Sunday, July 13, 2014

How much do we know about the standards we play?

How much do we know about the standards we play? I grew up at the time when the "holy" real book was the only thing you thought you really needed. Find a dodgy music shop with this mysterious hand written book of charts, and you were off. You knew every tune you ever needed. Get together with a bunch of like minded friends and the only question was how to find the first gig.

Twenty years on, that same trusty book is ragged and tattered. It's seen hundreds of gigs and rehearsals and it's served me well. Maybe by now I don't even have to take it around with me, as a lot of the tunes are ingrained in my memory. What a fabulous tool this has been.

So how many of these 600 odd tunes do I really know well?

The honest answer is hardly any. Yes, I can play a number of them. At one point or other I may have even played most of the book. Some are even recorded. But do I really know them? The truth is no.

I've known this for a long time. Admittedly the gigs in which I have to play these tunes now, are very few and far between but this is not an excuse. How can something that I thought so useful as a teenager really be quite the opposite? Not only that, it is well known that the original Real book is full of mistakes that I certainly wasn't aware of or bother to check years ago.

I definitely did something wrong.

The clincher came when I read this article about Blue Bossa by Rachel Bronstein on Don Sickler's website.  http://www.donsickler.com/blue-bossa-what-you-dont-know/ It reminded me of something I was telling myself for a long time. Every song, tune, composition has a story behind it. In order to do it justice, to play it well, we must surely really know these things. This wonderful article illustrates just how far I was from this, and how sad it is that even the most famous of standards, I know almost nothing about.








 

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Miles Davis Biopic - Miles Ahead

I've been seeing this for sometime now and it looks like it's finally happening. The long anticipated movie on the life of Miles Davis  - now entitled 'Miles Ahead' will start filming this summer. The movie stars, and is directed by Don Cheadle who has been working on this project for years. It looks like no stone has been left unturned as he has been learning the trumpet for over 3 years and has the services of Herbie Hancock on the production team.



Personally I'm following this with anticipation yet at the same time with some reticence. Like alot of movies that are on topics close to our hearts, it can either turn out to be what we were hoping for, or not hit the mark at all. It's a very big ask of Cheadle and his team to portray such a leading figure in music in a way that will touch all of us in the way we are looking for.

Still it has been done. For me Ray, Walk the Line, and Cadillac Records are good examples of successful portrayals of iconic musicians. I enjoyed Forest Whitaker's portrayal of Bird, and as a fan of formula one I also immensely enjoyed Senna  - another huge figure to put onto film.

It remains to be seen. I will follow this with interest.




Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Ahmad Jamal in India

This is not something we will see everyday. Legendary Jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal will be performing on July 5th in Bangalore at the Chowdiah memorial hall. Have a look at his official website and you can see that he is breaking up dates in France and Belgium with a hop over here. Definitely something not to be missed.

Here are various press links for the event including a nice interview with Kamal Sagar in Rolling stone Magazine on how this concert came about.

http://rollingstoneindia.com/qa-kamal-sagar/

http://rollingstoneindia.com/jazz-legend-ahmad-jamal-play-bengaluru-july/

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/Kannada/Music/Music-legend-Ahmad-Jamal-to-perform-in-Bangalore/articleshow/37507253.cms