George Keith

I want to say a few words about my late teacher, George Keith, who passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was a superb theorist and performer (alto sax), and was able to take his influences, such as Bird and Trane, and come up with an original approach, which had it's roots in their playing, but didn't sound like either one of them. Right after I started studying with him, he said I should analyze the music of Bach, and that suggestion was the single most important thing I've ever done, as far as understanding Western music theory. And, although he didn't get into non 12 tunings, he once mentioned the idea of taking the overtones of a chord, and soloing around them...if he had gone just a teensy step further with that idea, he would have entered the world of microtones.
He said many profound things to me over the years, but one of the most important was this: in music, you've always got just as far to go as when you first started (that would apply to any art). And boy, is that true, it keeps one humble to realize that. He had no predjudices towards any style of music, and would talk about music from any style or country or era with equal intelligence. I once saw him play a solo (on Autumn Leaves) at a jam in Denver, and it was a jaw dropper, I'll never forget it. he is, by far, the greatest musician I've encountered in Denver over the years, and if the breaks had happened for him, he would have been a formidable presence on the world scene, I'll miss him greatly, artists like him are rare, indeed...HHH
PS...there should be an obit in the Sunday Denver Post, haven't seen it yet...denverpost.com

Thanks for this, Neil. It's wonderful.

-Carl

At 07:55 AM 1/22/2006, you wrote:
> I want to say a few words about my late teacher, George Keith, who passed
>away a couple of weeks ago. He was a superb theorist and performer (alto
>sax), and was able to take his influences, such as Bird and Trane, and come
>up with an original approach, which had it's roots in their playing, but
>didn't sound like either one of them. Right after I started studying with
>him, he said I should analyze the music of Bach, and that suggestion was the
>single most important thing I've ever done, as far as understanding Western
>music theory. And, although he didn't get into non 12 tunings, he once
>mentioned the idea of taking the overtones of a chord, and soloing around
>them...if he had gone just a teensy step further with that idea, he would
>have entered the world of microtones.
> He said many profound things to me over the years, but one of the most
>important was this: in music, you've always got just as far to go as when
>you first started (that would apply to any art). And boy, is that true, it
>keeps one humble to realize that. He had no predjudices towards any style of
>music, and would talk about music from any style or country or era with
>equal intelligence. I once saw him play a solo (on Autumn Leaves) at a jam
>in Denver, and it was a jaw dropper, I'll never forget it. he is, by far,
>the greatest musician I've encountered in Denver over the years, and if the
>breaks had happened for him, he would have been a formidable presence on the
>world scene, I'll miss him greatly, artists like him are rare, indeed...HHH
>PS...there should be an obit in the Sunday Denver Post, haven't seen it
>yet...denverpost.com

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Neil Haverstick"
<microstick@m...> wrote:
>
Neil

Sorry for your loss.

I tried to play Bach's two and three part inventions
many years ago. I couldn't, but my music teacher (who
also passed on a number of years ago) could read and
play them off the page.

Try Invention XIV if you want.

Stephen

__________________________________________________

> I want to say a few words about my late teacher, George Keith,
who passed
> away a couple of weeks ago. He was a superb theorist and performer
(alto
> sax), and was able to take his influences, such as Bird and Trane,
and come
> up with an original approach, which had it's roots in their
playing, but
> didn't sound like either one of them. Right after I started
studying with
> him, he said I should analyze the music of Bach, and that
suggestion was the
> single most important thing I've ever done, as far as
understanding Western
> music theory.