Cornelius Bumpus

Watching a video of Steely Dan's the other night I was enjoying the solos of tenor sax player Cornelius Bumpus - Chris Potter was playing in the same group but somehow these touched me more. Wanting to find out more about him I googled and found out that sadly he had died in 2004 of a heart attack. Fortunately www.corneliusbumpus.com is still there and has lots of information, links to buy his cd's as well as mp3 preview clips.

Indigo Jazz festival Bangalore

We were very happy to be invited to play again this year at the Indigo jazz festival in Bangalore. Here is a review of the two day event by the Hindu's excellent jazz writer JAZZEBEL.

http://www.thehindu.com/mp/2009/02/09/stories/2009020951240300.htm

Mixing up scales

Just a little exercise I found to practise major scales a little differently. Ascend in the normal way but coming down change the 2nd and root, to the corresponding degrees of the scale a semi tone above. ie C B A G F E D# C#. Continue by ascending in the new scale you have now reached and apply the same idea. Once this is completed in all keys on the descent try changing the last 3(4, 5 etc) notes to the scale chromatically above.

This was an idea i wanted to try in order to improve my fluency and flexibility of changing from one scale to another during soloing. Lets see if it works! I see there are many more possibilities to this and will post some more ideas when I find them.

All about jazz forum

Ive been following several music forums by RSS feed for some time including the excellent saxontheweb. Somehow I had missed the forum at allaboutjazz.com but its another very good resource with alot of reading on just about every area of jazz possible.

http://forum.saxontheweb.net/
http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/

Famous Jazz Quotes

“A jazz musician is not a jazz musician when he or she is eating dinner or when he or she is with his parents or spouse or neighbors. He’s above all a human being . . . the true artform is being a human being.” - Herbie Hancock

Here's a nice idea by Matthew Mullenweg, a founding developer of WordPress who has added a section to his site dedicated to famous jazz quotations. He has collected quotes from different sources and categorised them by musician. Apart from the more humorous ones, some of them are very beautiful and I think there is plenty to be learnt from these too.

“My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being … When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups … I want to speak to their souls.” - John Coltrane

http://ma.tt/jazzquotes/

Guitar and Drum Trainer

For practising aebersolds and other such play-alongs this is a must have program.Ive been using the freeware v2 for years and now have been trying the latest version. It easily and quickly allows you to slow or speed up recordings as well as change pitch with little noticeable breakup of the audio. On top of that it has a great EQ which can even be used to filter out the drums. Available for download is version 4 which comes as a 15 day trial version.

http://renegademinds.com/Products/GuitarDrumTrainer/tabid/65/Default.aspx

Piano Practise

Being a part time pianist but still having gigs to play, I needed to find effective exercises to help me develop my jazz playing - particularly finger exercises to aid my soloing. The two books that I have found most useful are the well known Hanon "Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises" and Alfred Cortot's "Rational Principles of Pianoforte Technique". Both books, particularly the latter, cover well beyond the limited scope of my technique but nonetheless have offered many great exercises. The Cortot book in particular is very thorough and covers an entire range of techniques under the categories listed below. In fact I understand that by practicing these entire areas one should be able to master any technical problems!

1. Equality, independence and mobility of fingers.
2. Passing under of the thumb (scales - arpeggios).
3. Double notes and polyphonic playing.
4. Extensions.
5. Wrist technique, execution of chords.

The Hanon is in comparison a little more down to earth. I started adapting the exercises to a more "jazz" approach by firstly playing them in every key and then adding various rhythmical exercises to them. As they are laid out in endless 16th notes playing them with varying accents and rhythmical patterns made them alot more interesting to play. I took this further by practicing them on the saxophone too. In addition to this, varying the placement of the metronome was also a good exercise.

For more information check out the articles below. The Hanon seems widely available but the Cortot looks like it’s out of print and hard to find.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Cortot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virtuoso_Pianist_In_60_Exercises

Youtube Ballads

Herbie Hancock has always been one of my favourite players. Here are a couple of truly beautiful ballads, one solo and the other featuring the great Joe Henderson. Someone to watch over me, is in particular quite breathtaking, the musical colours and textures Herbie creates, great examples of the things I like most about his piano playing. Reminds me of his poignant Stella by starlight solo with Ron Carter and Tony Williams on Miles Davis famous 1964 live recording; something else to check out too!

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qf6tphTKuA&NR=1

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=aW-wIFZuYgg&feature=related

More mind Scales

Due to a cyclone in our area that put off the power for a week I was forced to find alternate ways of practising in the evening as playing in the dark was getting quiet difficult. Since I couldn't afford time off as some gigs were approaching I decided to spend some time reviewing pieces and applying some of the visualisation techniques I had mentioned before. Although I was not able to do for long periods of time because my concentration wouldn't allow it, I was really very happy with the results. Using a metronome to avoid 'cheating' I went through scale choices in my head in various combinations and speeds. Once I got back to the sax the results were quite noticeable and I already felt more comfortable particularly in tricky spots of certain pieces. Working this way highlights those weaknesses very quickly. Now I just have to apply this more often even when the laptop is available for practise!

Jazztrumpetsolos.com

The other night I was transcribing Lee Morgan's solo on Moanin' and wanting to check my work I found jazztrumpetsolos.com. It's a really nice site with 98 transcribed solos which you can download in pdf, as well as listen online to the first 30 seconds of the solo while watching the score scroll down. Thankfully I found this site because the solo was more challenging than I first thought!

Away from the Sax 2

I often like to work on things away form the sax, i.e. transcribing and rhythm work, but recently in order to make this work more organised and productive I started making a more in depth list of things I can do. This is particularly for situations where I would like to study or practise and I am not able to, or it is not appropriate to start playing my horn.

1. Rhythmic work: This is very important part of my work and I try to do at least 15mins a day. It can be done anywhere. Just need a metronome and something to tap on.
2. Transcriptions: I try to do both writing things down and learning things purely by ear. Of the two I find the latter more difficult yet more satisfying and beneficial for my general work in music. Writing things helps both my ear and as well as my written rhythmic vocabulary.
3. Visualising chords and scales: I still am slower at mentally picturing certain scales and chords so I work on seeing these as quick as the "easier keys". Some times I also write out scales to help this, and also visualise playing them on the sax.
4. Singing or humming melodic and rhythmic ideas over tunes: I use aebersolds to tryout certain rhythmical and melodic ideas. Personally, if I can't sing an idea in my head I can not play it on the sax so this is very beneficial work.
5. Listening: This influences me alot and the more I listen, the better my musical vocabulary. I try sometimes to do a more focused listening where I will only focus on certain ideas in a piece, i.e. bass line or piano comping etc.
6. Composing: I would like to compose more, and do have periods when I do alot, but I see that if I could do a little bit each day I would go alot further. Now I try to keep a book that when an idea comes, even if it's a small phrase I write it down with the hope that I may eventually use it.
7. Memorising tunes: My aim here is to memorise and understand a chord structure of a tune in such a way that I can then also transpose it into other keys.

This list is clearly not exhaustive and all these are very much work in progress, so I would be happy for any comments on further additions and ideas.

Bopland.org

I saw this site while browsing the jazz improvisation forum on saxontheweb. Bopland.org is a free database for musicians. It contains hundreds of licks over common jazz progressions. You can browse the licks there by entering the desired progression, as well as entering your own licks that you have transcribed. A great idea for a collective internet resource.

stevekahn.com

I stumbled apon this site completely by accident when looking for the lead sheet of a great tune called Descarga Khanalonious by guitarist Steve Kahn. Firstly I was pleasantly surpirsed to find it on his website, but even better was that the website has a huge section dedicated to both transcriptions and analysys by Steve himself, as well as a section dedicated to Steve's own lead sheets and compositions. Compositions are also presented with a corresponding sound clip, and an analysis. Check out Kahn's Korner 1 and 2 for a veritable goldmine of great stuff to study.

http://www.stevekhan.com/

Reviews

Here are a couple of nice reviews of gigs our trio has done recenlty.

(Tehelka magazine)

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/05/28/stories/2008052850800400.htm

Thanks to Bruce and Thermal and a Quarter for a great gig on Jan First! Thanks also to Patrick Goraguer, fantastic pianist and drummer from France who joined us that night.

Long Tones

If you ever doubted the importance of long tones then check out this lesson by Matt Otto.
http://mattotto0.tripod.com/id32.html
Of particular interest to me was the fact that the practise of long tones are essential for helping to stay relaxed while playing. If you feel like me, that you sometimes find yourself overblowing or tense while playing, following the method outlined in this lesson helps to avoid this by developing better long term habits.
Once again, thanks goes to David Valdez's blog for finding this. This site is really the best jazz site I have seen on the web and essential reading for any serious musician.

Indian Summer

Its been a long time since Ive managed to update my Blog and I hope to soon. I have been very busy in the last few months, but its summer here in India and things are slowing down. I will be in cooler weather though soon playing some gigs with indo fusion group Emergence. We are playing at Glastonbury and Sunrise Festivals amongst other places. Check out www.myspace.com/emergencemusic for further details.

Jazz-o-matic.com

Many thanks to Tomas Trulsson for e-mailing me the link to this site. Jazz-o-matic is a great site by Richard Thurgood dedicated to studying the saxophone. It provides a place where musicians can share, and hear through recorded audio files, how other saxophonists are playing and practising. It includes a wide selection of lessons and exercises, as well as resources such as books from members, transcription services and links to other useful sites. An excellent internet resource, and a must read (or listen!) for students of the saxophone.


http://www.jazz-o-matic.com/

Scales vs Rhythm

I hadn't checked the jazz and improvisation section of the Sax on the Web forum for a while and when I did I find quite a number of interesting threads. The one that caught my eye though was the discussion on what people practise most, scales or rhythm. Being a favourite topic of mine, and if you have read previous posts on this blog you will propably guess where I stand on this subject!

http://www.saxontheweb.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=69002

Away from the sax - Visualisation

Some time ago I started to notice a discrepancy between my ability to formulate harmonic ideas on the piano and that of the saxophone. I began to realise that one of the difficulties on sax was that unlike the piano or guitar, it is not a very visual instrument. By this a mean that due to the nature of keys or fret board, these instruments are very "colour coded" which aid in visualising harmonies. Discussing this with a friend of mine recently, he suggested trying to get the same principle from the sax by working without the instrument. He suggested working several times a day on visualising with the mind only, the things being worked on in practise. So far I have tried it only with scales and patterns, but already Ive noticed a big difference. If I practise a particular scale or pattern in my head several minutes before practise, I'm clearly able to work on it with a better feel and understanding, and achieve results much faster. Just as the fingers and lungs need warming up as does the brain. My next step will be to work this idea on particular tunes, as I feel my improvising on the sax would benefit from this "visual" aspect as well as the aural and mental side.

Joe Allard

Along with my reading of Dave Liebman's book "Developing a Personal Saxophone Sound" I have been studying the work of Joe Allard, influential and highly respected teacher of the sax and clarinet who amongst many others taught Dave Liebman and Micheal Brecker. Focused particularly on sound production that was "free of all unnecessary tension and capable of a great variety of tonal possibilities" Allard focused on the "development of the embouchure, proper use of the air, flexibility of the laryngeal and oral cavities, and one's own tonal imagination".* If like me you are a little late on this vital information, a good start is to check out the official website http://www.joeallard.org/. It has lots of information on his teaching style as well as interviews and comments from many of his former pupils.

*(from the website)