Jazz's Ancestors and the AFM

This caught my eye right away in the table of contents for the April 2008 International Musician, the monthly newspaper of the music union, the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). Describing a cover story on pianist Joe Sample:

"Joe Sample...always comes back to his roots...his love of jazz's ancestors - soul, gospel and R&B."

Whaa? I must have missed that day in Jazz 101 talking about R&B being an ancestor of jazz. I can't believe no one at the music union caught that.

How much do you charge?

"How much do you charge?" is a hard question to answer sometimes when it comes to music. Most musicians charge different amounts depending on the nature of the event and sometimes how they perceive the hiring person's ability to pay. The object is to not quote too high of a price for fear of being rejected nor too low of a price. Other musicians, mainly less experienced ones, will sometimes even "play for the experience/exposure," a.k.a. free, in a commercial establishment which really messes things up.

I'd someday like to do a survey of jazz musicians and what they charge for different types of events venues. I would want to find out what people would charge for a 3 hour gig in a restaurant vs. a jazz club vs. a wedding reception vs. a concert hall vs. a school vs. a friend's 2nd cousin's graduation party etc. and ask what area of the country the respondents are located in. I wonder if more transparency and uniformity in what musicians charge would help strengthen the jazz working class when it comes time to talk money. What would the "living wage" for a jazz musician be?

Red Garland vs. Wynton Kelly

Here's a quick comparison of the styles of Red Garland vs. Wynton Kelly:

Red Garland	Wynton Kelly
more legato touch	more staccato touch ("pop")
block chords with root-fifth-octave in right hand common	block chords not as common and many times they just have an octave in the right hand
uses more blues devices sometimes repeated over several choruses (see "Soul Junction" for example)	favors b5 more frequently
long phrases a la Bud Powell	uses triad arpeggios frequently sometimes with b5; sometimes with tremolo "fanfare"
eighth notes are a tiny bit straighter than Kelly's	eighth notes have a triplet feel (try playing transcriptions with boogie woogie triplet left hand to get rhythmic feel)
Left hand chords are frequently played on the upbeat of 2 and 4 or with a "Charleston" rhythm	Left hand chords frequently consist only of 3rds and 7ths

Lennie Tristano and White Jazz vs. Black Jazz

Some interesting analysis from pianist Ethan Iverson with a cameo by mega-critic Stanley Crouch on the Tristano school, racism and white jazz vs. black jazz:

http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath
/2008/05/lennie-tristano.html

http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath
/2008/05/a-note-on-trist.html

http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath
/2008/05/warne-marsh-lee.html

How would the Wynton Marsalis school (to pick a lighting rod example!) fit in with a simliar analysis? Iverson's comment about jazz and American slavery being related is powerful as well as disturbing - associating such a beautiful American art form with something so repulsive - and deserves an article of its own. I'd agree that slavery brought the African influence that is a fundamental part of jazz but I wouldn't say that black jazz musicians are only creative because of this and this seems to be implied by these kind of statements. With there being more white jazz musicians than black jazz musicians today (I'd say very unscientifically from observing musicians on gigs and at other concerts a 70/30 split) I'd like to see Iverson and Crouch give their take on racial issues in jazz today.

Corporate gigs

I had a good gig last night for a private corporate event on the Chesapeake Bay in Stevensville, MD. even though no one was listening closely. These "corporate gigs" have a number of pros and cons. On the bad side no one listens very much to the music that you're playing. That's not to say that the people don't listen at all or don't appreciate having music at their event; they do - they're just focused on socializing more. On the plus side these type of gigs frequently offer better working conditions than "club dates" or even wedding gigs. Much better pay (enough to actually support the fortunate musicians who do many of these types of gigs), food is usually included, the venues are frequently nice and the staff that you deal with are usually very professional. I just think it's important to balance these background music gigs with ones where people are actually listening and interested in hearing the type of music that you're playing.

NSO w/John Williams

Here's a photo from the National Symphony Orchestra w/John Williams conducting. This was the finale from E.T. and my favorite piece of the evening.
The first half of the concert was narrated by Martin Scorcese and featured music from films by David Lean (Bridge Over the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia) while the second half was narrated by Steven Spielberg and featured his own films and Williams' music.
The orchestra played well but I thought the second half had more energy than the first.