Cary Kilner's Picks: Volume 54
This month I want to bring you some more modern, challenging music, interspersed with some easy listening swinging mainstream jazz and smooth jazz. Taylor Eigsti – Caravan Hang out for a minute during Julian Lage’s interesting guitar intro, then what rhythm and a great re-harmonized rearrangement of this classic tune ensues! Great drummer, too! And I’ve been meaning to present this innovative pianist. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ANm6CkX17Ao&feature=share Bill Mays Trio – When Will the Blues Leave This cut has a long bass solo before the trio begins in earnest, and then Bill tears it up. https://youtu.be/F-zVHW9f9dc Gonzalo Rubalcaba Trio with Ron Carter – When Will the Blues Leave This is truly an advanced piano trio playing the blues from the last link. This live video link has some outstanding Ron Carter—with his huge sound and interesting solo. Gonzalo is one of the advanced pianists I discussed in my Trio essay (part 4) last summer. You will notice how he transforms a simple blues into a fascinating tour-de-force. And here is another great drummer. Note the out-of-tune piano note that caught my attention. https://youtu.be/T38PBwxCw5M North Texas Lab Band and Rich DeRosa – Birds of a Feather Here we have another outstanding new big band sound—so rich and pleasing to the ear. And intellectually challenging as well. https://youtu.be/dUQTx3HT2zI Caribbean Jazz Project – Birds of a Feather, One the Road, Tell Me a Bedtime Story, and Topic I’ve neglected presenting this fine group. It’s a very interesting band with a great use of percussion, so I want to present several cuts. I knew Dave Samuels from my days in Boston; he has become a progenitor of the new jazz mallets. Note how nice the marimba sounds. Is this the same tune as in the previous big band? It’s hard to tell because it’s a very complex tune. The second tune has a nice mainstream Latin groove—you’ll love it. The third is a fresh version of Herbie Hancock’s great tune. You will notice more 5/4 bars in this than in the original as well as other time-changes occurring throughout. https://youtu.be/crHDSJcCL7Y https://youtu.be/3MsVWYmuUZM https://youtu.be/U6Wyt6l6Td4 https://youtu.be/N0YsRnnJoWM Gary Burton – Prelude for Vibes While we are on mallet players, here’s a new ensemble by Gary Burton, a Berklee professor who became well-known via his duets with Chick Corea. And we have another more advanced modern musical concept. I don’t know all the players, but Julian Lage is a new breed of guitarist as you will hear. https://youtu.be/5IyTMdOxH3U Ray Bryant – Little Susie I loved this performance as a kid and learned it on piano. It has a nice bouncy sound and feel, as you shall hear. Note the block chords and the sustained vamp with clapping in the middle as he continues to build energy, leading to a “shout chorus”. This is basically a blues that has been somewhat altered. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=46VI-PctS8A&feature=share Al Jarreau – Not Like This and Save Me This guy needs no introduction; he was progenitor of a whole new school of jazz vocals. The first link is a classic pop ballad and he just sings the heck out of it – it gives me goose-bumps! After the slow intro to the next tune, they move into a great energetic groove. The synthesizer orchestration of both is particularly excellent. https://youtu.be/LC7gVvI6Bts https://youtu.be/iHCfCGPdvqw Arturo Sanoval – Tin Tin Deo What an outstanding big band, and Arturo kills this Latin groove singing and playing! https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=EYN70Y7MScc&feature=share Miles Davis 1968 – Hand Jive and Madness – from the album, “Nefertiti” https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=CvBfmpp2BrA&feature=share To end this month, let’s explore what I consider the jazz album of all time. And even now I consider it the most advanced jazz music extant. (I include the albums Sorceror, Miles Smiles and ESP from this period.) This is Miles’ finest playing. Hand Jive: Where does he get those notes? I can't even follow the harmony! Tony – what a great dialogue with Miles. He uses the drums totally different than any other drummer out there – even now. Ron – holding the fort so strong and totally in sync with Tony! He changes it up ever so subtly as each solo progresses. Wayne – talking through his horn. It’s a totally different use of the horn than by any other tenor player. Herbie stays out of the way, then plays a solo like a horn with single notes and no left-hand until near the end. Same on Madness: except notice that Tony only plays the ride cymbal! That keeps everything so darn clean. If you go to YouTube, you can find the interesting out-takes that weren’t on the LP, and the liner notes discussion of them on the re-released. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=CvBfmpp2BrA&feature=share https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjmj97nb7WE&feature=share About Cary: When Cary was 8 years old he began playing flutophone, then cornet in the high school concert band and began piano lessons. He played in the Michigan State Marching Band and Jazz Band. He abandoned a career as a chemical engineer after college to move to Boston to study jazz piano. There he took lessons with Bob Winter and vocal coach, Eddie Watson, and learned to play electric bass in a trio with Al Vega. Cary has played with Claudio Roditi, Joe Hunt, John Lockwood, Greg Hopkins, and many other Boston musicians from the 1970s, including that cohort of Brazilians who taught him a lot about samba and bossa-nova. In 1980, he moved to the Seacoast to teach chemistry at Exeter High School and PEA Summer School. In 2004, he matriculated to UNH as the first doctoral student in a new program in chemistry education research. Graduating with a Ph.D. in 2014 he did some teaching but is now retired and has returned to practicing the piano. About jazz he writes, "What I like most about playing jazz is how melody, harmony and rhythm interact spontaneously." |