Jazz | The Musicians blog

Guitar Legend John McLaughlin Retires

Jazz-rock legacy of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin (age 75 at the time of this blog post) is retiring from touring.

Many of us musicians have known John as an esoteric monster on the strings. His departure from mainstream songs to introspective nuance has been instrumental (no pun intended) in providing for insightful creative considerations of arpeggiated themes in playing styles.

The article below mentions some fun highlights of McLaughlin’s final performance in Los Angeles at UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance at Royce Hall in December 2017.

Appreciations for John’s input in our wonderful world of music!

Jam On!
Ron

(credit given via: Richard S. Ginell released in sfcv.org)

Article December 12, 2017

“The 75-year-old English guitarist (now a resident of Monaco) has said that his The Meeting Of The Spirits tour would be his last in North America, and the concert at Royce — where he played way back in 1974 — was the last stop. Fellow guitar-slinger Jimmy Herring, one of the few McLaughlin acolytes capable of dueling mano-a-mano with the master, shared the bill…”

Read more about this John’s farewell tour here…

https://www.sfcv.org/reviews/none/guitar-legend-john-mclaughlin-retires-with-an-incendiary-farewell-concert

History of the Double Bass Drum and Louie Bellson

Many think that the double bass drum set-up was started by the Hair or Metal bands of the eighties, however…

It actually started with ‘jazz’ legend Louie Bellson, a gifted musical school kid @ 15 in ‘1939 !’ who sketched out a double bass drum kit for his art class. That drawing earned him a high grade and served as a vision of what he would become… the most famous and arguably the very first double bass drummer.

So, the history of the double kicker goes way back further than one might expect. Now of course, you can use double kicker foot peddles to achieve the same affect (but not the same look) on a single bass trap.

Jam On!
-Ron

Here with his Rogers set-up…

Keith Emerson of, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Died…

For those among us musicians that loves the keyboard player in the band… I for one, have always appreciated the great sound and jams that, Emerson, Lake and Palmer laid-down. Unfortunately, Keith has passed… yet, he has left us with a great legacy for our reference of his wonderful keyboard rock style.

As noted on ELP’s Wiki, regarding Keith… “Keith Emerson was the co-founder of one of the most popular and commercially successful progressive rock bands in the 1970s!… ”

“Their musical sound included adaptations of classical music with jazz and symphonic rock elements and was dominated by Emerson’s flamboyant use of the Hammond organ, Moog synthesizer, and piano.”

Let the Keyboard player in the band live forever!
Jam On!
-Ron

Michael Putland, Getty Images

(By Nick DeRiso – via UltimateClassicRock.com)
As this article notes: “Keith Emerson, the outsized co-founding keyboardist in Emerson Lake and Palmer has died. Long-time bandmate Carl Palmer said he passed last night (March 10) in Santa Monica, Calif. ELP later confirmed the news. No cause of death has been mentioned; Emerson was 71.”

“Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come,” Palmer said. “He was a pioneer and an innovator whose musical genius touched all of us in the worlds of rock, classical and jazz.”

Learn and read more about Keith’s death, here ->
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/keith-emerson-dies/

Invention of the basic Jazz beat…

It was the late 30s’ and there was a drum cat named, Kenny Clarke. This dude could swing! Little did I realize that he created a very cleaver way (amoungst many other insightful trap notables) to use the ride cymbal as the one-beat.

Most drummers in those days struck the bass on every beat in the measure, a technique known as four-on-the-floor. For some of the faster songs back then, it was virtually impossible for drummers to keep-up this way.

Instead, Kenny kept the pulse going on the cymbal, using the bass and snare to ‘cut the time up’.

Now, with the advent of double bass and drums and pedals, the 4 on the floor is an option for trap players.

This article talks more about the history of this patriarch of drumming in modern jazz.

Jam On!
-Ron

(by: Michael J. West via: NPR.org)

Spang-a-lang was only part of Clarke’s innovation. Marking time on the ride cymbal with his right hand — previously, jazz drummers employed the bass drum with the right foot — gave his left hand and feet the freedom and sonic space to play thundering accents (“dropping bombs”) at irregular intervals…

Read the rest of the article here…

https://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2014/01/08/260769892/the-drummer-who-invented-jazzs-basic-beat

Yes co-founder and bassist Chris Squire died…

On June 28, 2015 at the young age of 67, after a battle with leukemia, the rock band ‘Yes’ (and unfortunately for the music industry) lost it’s founding member and very influential bass player, Chris Squire.
A quote from this article mentions… “Despite their critics, ‘Yes’ clearly belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their omission is one of the greatest injustices. They were on the voting list in 2013 but didn’t get in.”
Oh how the Rn’R H of F is missing out on one of the greatest rock bands of all. Anyway, I’m sure their board will come to their senses and finally include Yes in their deserved position.
Jam On!
-Ron

by Larry Atkins via: theHuffingtonPost.com

“In describing the sound of Yes, Peter Keepnews of The New York Times said, “Yes, formed in 1968, was known for its blend of rock, jazz, folk and classical influences and also for its complex time signatures and pristine vocal harmonies. One of the first of the so-called progressive (or prog) rock bands — among the others were King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer — it went on to become the most successful and longest-lasting.”…

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra marks 25 years…

Jazz at the Lincoln

Wow, hard to imagine these cats have been around this long to celebrate their 25th already… Rock/Jazz On!
-Ron

NEW YORK (AP) — Wynton Marsalis has taken his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra all the way to China and Russia, but the trumpeter says its current ‘‘Abyssinian: A Gospel Celebration Tour’’ is the most challenging in the band’s 25-year history…
More Here ->
https://www.boston.com/ae/music/2013/10/22/jazz-lincoln-center-orchestra-marks-years/UyKjBysR16WTTiFZ1OGubK/story.html?camp=rss:ae&dlvrit=834313

The Bad Plus finding jazz in Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring’…

the Bad Plus

I just knew that someday a (capable) Jazz group would render a Classical movement justice. In this instance… the Bad Plus has taken it upon themselves to really encapsulate the works of Stravinsky. Now, there are a lot of considerations when taken-on a task of this magnitude.
For instance: the very thought that a modern-day acoustic Jazz trio could even approach the powerful scores of Stravinsky’s orchestral may seem a tad silly, until you consider how interestingly enough the composer’s other works sound in similarly to existing sounds of the Bad Plus’ 3-piece jams.
Ron-

Listen to the entire movement of Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ by the Bad Plus here ->
https://youtu.be/DdE49jdfn6Y

AND… read an in depth review in Chicago Tribune
( by: Howard Reich October 22, 2013)
“Stravinsky’s orchestral score – with its convulsing rhythms and shattering dissonances – will be delivered by the bare-bones instrumentation of Ethan Iverson’s piano, Dave King’s drums and Reid Anderson’s bass. While they’re trying to capture the savage intensity of Stravinsky’s original, a series of abstract videos will play on two screens, just as an orchestra 100 years ago accompanied members of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes during that notorious premiere of Vaslav Nijinsky’s provocative choreography…”
Read article in its entirety here ->
https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-jazz-stravinsky-reich-20131023,0,4995862.column

Rudy Van Gelder Interview…

Often regarded as one of the most important recording engineers in music history, Van Gelder has recorded several thousand jazz sessions, including many widely recognized as classics, in a career spanning more than half a century…
per Wiki: Rudy Van Gelder
A great interview regarding insights thereof…
– Ron

(Marc Myers writes daily on jazz legends and legendary jazz recordings)

Rudy Van Gelder’s name appears on more jazz albums than any other engineer, producer or musician. In all Rudy has recorded thousands of records for Blue Note, Prestige, Hank-mobley-a-caddy-for-daddy_5024Impulse, Verve, A&M, CTI and other labels—which means he has been personally responsible for a sizable chunk of post-war jazz history…
More Here -> https://www.jazzwax.com/2012/02/interview-rudy-van-gelder-part-1.html

A Brief History New Orleans Jazz…

Learning a little background on the history of (New Orleans) Jazz can be insightful…
Ron-

(By Jimmy Maxwell – via Artipot)

All styles of traditional jazz (swing, Kansas City, dixieland, Chicago, west coast) are unique for any number of reasons, but New Orleans is often thought of as first and foremost in the genre. This is mostly because New Orleans is where it all started…
More Here ->
https://www.artipot.com/articles/1637268/new-orleans-jazz-a-brief-history.htm#chitika_close_button

Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan Remastered…

Associated with the Cool Jazz Period of the mid 50s, Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan had a ‘cool’ thing going… and lucky for us a re-mastered edition has been released, inclusive of a bonus studio track. Cool, man.
Ron

(By David Bowling – via BlogCritics)
Pianist Thelonious Monk and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan came together in 1957 to record Mulligan Meets Monk. That album has now been reissued as a part of the ongoing Original Jazz Classics Remasters Series…