Jazz for aficionados

Least I be misunderstood, and I don't believe anyone directly implied that, let me be more direct.  I enjoy drums and bass, both for their foundation work and when offering entertaining solos.  However for me there can be two issues -- unnecessarily long solos and solos that seem to lack a cohesive musical plot.  Maybe those are one and the same.

Possibly frog offered the essence: "everyone gets to tell his/her story."  Too many drum and bass solos don't seem to me to have a story.  Or they offer only a short anecdote and then keep repeating it, hoping it may take the form of a story.  Or they start out fine, but then ignore the standards for telling a good story and end up without a climax and going no place, leaving me hanging.

My example on the positive side, Morello's extended solo on "Castillian Drums".  It may be long, but I find it continuously interesting and carrying on the musical theme.  For anyone who may still be unfamiliar with it -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LBZJk5Kfgw

And so, when local musicians, not quite professional grade, find it necessary to solo on every number it's time for me to leave.

Yet again at perihelion...greetings Earthlings.

Apropos the recent discussion of certain solos. A contribution from my working musician/producer bro-in-law who has characterized the obligatory, in-concert, upright bass solo as "a trapped fly, buzzing behind a window shade" (or words to that effect). Obviously, he’s not a fan of ’em. In light of that, he shared, with relish I might add, this article that supports his point of view.


http://archive.is/6D3sY

Always good to hear from you, ghosthouse. I’ve actually really liked that description of a (bad) bass solo since the first time you posted it; “bad”, my word, being the operative word. Very funny. I hope you nor your brother in law mind, but I have appropriated and used it at least once in conversation 😊. Re the article:

With respect to the author (I think)...what a bunch of cr*p!. Sorry to be blunt, but IMO it’s narrowminded and misinformed. For starters, his characterization of LaFaro’s role in the Bill Evans trio is totally cynical and unaware. The idea that Bill Evans would allow another musician in his trio to be heavy handed and dictate the musical proceedings is absurd. Worse yet, it ignores a very important “event” in jazz, the development of the “conversational” style in piano trios and in which the bass player is much more than just a time keeper and plays in a way that suggests a conversation with the piano. On one of the half dozen times or so that I saw Bill Evans at the Vanguard he was auditioning drummers. Two drummers sat in with his trio (Mark Johnson on bass) over the course of two sets and replaced Joe LaBarbera for a couple of tunes. One drummer was Bob Moses and I don’t remember the other. In spite of his very quiet demeanor, Bill Evans knew exactly what he wanted from the drummer; I doubt LaFaro was able to control Evans as the author suggests.

Bad solos are played by players on all instruments. I’ve heard plenty of bad saxophone and trumpet solos. I know that some listeners simply don’t like the sound or timbre of certain instruments, but I think it should be noted that it’s not unlike saying “I don’t like that Monet because I don’t like the color yellow”.