What Record Are You Listening To Today?

That would be awesome Hayden - it would be great to see some funk in the tutorials. What a great video of Herbie - I gave myself his Masterclass series for a Christmas present but not really got round to it so far!

I agreeā€¦ leave it with me.


Yes I saw that Masterclass advertised and it looked interesting. Let us know what you think once youā€™ve had time to check it out properly.

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A nice smooth jazz tune with a great improv section. Been checking this one out on iReal Player:

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Ditto! Love that song

Yes, I love this tooā€¦would be a great addition to our course! Now Iā€™m craving chocolate!

Love those high notes!

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Yes itā€™s a wonderful performance Christy!

Iā€™d like to find someone with a similar sound to teach on PianoGrooveā€¦ very slow and soulful blues. Leave it with me :blush:

As always, listening and transcribing from these kind of recordings would be the best way to absorb the style. However, someone who specialises in this kind of sound could certainly give additional insight and direction for students.

Iā€™ll repost the original here as it took me a while to find it again way up in the thread:

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https://youtu.be/T8JvzWyEL1c

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That was fantastic. Inspires a bit, doesnā€™t it?

Wow great playing Yves. The audio quality is fantastic too!

In the PianoGroove lesson on Autumn Leaves, we cover the internal voice movement over the G-7 at 0:29 in this video - he moves the 5th up a half step in the middle of the chord, then again to the 6th, and back down to the 5th. Thatā€™s a nice trick to do over any major or minor chord when you have space in the harmony of melody.

Lots to be learnt from this video!

Yes his story is truly remarkable Adam.

He was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disease that causes brittle bones and, in his case, short stature. Despite this, he became one of the most accomplished jazz pianists of his generation.

I read that he would sometimes dislocate the bones in his joints a performance which is crazy how he can still perform so well under these circumstances!

You can find a number of interviews of him on YouTube, and despite his condition, heā€™s always very cheery, upbeat and full of humour. A real inspiration!

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A fantastic album, but itā€™s the title track here that is timeless. The A sections centre around 3 chords in the natural minor key of the song, then the B sections run through some major ii-V-Is starting on the songs relative major. Then the bridge just runs down some chromatic chords, modulates and then cools it down with the turnaround - and then those solos! And that great vocal. Just awesome.

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Wow that drops into a real groove at 1:30!

Nice harmonic analysis too Jamesā€¦ you must be learning a lot from transcribing and analysing ā€¦ it really is the most time effective way to improve, and you are in complete control of the direction of your sound which is liberating!

Great to see!

H

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The sax solo is also awesomeā€¦ just keeps on giving! Great record :sunglasses:

Great encouragement Hayden, thank you! Actually, months ago I would have not at all picked up on the major ii-V-Is - so thanks to your tuition!

I was rediscovering this after it popped into my head from nowhere. It may be that I was subconsciously admiring the voice leading in the harmony, or it may be for completely different reasons. Either way, itā€™s a great wee tune.

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Awesome groove James!

All of this funk youā€™re posting is piquing my interest in the genre.

Iā€™ve been adding them to a ā€œFunkā€ playlist in my Spotify account :grinning:

I was thinking shared Spotify playlists could be a cool idea for PianoGroove.

Cheers,
Hayden

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Hi Hayden - yes, it was definitely the voice-leading I was liking in this. This is jazz-funk rather than the purer beast of funk itself, which tends to be more stripped back and ā€˜rawā€™ - and, dare I say it, simpler (think James Brown, Parliament, Prince even) - with more of an emphasis on rhythm, bass and the ā€˜oneā€™. Jazz-funk is a very broad genre though. The main names in jazz-funk (apart from Herbie of course :smiley:) are Lonnie Liston Smith and the mighty Roy Ayers, as well as the Crusaders and their various members. These days bands like Down to the Bone and the awesome Incognito fly the jazz-funk flag. I like both funk and jazz-funk, and could happily post away here for a long time about them both! I take my inspirations from both.

Shared playlists are a great idea! I ditched Spotify last year though in favour of Amazon music (Spotify were a bit useless on android before I jumped ship to ios), but I guess I could grab a free account to join in - if I could handle all the ads! :grimacing:

Some Down to the Bone - modern jazz-funk:

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Awesome thanks for the explanation and artists you mention James . I always saw myself working my way through to funk chronologically, but Iā€™m still exploring the modal sounds of the late 50ā€™s and 60s.

Iā€™ve even found that I have gone backwards to Hard Bop pianists such as Red Garland, Barry Harris, Wynton Kelly & Kenny Drew.

I will make it to funk one day! :grin:

Perhaps we can incorporate other services too. I know from chatting with students that not everyone used Spotify.

I think that shared playlists could be a more interactive version of this thread, that are easier to navigate, update and manage.

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