One of my biggest problems is not stepping on records and CDs when I wake up. They consume my house and my office, and before my very tolerant wife decides to go back to Philip Glass, I thought I could try and make these stacks of wax more urgent. I have a weird and wonderful collection...
One cold Saturday night in St. John's around 2005, I was kicking through the slush from one gig to another. I lugged a trumpet, guitar, and amp - part Tinker, part Sherpa. And I was angry. Angry that the gigs paid so poorly, that I wasn't into the music, that the crowds sucked, that it...
Mark Levine wrote about as comprehensive and practical a book about jazz theory for beginners as I've come across. More than most texts out there, his book highlights specific concepts in context. One such example is this list of Intervallic Movement in Various Jazz Compositions. This is helpful in getting students out of the "My Bonnie"...
Many teachers at the end of summer experience the contradictory feelings of "I can't do this" and "I can't wait to do this." The rumble in the gut is real. Students also live on a dotted line between excitement and fear at the end of August. The hardest thing is a good start, so I've made...
My quest for stories, photos, and other jazz related artifacts from Newfoundland and Labrador continues. Speaking of NL jazz, there's a special show at the Black Sheep Monday Aug 7. Click here for details. Pianist Ralph Walker was a central figure in jazz and popular music in St. John's especially. Sandy Morris recalls asking Ralph to...
I'd rather be a servant to rhythm than a slave to tonality. Lately, I've working on some ideas I first heard from Kenny Werner and more recently George McFetridge dealing with sequences of random chords. It's time to shake up old habits. There's less excitement for me in progressions that I "know" will work. I think I can hear...
A nation is a collection of stories. Where they overlap, they represent a shared experience and an intergenerational legacy. In their uniqueness, they underscore just how varied our individual lives are. Legacies 150 is a series of interactive photo and illustration essays from the National Film Board reflecting on legacy and inheritance a century and a half into...
The fine gentlemen in this photo are Buddy Pennington (drums), Ed Goff (tenor saxophone), Rob Mills (electric bass), and Ralph Walker (piano). I got this photo from Rob himself during one of our many chats about jazz music in Newfoundland. These four stars shine bright and are a part of intricate constellation of musicians known...
Pianist/composer Bill Brennan is Canadian treasure. We’ve worked together quite a lot through the years and each time I feel more excited about music and life. If you’re in St. John’s, NL Sunday July 9 you can get a bit of that feeling at the Ship Pub from the Brennan/Bendzsa Little Big Band. This cut is from a...
Like you, I've been improvising for a long time. Improvisation is so ubiquitous that it doesn't actually need to be called anything. Essentially, that's the biggest problem in examining improvised activity. Noticing, seeing, remembering, acting, not-acting, playing, resting, driving, cooking, listening. It's in everything people do. Offering the entire world as one interconnected and improvised...