Jazz for aficionados

I took the horse to the water, but he did not drink; that's because he was a Roking horse, and Roking horses don't drink.

Enjoy the music.

Well, just keep on pushing those soundwave folks. The day will come when Real Jazz will no longer be available, and the Soundwave Police will have confiscated all your Jazz collections and melted them down.

When that day comes, don't come running down here to my Jazz Bunker, begging for a few bars of Basie, or a couple measures of Miles.

Don't come running to the Rok then!!

Let's allow Miss Nina to tell it. She tells it so good!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH3Fx41Jpl4

Cheers

Roking Horse. Not bad. :)

****In regard to your current picks, while Oscar Peterson is Mr. piano, he always played too many notes for me,*****

That puts him right up there with Mozart!! Not bad company.
I guess some players don't consider 'silence' to be part of the music. Miles did.

Cheers

What we always wanted to know, but were afraid to ask. Now we know.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2009/08/kind_of_blue.html

Cheers

I have a somewhat different take on the reason that KOB is so great.  No doubt, KOB helped usher in modal jazz, but first of all it is neither Miles' most important record nor his best.  I have always felt that one of the main things that made KOB such an important and popular recording is that it is so ACCESSIBLE.  Who can argue with its wonderful relaxed grooves, catchy but extremely simple melodies and fantastic playing?  It has probably introduced more listeners (certainly audiophiles) to jazz than any other record.  It is, no doubt, a great record; but, while I would never call it overrated, I think that there are many "better" jazz recordings.

Fred Kaplan (the author of the article) tries very hard to portray "modal jazz" as a revolutionary movement within jazz that presented players with new challenges.  It was, and it did; in a way.  Unfortunately, he also implies that the more traditional chord-based improvisation was (is) somewhat less of a challenge for players.  The suggestion that "being able to flollow the tune" within a traditional chord-based tune is somehow an indication of an "easier" or less sophisticated vehicle is absurd.  The whole truth is that modal jazz is, in most respects, an infinitely simpler framework for jazz players to work within with it's infrequent harmony changes and repetitiveness.  Sure, that kind of framework presents it's own challenges to improvisatory creativity, and it is also true that the frequently moving (changing) harmony of a traditional song structure can, in a way, be used by the player as a "crutch" since it does, in fact, "take you by the hand".  However, to instantaneously create an interesting and dynamic melody, and without resorting to cliches, within the framework of complex harmonic changes is an infinitely greater challenge than what most of modal jazz presents the player.

KOB is a great record; like a perfect hamburger.  Aged sirloin, anyone?:

https://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=kufiFzdrX-0