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GOD.... I LOVE JAZZ


Bilbo

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I was just listening to a Steve Swallow track called 'Re-Inventing The Wheel' (recorded live at Ronnie Scotts for the cd 'Always Pack Your Uniform On top') and I was overwhelmed by a wave of visceral excitement at the beauty of it. It features an opening cadenza by guitarist Mick Goodrick, a beautifully understated guitarist (now THERE'S two words you'd never expect to see in the same sentence!) and builds with some beautiful playing by Chris Potter (sax) and Barrie Ries (tpt). Adam Nussbaum on drums... gorgeous.

It reminded my of all of the reasons I love music and jazz in particular. Emotionally profoundly satisfying. I listen to jazz a LOT and just LOVE it. There are some beautiful players out there weaving some real magic without a shred of testosterone. Art for Art's sake.

Love it. This stuff deserve passionate advocacy and so I am here to tell you all..
[size=5]
Put the barre chords down and LISTEN!!! [/size]

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Jazz never really used to light any fires but I got a job virtually next door to the Bulls Head in Barnes, SW London. Soon after I started there I used to pop in every night for a pint after the shift finished at 10pm and to catch the second set by the band. After a few weeks the doorman got to know my face as a regular and let me slip in free.

I was in there virtually every night for 4 years and saw some world class musicians, even striking up a friendship with the drummer Ronnie Verrell who was always up for a chat.

I was a lucky Hamster to have so much wonderful music soak into me which really gave me an appreciation for the genre(s) :)

Hamster

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I think far too many people just watch too Fast Show and dismiss it because of that.

There's some jazz I don't like, I can admit that, but there's an awful lot more of it that I love.

My drummer's more into acoustic trios/quartets, etc., and I'm more into eletronic/fusion, etc. so it makes travelling to gigs together a great time musically.

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[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='117866' date='Jan 10 2008, 02:31 PM']Jazz's deformed cousin? :)[/quote]

ha ha! no, Howards reply to that. something like

"the serebral musicality of jazz, mixed with the visceral groove of funk"

(forgive the guessed words, and the obviously guessed spellings of said words)

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We've had "I hate Jazz" and all the grief that went with that thread, now we have "I Love Jazz", including one post extolling the virtues of Jazz funk(surely the most pointless musical form of all ) !!!

I love this forum. Its the sense that no one is taking themselves too seriously.

Wheres my beret and beard...

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Come on guys, be nice to each other. Remember the bass had a place in jazz long before rock came on the scene. That doesn't mean its better or worse but surely all bass-based genres can exist in harmony.

And at the end of the day, don't you think that rock is treally a subdivision of jazz, in that most tunes are based on a menu of well-tried chord sequences and what is a guitar solo if it isn't improvisation - which is what jazz is?

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You can call anything jazz if you want to - radiohead are jazz-rock? It's a bit stupid though. I hate these endless classifications, genres and sub-genres. Just because something has some improvisation or some clever ideas in it, doesn't mean it's jazz, and who cares anyway?

This thread should be called "god I love music".

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I called it I Love Jazz because I DO and I know what I mean and don't need to define it because I KNOW what I mean and rock isn't jazz and, although I like some rock, didn't think it needed advocating for because there are zillions of rockers already doing so but there aren't many people advocating for jazz so I thought I would because I love it.

OK?

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[quote name='cheddatom' post='117934' date='Jan 10 2008, 04:08 PM']heh, you seriously think that?[/quote]
In all seriousness, probably not [b]most[/b] that dismiss it, but yes, a lot of people have a "Fast Show" opinion of jazz. Whether it was formed before or after seeing the Fast Show is a different matter. I'm not blaming The Fast Show for it, I'm just saying it exists. Obviously that opinion is out there otherwise the whole Jazz Club sketch wouldn't exist. Hence things like Chops' "Beret and beard" comment (no offence taken or meant).

All I can say from my point of view is that the first time I saw the Chick Corea Elektric Band live, with Chick Corea, John Patitucci, Dave Weckl, Eric Marienthal and Frank Gambale, I was absolutely astounded by the quality of the musicianship from all five of them, and stood up to applaud them all at the end with a lump in my throat. It's very rare I get physically emotional about seeing bands/artistes.

What it also did was give me a great interest in musicians of other instruments. I have at least one CD of all of the artists above simply because of that concert. I doubt very much I'd go and buy solo CDs from most of the bands I was brought up on, as I think most rock/pop bands are based around the writing skills or musicianship of one main player. Of course there are going to be exceptions of course - before I get bombarded with "what about (insert band name)".

Edited by Thunderthumbs
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[quote name='bassace' post='117951' date='Jan 10 2008, 04:28 PM']And at the end of the day, don't you think that rock is treally a subdivision of jazz, in that most tunes are based on a menu of well-tried chord sequences and what is a guitar solo if it isn't improvisation - which is what jazz is?[/quote]

i've already said this before. If we want to go down this route, you'll just end up at the point of saying all of today's music is just based off monks singing 1100 years ago.

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[quote name='bassace' post='117951' date='Jan 10 2008, 04:28 PM']And at the end of the day, don't you think that rock is treally a subdivision of jazz, in that most tunes are based on a menu of well-tried chord sequences and what is a guitar solo if it isn't improvisation - which is what jazz is?[/quote]

I was watching that Orange Mobile Act Unsigned thingy on Channel 4; Jo Wiley said to one of the bands something like, "Was that a guitar solo? I hate guitar solos!" I wished one of the guys in the band had thrown his instrument at her, so to speak.

... and back on topic, I too love the jazz. Kind of Blue, Headhunters, E.S.P, In A Silent Way, Deodato ... bring it on!

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[quote name='cheddatom' post='117954' date='Jan 10 2008, 04:34 PM']You can call anything jazz if you want to - radiohead are jazz-rock? It's a bit stupid though. I hate these endless classifications, genres and sub-genres.[/quote]
I think I'll try my hand at some death jazz.

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[quote name='bilbo230763' post='117958' date='Jan 10 2008, 04:39 PM']OK?[/quote]

Ok, but without defining it, the point is deffinitely lost on me. Obviously i'm one of the less knowledgeable bassists here, but, i've seen people go on about so many different kind of jazz, and I don't really get it! Or do you just love all of these sub-genres? In which case I should obviously shut up.


ThunderThumbs - I think you make a good point about the general perception of jazz, there is a bit of a stereotype. I just wanted to make sure you weren't saying that the fast show sketch caused the stereotype, rather than the other way around. I'm sure there are people that have been influenced by the sketch, but their opinion isn't very valid is it!


I have had these kinds of emotional listening/watching experiences with all kind of music, but only once jazz. I suppose it's inprovisational nature does lend itself to a more emotionally musical experience in certain ways, in that the musicians are really "expressing themselves" as opposed to trying to play the right thing.

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