Jazz is both a lifestyle and a great form of expressive music. Like languages that have different dialects, jazz has many nuances. I've had the privilege to know some of the finest musicians and would love to know even more than I do. My blog is an effort to reach out to the many gifted artists and tasteful listeners that are out there.
Well, if you care anything about Jazz History, you'll appreciate that Eddie Durham was one of the people that influenced the very sound of jazz. He was a prolific arranger and was the first guitarist to play amplified guitar on record!
This week in Harlem there is a swing dance in his dedication, where you can have swing dance lessons too, from the legendary Mama Lu Parks Dancers.
durhamjazz.com
The beauty that went on inside Jaco's head never ceases to amaze me. Whenever I heard Jaco play a song his presence was always so strong. He didn't have to overplay or overpower a song to make that presence known either.
I only got to see Jaco play in a group setting 2 times, once with Weather Report in 1977 or 1978 when they played in Virginia Beach and the second time in Forest Hills stadium when Jaco was the leader of Joni Mitchell's Band. Both times were amazing! Up to that point the best electric bass player I'd ever seen was Stanley Clarke, but Jaco had so many more sophisticated harmonies going on and to me his sense of "space" was perfect.
It was in the early 80's that I got to meet Jaco at the 55 Bar where he came down to hear his friend Mike Stern play. I had taken a few lessons on guitar from Mike's wife Leni. Jaco was a
One day as I was walking into Tower Records near NYU and there was Jaco yelling at the employees of Tower and saying "You people should be giving me these records, I'm the greatest musician in the world" I could see the employees were kind of intimidated and so I walked up to Jaco and said "hey Jaco what's wrong?" he just turned to me and smiled and said "You know me" - Yeah, Jaco was just trying to get a charge out of these people and nothing more. He was just being playful and didn't mean any harm at all. He asked me where I was headed and I said that my car was about 10 blocks away, because I couldn't find a parking place any closer, he said well hop in my cab. Jaco had a cab sitting outside of Tower while he went in there, as we started to walk to the car he looked into this garbage can and saw these old Ked style canvas sneakers with huge holes in the tops and said "hey I could use a new pair of sneakers" and took them out of the garbage. Jaco was such a funny guy. He was always zany and just a one of a kind person. Now who could forget a guy like that!
So many people will swear by Charlie Parker and say what a great musician he was - AND RIGHTLY SO! But, Charlie himself learned by listening and one person that he knew was worth listening to was Art Tatum.
Art Tatum had so many ways to harmonize in this head that Charlie Parker worked a month in a club washing dishes just so he could listen to Art. Now, if that doesn't make you want to rush out and listen a bit more closely to Art Tatum, I don't know what will!
You can thank Wayne Wright for getting Les Paul out of retirement over 22 years ago. It was
If you are interested in hearing some really great jazz check out the following.
I grew up in New York - lived in Pennsylvania, Wilton, New Hampshire, Suffolk, Virginia and then back to New York. Two months ago I said "the west is the place for me" and moved to Oregon. I have been pretty fortunate in life as far as seeing and meeting interesting people. When I was a kid I saw JFK about two months before he was shot. I got to know Joe Pass and he introduced me to Wayne Wright (Les Paul's Rhythm Guitarist). I got to know Ella Fitzgerald, Jaco Pastorius, Mike and Leni Stern, Emily Remler, Martin Taylor, Chieli Minucci and many more. One of my very best friends is also a wonderful guitarist that plays in a Reggae Band, but I love to hear him shred and that's Moonie from Steel Pulse.
