10/27/08

George Garzone Instructional DVD!


Finally George Garzone, arguably the most important and influential saxophone teacher in the country, has put together a three hour instructional DVD. This is long overdue and now you don't need to get into Berklee, New England or the New School to learn from the master.

Jody Jazz is releasing Garzone's DVD and it will be shipping in early November. The price is $89.95 for the two DVD disk set and you can pre-order now.

Here's what the website has to say about it:

About This DVD
"The Music of George Garzone & The Triadic Chromatic Approach", is a Jazz Improvisation Instructional DVD and much, much more.
MADE FOR ALL INSTRUMENTS
  • Performances:
    Solo, Duos, Trios, an Sextet performances
  • The Triadic Chromatic Approach:
    23 Chapters & 30 Examples of In-Depth Lessons
  • Trading Play Alongs:
    George Plays / You Play w/ Rhythm Section
  • Pure Play Along:
    You Play w/ Rhythm Section
  • Garzone On Sound:
    In-depth Lesson of Saxophone Sound Production
  • PDF Supplements:
    Transposed for all instruments, examples, exercises and lead sheets
  • Bonus Features:
    Interviews, Alternate Takes, Extra
Who Can Benefit From This DVD?
ANYONE WHO:
  • Wants to Improve their Improvisation Skills
  • Wants to Improve their Saxophone Sound & Playing
  • Wants an intimate and unprecedented access to one of the greatest musicians and teachers of our time
  • Would like to be inspired to take your playing to the next level and beyond
  • Wants to improve their time
Triadic Chromatic Approach
This method is a new innovative approach to jazz improvisation developed and created by George Garzone over the last 25 years of teaching and playing. It teaches you how to generate non permutative lines. That means lines that aren't predictable or repetitive and sound totally fresh. It will allow you to play over chord changes without fear.
The Garzone Instructional DVD webpage

Music Minus One- Lee Konitz Duets

I just bought the Lee Konitz duets volume of Music Minus One. This is the first MMO volume that I've bought, though I've seen them in stores for decades. The Konitz volume has some tracks that are just sax duets and a few that are large groups with solo sax (with or without Lee's part).

This is the bright idea that made Jamey a wealthy man. After practicing with Aebersolds for many years it was a nice change to play with a MMO. The MMOs have elaborate large ensemble arrangements and they're recorded extremely well. There are a some very cool looking MMO volumes, such as the Zoot Sims sax duets, the piano trio volume and the lead alto big band volume.

I'm definitely going to pick up a few more of these myself.

Lee Konitz Somewhere Sax Duet PDF

10/24/08

Dixie Steps

Regular reader Thomas Trulsson sent me this entertaining rendition of Giant Steps:

Trad Giant Steps

10/13/08

Wynton shreds on Letterman

My buddy Pat Tucker just sent me a link to a YouTube video that is pure genius. This is incredibly funny, especially if you're a big Wynton fan or hater.

Here's what Pat says about the clip:
My friend took a Wynton Marsalis video and erased the strings and his trumpet playing and then put on a sound track of messed up strings and then he recorded himself playing trumpet with the same fingerings that Wynton is using and played all this messed up stuff and then linked it up to the video, this is awesome. Enjoy!
Wynton shreds
Jaco Pastorius shreds
Steve Vai Shreds
Joe Satriani Shreds
Eric Clapton Shreds
Stevie Ray Vaughan Shreds
Eddie Van Halen Shreds
Slash Shreds
Metallica shreds
Santana shreds
Led Zeppelin shreds
Paco De Lucia Shreds

Saxophone Multiphonics book

Saxophone Multiphonics book

10/11/08

RadioDirectX.com


This week I finally sprung for a Radio Direct membership. They were offering a 50% off special that I just couldn't pass up. The idea is that radio (conventional, satellite and Internet) DJs and programmers go to the Radio Direct site and listen to tracks that artists upload from their CDs. If they hear something they like then they put in a request for that CD. Radio Direct then lets you know about the request and gives you the mailing address.

When you send out your CD you know that it's going directly to someone who has already heard it and is want to broadcast it. Twenty days after you indicate that you have mailed the CD there is a page to request feedback. You hit a button and a feedback request is sent to the the DJ/programmer. You then can access your feedback on your artist page. If you like you can also send messages directly to the person that got your CD, you may want to ask if there are any festivals or clubs in the area that your CD was played.

I paid $400 for two categories, Jazz and Latin, for six months. The usual price for Latin is $300 and $500 for Jazz (which is the most expensive category for some reason). In the first week I have gotten 29 CD requests already. A good 20 to 25% of the requests have been from Australia. The other countries I have sent CDs to include Italy, the Netherlands, Germany Canada, Columbia, Trinidad and Tobago, Scotland, the Ukraine, France, England, and Belarus (which I bet you can't find on a map). So far all have been radio stations, except for one Jazz magazine.

Here's something from the Radio DirectX website:

RadioDirectx is THE service delivering new music - your music - to the world. With more than 5000 member radio stations, music reviewers and club DJs looking for the newest releases in our digital stacks, we offer a one-of-a-kind service for both independent artists and labels to promote their music to audiences in markets around the world.


From XM and DMX Satellite Radio USA, commercial radio (all formats), mix shows, 100s of college stations (the bleeding edge in shaping tastes in music), 1300+ club DJs, record pools, national radio networks and others in need of the newest best. – we deliver the quality that music movers want. We cover the full spectrum: pop, dance, Reggae, country, folk, hip-hop, metal, easy listening, punk, soundtracks, world and more... - we have the markets and the outlets for your releases.

RadioDirectx is undeniably effective in its simplicity. We list your music so our radio and media members can quickly and easily preview your music. If they like what they hear, they request to have a promotional CD mailed to them for airplay or review. When a CD request comes in, all you do is ship it out, the radio/media member plays or reviews it - and you've started generating airplay around the world.

WHAT WE DO
We promote your release to all Radio, Media & Club DJs (Club Djs for specific genres only) via our weekly release notices. WE tell them what's new and what's hot each week.
They login into Radiodirectx and preview any release they are interested in and if they like - they request a copy.

We create a CD listing on the Radiodirectx site, complete with biography, reviews/quotes, streaming audio samples and the ability for all registered Radio, Club DJs & Media to request and receive a promotional copy of your CD for airplay and/or review.

You only mail your CD when requested. This saves you time, money, CDs and greatly increases the opportunity for radio airplay as each Radio/Media Member has to actually request your CD. In 4-5 weeks we ask that all Radio/Media Members that requested your CD to provide some type of feedback - charts, playlists, comments, reviews, etc...

WHY RADIO & MEDIA COME TO US FOR YOUR MUSIC
The number one reason that Radio, Media & Club DJs around the world come to RadioDirectx for new music is that they can choose what they want, when they want. They love to login and browse our selection of quality releases at their leisure - from home or at the office. When they find a release they like and feel appropriate for their program or review, they can request to have a copy mailed to them. They also know that if it's listed on Radiodirectx - it will arrive.


I can see that at a certain point I'll need to unsubscribe to the service when I feel that I've given enough CDs away. At $4.20 a pop the international airmail adds up fast. My first trip to the post office cost me almost $75, ouch!

So far it seems like Radio DirectX has been a very good investment for me. As independent Jazz artists how else are we going to get international radio airplay? I've heard plenty of horror stories from Jazz musicians who hired PR agents for $1500 per week and only got a couple of CD revues in obscure Jazz rags.

We need to get our CDs out of the boxes stacked in our garages and out into the world for people to hear. We also need press quotes that rave about our masterpiece recordings, and it's nice if those quotes are from a radio stations in Australia, France or Poland (or even Belarus) rather than from a CD review in your local Jazz society newsletter.

Radio Direct X

10/6/08

Straight Life: Stories of Art Pepper Flash Movie


Art Pepper's widow Laurie Pepper was responsible for putting together Art's autobiography Straight Life. She transcribed hours of cassette recordings that she made of Art telling stories and edited them into an entire book. I remember running across the book when I was still at Berklee. I don't think I put it down until I read every last page. I was completely captivated by Art's first hand accounts of club hopping with Dexter Gordon while toasted on Dexedrine (back when there were Jazz clubs all over L.A. that were open all night long). Straight Life is truly one of the greatest books about the Jazz life ever written.

After the book was published Laurie received a lot of interest from the movie studios wanting to make it into a movie. They of course wanted to make Art into a one dimensional wild man Jazz junkie, like Clint did to Bird, and they wouldn't even promise to use Art's own music. Laurie finally decided to make a movie herself, a Flash movie. Below are some YouTube clips from the movie, they're not in order unfortunately, and some music videos.


From Laurie Pepper's Straight life Flash Movie:










Johnny Dep reads Laurie Pepper's script:


Art Pepper Music videos:







"I want to be more than just a "jazz player" playing. I want to make people forget the categories and hear what's really happening. I want to make them feel the joy or sadness. I want to make them open up and listen. That's what I've always wanted."- Art Pepper


Straight Life web site
Laurie Pepper's Movie Blog

10/5/08

Ralph Towner PDF


Improvising and Performance Techniques for Classical and Acoustic Guitar

Keith Jarrett's Köln Concert Transcriptions & MP3s


Jarrett-Koln transcription part 1
Jarrett-Koln transcription part 2
Jarrett-Koln transcription part 3
Jarrett-Koln transcription part 4

Audio of Part 1
Audio of part 2
Audio of part 3
Audio of part 4

Charlie Mariano Fakebook


Here's a Charlie Mariano fakebook that was published by Berklee press back in 1960, when Charlie was teaching there. Charlie is of course of the great alto players of all time and a wonderful composer. There are some very nice tunes in here, one of those is a tune that I've been looking for for a while called Blue Walls (or Blue Balls as the cats in Boston used to call it). Herb Pomeroy turned me on to this tune and I recently heard it again when someone sent me some Jimmy Mosher bootlegs.

Mariano Fakebook
Jimmy Mosher playing Blue Walls

10/3/08

Loyon sax etude


Regular reader Vinnie Penella just sent me a great sax etude by Loyon.Vinnie studied with Joe Viola and says that this was one of Joe V's favorites.

Click on the graphic to get a larger printable version.

Vinnie Penella's MySpace page