Re: watered down blues etc...

> Subject: yo Seth
>
> Thanks for the clarification of your blues comments..makes a lot of
> sense. At this time, I have a student (about 24) with a lot of talent,
> but he doesn't like blues, based on the noodly jam sessions he's gone
> to, and the blandness of Kenny Wayne Shepherd. There's a bit of humor
> here, as he's never even heard any of the greats, Howlin Wolf, etc, so
> I'm going to see if he can be swayed in his rather limited opinion of
> this marvelous art form.

I was part of that thread too and could have just as well made the
misinterpreted 'watered down' remark. Its true that not ALL blues
need be variable form, but the 12-bar I-IV-V canon played badly is,
unfortunately, all too common.

I brought some charts to a jazz performance last week; Good Morning
School Girl based on Sonny Boy Williamsons recording (which Johny Winter
was actually quite faithful to), and Big Mama Thorntons 13-bar form of
'You Aint Nothin but a Hounddog'. (I won't say that every chorus is 13
bars in her recording, but theres quite a few that are).

We managed to make these interesting and unique tunes sound like bar
band blues numbers, 'Rock Rewls!'. For worse, or better, 'Hounddog'
(instrumental) got the best ovation of the night (and some of the
other 'standards' we played were pretty hot and over funk grooves rather
than just swing).

> BTW, guitar fans should check out Metheny's new Live Trio album...I
> heard one disc, and was mighty impressed at the creativity, the chops,
> and the wide stylistic range.

I attended a performance on the tour and bought the double CD. Great
show and the recording captures a lot of it. That Frippish number was
played about 3/4 of the way through the show and chased a few of the
patrons out. To bring this back to microtonality, he played a
fretless classical (was it also with doubled courses) on a number,
and for some reason, his guitar synth playing sounds especially 'in
the cracks'.

I don't think jazz is dead, even when I'm surrounded at sessions
by 'bebop nazis' (though I find that depressing... 'whats WRONG with me').
Perhaps there is no single 'movement' now, but that
just means that jazz has become post-modernist like everything else.
But there is still gobs of creative and different threads happenning.
Steve Coleman for one is making new jazz that is also rooted
in current black US culture. [Not that that is necessary, but a lot of
good and not so good jazz being done these days has many more
'non-black US' practitioners and influences. I have a feeling of
mistrust when I feel like an art form is aboandoned by its creators].
To bring this on topic, he is also beginning to get interested in all
sorts of 'musical numerology' which lead at times into tuning theory.
Theres also a whole movement of 'fusion' with Eastern European and
Balkan influences (Paradox Trio, Tiny Bell Trio).

Mr Beardsley seems to be in the heart of it and
I can understand the resentment that many in the 'living breathing
jazz community' are feeling at this 'jazzumentary'.

Bob Valentine