Dear Hiro, Thanks for finding this clip. While there are some aspects of this guy's playing that are not so much to my taste, his time feel, rhythmic lilt, and variety of articulation are exceptional. Svend Asmussen was very good, and I used to work on recording dates in New York with Harry Lookofsky, a regular on high level recording sessions, who could play Charlie Parker solos with convincing nuance and expressive detail. There is a Quincy Jones recording, from the '70s, I think, in which there's a Toots Thielemans harmonica solo (improvised) that Harry was assigned to learn. Quincy fades Toots out and Harry in after a few measures, and there's hardly any difference in feel. Harry was good.
Ray Nance? There are a some examples of people who have learned to do this pretty well. On the purely mathematical/analytical side, Gunther Schuller once suggested that modern swing feel was closer to quintuplets divided 3 and 2, rather than triplets in a 2 to 1 ratio. I don't imagine for a minute that it's that simple, but I do think that is closer than the overly simplified idea that is taught to jazz students who are looking for shortcuts. It's a language, and you have to have the ability and take the time to learn the accent, and there's no avoiding that, if you want to sound authentic. I play equally badly with a French or German bow, but I always feel that jazz phrasing comes more naturally to me with the German grip (Paul Chambers, Slam Stewart, Major Holley). Nevertheless, Chris McBride plays convincingly with a French bow, and Red Mitchell could play like some kind of jazz angel with a variety of grips, so the grip mechanics can't be all that important. I don't have answers. I just find the discussion interesting. Chuck On Mar 19, 2010, at 10:31 PM, A-NO-NE Music wrote: > > I am late for the thread as usual - to make things worse, I got my studio > flooded this week :_( > > To me, swing feel, or I rather want to use the word Groove is very cultural. > I mean, musical style is a really cultural thing. You can't learn them from > books. Listening may not be enough. You want to live where that culture is, > no? But I think you all know this already. > > What I wanted to respond to is the bowing thread. I had two violin students > who studied jazz impro with me so I did some researching. There are two > major different styles. One is the fiddle bowing. They use tip of the bow > to produce the time feel. The other is the middle bowing, which you see more > often in rock music. It seems middle bowing is coming from classical style. > It fits well with rock music because it is more dramatic, but it seems harder > to swing probably it's something to do with how the bow speaks - I don't know > since I am just a flute player. > > But I was fascinated with the style differences between the two. Some > players such as Jean-Luc Ponty can mix these styles but he is mainly a middle > bowing style, while Christian Howes, Rob Thomas, and Matt Glaser those who > also teache at Berklee are more of tip bowing. I also found students who > came from classical training dislike tip bowing. I personally feel tip > bowing swings harder. > > While I was researching, I found this guy on YouTube, Scott Tixier. This guy > grooves! > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt0QMz_OCvs > > I just wanted to share :-) > > > -- > - Hiro > > Hiroaki Honshuku, A-NO-NE Music, Greater Boston > http://a-no-ne.com http://anonemusic.com > http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pearflame&search_type=&aq=f > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > Finale@shsu.edu > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale Chuck Israels 230 North Garden Terrace Bellingham, WA 98225-5836 phone (360) 671-3402 fax (360) 676-6055 www.chuckisraels.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
