With the end of the school year upon us, I wanted to take a moment to congratulate all my students on their hard work and determination this year. I'm always surprised by their drive, humility, and capacity for the possible.
Read MoreHi Everyone! WHB has a show coming up at one of our favorite haunts, the Velvet Note in Alpharetta, Saturday, September 14th. Playing this club is always a joy and we hope you can come out to see our LAST performance at this venue for the year (I know, now the pressure's on). Details on the show and tickets can be found below, on the Calendar, on the Velvet Note site, or you can RSVP via Facebook.
A note that this is a more intimate venue and the last two times that we've performed here we've sold out or oversold both sets, so BOOK YOUR TICKETS ASAP.
Featuring: Trey Wright, Keenan Meadows, Dave Worley, & Jared Lanham
So, you're in the south east and you wonder "Is there a free jazz festival anywhere nearby?".... Oh, you mean the Atlanta Jazz Festival, the longest running and largest FREE jazz festival IN THE U.S.!!!! Yup, that's what I thought... Anyway, last weekend's festival was a whole lot of fun. While I was only able to attend the Saturday line up, that included the likes of Esperanza Spalding, Marcus Miller, Christian Scott, Alex Han, and Marcus Strickland. Sunday's line-up, postponed a bit due to weather which is a pretty usual occurrence when it comes to AJF, included Atlanta's own Joe Gransden, Spyro Gyra, Jason Marsalis with Diane Schuur, and Hiromi performing with Stanley Clarke.
The first group I got to see was Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. While Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews is self-admittedly not a jazz musician, his set was enjoyable and one of the cleaner performances of the festival. The band displayed a little bit of everything, sporting some R&B, some funk twists on jazz and rag time, with a little bit of rock thrown in.
I was really looking forward to the next group. From the website, it was some long name of some kind of concept of some band, when all that was necessary were two words: Esperanza Spalding. Having seen her perform at the Schwartz Center at Emory University, I knew I was in for a treat. Her show at Emory included a bunch of phenomenal new music set to be released on her next album coming out some time this year, the band was really tight, and the overall show was just a joy to be a part of. Now, not only was Esperanza performing, but one of my all-time favorite saxophonists just happened to be in the band. I looked at the jumbo-tron and there was Marcus Strickland. How could this get any better? As you can tell, I love Esperanza Spalding's music. And, if you truly love someone you have to be honest with them. So, out of love for her and her music, the performance at AJF 2010 didn't quite live up to the standard she set back in November '09. This band, Revived Alive, was built on the concept of reviving (go figure) different music genres and putting them into a new context. This particular concert was a mixture of jazz, hip-hop, and funk with maybe a hint of electronica thrown in at one point. Let me be clear that I have NO problem with the concept. Hip-hop, jazz, funk, sounds great to me! I think what hurt this performance the most (as I say from my lowly blog) was really the presentation; the band just didn't seem rehearsed, especially the endings and getting into, transitioning from one to another, and then getting out of the solo sections. All the performers are phenomenal musicians, even if you simply look at their professional credentials and solo projects alone. The group on the other hand just didn't seem to mesh. The emcee for the evening, while a great spoken word artist, couldn't quite get through to the audience. I think one of the main issues may not have been due to the group, but the problem lay in the sound. But, more on that in a moment.
The next group, the headliners for the evening, was Marcus Miller's band doing a set of music from the Miles Davis release Tutu. This included one of my all time favorite musicians Christian Scott and a new favorite of mine, Alex Han. These guys played a monster set, great tunes, great show, and great solos.... if you could actually hear them. Now, back to my point about the sound.
I have to say that the sound provided by AJF 2010, at times, was no less than atrocious. I feel one of the main reasons Esperanza Spalding's group didn't quite come through for the audience were the issues they were having with sound. And, that group faired better than Marcus Miller's having only a few feedback issues, a pretty terrible acoustic bass and sax eq, bad solo levels, and a huge delay in fixing some, if any, of these issues. I simply felt bad for Marcus Miller's group. You couldn't hear Alex Han's first solo and it was about 3 minutes long. Eventually you stopped hearing Christian's sound all together. And finally, the sound engineers actually eliminated every channel but one, cycling through each mic to find where the feedback was coming from.
Now before I make every sound engineer's internet-blood boil, let me explain why I needed to write this and why I feel it is so important. The 5 members of the group Kneebody explained that the sound guy is their 6th member; he makes or breaks the show. Unfortunately, it's a fairly inglorious, lackluster position because no one really notices the sound guy/gal unless something's gone wrong. So, I really do feel for the sound engineers during these shows. I can't imagine the difficulty involved in running even one of these groups, let alone all together and one after the other. That being said, I feel that if this is something that isn't remedied in coming festivals this could seriously jeopardize not only patronage and attendance, but artists' willingness to play the festival at all.
Most musicians right now, especially jazz, are finding homes for their music abroad, be it Europe, Japan, what have you. The money's better, the crowds are bigger, the clubs are nicer. If this sort of problem isn't fixed, it won't be difficult for big-name artists like Miller, Spalding, or Scott to look for opportunities elsewhere. Let's work to keep them here, help them share their magnanimous and strikingly individual voices with the (contrary to some opinions - I smell another post) substantial audiences in the states. I, for one, will miss them if they're gone.
Let me know of your experiences at the festival. I'd also be really interested to know what you thought of the line-up.
For those of you that are not familiar with the Atlanta jazz scene, there's a phenomenal trumpeter by the name of Joe Gransden. Among other accolades and professional achievements which are far too many to list here, Joe is a "first call" horn player in Atlanta, glorious singer, and has worked closely with Kenny G, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Barry White, and Clint Eastwood.
The past few months I've found myself in a 'practicing predicament'. In trying to keep with a very unique practice routine, I was in a rut trying to develop different aspects of my improvisational ability. I've always had a problem (and maybe you can relate) of playing lines that a) don't stutter start, b) flow through and anticipate changes, c) phrased like actual jazz lines.
So, jump forward to the Tuesday Night Jam at Twain's lead by Joe and his band, a host of musicians that are as talented as they are kind. It's 1 a.m. and those that chose to hang (mostly musicians my age basking in the aura of the big dogs that just finished their gig) are sharing stories and spirits. Eventually, rather inevitably for a group of musicians, we get on to the issue of practicing. "How do you get the right phrasing?", "How do you get the right language?", "What do you do about practicing improvising?", etc., etc. Joe's big advice, which to some of you may not seem like a revelation, was as follows:
Take a specific player that you like and want to sound like. Then pick an album of theirs. Transcribe every tune and that player's solos on each tune. THEN, use that same album and play along with the band. Joe Gransden commented that it would take 10 times as long to gain proficiency on a tune, chord progression, style, or what have you using a play-a-long. I have to say after some practice with this method I have to agree.
I relate it to tracing. When you're first learning to write or draw, you start out tracing around letters or a picture. You teach your hand how to move to make certain shapes. Musically the same thing happens and it starts with the transcription. Then, when you venture out into improvising yourself, not only is your ear already accustomed to exactly how you should move through the chords, but improvising OVER the other players' solos keeps your ear and therefore your playing closer to the right note choice and phrasing. Just using a play-a-long you're forced to pull sounds/language/phrasing out of thin air. Also by playing along with a recording, in my opinion, you get a better sense of time and feel.
So far, my experience with this method has really helped my playing. For some reason, doing this had a night and day effect on what I was hearing and what was coming out of my horn. Hopefully, this helps all of you out there having this same problem.
Anybody else out there with this issue? If so, how did you solve it?
As you probably already know from reading my bio, I've been playing saxophone since I was six years old. That means I've been through a lot of reeds, mouthpieces, music, horns, and most importantly, teachers. I thought I could provide some tips on how to find a teacher based on what I've learned over the past few years.
First, have a goal in mind of what you want to learn or what you are interested in musically. Then you want to make sure you have the right goal for a teacher. You want to find someone who has your musical interests in mind and the pedagogical skill to meet those interests. Do you want to learn to be the best jazz improviser you can be? Do you want to study classical repertoire? Or, do you just want to start playing an instrument and see where things go? Usually you can find that the best teachers can help no matter what you want to pursue. You don't want to do like I did and basically fall into the nearest studio, go through 2 or 3 teachers over about two and a half years, and finally, after lots of time and money spent, you find the best one in town.
Contact at least a handful of people as possibilities or for a list of references to other teachers, especially people that are NOT in your area. One of the best ways to start your search for the best teacher is to call or e-mail the professors for your instrument at the major colleges in your state, preferably with the best music programs. If you can study with them, great! But, since these are college professors, many times you can expect that they don't accept beginners into their studio, their studio is full, or they charge a high lesson fee. They will however, usually provide you with a great list of references.
After you've contacted all of the colleges with major music programs in your state (this shouldn't take long - usually only 4 or 5 e-mails), you'll see certain names pop up multiple times. Start with these names by doing an internet search, see what they're qualifications are, check out their playing, etc. You should always check the person's musical background no matter what organization they belong too. KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GETTING YOURSELF INTO.
There are some main qualities you want from your private teacher. First and foremost, you want to make sure that they enjoy teaching. There are a good number of musicians that are good players but haven't honed their ability to teach just yet. Secondly, that they teach in a way that you see, hear, and feel results in your playing. Some of the people recommended may be current students or recent graduates. This may seem worrisome when you've just started playing, you don't know who's out there or who to trust. Whether they be an experienced veteran or just starting out, what you're looking for is the same.
Having taught privately while still in school and knowing people that did as well, you'll find people that are great teachers, are great with kids, have a real love for music, and most importantly a love for teaching. However, college students may still be getting a handle on their own teaching style, but are usually more of a bargain, can be more laid back, and are sometimes more flexible with when they teach.
Another good way to gauge the kind of teacher they are and the effort they put into the development of their students is to check out how they communicate with their students. Do they communicate via e-mail, phone, etc.? Do they answer questions on the practice material in between lessons? How do they set goals for your playing? How do they structure lessons and what do they focus on? Do they allow you to record your lessons or have a way of doing that themselves? Do they have a website, even a site with extra practice/helper material?
If you're looking for a teacher for your kid, many times their band director will flat out KNOW who are the best private teachers. Check with the elementary, middle, AND high school directors just like with the college professors. Eventually you'll get names that come up again and again.
Chances are, unless you do your homework and come into contact with the right people at first, you'll probably go through at least one teacher before finding the best one for you. Don't fret though, the more you research and the more people you talk to the easier it will be. And don't forget, most of the time a teacher is just a guide. You'll find the more time you spend working, the better you'll get.
Teachers in the Atlanta and southern Georgia area that I have studied with and would recommend as a good starting point are:
