Show Announcement - Last Chance at the Velvet Note

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Hi Everyone! WHB has a show coming up at one of our favorite haunts, the Velvet Note in Alpharetta, Saturday, September 14th.  Playing this club is always a joy and we hope you can come out to see our LAST performance at this venue for the year (I know, now the pressure's on).  Details on the show and tickets can be found below, on the Calendar, on the Velvet Note site, or you can RSVP via Facebook.

A note that this is a more intimate venue and the last two times that we've performed here we've sold out or oversold both sets, so BOOK YOUR TICKETS ASAP.

  • WHB @ the Velvet Note 4075 Old Milton Pkwy, Alpharetta, GA 30005
  • Saturday, September 14th
  • 7:30 & 9:30
  • $20 Cover
  • All Ages
  • Click for Tickets

Featuring: Trey Wright, Keenan Meadows, Dave Worley, & Jared Lanham

New York Pt. 1

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For those of you that didn't know, I took a trip to New York for 5 days last week.  While I'll go in depth as to the why's, who's, and how's in later posts, I wanted to quickly share one of my experiences that I had and won't forget.  Before going out, I contacted as many friends and colleagues as I could.  One of those is a great friend and guitarist with whom I did my undergrad.  One of the things that makes this so memorable for me is that it was fairly unexpected.  He called me up to say "Hey, some friends and I are going to see Bobby McFerrin in Central Park for FREE." Shwhat!?...  I replied, "Awesome, see you there," and got ready to meet him.  A little admission here: I have never liked Bobby McFerrin.  Gasp! I know, right.  How dare I?  A jazz musician NOT enjoy the work of another jazz musician?  A response to that question will be handled in a later post.  But, I figured it would be a great way to hang out and see some good music (I said I didn't like, not that he wasn't good). The event series is called the Summer Stage.  It presents free music on a first-come-first-serve basis in the middle of Central Park.  There's beer, wine, over-priced food, tourists, New York hipsters, what's not to love?  ONE catch: in order to get in, we got there about 2 and a half hours early, but we had our choice of seats and got to watch some Central Park LARPERS in the process.  Music started and I was really enjoying the concert, the company, and the overall hang.  Then, this happened:

This is a duet between Bobby and his daughter Madison titled "Mere Words", written by Bobby, and originally from his album Bang! Zoom (which I now own).  It was one of those moments in music where your brain just stops.  Everything stops.  All the people around me faded away, I forgot that my butt hurt so bad from sitting on metal bleachers; it was transcendent.

I have to say that I'm now a huge Bobby McFerrin fan and this will become a treasured memory of this trip.

GMEA All-State Auditions 2012-2013

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Here are links to the GMEA website resources for All-State Band audition material for Middle and High schools.  Chromatic scale ranges (required for all instruments) can be found by following the link to your age group and looking at the chart provided by GMEA.

There are 3 things on this and almost every audition, 1) Scales, 2) Etudes (aka prepared piece), 3) Sight reading.  Scales and Etudes are listed below by grade then instrument.

All-State Middle School Band - 6th through 8th Grades:
All-State Concert Band - 9th & 10th Grades:
All-State Symphonic Band - 11th & 12th Grades:
All-State Jazz Band - 9th-12th Grades:

Mozel tov, It's An Aulochrome!

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Not sure if anyone's seen this, but it's kind of like the Siamese twins of saxophone:

It's called the Aulochrome, and it's the newest edition to the saxophone family.  From what I can hear and tell from the videos I've seen, it's 2 Soprano saxes fused together with a single line of alternate key work allowing each hand to play different notes at the same time between the two horns.  Not only is the body 2 in 1, but the mouthpiece(s) follows suit.  These two fused mouthpieces each have a dedicated reed and share one "double ligature" designed by Francois Louis that wraps around both mouthpieces.  From what Joe says in the video, you can achieve any interval between the two Sopranos depending on the fingerings you use.  Originally conceived for a classical piece premiered by Fabrizio Cassol, Joe is the first to record a jazz record using this horn.

The way the intervals work is each "key" is actually split into two halves.  Top half of the key corresponds to the left horn, bottom half to the right.  Fingering a low D in unison would be the normal fingering on saxophone with both halves covered.  Now, by releasing the bottom half of the D key, the left horn plays a D while the right horn plays an E or an interval of a Major 2nd (whole step).  Each horn has a dedicated octave key as well so you can make either one of these notes jump to the next octave forming a dominant 7th (E1-D2) or major 9th (D1-E2).  The third video of Lovano's custom case gives you a better look at the mechanics of the horn.

Cool concept and I think you'll dig the videos, but I do have one critique to make.  Have the people involved in this not heard of a chorus pedal and a harmonizer with a detune function?  I mean no offense to anyone that was a part of this project and I do understand that working with a harmonizer still wouldn't let you truly improvise with harmony, BUT, it seems like we're exacerbating the acoustic realm and ignoring the realm of electronics that already achieves the same sounds that Lovano is getting on the Aulochrome.  I know I'm a gear head, and you guys can probably tell my love of effects, but after listening to the videos all I can think of is going onto GuitarCenter.com, purchasing a chorus pedal, and having it sent to Lovano with a gift receipt :-)  That being said, this would be an incredible horn to actually play.  The possibilities are incredible, especially with a level of proficiency; Saxophonists could finally play as part of the rhythm section.  All in all, very cool, fairly new saxophone toy that we can all drool over.  Mozel tov Saxes!!

Link from the Francois Louis site for Aulochrome.com

Videos

Atlanta Jazz Fest 2010

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So, you're in the south east and you wonder "Is there a free jazz festival anywhere nearby?".... Oh, you mean the Atlanta Jazz Festival, the longest running and largest FREE jazz festival IN THE U.S.!!!!  Yup, that's what I thought... Anyway, last weekend's festival was a whole lot of fun.  While I was only able to attend the Saturday line up, that included the likes of Esperanza Spalding, Marcus Miller, Christian Scott, Alex Han, and Marcus Strickland.  Sunday's line-up, postponed a bit due to weather which is a pretty usual occurrence when it comes to AJF, included Atlanta's own Joe Gransden, Spyro Gyra, Jason Marsalis with Diane Schuur, and Hiromi performing with Stanley Clarke.

Trombone Shorty

The first group I got to see was Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.  While Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews is self-admittedly not a jazz musician, his set was enjoyable and one of the cleaner performances of the festival.  The band displayed a little bit of everything, sporting some R&B, some funk twists on jazz and rag time, with a little bit of rock thrown in.

Esperanza Spalding & Marcus Strickland

I was really looking forward to the next group.  From the website, it was some long name of some kind of concept of some band, when all that was necessary were two words: Esperanza Spalding.  Having seen her perform at the Schwartz Center at Emory University, I knew I was in for a treat.  Her show at Emory included a bunch of phenomenal new music set to be released on her next album coming out some time this year, the band was really tight, and the overall show was just a joy to be a part of.  Now, not only was Esperanza performing, but one of my all-time favorite saxophonists just happened to be in the band.  I looked at the jumbo-tron and there was Marcus Strickland.  How could this get any better?  As you can tell, I love Esperanza Spalding's music.  And, if you truly love someone you have to be honest with them.  So, out of love for her and her music, the performance at AJF 2010 didn't quite live up to the standard she set back in November '09.  This band, Revived Alive, was built on the concept of reviving (go figure) different music genres and putting them into a new context.  This particular concert was a mixture of jazz, hip-hop, and funk with maybe a hint of electronica thrown in at one point.  Let me be clear that I have NO problem with the concept.  Hip-hop, jazz, funk, sounds great to me!  I think what hurt this performance the most (as I say from my lowly blog) was really the presentation; the band just didn't seem rehearsed, especially the endings and getting into, transitioning from one to another, and then getting out of the solo sections.  All the performers are phenomenal musicians, even if you simply look at their professional credentials and solo projects alone.  The group on the other hand just didn't seem to mesh.  The emcee for the evening, while a great spoken word artist, couldn't quite get through to the audience.  I think one of the main issues may not have been due to the group, but the problem lay in the sound.  But, more on that in a moment.

Marcus Miller, Christian Scott, & Alex Han

The next group, the headliners for the evening, was Marcus Miller's band doing a set of music from the Miles Davis release Tutu.  This included one of my all time favorite musicians Christian Scott and a new favorite of mine, Alex Han.  These guys played a monster set, great tunes, great show, and great solos.... if you could actually hear them.  Now, back to my point about the sound.

The Sound

I have to say that the sound provided by AJF 2010, at times, was no less than atrocious.  I feel one of the main reasons Esperanza Spalding's group didn't quite come through for the audience were the issues they were having with sound.  And, that group faired better than Marcus Miller's having only a few feedback issues, a pretty terrible acoustic bass and sax eq, bad solo levels, and a huge delay in fixing some, if any, of these issues.  I simply felt bad for Marcus Miller's group.  You couldn't hear Alex Han's first solo and it was about 3 minutes long.  Eventually you stopped hearing Christian's sound all together.  And finally, the sound engineers actually eliminated every channel but one, cycling through each mic to find where the feedback was coming from.

Now before I make every sound engineer's internet-blood boil, let me explain why I needed to write this and why I feel it is so important.  The 5 members of the group Kneebody explained that the sound guy is their 6th member; he makes or breaks the show.  Unfortunately, it's a fairly inglorious, lackluster position because no one really notices the sound guy/gal unless something's gone wrong.  So, I really do feel for the sound engineers during these shows.  I can't imagine the difficulty involved in running even one of these groups, let alone all together and one after the other.  That being said, I feel that if this is something that isn't remedied in coming festivals this could seriously jeopardize not only patronage and attendance, but artists' willingness to play the festival at all.

Most musicians right now, especially jazz, are finding homes for their music abroad, be it Europe, Japan, what have you.  The money's better, the crowds are bigger, the clubs are nicer.  If this sort of problem isn't fixed, it won't be difficult for big-name artists like Miller, Spalding, or Scott to look for opportunities elsewhere.  Let's work to keep them here, help them share their magnanimous and strikingly individual voices with the (contrary to some opinions - I smell another post) substantial audiences in the states.  I, for one, will miss them if they're gone.

Final Thoughts

The Good
  • Good line up, especially for a free festival
  • Easy access via MARTA from most of the metro area.  My girlfriend and I each paid a grand total of $4 to get to and see the festival.  In Denver, my friends and I paid I believe $30 each to see Christian Scott's band at a popular local jazz club, Dazzle.  Driving is also an option, you just have to be prepared to hunt for a space. Some of the local restaurants actually opened up their lots for paid parking, but once again, it's hunting season.
  • Great location (Piedmont Park) with tons of room.  Just ask the people that set up their own tents each year.
  • There's tons of food options (also continued in "The Bad" section)
  • The artists, location, and festivities are fit for everyone.  You can check out one act or stay the day; come by your self or bring the entire extended family.
The Bad
  • Once again, THE SOUND WAS AWFUL!!!!!!!! Please read the detailed section on sound (if you already haven't) to get a more detailed view of what was going on.
  • Esperanza & Marcus Strickland's set, Revived Alive, could've gone better
  • The food, while usually VERY good, did make me AND my girlfriend sick.  We think it was the funnel cake.... BEWARE, THE FUNNEL CAKE!!!!

Doesn't get any better than that!

  • There was some chatter on bookFace about there being a "lack of swing" programmed for the festival.  The musicians that weighed in seemed to be in agreement.  Now, there are a lot of differing opinions on this.  I will say that there wasn't so much a "lack of", but the people that were booked for the festival are not mainly 1940's - 1960's swing players.  The crowd that was there did seem to enjoy most of the festival and that's important, too.
  • Every year, there is always someone that has too much to drink, stumbles around the festival, and eventually falls on a 14 year old version of you, your mom who drove you, and your new jazz poster that you were going to hang in your room as soon as you got back ..... or something like that.  People at the festival keep there stuff together, but you may run into someone that's REALLY enjoying the day.  All I can suggest is, in that rare occasion, to keep your cool, take a breath, move if you have to, and finally, use a number of very heavy books to flatten a poster back out.

Let me know of your experiences at the festival.  I'd also be really interested to know what you thought of the line-up.

Conversation With Joe

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Joe who?

For those of you that are not familiar with the Atlanta jazz scene, there's a phenomenal trumpeter by the name of Joe Gransden.  Among other accolades and professional achievements which are far too many to list here, Joe is a "first call" horn player in Atlanta, glorious singer, and has worked closely with Kenny G, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Barry White, and Clint Eastwood.

The Problem.....

The past few months I've found myself in a 'practicing predicament'.  In trying to keep with a very unique practice routine, I was in a rut trying to develop different aspects of my improvisational ability.  I've always had a problem (and maybe you can relate) of playing lines that a) don't stutter start, b) flow through and anticipate changes, c) phrased like actual jazz lines.

Joe's Advice!

So, jump forward to the Tuesday Night Jam at Twain's lead by Joe and his band, a host of musicians that are as talented as they are kind.  It's 1 a.m. and those that chose to hang (mostly musicians my age basking in the aura of the big dogs that just finished their gig) are sharing stories and spirits.  Eventually, rather inevitably for a group of musicians, we get on to the issue of practicing.  "How do you get the right phrasing?", "How do you get the right language?", "What do you do about practicing improvising?", etc., etc.  Joe's big advice, which to some of you may not seem like a revelation, was as follows:

Take a specific player that you like and want to sound like.  Then pick an album of theirs.  Transcribe every tune and that player's solos on each tune.  THEN, use that same album and play along with the band.  Joe Gransden commented that it would take 10 times as long to gain proficiency on a tune, chord progression, style, or what have you using a play-a-long.  I have to say after some practice with this method I have to agree.

I relate it to tracing.  When you're first learning to write or draw, you start out tracing around letters or a picture.  You teach your hand how to move to make certain shapes.  Musically the same thing happens and it starts with the transcription.  Then, when you venture out into improvising yourself, not only is your ear already accustomed to exactly how you should move through the chords, but improvising OVER the other players' solos keeps your ear and therefore your playing closer to the right note choice and phrasing.  Just using a play-a-long you're forced to pull sounds/language/phrasing out of thin air.  Also by playing along with a recording, in my opinion, you get a better sense of time and feel.

So far, my experience with this method has really helped my playing.  For some reason, doing this had a night and day effect on what I was hearing and what was coming out of my horn.  Hopefully, this helps all of you out there having this same problem.

Anybody else out there with this issue?  If so, how did you solve it?

Featured Artist - Now vs. Now

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I first caught the trio version of this group at Dazzle in Denver, CO.  They have since just come out with their debut album "Now vs. Now".  The group was started and is lead by pianist Jason Lindner and includes Panagiotis Andreou (bass and vocals) and phenomenal drummer out of NY, Mark Guiliana.  They quote their sound as being "garage jazz", what it is is FREAKING AWESOME.  They are joined by a host of other musicians, but most notably by trumpet player Avishai Cohen (not the same as the bass player) and emcee/spoken-word-artist Baba Israel.  The first project I heard of Jason Lindner's was his big band album, Jason Lindner Big Band: Live at the Jazz Gallery which, for anyone interested in contemporary jazz arranging, is a must have.  I was unprepared to say the least when I showed up to hear this group at Dazzle.  I walked in, shoving past the giant red curtain that separates what feels like a jazz heaven from the rest of the world.  Everyone was sitting, just looking exhausted after the first set; I discovered why during the second.  This group takes you on a musical journey like no other.  This had to be one of the top 15 shows that I've seen to date.  Their debut album has a host of guests including Avishai and Baba, but also Anat Cohen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Yosvany Terry, and Meshell Ndegeocello.

Featured Artist - Kneebody

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I had the amazing opportunity this past July to attend a week long workshop at SIM in Brooklyn with one of my all-time FAVORITE bands, Kneebody.  This is a group that combines aspects of jazz, hip-hop, indie rock, and pretty much anything else you could throw into the pot.  They are all extremely versatile, individualized, and continuously creative musicians that when their powers combine turn into one of the best musical groups around today.

The band members are:

  • Ben Wendel - Saxophone/Bassoon/Effects
  • Shane Endsley - Trumpet & Effects
  • Adam Benjamin - Rhodes/Piano/Effects
  • Kaveh Rastegar - Bass & Effects
  • Nate Wood - Drums & Symbols

The band's discography spans four albums with a 5th, their 3rd studio album, expected in Spring 2010:

The group also appears on two other albums:

You can expect to see a couple more videos of this band up here.  Feel free to click on the links to check out or buy any of the music listed here.  Stay tuned for more Kneebody news.