Anyone like the jazz?

[Trussrod]

A good song is a good song no matter what the genre. I like knowing jazz theory and what it does for my playing. I learned to play guitar from a jazz musician and playing "straight ahead" was always the goal when taking a solo.

[Danno]

Mostly hardcore and groundbreaking stuff which was hated by the critics at the time. You know Coltrane, Miles (mostly Bitches Brew era), Ornette Coleman and so on.
Some early fusion like Return To Forever, Billy Cobham's solo stuff etc. not that cheesy 80's shit fusion. Plenty of old school... Monk had absolutely beautiful tunes, Armstrong's tone was beyond this world... can't stop listening to them.

Big Band swing is a great background music, Ellington, Goodman and the stuff... drummers from that school had the baddest sounds ever. Gypsy swing is always fun, specially from a guitar players perspective.
Let's see... Brubeck is smokin'... specially because of Joe Morello.. that sick bastard.
And of course Bill Evans... I think he was the greatest pianist ever, I have never heard anyone else playing so colourfully. Michel Petrucciani is also very colourful.

As far as the newer stuff goes Scandinavia has plenty of cool things... this distinctive Nordic sound they have really separates them from the other nu-jazz movements. French underground scene is always interesting, very experimental.

Basically anything that's cookin' and progressive is cool in my book. Can't stand this smooth crap, or most of those mini acoustic bands who miserably fail at playing old classics. Boring as hell, write your own tunes and grow some balls. You suck when you are not pissing off the critics or middle aged house wives.
Now this was made to piss of the critics, I fuckin' love it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLzIrpM5TEg

Hi Endrik,

You probably already know the magnificent "Undercurrents" with Bill Evans and the ever-amazing Jim Hall. Just wonderful stuff. There was no one like Bill Evans.

[DonP]

Anyone like the jazz?

I've never tried the jazz, but I do like the '59. Most people say the jazz is a little lifeless and boring. I don't know.

[Spivonious]

I like playing big band and latin stuff (trombone), but listening to it just doesn't do anything for me.

[Grandturk]

My biggest problem with jazz is probably the traditionalists. I have lunch with a jazz guy nearly everyday, and all its about playing this standard or that standard. I've met more metal guys that like jazz than jazz guys that like metal, if you know what I mean.

[Spivonious]

My biggest problem with jazz is probably the traditionalists. I have lunch with a jazz guy nearly everyday, and all its about playing this standard or that standard. I've met more metal guys that like jazz than jazz guys that like metal, if you know what I mean.

My jazz band director in college was like that. Jazz was perfection and all other music was crap.

[Endrik]

Hi Endrik,

You probably already know the magnificent "Undercurrents" with Bill Evans and the ever-amazing Jim Hall. Just wonderful stuff. There was no one like Bill Evans.

Yeah, that's an interesting collaboration as both of them were heavily influenced by classical music. One of the reasons I love Evans so much is that he uses impressionistic colours all the time, you can really sense Debussy and Ravel in his playing. Jim's lines are very interesting, extremely rhythmic, very sax-like feel.

[Endrik]

This is a great work out for guitarists, copying Pat's sax licks he plays before Elvin's drum solo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHulrp03qnk

[pro-fusion]

My biggest problem with jazz is probably the traditionalists. I have lunch with a jazz guy nearly everyday, and all its about playing this standard or that standard. I've met more metal guys that like jazz than jazz guys that like metal, if you know what I mean.

Amen!!!!!

I'm primarily a "jazz" musician now and don't do straight-ahead rock or metal anymore. However, the jazz that excites me most is both '70s fusion and the avant-garde stuff from the '60s and '70s. Jazz nowadays is afflicted by guys with university jazz degrees who play everything the "right way" and are extremely careful not to ruffle any feathers. It's becoming a museum piece, and that sickens me. Wynton Marsalis has spent over two decades slavishly imitating a style that Miles Davis invented and then casually discarded within the span of about three or four years. Miles believed in doing something once and then moving on to something new, and many of the other great jazz musicians felt the same way, if not quite as radically as Miles did.

In many cases, jazz guitarists are the worst offenders among uptight jazzholes. Me, I don't play anything resembling traditional jazz guitar, but hopefully more like what Coltrane or Ornette Coleman might have done had they picked up a Jackson Soloist and used too much distortion.

Part of the problem is that the culture that developed the great jazz of the '50s-'70s is largely gone. Jazz was about people going to nightclubs and having cocktails while being entertained by challenging music. It was an expression of pride and purpose by the African-American middle and upper classes, as well as a sophisticated form of cultural rebellion years before the hippies showed up. Now, it's about wine-and-cheese festivals.

[Shawn Lutz]

jazz is more challenging form an improvisional PoV. In Rock you can prety much wail away and remain in key. With jazz you have to be on your toes harmonically and know what will and will not work for each underlying chord....your not going to beable ti remain in one mode for the entire thing

Straight jazz can be too uptight, jazz/rock fusion is the stuff I really like.

[Endrik]

"traditionalists" aren't really jazz at all if you look at the philosophy of great jazz players.
If everyone would be like traditionalists there wouldn't be no jazz and its many different forms.

Yesterday I went to this concert which one of the music schools organized, 95% of the students there are a bunch of pansies, all they do is cover the standards.
Most of the acts were boring as hell but then my friends went on the stage, they play this scandinavian type nu-jazz/fusion thing. They played about 3 times louder than the others, very technical, a lot of different experimental sounds etc. Everyone, including all those lame ass students were thrilled and grooving along, one of the leading orchestra leaders and songwriters in the country started smiling... he was like "now this is what I'm talking about!!!".

It's strange, all those lameo's can dig the cool stuff but somehow they are too much of a pansies to really try experimenting. I don't know what is it with them.
Sometimes I've been jamming in that music school's rehearsal space. All the guitar amps have the gayest settings ever. Most of the guitarists probably have never even tried to use distortion. One of the amps which had the best crunch sound... its footswitch was tied to a chair's leg with 1000 knots.... they were probably afraid that someone's gonna play with a drive some day... and of course I did... all the knobs to 10. I probably piss off a lot of tuba players every time I go there.
One guitar player who finished that school... and he can fucking play.. didn't get along with anyone because he wasn't impressed about playing half hassed versions of some Bird song for a thousandth time... he found Greg Howe and Meshuggah to be much more interesting.

It perfectly shows how important is "philosophy" in music. All the great musicians have great philosophy about music and art in general... and bunch of dumbasses sounds really fucking boring... what a coincidence!

[atomic charvel guy]

all the great jazz cats were always hopped up. hop fiends can play like motherfukkers.

[Hellbat]

This hop fiend can mf like a playa!

Straight up G5 Playa!



In seriousness the bud can make me 'feel' the music a little more but it can negatively impact the dexterity. Thankfully my devoted audience (me) has no complaints about poor performances and clammed notes.

[Endrik]

jazz cats were huge smack-heads, specially in the 50's which according to revisionist imbeciles was a happy drug-free decade.

[atomic charvel guy]

it made me play better