Jazz for aficionados

O-10:

Jean Luc Ponty:
I think most Jazz musicians try to play what they feel inside of them. Like in Nica's book, many just wished they could play what was in their head. That makes for good Jazz. Original and creative Jazz.

MY IMPRESSION is that music like this, is made up as they play it. It's not inside anyone's head. It's like they are saying, "let's try this and see how it sounds".

One critic once said about Sergei Rachmaninoff, "All his music sounds like Movie Theme Music". I stopped buying his stuff after I read that. :) Some things just stick

The Ponty music comes across to my ear as Mood music. It's meant to put a person in a certain modd, or to sound interesting and unique, but you cannot remember it after the performance is over. You can't walk around with this stuff in your head, or sing/hum it. It's for the moment only.

But, it was not bad. I just couldn't get into it. And that could be MY problem, and not Ponty's music.

Cheers

O-10:

Detroit Guitars Band:
Some things are best left in the 70's

BT Express:
5th of Beethoven:

I just sent by bell bottoms out to the cleaners. And I got my dancing shoes on. Let's boogie!

Cheers

Alex:

Blues Blues Blues

Nothing but the Tonic:
Enjoyed it. The guitar player was good, but the Piano player was the class of this group. They stayed true to the genre.

Blues in the Closet:
To my ear, not as good as the first clip. The organ, combined with the bass, sort of overpowered the tune. Things got sort of jumbled. Should have stayed with the piano. Is that a standard? If not, the whole thing sounded derivative.

Thanks for the clips.

Cheers

O-10, liked the Jean Luc clip. I have always liked some of his stuff. It's always well crafted from a compositional standpoint and very good playing WITHIN THAT FUSION STYLE. I disagree with Rok's take on the improvisation. Very atmospheric and pleasant. The disco clips? Well, I'm tempted to say you're joking, and I won't bother commenting on the bane of 70s music.

Leads me to something that I think happens often. There is some blurring between liking something because one likes the style, regardless of the level of the execution, and liking something, even if it's not ones favorite style, because the level of execution is extremely high. If the playing is on an extremely high level, I always find much to like; regardless of style. If the playing is poor or average, I don't care if it's my favorite style; no thanks.

Alex, I really liked the Buster Williams clip. Beautiful play ing on a very high level all the way around from pedigreed jazz players; and a wonderful composition. Thanks for that. The Sudao Wada clips may be blues which is, style wise, as we all like it, but the playing is simply not very good by the standards of the great jazz players. There is usually (not always) a reason that one can't find much info on certain players. The playing simply doesn't swing on the level that the music demands and the improvisation is no better than is heard in many a practice room in jazz schools. The interaction between the bass player and drummer is almost a mess at times. I guess I didn't like it; and I like the blues.

Rok, Blues In The Closet has been recorded by many jazz greats; I guess one could say it's a "standard", although the term is usually reserved for a more developed composition not simply a jazz "head".