AND THE KINGS. He was an orchestra member of THE
MEETIN’ by Pamela Baskin-Watson and Bobby Watson.
In addition,
Marshall has played woodwinds behind performers such as Stephanie Mills,
Aretha Franklin, Melba Moore, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Little
Anthony and the Imperials, Johnny Mathis, Frankie Avalon, The Dells, and
Manhattan Transfer.
1- How have the last few years of your life affected your
current music?
The last few years
have greatly affected my playing and music. My wife has had a profound
effect on my playing and my approach to music, and we also have been
spending a great deal of time in Japan, which has also had an influence
on my music choices. I’ve begun to remember why I wanted to play music
in the first place. For the joy and the fun! I want to tell a story
when I play a solo, make people feel something, bring the experience of
life onto the stage with me. I play a feature ballad with the Basie
band, one that Bobby Plater originally played, Soft as Velvet, my
approach to it has completely changed. I want to tell my story, and
when I play Soft As Velvet on stage, I think that I’m playing it for my
wife, it’s her favorite song! First, I don’t want to play too loud, as
Phil Woods once said, he would rather people lean into the stage to
hear, than move back into their seats from the loudness of it. And I’m
singing through the horn. Years ago, I always liked the players who
sang with their horn, Charlie Parker, Miles, Coltrane, Sonny Rollins,
Cannonball and the pop cats like David Sanborn. Sanborn loved Hank
Crawford. A player should be familiar with the lyrics of the tune.
There’s a great solo by Michael Brecker on James Taylor’s “Don’t Let Me
Be Lonely Tonight”, I love his lyrical singing approach to the solo.
Brings it all home, you dig?
2. How did you choose to play the saxophone, and what players influenced you early on?
I started out at age 9
studying classical Clarinet. I had private lessons, and I was going
through Klose and Rose studies, and in a few years I was playing the
Mozart Clarinet Concerto. But some time when I was young, although my
father listened to Classical music, and he also played piano himself, he
had a tape of Louis Armstrong, I think the recording of Hello, Dolly
and Mack the Knife. I heard that and I was floored! Man, I think it
was Barney Bigard playing clarinet. And found such joy in this
recording, I played it all the time, it was an 8-Track tape, who
remembers those? And Louis was singing, and he was playing and the
clarinet playing just knocked me out. Then my mom got me a record of
Pete Fountain. So I asked my Pop to get me a saxophone so I could play
in the school jazz band, honestly he wasn’t thrilled but he did it!
My teacher started teaching me how to play the alto, and then at school
the next year I found a record in the music library. This guy named
Charlie Parker “Live at Massey Hall”. I took that home, and played that
on my turntable every single night while I lay in bed!! I had no idea
what was going on, but I knew I liked it! It was absolutely amazing, I
had never heard anything like that! After that, a guy from college came
to our school to do a jazz clinic, and he played me a record by David
Sanborn, the one called Sanborn. Man, I dug that. I tried to also copy
stuff off that record. The sax major from college was the first guy to
show me some chords and gave me something to play on a solo. In my
senior year of High School I went to see David Sanborn in concert in
Pittsburgh, it was Hiram Bullock, Will Lee, Steve Jordan, Rosalinda de
Leon-the band was killin! When I saw that, I knew I wanted to be a
performer. After that my next real jazz teacher was Mark Kirk, protege
of Phil Woods who told me to leave the Charlie Parker Omnibook at home,
that reading solos was useless, that I needed to learn the piano, and
to learn 4 scale patterns (that had the notes numbered and told me to
think in numbers) that Phil taught his students. That took years of
study from that first lesson. At that time, I listened to a variety of
music from Earth, Wind and Fire, Chicago, Emerson, Lake and Palmer,
Charlie Parker, Arthur Blythe, Jackie McClean, Weather Report, Bill
Chase, Maynard Ferguson, Count Basie, John Coltrane et al. My biggest
influence and favorite player was by far Charlie Parker. All the other
cats were into Cannonball at that time, I was a throwback, I loved
Charlie Parker. I also had a bunch of Michael Brecker recordings, I
later got to meet Mike while on the road with Basie and speak with him
on the phone. He told me about his practice habits, playing patterns in
12 keys, in every interval he could think of, of the way he wrote them
all down. Much like what George Coleman talked about . Funny, Mike
said he was listening to Stan Getz at the time,and wished he could play
less notes like Stan! Man, dig that. And I love Stan Getz too, one of
my favorites. Bob Berg, Bob Mintzer, Bergonzi, the post Trane cats, I lend an ear to them too.
Nathan
Davis told me to learn all the saxophones, my first job with Lionel
Hampton was on baritone sax. Nathan had me switch from Lead Alto and
play bari a little while at Pitt. He also gave me a tenor and soprano
and said learn the differences. Each horn is a voice. I would only
listen to tenor players while practicing tenor, and I transcribed and
wrote out lots of tenor solos. Tenor has become my favorite voice.
John Williams, the great Basie bari player once told me, I was the only
guy he knew who played 4 of the sax chairs in the Basie band, and
all of the sax chairs in the Ellington band! You have to be
versatile!
I grew up in
Pittsburgh so while I was at University of Pittsburgh, I was
studying with Nathan Davis, and listened to Eric Kloss and Kenny Blake
in town. There were some great young players there, trombonist Frank
Mallah, who called Charlie Parker, The Big Birdie. He told me just
transcribe solos and listen to The Big Birdie!
3. At this point in life - What inspires you musically?
I still enjoy a large variety of
music, from Prince to Miles to Vincent Herring, to Stan Getz, and I love
lyrics of good songs, I love the love songs with a story and lyrics. I
like pop music that has a love ballad to it, I think people like these
songs because they tell a story about their lives. And it’s romantic.
I think most great music has some romance in it. My favorite songs are
those with beautiful lyrics. And then when I play a ballad or play a
tune, or play Lead Alto, I want to be singing, it should sing. That’s
what inspires me now, to play some music that people will enjoy, I don’t
want to try to impress the musicians with my hippest licks in 12 keys,
I’ve been listening to the music that lasts. Last forever. Like Frank
Sinatra. Miles Davis recordings. Bird. Sonny Rollins. The great Blue
Note Record era. This music reaches out to the listener. I’m inspired
to try to play some music now that the listener will tap their foot and
leave with some joy in their heart!
It has been my contention that the most valuable viewpoints come
from those who do. Thus, it’s logical to assume that any artist who is
surviving in this field, and doing it with success, is doing something
right.
The energies we all put into our craft; The years of apprenticeship and
the intense commitment to the horn, and the pure love of playing it are
paramount to the art form. This section of my D'Addario Woodwinds Blogs by Tim Price,
to all intents and purposes is a sort of portable omnibus of sax /
woodwind creations. Musically, verbally and spiritually. The music these
players create and talk about is a privilege to be a part of. The music
always has an infinite history and fertility, inexhaustible vitality,
and at the same time, a seductive power of temptation - which inspires
all of us who play – and offers the open-ended invitation to create as
much as we can. The results, the waiting, the practicing at all hours,
the talking of the music and constant study gives the music a breath of
spirit, endless in motion and evolution. This weeks blog features a player whom I respect highly- Doug Lawrence...One of today's tenor voices and a inspiration to all who hear his creativity. I'll tell you what I love about Doug's playing...EVERYTHING. This guy has the roots, the story to tell and is a master musician. Check him out- he's one of the real ones. When he plays...you feel it! Listen carefully dear reader to this Basie tenor legend- his words come from time put into the music and time on the bandstand.
1- How have the last few years of your life affected your current music?
Doug- 1. The past few years have been some of the happiest of my life because of the birth of my daughter. Johnny Williams told me when I have a kid it would make me play better, and he was right. It's hard to describe, but it is definitely true.
2. How did you choose to play the saxophone, and what players influenced you early on?
2. I started out as a classical clarinet player at a very young age. My father played all the reed instruments and had saxophones hidden under his bed. He told me never to touch them. (He wanted me to just play classical so I could try to get in a major orchestra and get all he benefits etc). I was home sick in 7th grade for several weeks with bronchitis. One day my mother went to the grocery store and I put an album on the stereo my dad had. "Coltrane Plays For Lovers"... I couldn't believe how great it sounded! Then I put on another record my father had "Stan Getz at the Royal Roost"..I was hooked. I went under the bed and got his tenor out (5-digit Mark VI with a Link mouthpiece Stan Getz had given my dad) and started playing. My mom came home from the grocery store and thought it was my dad playing in the back room. She almost jumped out of her skin when she walked back and saw me playing. Needless to say, I was in big trouble when my dad got home, but later that night he got the horn out and said "let's hear it". He just shook his head when I started playing and my mom started crying. A few months later he got me a Martin alto and a Conn 10M.
3. At this point in life - What inspires you musically?
DOUG- 3. I am still inspired everyday to play because I think I am getting better. I love to play the horn more than ever now. That is the great thing about music. You never stop learning. My father played up until the day he died. My mom told me he sounded great that day! The other thing that really inspires me is listening to who I call my Guru's almost daily. They are - Paul Gonsalves, Gene Ammons, Dex, Wardell, Prez, Ben, Stitt, Hawk and guys like Lucky Thompson, Billy Mitchell, Tina Brooks, Fathead, Zoot, Getz, Trane, Eddie Harris, Newk. I love a melodic approach to playing. And I love a distinctive tone. I listen everyday for years and years to the same tunes sometimes and I always hear something new. It's inspiring!
4. Your choice of notes is really inspiring- talk
about how you arrive at this kind of destination as an artist. What are
you thinking about in terms of your solos, and agenda.
DOUG - 4. When I am improvising I almost never think about
the chord changes. I use my ear and I try to "sing" through the horn. I
was taught the "old school" way of playing, and that is to use my ears
and learn as many standards as possible. When everything is working
right, I'm not thinking at all when I play. It's all just happening! Or
if I am thinking at all, I might be thinking about a beautiful woman in
the front row or something like that. LOL!!! Cats that really know me
know this about me. I was doing a Christmas tune tenor feature ballad at
Walt Disney Hall a few years ago and the arrangement wasn't really
happening if you know what I mean. But I had to do the feature. So as I
was walking out to the mic at the performance, Dennis Mackrel who was
the MD and has known me for 30 years says to me - "play this one for
your daughter"....that's all it took. We brought the house down, even
with a sad arrangement. For me, music and improvisation can mean more
from the heart than from the head.
5. Talk about some projects coming up in your future, ideas and agendas. Also thank you for doing this Doug- it's a total pleasure. I'm a fan and always will be!
DOUG - 5. I have a few things on the horizon that I am excited about. I have a 3 horn band (tenor, trumpet, bari) with Hammond B3, guitar and drums (band members - Bruce Harris, Lauren Sevian, Ray Macchiarola, Bobby Floyd and Dave Gibson). We have a few tunes in the can so far and hopefully we can record the remainder of the album this summer in NYC. I'm hoping to have a winter 2016 release. The other thing I'm really excited about is a new "Doug Lawrence Signature" tenor mouthpiece currently in development. My friend Bob Sheppard has a model out and it has been very successful. The same company who puts his out has approached me to put my model out too. Eric Falcon is the designer and Macsax is the company. Hopefully mine will be as successful as Shep's!
Sal Nistico....Was not only a dear friend but a inspiration to me and a teacher. I met him in the early1970's after he left Woody Herman's band- and was living in our musicians apartments on Hemenway St called " HOLMES HALL"....In Boston, right down the street from Berklee where I was also a student. Sal used to cook for us, we'd session all day, listen to music and talk about life and everything under the sun. I was only 20, just turned 20 too, and Sal was one of my hero's. I met him at " Lennies On The Turnpike"...he was playing with piano genius Jaki Byard in a quartet. That should of been a record. He had a photographic memory, he used to sing parts from the Don Ellis big band book, that he was in when he was in Los Angeles! He also knew so much from a practical point of view. I loved what Sal stood for as an artist- and how he played. During the lessons, he would show me lines, or ideas and not have me write them out, they had to be internalized! He was a great teacher that way, you really worked when you studied with him. I included two lines here- that were some of my favorites from Sal, that are great to apply. Simple progressions- But keeping them in a tempo and swinging is the goal.
NEXT.....Is to understand...these are NOT sight reading. These are harmonic study's that build note choice and swing feel. Shed them starting at 60= a quarter note. Your goal is to get them burning! Anywhere above 120 is perfect. Internalize these...don't just look at them and add them to a hard drive of information you'll forget. Get into them, and go to you tube and LISTEN to everything you can find of Sal Nistico's. There's a lot there, and also on Ebay & Amazon- get into this creative genius playing. He was one of the real ones on the tenor saxophone, and a great friend to me. 
This was the last lesson I had with him in the 1980's before he moved to Europe, and stayed there. It was in Philly, and I set a weekend up with Sal and Don Patterson the organist at a Philly club called the " Kings Rook". Sal made dinner the last day of the gig, we were practicing together, and I was taking a lesson. After the day ended, I went to pay him for the lesson, and he told me.." This one's on the house"...and keep doing what I'm doing and working hard. To get those words from a guy like Sal was beyond anything, it was real. I think about him, his playing and what he stood for as a musician a lot.
I hope these exercises and info get a lot of you interested in Sal. Thank you and I hope this is of assistance to all.
~ Till next week~ Tim Price for D'Addario Woodwinds. 2016.
Peter "Pete" Michael Yellin; July 18, 1941, NYC - d. April 13, 2016, was an American jazz saxophonist, woodwind doubler,
studio musician and educator. He lived most of his life in New York had
moved to the San Francisco Bay area, he had lived there since 2006.
Yellin is the son of a former NBC
studio pianist, and he learned his first musical lessons from his
father. He began playing in the late 1950s after hearing the alto
saxophonist Art Pepper. He turned down an athletic scholarship at the University of Denver and came back home to New York to study at Juilliard under Joseph Allard
(saxophone), Augustine Duques (clarinet) and Harold Bennett (flute).
After graduation from Juilliard he started to work in the New York area.
He went on to earn a Master's degree in saxophone at Brooklyn College.
He founded the jazz program at Long Island University in 1984, he was coordinator for the studio there until the end of the 1990s.
Stroke
In the Spring of 2011, Pete had a major stroke that left him paralyzed on one side and unable to speak due to aphasia. He passed on April 13, 2016 due to complications from the 2011 stroke.
Discography as leader
- Dance of Allegra (Mainstream Records], 1973)
- It's the Right Thing (Mainstream, 1973)
- European Connection: Live! (Jazz4Ever, 1995)
- It's You or No One (Mons Records, 1996)
- Mellow Soul (Metropolitan Records, 1999)[4]
- How Long Has This Been Going On? (Jazzed Media, 2009)
It
seems self-evident that music plays more than just an aesthetic role in
contemporary society. Its social, political and
economical functions have been the subject of much research. The ways in which music engages with
ethics are more relevant than ever, and require sustained attention. Social media is not a gig or experience that bears anything other than what it is! When the computer is turned off- reality should start for any musician worth their salt. INTERESTING-music and ethics, begins from the idea that
music is not only a vehicle to transport ethical ideas, ideas that can
also be articulated verbally or discursively.
Music can teach us to listen carefully and without prejudice. It can
also teach us to cooperate and interact with others outside preconceived
goals and benefits. It can offer insights into expressions of selfhood,
as a key player in the construction of subjectivity. However, on the
other hand, music also plays an important role in the disciplining and
controlling of human beings. In that sense, music has ‘unethical’ sides
as well. 9 times out of 10...a person with an attitude of a hustler or
" enlightened savior" runs a short course in the long term. Absurdities abound in these people and take a second to realize...who is jiving whom!
THE TERM...Intellectual shucking and jiving describes it all. Only thing as a player, that can change YOU as a player is to work, study, and keep working and studying your art. Stay positive and when you can, remember your knowledge is the tool most vital. NEXT- Is your ear. Instead of buying a thousand dollar mouthpiece- Why not buy a thousand dollars worth of recordings of great players and listen. Get an AMAZON ECHO TOO....All I say to my ECHO is ALEXA ...play Eric Dolphy and I've got hours od Eric Dolphy to hear in my home. Like BACH or MONK.
BEING POSITIVE...Put the pedal down and keep stepping!!!
How do you think and feel about the past, the present and the
future? Do you tend to see the good side and the opportunities or
do you tend to focus on the problems and things that might go
wrong? How realistic are you being? All of this matters for how
happy and satisfied we are with our lives. People
who are optimistic tend to be happier, healthier and cope better when
times are tough. So there are a lot of advantages to looking at the
world through a positive lens and focusing on the things that are good.
However, it's possible to be unrealistically optimistic which isn't a
good thing. And it's certainly not helpful to put a positive spin on
everything or pretend that things are fine if they're clearly not
Whether
we are naturally an optimist or more of a pessimist, it's impossible to
know what the future holds. . We can become more
conscious of our own patterns of thought and learn skills to help us be
more flexible in our outlook.
TAKE THE TIME AND LISTEN TO ERIC DOLPHY....
Dolphy's improvisations---on each instrument--are bursting with
creative, far-reaching ideas, expressive wails, and some of the most long term beautiful ideas you'll ever hear! There's no excuse- that will improve your SOUND hearing Eric.
TILL NEXT TIME.....Keep moving forward and....Listen to Eric Dolphy and have fun.
~~ TIM PRICE....Bloggin' For D'Addario Woodwinds.
We are losing the work ethic, and dedication of study- experimentation these days. Entry into the pantheon of
great jazz used to be strictly reserved for those who play "who they are," not
for those who second-guess what they think the audience or their friends on social media want to hear.
The jazz masters all know that individuality can't be mass-produced. ART ! Slominsky and Coltrane still stand tall these days to those who care, and know what they are hearing.Coltrane’s 1961 Impressions album, recorded at the Village Vanguard
in New York City,and the Coltrane record " Ole" took my teenage mind out
in the 60's. Songs like “India” and “Impressions” propelled me into an
out-of-body experience.I listened to the song " Ole" as a teenager in a
different mindset than probably most would once I started to understand
Trane could never get to that place in time, without being a strong
blues player or a serious student of the music. I knew this from hanging
around the older musicians I worked with as a teenager in clubs, and
listening to the radio from Philly.
I had this great music and
immagery around me. What exactly was happening? Why did Trane’s music
have this effect on me? I think the answer lies in his approach to
improvising. When he switched from chordal to modal music, he was
embracing an old world music paradigm that often induces altered states
of consciousness.Modal music takes you on a voyage, and certain scales
affect people in powerful ways.It is often used in sacramental rituals
in traditional world cultures.
Coltrane had read Russian music
lexicographer Nicolas Slonimsky’s exhaustive Thesaurus of Scales and
Melodic Patterns. It contained not only classic Western modes like
diatonic, chromatic, lydian, phrygian and other well-established musical
elements, but also modes from various world music genres: Indian
scales, North African and African styles, Middle Eastern modes, and
more. Coltrane studied these patterns and modes and used them in much
of his exploratory music from 1961-1967, the year of his death. He also
studied Indian modes and scales with Ravi Shankar.( He named his son
Ravi as well, who is also one of my very favorite players )
Yusef
Lateef also explored traditional world music in a similar fashion and
used these idioms in his music. For both musicians, modal improvisation
allowed them to reach a deeper spiritual plane than standard chord
progressions would, the latter which Coltrane had thoroughly covered in
the 1950s on albums like Giant Steps and his work with Miles Davis for
the Prestige sides.
Many cultures outside of Europe see music as
elixir, not just entertainment or even art . Music forms a part of
daily life, devotion, spirit and ritual, not just in clubs or concert
halls. This is where the modal model comes in.
Coltrane was a
seeker who wanted to go deeper in his music. And that is why he is
revered not only as musician but also as a musical healer as well. He
was a true musical sufi who transcended many musical boundaries, and his
music prefigured what we enjoy now in world music. And hearing that
1961 album, Impressions and Ole, changed my life and musical journey.
But
let me say boldly that the Nicolas Slonimsky book is something still
yet to be fully paid attention to in depth. Of course we all know Frank
Zappa gave strong props to Nicolas Slonimsky. But if you really study
the book in the right way-slowly doors open. I've been into it since
buying it in 1970 from the Bumblebee book Store on Hemenway St in
Boston. I have sinse bought another hard cover copy as well, as a travel
copy. My teacher the late Charlie Banacos and I got deep into the book-
and not only did I start to find some great harmonic parts of Coltrane
solos, but also key center shifting or the whole-tone pattern of two
augmented triads
that appears in an earlier position in Coltrane’s improvisation on “One Down, One
Up”.
Plus other nice ideas as - a sesquitone, or minor third, progression
used as melodic vocabulary in a Coltrane improvisation occurs just
before the E major, C major, and Ab major implied major thirds cycle
from the composition “Brasilia”. There are loads more in " Brasilla" and
of course " Saturn" with direct links to Slonimsky.
The entry into the pantheon of
great jazz is strictly reserved for those who play "who they are," not
for those who second-guess what they think the audience wants to hear.
The jazz masters all know that individuality can't be mass-produced. of Scales and Melodic Patterns contains over two hundred
patterns
based on the ditone progression which is the most common link to the
interval of the major third. Listen to " Giant Steps". Coltrane used so
many
ditone progression patterns out of the Thesaurus in his pursuit of cyclical
material.If
you search in the book, Slonimsky labels one particular group of
patterns included in the ditone progression portion of the Thesaurus as
"Miscellaneous Patterns". These sixteen patterns constructed using
dominant seventh chords progressing by the interval of a major third and
are further classified by root position, first inversion, second
inversion, and third inversion.I was playing them for years, and Charlie
Banacos pointed them out to me- and the light went on. It made sense
then!
Then there are the, if you will and I hate to use a term
free but the word free music with Rashid Ali, where you can hear the
cycles going from the book.Those duets recorded with Rashied Ali are
mind blowing, "Mars" was done in 1967 and sounds like it was done
yesterday and contains a cycle following a perfect fourth inversion
then perfect fifth until it is reached again. Once Coltrane finishes one
complete cycle of fourths, he immediately starts and completes eight
more pitches of another cycle of fourths. Right out of Slonimsky! Not
note for note mind you but for sure, the thought intuition. Of course
another great example is John Coltrane using the perfect fourth via the
principal
interval pattern is as the first motive is the composition
"Jupiter", from the Interstellar Space recording again as I mentioned.
NOW-
Here on "Jupiter" what has made it such a tour de' force is that
Coltrane has his be-bop roots right in place,is a melodically stronger
pattern because of the whole and half step approaches to the pitches of
the principal interval. Slonimsky typically uses patterns in the
Thesaurus that outline triads-but Trane had added that to bop approach
notes and took to to the ultimate zenith of it's limit. The first time I
head this it was mind blowing because it was like opera. Between two
eras at once in a split second! Trane has the minor triads outlined in
fourths. By arranging the pattern the way he does, Coltrane is able to
melodically and rhythmically
emphasize the movement by the principal
interval of the fourth with the Slonimsky ideas. Not copying have you
but fuel for the fire! Remember, I bought my book in 1970, it took me
decades of study and asking questions and LISTENING to get to these
places. I'm not done either.
But the other
interesting part is-first of all- they bring you in. It feels so good.
There's a rapture in there. An invitation and a very unique desire to
return. I don't know how many times I listened to those records, let
alone the cut " Ole". Also I should add this, It is true that Slonimsky
does not come right out and say how to specifically apply these concepts
and phrases. Instead, he leaves little clues (many of which are in the
Introduction) to help guide and provide the reader with a few different
options of harmonizations and applications. Quite simply, with the
"Thesaurus," you get what you put into it. If you spend time analyzing,
applying, and considering the things in this book, it will over time
become clear as to what it is all really about.This is NOT a quick fix
book. One of the great things about this book is it inspires an
individualistic approach; you learn to develop your own way of thinking
as you work through it. This makes everyone's appplication of the scales
just a bit different from the next person. Two people might approach
the same pattern in a totally different way, therefore making the
applications constantly evolve and change. Also, if you are thinking
this book will provide a "quick fix" for your playing, or make you sound
like Coltrane, don't bother buying this book either. One should be
aquainted with both classical and jazz harmony before working through
this book. Besides the contents of the book there are a few other nice
things about it. There is an explanation of terms, which is most helpful
as the musician learns Slonimsky's terminology. It is also extremely
well organized which lends itself well to an individual curriculum. For
the musicians that are ready, and are motivated enough to put in the
required time and effort, it will be well worth it, and the musical
rewards will compensate the price of buying the book many times over.
Slonimsky states in the Introduction, "There are 479,001,600 possible
combinations of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale. With rhythmic
variety added to the unbounded universe of melodic patterns, there is no
likelihood that new music will die of interval starvation in the next
1000 years." Good news!
I'm even at a point where I'm feeling ready to do a Slonimsky-Coltrane masterclass in NYC in 2012 in the spring.
I got a few interesting line matrix within chords that work, and some
examples and definitions. I've used some of it myself even with some
open ended bassoon things of mine, it works great if you use the
patterns in the next portion of this analysis of interval cycles based
on the tritone progression that are classified by Slonimsky
as“Symmetric Interpolations”. The tritone progression is the only
interval cycle in the Thesaurus that includes this category. This is
due to the fact that since the tritone interval divides an octave
equally into two parts, an intervallic symmetry can be created ascending
and descending the middle of the octave by 96 strategically inserting
interpolations. This works amazing, due to the octaves on the bassoon,
and you don't have to resolve at all.
Improvising- results could go places like this;
http://www.timpricejazz.com/audio/bassoon1.mp3
If
I really want to go off- I throw on my WHAMMY pedal and add some additional harmony like a 4th down or a 7th up. I wonder what Nicholas
might of thought of that? Hmmm????
On a funny
note- Once Ernie Watts and I were practicing this book in my home at
almost midnight. Ernie got concerned, and said to me, " Does your wife
own a fire arm? "....after the laughter stopped,I assured him it was ok.
She was sleeping and the room was sound proofed. We still laugh about
that. Another story was, I actually met Slonimsky once in Los Angeles. A
friend composer /woodwind player knew him, and took me to meet him. He
was really a very interesting man. I was at a loss for words.
If you
know me, that might behard to believe, but I said to him, Nicolas you
look fantastic. As I was really nervous as I never expected to meet this
man in my life! He smiled and said " I SHOULD- I'M NOT EVEN 100
!"....He was a brilliant hang.
In
any case- this is a path I've been on for decades and also something of
great interest. In closing let me also add,entry into the pantheon of
great jazz is strictly reserved for those who play "who they are," not
for those who second-guess what they think the audience wants to hear.
The jazz masters all know that individuality can't be mass-produced.
Think about it...work hard...practice hard and be who you are.
~ Tim Price
....BUY THIS CD SET...Now. You young saxophonists- this man was one of the most original saxophone players ever. There is just so much to listen to and brilliant intelligence in his playing. These Cookbooks are great, everyone should hear and study them. As well as Eddie Lockjaw Davis playing. There is nothing like it, nothing that swings harder or is more vivid and timeless. GO..to you tube and listen to him- and buy this CD set. It's important and a very vital asset to everything you could hear and also play. DO IT - Tim Price
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