Jazz for aficionados
Pirius, two of my very favorite players, Dexter and Herbie. But, you don't mention Herbie's "Taking Off" which features Dexter himself and the always brilliant Freddie Hubbard: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7wcYrx4d3Jg |
Today's Listen: Ron Carter & Jim Hall -- TELEPHONE Just Guitar and Bass, but it works just fine. Speaking of nimble!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2Omlufc2rw Thanks to The Frogman for the insight on 'take Five'. We all know what we like and don't like, but The Frogman tells us why we do and don't. Cheers |
Frogman reminds me that I never answered that question about what is the hardest when I went off on my mellophone rant, LOL! He is absolutely correct that each instrument has it's own problems. Among the brass, though, as I think I have said before, it is usually said that the horn is the hardest - we have to cover the largest range on the smallest mouthpiece, which means we are using less surface area, and therefore taxing the muscles more. We also are regularly called upon to produce a wide variety of tone colors in the orchestra - some consider the horn the most versatile of orchestral instruments, in fact (the cello perhaps being the most versatile solo instrument in the orchestra). We are called upon to do many different types of things, and to regularly blend with the woodwinds just as much, in fact often more, than we do with the rest of the brass. It definitely requires a particularly good musical ear to play the horn professionally. The horn also has perhaps the best solo repertoire of all wind instruments, though the clarinet has some really nice solo rep as well, certainly the best among the woodwind instruments. (And some consider the clarinet the hardest to master of all the woodwinds, too. It used to be much more common than it is now, but there are still a few schools that offer a master's degree in woodwind specialty - some of the doublers we have talked about on Broadway have this degree - do you, Frogman? Those who have done such a degree are usually in agreement that the clarinet was the hardest one to play a really good recital on, and that the saxophone is the easiest by some distance; in fact I don't think I have ever heard anyone disagree that the saxophone is easiest among those who have actually played them all.) We also talked some about the trombone and how the slide makes it, in the words of one of the best orchestral trombone players, both the easiest and the hardest instrument to play in tune. Easy because you can fix your tuning extremely quickly with the slide, but hard because it is extremely difficult to nail it exactly, again because of the slide. The tuba is not the easiest one to play, either - it requires moving the air quite differently from the rest of the brass. What is usually considered the easiest brass instrument to play is the euphonium, it is sort of like the sax in that way, and I would agree with that. Except it is much more financially lucrative to play sax, since the sax has such a big place in jazz and in musical theater. The euphonium doesn't have a big place anywhere.... |
