DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... This Was Fun...

My YouTube algorithm is (predictably) weighted to music, so I get my fair share of, "See what this reaction was to that" prompts. I generally hate them. But, every once in awhile, I find an example that makes me want to think. This is one such example.

"How does a Metal drummer respond to/play to a 50 year-old Jazz/Fusion standard?"
ALERT: (15- minute video.... for all you 'short attention-span' internetters)







I've wasted a ton of time online, since 1996.
The time I spent watching and sharing this video is not part of that number.

lemme know whatcha think.
Let's talk Music.

That was entertaining.

This young man does the same thing but on a piano.

They play him the instrumentals and have him fill in the keyboard.

Pretty cool.

I'm also a big fan of swing piano.





PS, This will most likely be moved to the everything else forum

"PS, This will most likely be moved to the everything else forum"

Thanks for alerting the refs. I posted this in the wrong forum, and spent days wondering why it hadn't picked up ANY traffic. [bangs head repeatedly on desk]

I stopped the vid at 0:55 of a 19:00 minute mini-doc after hearing the words: "Join us- as we dig into the genius of Art Blakey. "
I'll come back to the vid, and respond again to your post with other observations. But, for a minute, I hope you (and the rest of The Pound) allow me to drop down a memory hole.

1981-2.

Lima Symph rehearsal is done. I cruise over to By's crib on Haller St.
Beers, Blunts. The usual, for that time: spin vinyl, talk s# about the work day... and then he says: "Hey- Art Blakey is playing in Dayton next month."

We clocked the date. ROOOOAD TRIIIIIP!!!

Night of the gig: Gilly's Jazz Bar in Dayton.

Art Blakey takes the stage with young bloods the same age as myself & Byron. They are all dressed in tailored suits- in the Jazz Tradition. Art rolls up behind his kit- in a B&W horizonal tight-fitting tee shirt, beneath a worn-out-looking set of bib coveralls. Dude was in his 60's- and was cut/ripped. The band torched the house to ash.

Band took a break.
Byron & I bought drinks for the trumpet and sax players in the Jazz Messengers Band. Those 2 guys:
Wynton and Branford Marsalis. During the only year they shared under Mr. Blakey's band name/umbrella.

Yup.
Byron & I were part of the moment when Jazz lightning was caught in a bottle.


Thanks for allowing me this memory lane moment.
I'll now go back- and watch the rest of your vid.


best,
clemdawg.

Me, too.
If we did it, we'd probably book 4-5 nights in NYC, and hit them all. Wouldn't have mattered who was playing that week- there would have been great music at each of them.

Birdland
The 5-Spot Café
Minton's
Beehive Lounge
Village Vanguard

I'd pack 2-3 suits to wear, along with casual 'walkin' around gear' for daytime. I'd order top-shelf Bourbon at each place. Neat.
I'd sip, stare vacantly at some point in the room... and just let the genius wash over me.

Time: 1949-1960
Place: Manhattan Island, USA.


Let's get that Flux Capacitor online, bro!

This kid was inspiring to watch.

His chord structures are deeply Jazz, but he picked up on Elton's structure almost immediately. He knew he was listening to a 1-6-4-5 twelve-bar progression, but he added all these chord substitutions and extensions... probably because he found Elton's root chord progressions kinda boring.

The only thing I think he missed was Elton's initial premise. He's a guy in the mid-'70's, penning a contemporary hit that pays tribute to the 1950's. The root-position chords were actually the point.

No doubt, this kid has prodigious chops. I look forward to hear what he can do in another 5 years.

Thanks for sharing this, Deezl!

All of those mistakes I made when I was younger .......

If I could time travel .......





I could make entirely different ones .... lol

I like watching those reaction vids, even if I think some are fake, or at least staged. I am talking the ones where it is just a person or two hearing a song for the "first time" then they play Blue Suede Shoes by Elvis or some other song that nearly anybody over the age or 12 has heard.

I get some maybe not ever hearing a jazz standard as in this vid. Jazz is somewhat of a take it or leave it genre. But, as a pro drummer who knows how to listen to and read drum patterns, you'd think it wouldn't be totally foreign.

Dawg- you just brought out the teacher in me. Apologies, up-front- because this is an aspect central to my job, my avocation- and My Life. I need to take a moment here. I hope you'll enjoy what I'm about to say.


Jazz isn't "Take it or leave it."
It's a form of music that requires the same level of commitment on the part of the listeners as it requires from the performers who deliver.

In the 50 years I've been doing this thing, I've learned that people experience music in one of two different ways:

1. They consume music as an adjunct to their daily lives.
2. They listento music.

Jazz, Classical (and other music forms) provide the dividing line between the two camps.


Hearing is part of our Autonomic Nervous System. Our ears work on the same level as our eyes, heart, bowl activity, etc. They work 'round the clock. Our ears at at work no matter what we're doing, and they do it 24/7. It's part of the evolutionary process that brought us to where we are as a species. While we are living our lives, hearing helps us to get through the day, just like a beating heart, or the ability of eyesight.

Listening is a conscious act of discipline and intellectual rigor. It requires the individual to suppress the other involuntary inputs, to allow the ears free reign to the brain. It's why they darken concert halls, and place the performers in the brightest-lit space in the room: it focuses the actual point of being there. It's why "Deep Listeners" engage with their eyes closed: they've learned that

Jazz has evolved into an artform every bit as sophisticated as the stuff I play, so I understand that can be off-putting to those who are unfamiliar with it.
And that's where the 'discipline and intellectual rigor' kicks in... the discipline it takes to learn a new language, and the curiosity to fuel that commitment.

Jazz isn't 'take it or leave it.'
Jazz is a 'learn our language-or don't.'

__________________

Here's a link to my first steps into Jazz. I was 16, 100% into the sounds of my youth. Family get-together. We're visiting at Uncle Don/Aunt Helen's house. I'm the eldest of all the cousins. Little kids are doing little kids#, and I'm starting to gravitate to the adult's forum. They talk 'adult stuff,' but I keep quiet. Uncle Don loved to spin vinyl while the adults 'fixed the world.' I sit in the corner, and just listen. After awhile, the music moved from the background to the foreground... and I was totally into Uncle D's 2-record soundtrack.

Check it out.
It's part Soul, it's part R&B, it's part pop... but the spinal cord is straight-up Jazz:

1. Make a statement
2. Have a conversation about that statement
3. Return to that statement/out.

You might have a good time with this.
(Suggestion: have a sip or two of Bourbon, just to set the mood... and commit to taking your time... ~45 min.)


The Crusaders/Southern Comfort (double disk set)

Cheers!
clem