Friday, December 14, 2007

Tony Bennett, "The Music Never Ends"


"He played like an ocean in a storm," says Tony Bennett about Bill Evans in this 2007 retrospective about Tony's career on the PBS TV show, "American Masters, The Music Never Ends." When this show airs on your local PBS station make sure to have your Tivo, DVR, DVD recorder, computer, or VCR in the record mode as you will be treated to segments of Bill and Tony's appearance on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show as well as some notable footage of this country's greatest singing artist.

If you don't have the two Tony Bennett/Bill Evans collaborations you need to get them. The most memorable track to me is Tony singing Bill's "The Two Lonely People." Of all Bill's tunes this one is the perfect torch song with fantastic lyrics that beg to be sung. Also the tune, "The Bad And The Beautiful" makes a rare appearance and is sung very well here by Tony. Both CDs are available from Amazon and the usual sources.

Tony is always gracious and respectful to the Great American Songbook as this show pays homage to all of those who have gone down his path, from Jimmy Durante to the "chairman," Frank Sinatra. The production is directed by Bruce Ricker who at one time, produced the largest catalog of jazz videos available under his Rhapsody Films label. Clint Eastwood acts as sort of an anchor and probably paid the tab for this production. Tony needs no prompting in talking about his career and paying homage to the greats of his art form. In many ways the art of singing great songs is sort of dying and I hope this production will be the spark that prods others to continue along this road less traveled.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Pianist Dave Peck


I first became aware of pianist Dave Peck some 15 years ago. His music making has a magic, understated quality reminiscent of Bill's early playing. That magic has continued to grow over the years and recently I had the privilege to hear him play again. Two cuts from his new CD release, "All of You" and "How Deep Is The Ocean," as well as a short interview with veteran jazz broadcaster Jim Wilke are available from NPR station KPLU in Tacoma WA. Please do you ears the favor of listening to Dave's trio with Jeff Johnson on Bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums. The altered space that Dave plays at the start of "All Of You" as well as the great trades between the pianist and Joe LaBarbera in "How Deep . . ." will be a pleasant experience for your ears and soul. I really look forward to hearing the rest of the CD. I also hope that this trio can have the opportunity to play together as often as possible - they are capable of some very serious music and I welcome it. If you cannot find Dave's recordings in your local music store go to www.davepeckmusic.com. Your ears will thank you.

Also check out KPLU FM jazz streams. Living in an area with no real jazz programming I constantly search the web for high quality streaming jazz. Two stations really stand out as programing quality music and good fidelity,WGBH FM in Boston (where I'm moving to) and KPLU FM in Tacoma WA. WGBO FM in Newark NJ plays some great music but unfortunately the bad quality of their stream makes it unsustainable.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

New Mark Levine Publication


Pianist-educator Mark Levine has written another in his series of great piano publications, "The Drop 2 Book" available from Sher Music Co. www.shermusic.com. Drop 2 is a simple method in which a closed right hand voicing of the chord with the melody note in the top can be opened up for a different sound. The second note of the closed position voicing is dropped an octave. There can also be "drop 3" but drop 2 is the more common choice preferred by pianists and jazz arrangers. The book isspiral bound so it sits flat on your instrument and there is an attached CD with recordings of each example in the book.

"Chording" the melody of a tune, or the improvised melody for the more adventuresome, is a very common tool of the jazz pianist. Pianist George Shearing based his whole style on it. When Bill Evans was age 16 or so he went through a George Shearing period of practicing everything in a single or two handed chordal style. It's a fantastic way to really learn the harmony of a tune and applying it directly to a melody.

Mark starts with a sixth-chord approach on the chord tones and a diminished chord on passing tones. Then he gradually takes the user through "tweaked" versions of the chords to add different colors. Then the major seventh chord approach is explained and applied, giving a more modern like sound. The "tweaked" options become more plentiful and more demands are made upon the user to decide for himself if the resultant color is appropriate for the tune being played. The user may end up with fourth based chord voicing which is another technique, arrived at circuitously here.

To summarize, this book is a lot of fun to go through and can prove to be an invaluable step in developing a style vocabulary for the jazz pianist. Highly recommended.

My response to Jan Stevens plug

Jan,

Thank you for a great write-up of the Letter From Evans free availability on your web site, The Bill Evans Web Pages. It is very well done. The server where the pdf's are located has had a few problems in the past but it seems to have been upgraded recently. I think the download capacity is enough to handle those who want to download the publication.

When I first published LFE I was pigeon-holed by Orrin Keepnews and a couple of others as starting a "fan magazine" - Keepnews has always considered LFE to be only a "fan rag" and nothing more. Of course, I wanted it to be more and to some degree, I was successful in communicating to others my deep respect for Bill, his family, and my commitment to his music. Thank you for continuing to devote your personal time to "keeping the flame alive" with your comprehensive website, the one constant beacon of Bill's effect on you, and giving others the valuable information that we all seek to continue our search for the poetry, the sensitivity, the powerful personal way of swinging that Bill pursued.

We both know how scary it is to let oneself get so inextricably attached to one artist who said so much and continues to reach all sensitive musicians with his many recordings. Bill's magic continues to reveal itself on the umpteenth listening of the standard repertoire of his recorded output such as the all too few LaFaro-Evans-Motian tracks. Each time I listen I hear some new magic in the unique communication and role-playing explorations that Bill and Scotty made on those sides. When listening I might be reminded of a particular musical avenue that the trio took which I want to explore even more deeply. We each try to speak our own mind when we play this fantastic art form called jazz but sometimes Bill's powerful musical statements will consume our ears, hearts and minds, exercising a control on our personal music making. Sometimes that ethereal life-force of Bill's magic can consume us in all of life's roles. Some (perhaps our shrinks and maybe our family) might think this to be a dangerous pursuit. It is, and we both know that occasionally we must stand outside ourselves, examining the effect of this powerful force on our personal lives, in order to swim up to the surface and take a breath of reality, lest the force totally consume us. But, I think this power Bill holds over us has been good - it drove me to produce Letter From Evans and it continues to drive your wonderful web site.

Along this magical Bill Evans "Fun Ride" my wife and I met a couple who were ardent LFE subscribers on a trip to California. I'll call them "John and Marsha" here. John was an amateur pianist and stricken with the "Bill Evans Force." My wife and I were having wine and some snacks at their place on the northern California coast as they put us up for the night. We were talking about Bill, listening to particular tracks and inevitably the tune "My Foolish Heart" came up in our conversation. Recently I was listening to WGBH-FM in Boston on there website - There is a jazz DJ show called Eric in the Evening - Eric played the Bill Evans cut of "Young and Foolish" (with Sam Jones and Philly Jo Jones) which is played the way Bill performed "My Foolish Heart" - an extremely slow ballad where the tempo is so slow that all forward motion seems to be in some alien time zone. The challenge in playing at those slow tempos is to keep the energy happening. Bill was an expert at that - it is a jazz skill challenge that few contemporary players can meet. First John went to his piano and started to play the opening notes. He stopped after about 3 measures and found one of Bill's tracks of this tune on his stereo and played it, of course it silenced us all. After the track finished John whispered something to his wife and left us to be by himself in another part of the house. Marsha later explained to us that John had been fighting the early stages of what might turn out to be Alzheimer's Disease. The music had grabbed hold of John's brain and would not let go. It immersed him in the music so much that he could no longer communicate with the rest of us on this planet and needed to be by himself for a while.

When I see any reference to "My Foolish Heart" I am immediately in church and this tune is a hymn. It may be paradoxical to some jazzers who are used to taking any tune and making it fair game to do it in any way or style. I am sorry but tradition is just too strong for this tune. There will be no no "My Foolish Heart" cha-chas, mambos, meringues, or screaming up tempo shouts. What would Billie Holiday do? It's at the opposite end of the tempo spectrum of say a Charlie Parker version of "Cherokee," or "The Song is You." The only way it can be done is a death-ballad, slower than your heart beat while sleeping, maybe the same tempo if your were in a coma. Like I said before, no one is playing those slow hot wind tempos any more, and that makes it even more important to carry on the tradition, keep the flame burning.

When I was publishing LFE Bill's hold on me was similar to John's predicament. I needed to stop and "come up for air" in order to keep myself sane, personally, and for my family. But I am glad that I did get so personally involved with the "force" and I want to share that experience with others, hence my action of making the publication freely available to all who want it.

Recently I was playing bass with a keyboardist who categorized himself a "jazz musician" and proceeded to play "My Foolish Heart" as an up-tempo vocal. After about 4 measures I just quit playing and let him and the vocalist attempt to finish by themselves. Naturally, the vocalist found it difficult to squeeze all the lyrics into the reduced time and she quit singing after about an 8 measure attempt. Due to my preconceived perception brought on by Bill Evans I could not render, nor contribute to that questionable musical endeavor. The keyboardist called me again but I found an excuse not to work with him again. It was a bad experience I want to forget but it made me realize just how much Bill's take on things affects me.

Thanks again, Jan.