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Identifiable, yes, whatever style he plays in. But I don't see why that should be a negative. Keith Jarrett is also always identifiable whether he is playing straight ahead standards free improvisation or anything else (excepting classical maybe). I think it is a very positive thing that he has a recognisable voice regardless of what style he is playing in.





Check them on youtube before spending your money, you may not like them.

No negative connotations whatsoever. I've got a bunch of Metheny albums and really admire the guy. I guess when I think of creativity though I think of pushing ones own boundaries until those boundaries shift. And those that do it best evolve I suppose, and the worst become stylized. In either case it makes neither a lesser musician.
...But when it comes down to it, really, it's just a problem of mine that I can't seem to want to listen to the same players, no matter how great, for too long in one sitting. I stopped attending live music concerts because it seemed the odds were against me that I'd enjoy sitting there for more than a few tunes. After the awe wore off of hearing the dazzling, flawless, and utterly beautiful music of most groups or individuals I'd tend to get a little restless and hope for something else.
In fact, of well over 200-300 live groups I've seen I can still only recall two vividly that I was totally enamored by. One was Bela Fleck, in particular Victor Wooten on bass, and the other was a solo tamborine player that was visiting my university that taught in Toronto. The guy played for over 30 minutes just on the tamborine and the entire audience was completely captivated. Too bad Youtube didn't exist back then.



I've been on itunes adding to my wish list. Gwilym and Helge are some pretty cool players. I like Kevin HAYS too. When I first searched his name (Hayes) nothing came up except some country singer and a hockey player. But I dutifully watched as much as could of both players because I really trusted your judgement. You really let me down, Beeboss.

But seriously, how did you hear about some of these guys? I'm always amazed at how much talent is out there that I'd most likely never hear about unless I start taking the time to ask others. Itunes is a pretty interesting service too I've just discovered in that it makes recommendations and links to things other have bought that are similar to choices one's made.

Wow, I think you must be going to the wrong concerts;-)
But I suppose I do know some great musicians who never even listen to music. I remember being at a Zawinul master class once and somebody asked Joe which of the newer players he liked and he said that he never listened to new music.




Different places. I came across Helge Lien recently on the internet. Some of the others I have been listening to for decades. I guess when I find someone I like I go on to check out the people that they played with and then the people who played with them, and so it goes on. There is no shortage of great music out there to check out.

Hello Rune E. Nice version of Blue and Green! Yeah keep posting man. And welcome to the fray. Good to see some new blood.

Fortunately, we have records so the short term memory of a live concert can be relived. And I'm realizing now that ears have to grow and that there's always more to discover in the simplest things.

I'm sure we're all in different stages in ear development but having really good teachers has helped me realize things that I've never noticed on my own.

For this reason, I'm never cavalier about some top player's style. Yes, if you listen to McCoy Tyner, he will be recognizable with his quartals, but I'm sure there's something deeper to discover.

---

BTW Beeboss, I've seen Uri Caine live, and he can be totally out there. I suppose just like Pilc. I see your taste runs to the Avante-Gard set. How do you like Kenny Werner? He taps into that realm a lot too though I like him much better than the other two.

Välkommen Rune! Här är ett celebert mix av jazzpianotokar med olika bakgrunder från olika delar av världen - så du kommer att passa bra in.

I like all types of stuff. I used to see Cecil Taylor play quite a lot and that was a big influence, and I still like a lot of free improvisation although I generally find it more engaging to see it live.
Kenny Werner is a great player but I haven't heard that much of his that I thought was really amazing. Probably I just need to check some more of it out.
I saw him play at a workshop once and his skills were awesome.

Hey Rune, what happened to the link? Was it something that Chris said?

Here's a gig recording of Ceora. First try for me and the band. Sax player was nervous about surviving the head. Next is a A-Train with my new singer. She was a big hit. Didn't hurt that she was a hot looking chick.

I thought the Nord Piano sounded really realistic. I used minimal reverb.

Ceora
http://www.box.com/s/b495e60bc8623ccbc477


Take the A-Train
http://www.box.com/s/e0766710ad5094bafa05

Here's another tune. First time I didn't get lost...but so what?

So What
http://www.box.com/s/6c3564a4122296d5b8b9

Over the last month or so, I have committed a little over 50 tunes to memory. I can't imagine the amount of work it would be if I had to also play them in random keys like you are doing.
Sounds nice JW.

But what's happening with the quality, is it recorded on iphone or something? It's like both low signal but clipping at the same time. I could barely hear you at all. That said, that 16th note riff you play on Ceora is well done.

Nice JW! The band is definitely coming together. It sounds like you all gel.

Knotty, unfortunately, the crowd was really loud so there's no way to make a good recording. And the noisy people were really close to us so we couldn't blast them with volume either.

I admit it's tough to be playing new tunes all the time and changing keys. Doesn't bother the bass player though but it's really hard for the pianist to keep changing keys. But it does build up skills and I'm happy to note that the transpose button on my Nord has never been used.

I've played so many tunes now. I'm sure it's in the hundreds and in random keys. I never thought I'd be able to do that. I don't memorize the rare tune but iRealB has really been handy. It's not unusual to get to see the leadsheet 5 seconds before we count it down. Hard to solo well in that case but when playing with a vocalist, I'm just supporting anyway.

But as you can hear from Ceora, at least I'm getting to a certain minimum on a tune I haven't played before or practiced much. Besides, playing less has never been a bad thing, I find. Among us here there has been a higher expectation. Out there in gig-land, it's more of the whole package.

That said, the Sax player was sweating from playing the Ceora head. I just tried to play that head yesterday and the hand contortions with the pinky playing a lot of the melody was tough (16ths and triplet 8ths). Plus a really difficult rhythm. Whew! Good thing I just soloed.

I do have a lot of tunes memorized in standard keys. I didn't try to memorize them but constant playing just keeps it in my head. Often times, iRealB is just there for moral support.

Thanks Chris! We play 3-4 times a month so that helps. I thought my comping was getting better and increasing the swing feel. Don't you think? Just felt like it.

But the jazz journey is very hard so we only make little inroads here and there. Appreciate the kind words.

Yeah, your comping is sounding much better, more fluid.

Had a really fun gig last night. We did a couple of jazzy happy birthdays and let a singer sit in (who was amazingly good and sang Frank Sinatra style-- maybe some unemployed LA actor/singer) -- listen below. A trumpet player sat in too from the audience. So after all that, I find a huge stack of bills in the tip jar with so many $20's!

Anyway, I've never played the tune before so my eyes were just glued to the changes. I couldn't afford to get lost.

The only irritating thing was the guitar player comping over me and rhythmically off.

I've Got You Under My Skin (called by singer from the audience)
http://www.box.com/s/80a6f3ef6aa9677fcbf6

Anyway, a little of this audience catering and we get so popular. This is our second time to play in this venue. The word spread from our first visit and it was really crowded. Small place.

This is one of the times I've recorded on my Steinway. Really hard to get quiet time. I got one shot and no more tries due to noise. Piano needs to be tuned.

I really liked recording on the Steinway. I used a BIAB backing track I made and amplified it in the room and recorded using the Zoom H4. It sounds pretty real. No special microphones. I just put the Zoom H4 on the middle of the music desk and pointed into the strings and that's it.

Comments welcome (always is).

Sugar
http://www.box.com/s/bad1ba7ae8bf58dad04e

Thanks for posting this. Sounds really nice. The piano comes out real clear and sounds great.
I like when you do the 2 handed melody. Watch not to rush it, but it sounds real good.

Thanks Knots. It got me excited about doing recordings on the Steinway. It's hard to get the quiet time to do it though. I have to do it in the middle of the day when the kids are at school.

I just did the unison head right there and I've never played the head before so I didn't have time to practice the fingering for the LH. Next time, I should be able to do a unison all the time. Yeah and I didn't realize I was rushing. Thanks for spotting that.

This is a tempo that is the most difficult for me.

Hey Jazzwee... I think this recording of Sugar is some of your best playing! There's alot of really good lines with nice shaping, stopping points, and resolutions. Still some places that sound a little funny to me... like they either should have gone on or been stopped sooner, but all in all it's nice. And you're getting better at feeling the groove at this tempo I think.

Glad to hear your gigs are going well. My trio is getting stale these days. We haven't been rehearsing much since my bass player moved further away, and I haven't been able to get us a gig yet. But I've been on the hunt pretty consistently. There's just so much competition out there and doing what we do is harder to sell I think.