Kenny Garrett at Yoshi's

Kenny Garrett
With Special Guest Bobby Hutcherson
Nat Reeves - Bass
Jamire Williams - Drums
Benito Gonzales - Piano


-went with Bill Vanderbilt and Gautam
-played music from his latest album, Beyond the Wall
-very avante-garde, modal stuff, very intense
-only got to see one show, the box office guy was being stuffy about it.
-That Benito Gonzalez was awesome, had the McCoy Tyner thing going on and it was great. Of course, Garrett smoked. Hutcherson was just a straight-up badass, no foolin' around, just like last time.

Mercilessness

Interview with Keith Jarrett:
(also, interesting article on way that jazz musician's practice)

TR: Is there anything you could say to musicians who say, "My God, how does he focus that way?" Is that something you can practice?

KJ: No. It's a mercilessness that they need to consider.

TR: Meaning?

KJ: Being nice to yourself isn't the way to go about it.{laughter} Everything about it isn't healthy. Let's say someone -- what they want out of life is to make good music, good enough that they can make a living doing it, and maybe have a family, and they don't need a lot of money but... They've already gone too far. What they have to say is "if anything else comes into my life I'll be lucky, but I've got to put everything I have into this seemingly non--rewarding (art) at this point in my life. It is some dark and deep work that has to be done and the lighter and the more technologically convenient our world gets, the less there are going to be people who even know that there's anything like that. They'll just say, "Gee he was awfully talented," instead of saying, "I wonder what work he had to do to get there?" Like I was born focused, you know? That's what my mother said when I was born, "Oh what a focused little baby!"

Jam Session

-Bill on alto sax/ flute
-Kenta on trumpet
-Andres on bass
-Yuki on drums
-Wes on Piano

Bill and Andres were blown away by Yuki's playing, hopefully its enough to keep them coming back to play with us b/c I had a great time with everyone tonight, we went from 630-1130pm. Kenta seemed a little down, his mood seemed to take dip as soon as Andres and Bill showed up. Was he intimidated? Hope that he is okay with how things are going, mentioned to me in private that he'd prefer to play songs that were less 'common' and therefore didn't much care to play A Night in Tunisia. Hope he comes around. I love that song and I think the rest of guys do too.

Songs we played:
-A Night in Tunisia
-Autumn Leaves
-Nica's Dream
-Moanin'
-All the Things You Are
-Wave

After Kenta and Yuki left, Bill, Andres and I sat around and played for another hour, but at much slower tempos and more stress placed on building our improvising, had some discussion about approaching our development. I hope we keep doing that. It was great.

Jam Session

-Yuki came over and brought his friend Kenta, a trumpet player.
-Yuki, an M.D. PhD. at UCDMC, didn't have a full drumkit, but did wonderfully with an improvised setup, told me that his snare alone cost more than $1000!
-he used a conga drum and cowbell to substitute for the double-bass and high-hat! (see photo on left)
-He's had over 20 years of experience from Japan, the guy carried the music the whole way through, great listener, great drummer, churned out all these great little rhythmic accents that keep pushing the music forward, next time I'd like to record his playing.
-we played through Bessie's Blues by Charlie Parker, Autumn Leaves, I Thought About You, some Coltrane song which I can't remember the name of, Four by Miles Davis and jammed over a salsa montuno.
-Was fun. I was very nervous but they were both very patient with me. Said that next time they'd like to bring some beer to drink before we play. I only wish that Yuki spoke better English so that I could actually better understand his suggestions. They told me they'd like me to play with them on Picnic Day but I think that they were just being polite. I don't think I'll be ready to perform by then, we'll see.
-Practice goals for the week: arpeggios and change running, two-handed bebop voicings in time, blues in Bb and Eb, tyner voicings? Would like to start transcribing again but will probably end up waiting until the laptop comes in, whenever that is, no rush.

Benny Green Workshop

Benny Green teaches jazz workshop at Drake University:

“If you want people besides your friends and family to listen to you, you have to make it a pleasing experience for them. Otherwise, it won't be fun, they'll go see what's on MTV, and you guys won't be able to work as musicians.”

"If you can't hear every note everyone else in the band is playing, you're either playing too loud or playing too many notes — I guarantee it. Play what you feel like, but try to make it colorful."

“Charlie Parker used to say that if it hasn't happened by the second chorus, it's not gonna happen,” said Green.

“What I want to hear is you serving the song: either support the melody or don't play, OK?”

"You have to listen to the original recordings — it's a matter of learning the vocabulary. Art Blakey was always preaching the importance of that; he would tell young players, 'Don't cut corners — that's how the music gets watered down.'” "

"Like countless piano teachers before him, Green broke out a metronome and directed his student to play the song at half-speed. “You need to find a comfortable practice tempo. Look, you have to have patience and honesty: patience to get to where you want to be, and honesty to admit to yourself what you have to do to get there.” "

David K. Matthews at Yoshi's

-went w/ Brandon, his girlfriend Erin and her friends Lauren and Nathan (went to Africa to live for a few months)
-David K. Mathews on organ, Mel Martin on Tenor Sax and flute, Akira Tana on drums, and Barry Finnerty on Guitar
-amazing!!! high energy jazz blues.
-I was blown away, haven't been that musically high from a live concert in a very long time; played for almost two hours! was still 'buzzed' from the concert an hour later, only wished I could have stayed to see them play the second set but Brandon and his gf had to go.
-Everyone kicked ass, and the admission fee was only ten dollars!!

McCoy Tyner Quartet at Yoshi's

-went with Margot, Ravi and his girlfriend, Narali
-McCoy Tyner, Christian McBride, Joe Lovano (tenor), Jeff Tain Watts
-Tain Watts and McBride tore it up
-a bit disappointed with Tyner's performance, mainly just huge block chord solos, not as much in the way of melodic improvisation (not as much as he was in his prime at least)
-only saw one set (8pm) as the other one (10pm) had sold out