Keith Jarrett

Not sure whether I've posted about this cat before, but I'll do it now anyway in a quick post. Was just looking through my YouTube "Recommended for You" section, and found this gem from Keith Jarrett which blew me away. I saw in the description that it was from his album Still Live, so I hooked it up on Spotify and found the whole album.

And I'm totally in awe of this trio. It's so tight from start to finish.

The track I want to highlight is the one from the video, You And The Night And The Music / Extension / Intro / Someday My Prince Will Come. You'll have to get to 12 minutes in to find the part I'm talking about, which is Someday My Prince Will Come. This is one of my all-time favourite standards, and this version is a little bit more up-beat than I'm used to, but it's nails.

Seriously check it out. I'll try to do more of these smaller posts just with a track or 2 on them, because I try to save them up then forget about all of the best ones.

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Summer-er

I have some fantastic gems to share with you that I've found over the past months which I've neglected to post! Not a great deal is happening with my playing at the minute, the Summer has taken it's toll! Just practising the same exercises again and again, just keeping my lip in shape and trying to fix some long-term problems.

First things first, here's a YouTube video which I found while looking for covers to the Gnarls Barkley song "Crazy". I loved this cover so much, I just had to find out more about the artist, Katie Noonan. She's an Australian jazz singer who studied opera and classical-style singing along with jazz at the Queensland Conservatorium. After listening to her cover of Crazy, I listened to her album "Skin" which is a fantastic collection of original jazz tunes. She has also recorded an album or her own interpretation of Lennon & McCartney songs called "Blackbird: The Music Of Lennon And McCartney". She's definitely an artist to keep an eye on!

This is, however, my favourite cover of Crazy -> YouTube.

I found a fantastic cover by Flora Purim of Jaco Pastorius' Las Olas Farewell. It's hard to find recordings of this tune, as Jaco never recorded it himself, except on some of the New York sessions disks, which were illegally distrubuted. Jaco himself plays on this cover, and the lyrics really add to the song from Flora.

There's a great recording of West Side Story arranged by a pianist called Dave Grusin, which I heard years ago but I can't find a recording of it online, only to buy on Amazon. But he does have another album with the famous GRP All-Star Big-Band called Dave Grusin Presents GRP All-Star Big Band Live!, with some great covers of tunes like Manteca, Singx3, and Cherokee. The GRP has had some fantastic musicians over the years, and there are some great YouTube videos of them. My favourite has to be the trumpet feature they did on the tune Cherokee, check it out on YouTube!

My brother sent me a link to a fantastic album on Spotify by Banda Paralela called "Banda Paralela In Box" with some great covers in a Ska style.

The Summer just makes me want to listen to Chuck Mangione, and I just find myself listening to this tune more and more -> Feels So Good. You can find more versions on YouTube, like the live version and the version with his dad singing vocals.

I can't think of any more at the minute, I'm sorry I can't say more about what I'm doing at the minute! I'm genuinely just enjoying the Summer and chilling out, last term at college was drawn-out and stressful!

Hope you're all staying classy!

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Summer!

It's been a while, I know. Hope you're all staying classy!

Since Easter, Jazzbone has been a busy bunny, some great gigs were coming my way! I'll fill you in on what I've been up to since then.

The first thing I did when I got back was straight into rehearsals for lots of different things. Jazz collective was on the cards again, which I was very pleased about. We played 2 concerts with the jazz collective, one in college and one in the Art Theatre, New Mills. The concert in college consisted of the jazz collective with guest Jack Davies. It was at this concert we played Gil Evans' Concerto de Aranjuez with the extended jazz group. We had french horns, flutes, cor anglais, loads of crazy stuff going on! Again I was sitting top trombone for the gigs, and I absolutely loved it. We played some roastin' tunes like Home Basie, Manteca, One O'Clock Jump, Elektric City and some other great funky tunes. I played a solo this time as well, which I was very privilaged to do! I played the Tommy Dorsey standard Getting Sentimental Over You, which when placed in the 2nd half of a programme, can be quite a tiring piece to play.

Altogether, jazz at the RNCM is fantastic. I'm focusing more on my classical playing at the minute, but in a few months time once I've fixed a few things in my technique, I'm back on the jazz again! I have been getting some improvisation done since Easter as well, which is always terrifying. We had to perform improvisations in our musicianship exams, and we chose to play the Welsh folk tune O Waly, Waly. The group was slightly unorthodox, with 3 trombones and a piano. Trying to keep a piece exciting with improvisation going on and 3 other people not just sitting about was quite a challenge, but we nailed it! We reckon we got a pretty sweet mark for it anyway. I also got to do some improv solos in jazz collective, which I was forced to do, but I gave them a shot anyway. My Aebersold and Jiggs book are getting a bit dusty...

Since Easter I've played with 2 university symphony orchestras, which was really good experience for me. The first was Manchester University Choral and Orchestral Society playing in a church in Didsbury. The repertoire was fantastic, with pieces like Rhapsody in Blue, Pomp and Circumstance and other popular 'classics'. The soloist for the Gershwin was just amazing, no idea what he's doing at university, he should be at conservatoire!

The other orchestra was Newcastle University Symphony Orchestra and Student Orchestra. My brother Matt went to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne for university and became really involved in the music department there, and despite having graduated a few years ago, he's still conducting and playing percussion there. The Saturday night concert was fantastic; the concert's theme was Nationality, and we played pieces like Finlandia, Ma Vlast, Walton's Johannesburg Overtune and my favourite, Brahms' 2nd Symphony. The Brahms was nuts, I was on 1st trombone and reading alto clef is not quite natural yet. There are some beautiful trombone parts in the symphony, and the last movement just has a glorious ending, with an exposed trombone chord just a few bars before the end.

The Sunday night concert was my 2nd performance of Karl Jenkin's The Armed Man, this time on first trombone! It was an excellent concert.

I've done a few other bits and pieces since then, like today I played in the Manchester Day Parade with a samba band which was great fun! We played with them in the Preston Caribbean Festival a few weeks ago, and it's totally different to what we classical musicians are used to!

The last notable gig I did was at the Ulverston International Music Festival last week. In college at the minute there are recitals and various competitions going on, so some of the trombone players despite having finished their exams are still very busy, so this gave me a great opportunity. A 4th year trombone player was needed for an ensemble, so he asked me to dep for him in a big-band gig. This was a big-band called The Sky Project, which is a local big-band playing local music. The band was formed by some friends who wanted to promote local music by artists like Mike Walker, or artists who play with the band like Moss Freed, Alice Zawadzki or Joe McCallum. The gig was fantastic, great atmosphere, and the music was just so well written, hopefully I'll get to play with them again. The band is fronted by Alice Zawadzki, a former violin student at the RNCM, who is also a fantastic jazz singer.

I think that's a pretty in-depth analysis of my Summer term at the RNCM. I go home next Tuesday to Belfast, so when I get back I'll write up some of my awesome finds !

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Easter!

Hey there! I know it's been a while, and I won't lie, I haven't been 'busy'! I've just gotten back to Manchester after 3 weeks home in Belfast for the Easter holidays, and I'm finally getting some time to sit and tell you cats a bit about what I've been up to.

This Easter wasn't really busy, but because I'd been away from home for so long, I spent quite a lot of time with my friends back home, catching up, and generally just having an awesome, relaxing holiday. The week before the Easter holidays, I was back in Belfast just for the day to help out with my old school's Spring Concert, which I was more than happy to do! I paid for my own flights and everything. The main highlight of the concert was the Karl Jenkin's The Armed Man (A Mass For Peace), which if you haven't heard it before, is an absolutely breath-taking piece of music. It took up the entire second half of the concert, the first half just being the school groups. Released a day before the 9/11 attacks, the mass is based around world peace and the effects of war. It was dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo crisis. I came back home and played alongside a very special school orchestra, consisting of the top players in the school, instrumental tutors, invited guests, and past pupils such as myself. I sat second trombone this night, inbetween the former music teacher at our school on first trombone and my old teacher on bass trombone, which is quite a stressful place to be!

I eventually got roped into playing with the trombones in the whole concert. It brought back a lot of good memories, as I absolutely loved the music groups in school, and I still really miss them. I even got to play an improv solo in the big-band during Ghostbusters, an old favourite of mine! All in all, it was an amazing night, and I just wish it could've been my final year concert!

I did play in a solo concert at my church the last week I was home, as a favour to my cousin who is the bandmaster at our church. I attend a Salvation Army church both here in Manchester and back home in Belfast, and music is central to worship. I didn't just want to come back and play technical music or anything complex; I just played some famous hymns and melodies. I started off the program with Henry Mancini's "Moon River", which is one of my favourite tunes of all time. The arrangement was originally for Tuba, but it was soo good I just had to transpose it up the octave and play it! After that I played a selection of hymn tunes, such as The Londonderry Air, O Waley Waley, The Old Rugged Cross and Ray Bowes' Jesus Loves Me, all Salvation Army-published solos. I finished off with an old favourite of mine, Gershwin's Summertime. Back home I don't have my own instrument, and I'm playing on a very different trombone, but I tried my best! I have recordings of the concert, but I'm going save myself the embaressment by not posting them up. Well, I might post up 1 or 2. It was great experience, being in that environment.

I also picked up an alto trombone, but instead of buying one I was given one by a guy from church, which saved me £150! I was soo pleased when I got it, I just walked about the house all day playing it! I'll post a video up sometime soon with me playing it (badly).

Aside from that, I didn't really do any playing over Easter, just a bit of practise!

I'm back at college now, and I'm finally back in Jazz Collective! Unfortunately because of the flights and stuff, I wasn't there for the first rehearsal. We're playing some fantastic charts this time, including Gil Evan's and Miles Davis' arrangement of Concierto Di Aranjuez, from their Sketches Of Spain album. So I'll keep you posted on that.

I don't really have a lot of new nuggets for you to listen to, I've really just been listening to some old favourites. But here is one of my favourite albums of the moment -> Weather Report – Night Passage. I'm going through a bit of a Weather Report phase again, and it's AWESOME. It may not be your cup of tea, but I find the opening track just so driving and energetic, I can't help but smile!

I've just got one track for you here, by someone I need to do a bit more research on, but I was on YouTube today and I found a pure AMAZING track from Billy Cobham, one of the greatest fusion drummers ever. Check out this track on Spotify -> Billy Cobham – Red Baron

Here is the video I watched -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN9Vaml0dZE

I'll try to keep the posts a bit more frequent, I've been quite bad since Christmas...

Anyway.

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Update ^_^

I'm very sorry that it's been so long since any substantial update to the blog, it's been a fairly busy time for me, and I'm not quite done yet. So I'll just tell you what I've been up to recently.

Last weekend, I played with a 1st section band called Hebden Bridge in the Yorkshire Area Brass Band Championships, which was my first contest. It was a great weekend, and the band managed to get 2nd place, which means they qualify for the national competition later in the year! Even better than that, because of the results, the band is going to become a championship section band starting in 2011. I wish I could join the band as a full member, but unfortunately it's too much time out of my schedule and I can't commit. I do little enough practise as it is without losing another 2 nights...

Last week, I performed in a production of Sweeney Todd at King David High School, in Crumpsall, Manchester. It was a fantastic experience, if not slightly nerve-racking. Considering it was a school production, it was great, but on the 3 nights of the performance the actors on stage were... nervous. Cues missed out, lines missing, it was a nightmare for the orchestra at some points, but we pulled through. And both myself and the rest of the trombone section tanked it where needed. Which was pretty awesome.

I have decided that with these earnings, I am going to buy an alto trombone which will be very exciting. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of alto trombone stuff on YouTube or Spotify, but there is just one clip I want to show you... -> Alto trombone.

I haven't discovered any real gems recently, I've just been listening to the same old stuff. I do have one link for you, which you may or may not appreciate. I'm a bit of a nerd, and I have spent too much time over my teenage years playing in a darkened room playing Call of Duty 2 online, or Counter-Strike, or even World of Warcraft. I still do play a bit of WoW, but I haven't been able to since coming to uni :(

If you have ever played the game Eve-Online, you'll know that it has a fantastic soundtrack. The composer, RealX, is a cult hero in the Eve world, and he has produced some amazing stuff. Recently, I have been listening to his Live Set from 2006, from FanFest 06. I just leave it on in the background, and it just makes the time pass a lot quicker!

Anyways, I shall leave you to it. I will make an uber blog post during Easter, as I'm sure there are some golden nuggets of music I can talk about.

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Blitz Brass

'Blitz Brass' (name not final yet) is a chamber brass 10-piece ensemble, comprising of all first year students (including myself) at the RNCM. We started up the group in September in order to give a fellow student a chance to conduct a group, as there are no opportunities for conducting in 1st year. We recently did a recording at the local university-run recording studio here in Manchester, and I have one of the tracks for you to listen to. This was our first real engagement as an ensemble, and we've learnt a lot from it. Here is 'The Londonderry Air', with myself as the soloist.

Download Blitz Brass - The Londonderry Air

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Last Flight Essence

I came across a very, very interesting album today. I am a HUGE Jaco P fan, as most of you who know me will have found out fairly quickly, if you discuss music taste with me. I was on Amazon, just looking through some Jaco albums for a bargain, and I came across one that I'd never heard before. This album, Last Flight Essence, was right at the end of the search, and I'm surprised I haven't heard it before.

You can download it here, I'm not so sure how legal it is, but hey... -> Download

The album consists of 3 quite long tracks, and if you've got a short attention span, I advise against listening to this. It appears to just be a 1-off jam between a few friends around the mid 1980s, who just wanted to lay down a few tracks. Listening through the entire album non-stop today, I found it absolutely breath-taking. You can tell it's Jaco playing fairly quickly, as he lays down some well known funky grooves, from Reza to an extract of Three Views, which Jaco fans will know inside-out. I seriously recommend just having a listen, and getting lost in it. Put the biggest pair of headphones you have on, and just lie-down and listen to this. If it's too heavy, go and buy (or listen to it on Spotify here, but the idiots who put the Jaco tracks have gotten some of them mixed up with the recordings from the Birthday Concert...) 'Word of Mouth' by Jaco, and give it a try.

Right, that's enough brown-nosing of my hero.

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone