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One of the more difficult heads I learned was Ceora. My sax player cringes when I call the tune. It's really difficult on piano. A lot of it is played with finger 4 and 5 on stretched hands. I'm always afraid I will screw it up on a gig so fortunately, someone else is playing the head.

Yes, something like that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tBJa8Ew6fQ
It sounds good, 2 handed.

Lennie's Pennies is an exercise to mess with your head. The rhythms are moved to weird places in the measure, which makes it really hard to keep your place.

A New Zealand based pianist, Mark Baynes, has posted his experience in doing the Gary Burton improvisation course.
Very interesting:
http://www.jazzpiano.co.nz/2012/09/studying-with-gary-burton/

A big thanks to you Chris and to Mark from NZ for writing up such interesting thoughts from the great Gary Burton.

At the moment, I seem to average 6 bars managing to say something worthwhile. I've been pushing myself to average 8 bars.
You know where Gary advocates making line lengths horn-like/ manageable for a vocalist ?
How long would you consider too long ?

Hey Guys,

I thought I'd share a track from last night, at our somewhat regular spot. Everytime a different band!

https://www.box.com/s/i7b2xx4q2shpj4hgyv4h


Cus,
Are you doing the Burton masterclass ?

Go Sonny and go Knotty !
So you are a regular there on Thursday nights.
I like how you took this one at mid-tempo and I also enjoyed your cool solo and nice comping.
It was great to hear the keys and the talented bassist so clearly.
The slight crackling through my right speaker got progressively louder, and I think your Zoom this time could have been placed closer to the drums, so hard to get it right huh ?
But that's a good combo you've got there imo.

Yes I'm reaping the benefits of the Burton masterclass on you-tube. I've already learnt and applied to improv:
1. The lydian major mode
2. A symmetrical dim scale (half-whole dim)
3. Today I plan to start learning the altered scale.

With regards to the Burton course I will do in April 2013, I realize from Chris' article just how much I don't know, especially
- improv. blues (I like Burton's approach of mixolydian with additional notes)
- comping

Cus,

You're right, this recording is a crying shame. I didn't really pay attention. I forgot my mic clip and we just shove the mic in the bass quaver, which turned out disastrous. Oh well, I'll do better next time.

Nuh, it was only the drums that didn't come out.
The rest was cool.

Very nice Knots! Keep 'em coming. It's interesting to note as well that we all sound a little better each time so perhaps this group is more intense than the average jazz player out there.

I have to say that your Sax guy is really pro and brings the group level really up there. Really nice sounding tone.

I hope you get the confidence to do more piano work (instead of EP). I do some EP just to change, but piano just has more to offer.

My first post in this thread -- boy am I nervous (just kidding).

I thought I'd post this recording from one of my few solo gigs (last night). The gig was somewhat disastrous in that the audience was pretty non-existent, and the ones that were there were non-responsive. But I played better than I have at other solo gigs.

I'm pleased with this tune since I somehow avoided speeding up, and didn't make too many errors. I'd like to improve it by varying the dynamics a bit. The bass line is pretty repetitive and basic (ha ha), but that makes it easier to play the melody above it. I stretched this out more than usual because I was running out of set list.

Afternoon in Paris

Comments welcome.

Al, how come it took you so long to post here? LOL. You expect that we'll beat you up?

That sounds really good Al. When I do solo piano gigs (extremely rarely), I never do walking bass thinking it would be tiring to hear more than once. But this is really nice and energetic.

You're playing is really good. Kudos to you. Solid pulse with that baseline.

You ever try varying with a little modern stride? Bass + chord on the LH but the time is more open? Just curious because that's usually how I do my solo piano. Besides, I can't pull off the WB thing. I don't practice that style much

I hope you post tunes regularly!

Thanks JW .You're right about the EP / piano. I just find it so much easier to play EP. I never play electric at home. In smaller places, the piano works ok, but in somewhat larger places, without monitors, the EP is easier for me to play.

The sax player is really nice. Whatever you say, he'll smile and say "oh yeah". Very relaxed guy. Toured in a big band the last 5 years and then 10 years in cruise ships before that. He just now settled in DC and he'll play any gig.
The bass player is amazing. 24 years old, solos with the bow, double stops, super tone. That kid's just amazing. It's a real treat. Also came back from cruises, settling down in Baltimore for a while. We're all enjoying him while we can. We had a good time. I just sit back and listen. Practically no audience on a debate night.

Very nice Al. That's real professional. What do you have in your solo list?

Thanks.

Yes, I've been adding that in, but mostly on slower tunes. I agree that varying things is a great idea. Another variation that I do is improvising in octaves or double octaves, anything to change it up.

About Walking Bass:

The funny things with the WB here, is that this was one of the first tunes I did when I started doing the WB. So, it is almost entirely outlining the triads. For anyone learning WB, this is probably not a good strategy as it was a hard habit to break.

Plus, with this tune I ended up playing exactly the same notes each time. I could fix that, but I'd rather devote time to other tunes.

Finally, I recently thought it would be a good idea to compose a good bassline (with fingering) to a tune and memorize it. I was surprised to find that it's harder to improvise over that memorized WB than it is to improvise over an improvised bassline. Here's the tune (Au Privave):

https://www.box.com/s/19uwh6aogcbij1n1eh2e

Thanks, Knotty.

Here's my full tunes list (although many need some work):

https://www.box.com/s/gg8i0kc1lax6wcmld1px

And here are the two sets I performed on Friday:

https://www.box.com/s/dbuj01fex32jujsfeiou

Here's a thread about the free Set List app I use.

Al,

That's a nice solo list. A little bit for everyone in there.

It's also hard for me to improvise against a written bass line, and vice versa, improvise a bass line over a written melody. I don't know why but that's true.

Have you watched that? :
[video:youtube]kyRdNAMfYH4[/video]

It's a great vehicle for solo piano.

Al, that was an impressive song list. Do you have pre-done arrangements for each? Or are you at a stage where you just change depending on mood?

I have to say that I haven't been happy playing solo piano because I felt like I was always ignored . When my band plays, the volume alone forces people to pay "some" attention, if not a lot. I've never found a single person watch me intently with solo piano. LOL.

Now I usually have this habit now of setting up early for a gig and I usually have some time when I just sit there and play. I used to play some standards for a bit, but now I found that playing some "free" jazz loosens me up. Like meditation (just for you Knotty...). I copied Kenny Werner in this. He has this advice of "there is no wrong note" and I really took it to heart.

The good news about this approach is I stopped worrying about what tune I'm going to play. I just make it up.

Yes, that's an excellent set of videos (Thanks, Dave), and I've been using some of the advice to make my basslines more interesting. For example, before watching that, I always hit the root of the chord on the downbeat. He showed me that it isn't really that necessary.

A little of both.



Right. That's how it was for my sparsely populated gig the other night. Even the person who left a tip, did so in a distracted way (no eye contact). I like to be playing background music, and one shouldn't base anything on people's comments, but it makes a different if at least one person says something like "Thanks, that sounded great!"

I fixed it to some extent:

https://www.box.com/s/p7qscdixjvxnj5o09uzr

Most of the problem was in the right channel. I eliminated that, copied the left to the right, then offset the tracks slightly to simulate stereo.

Really nice solo, Knotty, by the way. Great lyrical phrases, with nice ideas and plenty of rhythmic diversity.