Saturday nite Debbie Joe and I went to a party that was sort of a Latin American jam session. Enio played bossas (he's Brazillian and does the whole nylon string guitar singing and whistling bit to a tee), a Venezuelan lady sang and played the quatro, and there was Argentinian music as well.

It was so much fun. First of all a lot of times when I am playing in an ensemble I'm self conscious about eye contact, but the fact I couldn't understand the words and didn't know what chord was coming next seemed to obviate that problem, or maybe it was the beer, and then after awhile I began to guess what the lyrics might be about and that was really funny.

Here is "O morro não tem vez" (MP3, PDF page 1, PDF page 2) by Tom Jobim and Vinicius De Moraes. The performance is by Deodato from his 1964 debut solo album "Inutil Passagem", reissued as JSR 8482702 in 1998. Enio scanned the lead sheet from one of his library of Brazillian songbooks. I can almost play it on guitar! and the voicings are very cool.

This is a wonderfully catchy and simple tune that every jazzer should know so they don't have to allatime do the same three bossas.

A GOOD BEBOP TUNE GONE BAD


We performed Hollyween weekend at Goodnite Gracie's here in Ann Arbor and a highlight of the evening for me was ripping through the number Dean refers to as "Chick Corea". I poked around on AllMusic.com and figured out the tune is Chick Corea's "Got a Match?" MP3, PDF. This recording is from 1986 or so and the electric bassist is John Patitucci.

There's actually a lot I don't like about this. It seems sort of gratuitously fast (which may be sour grapes because I can only play this at 180bpm or so and they are up around 300), Corea's synthesizer sound is kind of whiny, the bass sounds like it is sped up because it is so high, and the whole sound is really compressed and processed - synthetic you might say. I guess that is an "elektric" style like a smooth quiet maglev train. I always associate "electric" with hot tube amps, Wurlitzer electric pianos and Fenders.
There's a Blue Note twofer LP called "Chick Corea" that has a 1968 recording of this tune, but I don't know who's on it. It's probably more like real jazz.

The prototype webpage for the Del Kellog Trio with Sylvia Simone is actually online now but I'm already working on a new one because this one is obviously much too silly. When we played Halloween weekend at Goodnite Gracie's we played a tune that Dean identified as "the Chick Corea tune". It is in fact entitled, "Got A Match". Coming soon is Rob's requested LP rip, former Manhattan Transfer vocalist Laurel Masse's album, "Alone Together". Don't say I didn't warn you.

I just found the web page of this distinguished Dutch bassist who generously posts a wonderful compendium of practice tips and exercises for jazz bassists! Check out Henk Haverhoek's webpage. This looks like the real deal to me. I sent him an email with an appropriate mix of fawning and grovelling (take a look at who all he has played with!) and mentioned that I like to practice arco playing with some trombone etudes like this Bach Arioso, this Bordogni/Rochut Vocalise, or the Galliard Bassoon Sonata #6, page 1 and page 2.

One of my main ideas in starting this blog was to post and exchange practice materials, and Henk is way out in front on this.

This posting is a test of file sharing via Easy-Sharing.COM . I uploaded some jazz solo transcriptions which will be accessible for the next month at THIS URL. The file is a 3mb PDF document that I got from a guitar player bulletin board. I just tested downloading it (with the Firefox web browser) and it worked OK; I had to wait about 30 seconds and then it downloaded at around 60kb/sec in a minute or so over a Comcast broadband internet connection. It was pretty gimmick-free. I have encountered a couple of timeouts accessing Easy-Sharing.COM but it works after a retry or two.

Repost: Sarah Vaughan sings Tadd Dameron's "If You Could See Me Now", lyric by Carl Sigman.

Sarah Vaughan sings "If You Could See Me Now", by Tadd Dameron. The trumpet intro is Freddie Webster, the seldom recorded trumpet player cited as a major influence by Miles Davis. I made this vinyl rip from a Canadian LP, Metro M-539, titled "Sarah Vaughan - Tenderly", apparently some kind of re-release of the 1948 Musicraft sessions.

Carl Sigman was a major American lyricist, though his lyrics for "Ebb Tide", "Love Story" and "Pennsylvania 6-5000" are seldom heard.

If You Could See Me Now: MP3, head chart.

If You Could See Me Now you'd know how blue I've been.
One look is all you'd need to see the mood I'm in.
Perhaps then you'd realize I'm still in love with you.

If You Could See Me Now you'd find me being grave
and trying awfully hard to make my tears behave
But that's quite impossible - I'm still in love with you.

You happen my way on some memorable day
and the month will be May for awhile.
I'll try to smile but cannot play the part
without my heart behind the smile.

The way I feel for you I never could disguise.
The look of love is written plainly in your eyes.
I think you'd be mine again If You Could See Me Now.

These lyrics are my transcription. The phrase "the look of love is written plainly in your eyes" is odd, because the song is about how the singer's face looks, not the lover to whom she is singing. For more info on songwriters and lyricists check out the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.