Jazz for aficionados

Earlier Sonny Rollins with the MJQ:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHX5nGzNFVI

You could here is genius even then!

Percy Heath on the bass. I never met Percy but I worked with his son Stu in construction out on the east end of Long Island. Percy lived in Montauk. I remember Stu surfcasting under the lighthouse and pulling in one Striped Bass after another, many over 40 pounds. Stu fished at that rocky point and caught fish after fish while everyone else was getting snagged on rocks!!  

Avid fishermen will tell you that it’s all about the rhythm of your cast.  Perhaps Stu inherited his Dad’s great sense of rhythm 😊

Rules for Aficionados 😇:

- The alex rule: Like grandma always said, if you don’t have something positive to say, unless specifically asked, say nothing.

- The pryso rule: There is no “best”.

- The acman rule: Write as few words as possible, but post as much music as possible.

- The mary_jo rule: Remember, sometimes “newbies” have the most insightfulness; less clutter to complicate matters.  

- ?????

It was the way Stu applied the rythm to reeling in.

The Striped Bass will stay underneath the Bluefish during a feeding frenzy. Therefore a surface lure will not get snagged but you will hook more Bluefish then Striped Bass. Stu would use a 2oz White bucktail with a white pork rind strip attached to the hook. You have to let this lure sink and then reel in slow and steady.

The problem is all the jagged rocks beneath the surface out there that you could get snagged on. Stu would cast into the same area, let  the lure sink and start reeling in and he never got snagged or "hung - up" as we call it. It was like he put a spell on his rig!!

pryso, great example of piano player/singer. No question about Nat Cole’s piano playing cred. Very highly regarded among other piano players and considered influential. And what a beautiful velvety voice! Whenever I hear his singing I can’t help remembering this story. Apologies if I’ve told this story before:

As any big city resident knows, street musicians are a fixture on the subway trains as well as streets of NYC. Some are pretty good. I frequent this one particular subway line and one of the “regulars” on this line is this crusty and very colorful older alto saxophone player who goes from subway car to subway car and plays the same tune every time: “Nature Boy”, recorded and made popular by Nat Cole in the 40’s. I had heard him play the tune at least half a dozen times and had noticed that he was changing one of the notes in the melody:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq0XJCJ1Srw

****
There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far, very far...
****

Each time the lyric says “far”, the corresponding note in the melody has a very distinctive sound in the harmony of the tune. It is one of the defining notes of this rather exotic sounding melody. For anyone who cares, that note is a major seventh in a minor chord; pretty unusual and is what gives the melody that interesting exotic melodic twist. Well, this guy would play that note a semitone lower; a minor seventh to give the melody a kind of bluesy sound. So, every time he would walk by while playing I would compliment his playing (wasn’t too bad) and would slip him five or ten bucks and he would go on his way. After about six or seven times of this, I had to ask. “Hey, man, sounds great, but did you know, that one note you’re playing....”. Before I had a chance to finish my sentence he says in his very gravelly voice: “Yeah, man, I know, it should be a half step higher; but I make more money when I play it that way”. Hysterical!