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music
I had another gig last night - this time, in a regular smoky nightclub with our regular jazz quartet. The bass player had been away for a few months though, so last night was the first time we've played together since the summer. We had a great time and a great turnout. It was a lot of fun. We also added a guitarist to many of the tunes last night, which really added a lot to the whole show, I thought. The drummer was a stand-in, too - that chair is usually not permanently filled by anyone - and he really lit a fire under us last night. There were a few tunes that totally went to different planets with these extra musicians - some good full jams happening, for sure.
The guitarist and I were playing and singing Radiohead tunes to each other during set breaks. We made some tentative plans to get together and work out some jazz-inflected arrangements of some of those tunes. I don't think we'll need to do too much to them, though - they're already great compositions - but they will need some arrangement to accommodate more improvisation. We'll see what happens with that. Even though jazz in its traditional form is oh-so-very-dead right now, I'm sure that jazz musicians playing modern pop music [well] would appeal to more people.
That makes me sound like I'm suppressing artistic values in favour of garnering popularity with an audience, but it's not as shallow as all that. Jazz in its original form was a funky treatment of modern pop songs of the time with a lot of improvisation - what I'd like to do musically is no different in spirit.
In time, I think we could add a DJ to the group too, and play live music in dance clubs. The truth is, I think there's a lot of pop music that could stand a jazz interpretation and still remain interesting and danceable. A lot of Beck's music would fit the bill, as well as some older stuff by artists like Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder. I guess an early step would be to put together a CD with some possible tunes to be adapted, and make some copies for the band. If we all played along with the CD or listened to it for a bit on our own, we could bring some ideas to a few rehearsals and put together a couple sets, I'd imagine.
The guitarist and I were playing and singing Radiohead tunes to each other during set breaks. We made some tentative plans to get together and work out some jazz-inflected arrangements of some of those tunes. I don't think we'll need to do too much to them, though - they're already great compositions - but they will need some arrangement to accommodate more improvisation. We'll see what happens with that. Even though jazz in its traditional form is oh-so-very-dead right now, I'm sure that jazz musicians playing modern pop music [well] would appeal to more people.
That makes me sound like I'm suppressing artistic values in favour of garnering popularity with an audience, but it's not as shallow as all that. Jazz in its original form was a funky treatment of modern pop songs of the time with a lot of improvisation - what I'd like to do musically is no different in spirit.
In time, I think we could add a DJ to the group too, and play live music in dance clubs. The truth is, I think there's a lot of pop music that could stand a jazz interpretation and still remain interesting and danceable. A lot of Beck's music would fit the bill, as well as some older stuff by artists like Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder. I guess an early step would be to put together a CD with some possible tunes to be adapted, and make some copies for the band. If we all played along with the CD or listened to it for a bit on our own, we could bring some ideas to a few rehearsals and put together a couple sets, I'd imagine.