The Jim Beard Interview

Joe Zawinul said, "Jim Beard is my favorite keyboard player...besides myself." I think that's a pretty high compliment, don't you? Jim Beard has been on the scene since the 1980's, with a resume that reads like a sideman's dream: Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker, John McLaughlin, Steely Dan, and a host of other upper eschalon artists. Beard is a virtuoso pianist and composer, yet he also is widely in demand as a multi-keyboardist. His perfection and taste with sonic textures is legendary. 

Last November, I was in New York, and I contacted Beard for a lesson. My goal was to get advice on keyboards and sound design. We met at his music studio in midtown. We got to talking, and I decided that I should interview him for jazztruth. He had a lot to say and I learned a great deal from his stories and thoughts. Here's where I started recording:

GC:
So you were saying, your original set up was the two Yamaha DX-7s and the drum machine?

Yamaha DX-7

JB: Yeah, I had a DX-7 and a TX-7 and and an RX 15, the Yamaha drum machine, and an Ensoniq Mirage, and my 4 track Fostex Cassette Recorder-that was the setup when I wrote most of those tunes for the Michael Brecker albums. And like I said, my interesting sampling came from that Prince CD, the one with "Kiss" on it. And also I was talking about when demoing songs, the need to sort of clearly arrange things, that and my desire to create interesting synth sounds. By the same token, if I would stumble across an interesting sound….but also lifting a weird pad from a Prince CD or something. Sometimes a cool sound would give me an idea for a song. So it would kind of go both ways. Right from the beginning, the nature, or the quality of a sound could either lure me into music, feed my desire to get involved with it, or turn me off, if it's an offensive, horrible sound. Pretty early on, I was pretty sensitive to what I viewed was a good sound or a bad sound.

GC: Even as a kid, when you were first getting into music?

JB: Well, no….

GC: How did you get into being a musician?

JB: Oh Jeez…..that started….I can remember being 4 years old. My Dad was kind of a technological nerd, he built our television from a kit, he built our stereo from a kit. We had a weird stereo, one of the speakers was in a cabinet  on the living room floor and the other was on the ceiling on the other side of the room. But when I was young, my idea of a good time was just to lay on the floor in front of the speaker and listen to records. Anything from…..a lot of it was the Herb Albert records…

GC: Really? Interesting….

JB: I mean, those records had a lot of detail in the arrangements…"Whipped Cream and Other Delights". That's a classic record. And I always loved holiday times, the traditional Christmas music, with the choirs and the orchestra and so forth. I used to love that.

GC: You grew up in Philly?

JB: Yes, Ridley Park, not far from the airport.

GC: Did you have classical lessons?

JB: Yes. I had the same teacher for about 12 years. I started when I was 6. I did the whole heavy classical routine. My teacher entered me in competitions.

GC: Did you get a degree in music?

JB: Yes I went to Indiana University. After that, I world on a cruise ship for a year , with the intention of saving money to move to New York. But I didn't save any money! And I moved to New York anyway..

GC: And then right away you got the call to play with the Mahavishnu Orchestra?

John McLaughlin of Mahavishnu Orchestra

JB: Not right away. I moved in August of 1985. Within that year I was working with Mahavishnu. Yeah, that was an interesting time.

GC: You came to New York in '85. You still live here part time, and part time in Helsinki?

JB: My wife is Finnish, so we split the time between Helsinki and New York.

GC: How do you think New York as a city has changed? Since you've been here?

JB: I think it's a safer city now, which I believe qualifies as being better…..In terms of music, it's hard to say, you might have to compare with younger musicians who come here who are hungry. I used to do jam sessions all the time, with the loft scene….New York has gotten so expensive now, that it seems there isn't as vibrant a scene as there used to be.

GC: I guess it depends on who you talk to.

JB: The rents…..I don't know how a kid out of school with no money saved up, without a job, could move here. I guess they don't move to Manhattan, they live in Queens, or Brooklyn.

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan

GC: You're pretty well established as a musician, so I imagine you are touring a lot. You are still touring with Steely Dan?

JB: I've been doing that for two years. But we are on a break right now, so there's a tour with a band called the Dukes of September. It's Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, and Boz Scaggs. So the three of them in one band. It's really fun. I'm playing mostly Hammond B-3 on that.


GC: Have you done a lot of B-3 playing?

JB: Yeah, I've done some gigs here or there that were exclusively Hammond B-3. But most of the time, like with something like Madeline Peyroux, I would have a set up with A Steinway piano, a Wurlitzer, and a Hammond B-3. That really served that music well.

GC: How do you adjust your set up, or your mindset, for this wide variety of gigs you have been doing?

JB: If its a more electric oriented gig, with more emphasis on synthesizers, then that's obviously much different than doing an acoustic gig, of course. After a few years, I had a working set up that I used for a good stretch; two controllers,  the Yamaha 88 weighted key controller (the KX88) and then the KX76 on top. And then I had different versions of these midi control boxes, that you could assign different splits and routings and so forth. And then midi cables running to a big rack of synth modules.

GC: And you would always bring that?

JB: I would always bring that for the Mahavishnu stuff, and then I got called for John Scofield, and he had a pretty electric setup as well. I was only with that band for a year. Wait, I did Wayne Shorter after Mahavishnu…there were several different bands, one was with Kenwood Denard on drums and Alphonso Johnson on bass…one with Omar Hakim on drums and Victor Bailey on bass…there were maybe 7 or 8 different configurations with Wayne. Then I did Scofield, and then I did Wayne again, and then I did John McLaughlin and the Heart of Things. But I found that this approach with two keyboards, with all of these bands, that these songs had a strong emphasis on arrangements. These songs were recorded with a lot of overdubs and different sonic layers, and so….My job was to recreate the sounds on these recordings. I saw this as a fun challenge.

I saw this task as making me the orchestrator. It takes thought in terms of the ergonomics of it. Let's say, this section needs some pads in this part of the keyboard that are warm and rich, and then if stuff gets wild, I'll have something splashy in the top part of the keyboard, and then maybe I'll have a solo sound in the other keyboard. Some keyboardists now just have sort of one keyboard and then their laptop. That would drive me nuts! Because this is like having, let's say 10 people, who can play all the instruments, but they can only play one instrument at any one time, so they have to switch up constantly….no, you want to have everything ready to go all the time! If there is a spontaneous need to play a certain sound, you don't want to have to press some command on your laptop, you want it to be within reach.

Wayne Shorter

When I was doing Wayne Shorter's band, with David Gilmore on guitar, this was 1996, that's when the Roland JP 8000 came out. That was the beginning of the whole virtual sound modeling thing started. It was cool to play the instrument, because you could adjust the sound in real time with the knobs…it had a lot of cool Joe Zawinul types of sounds, almost like weird creatures speaking from another planet or something. So then I added a third keyboard. Well, actually four keyboards, because with Wayne and John, there was a grand piano as well. A piano to my left, two keyboards next to that, and the the JP 8000 on my right.

John McLaughlin and The Heart of Things was a fun band. I had to do a lot of homework! But it got to the point with that band, where it reminded me of a Band of Swashbucklers…

GC: A lot of virtuosity…

JB: Which is not naturally my thing. That's not necessarily what I look for in music. It's ok in measured doses…

GC: What do you look for?

JB: Music! Musicalness!

GC: (laughs). I hear you ! But for any musical situation, you always rise to the occasion, right?

JB: Exactly. The craftsmanship of making the music at hand. That's the priority. Serving the music. Now, if the music is about getting out there and beating your chest, and trying to impress people, then sure, I'll rise to that. If the music is about repeating a little rhythmic part that has to be in the pocket, and that's all you have to do night after night, then I'll do that. Whatever serves the music best.

I just find that there doesn't seem to be an overabundance of musicians that have that as their priority. A lot of musicians have their own agenda. It's like, "This is what I do regardless of who I'm playing with."

GC: But don't you think that every musician goes into a situation having to make judgement calls?

JB: For example, with Steely Dan, I'm such a fan of their music. Those records helped me create my musical concept and my harmonic vocabulary as a teenager. When they gave me the charts, about 55, 60 charts, I felt like I already knew must of their music. And so much of their music is so tangible and strong. So most of the gig is just about making the sound of the recording come to life. But there are times in the show where they will give me extended unaccompanied piano solos, where they want me to be me. So then I can get into some stuff, like Classical meets Fats Waller spun out of a riff from "Babylon Sisters", and then you gotta turn on a dime and play the part from the song, you know, just nail it.

That's why I like doing film scores. Those are really fun. With film scores, you don't see the music until the last minute. In a way, it's almost like the musical equivalent of acting; they describe the scene, maybe they want the piano with a single note melody. Sometimes that can be more challenging that having to play a page full of Rachmaninoff. It's so specific: the director and the composer have such a specific idea about dynamics, or exactly where things are supposed to be.

I don't do a ton of film scores, they come in waves. This year is pretty good. But you know, a lot of big studios are closing down. Clinton Studios is gone, Legacy closed down, they've been gone for about a year. Those were two of the rooms where you could do large ensembles. Now they use the Manhattan Center, which is an event room, setting up the mics, etc….


GC: What about Avatar?

JB: Maybe not for an orchestra, but that's one of the last great rooms in New York. Yeah, it's depressing, all the studios closing.

GC: What is your most recent solo project?

JB: It's called Revolutions on the Sunnyside label. It's with an orchestra. It came out good.


GC: How long did it take?

JB: It was done in two chunks. In 2005 I was a guest with the Metropole Orchestra, I was invited to record and work with them for 5 days. I think it was 6 tunes. The only purpose of it was a radio broadcast in Europe. It was fun, I got some mixes, and it really turned out very well. So I thought, gee, wouldn't it be great to make an album with this orchestra. So I put the bug in Vince Mendoza's ear, and he submitted it to the management of the orchestra. And then I got Joachim Becker from ESC Records to get involved. So we did that, but we needed more songs, and I wanted to redo some of the first batch, so then we did some more recording in 2007.


GC: My favorite recording of yours is Advocate. I love the first tune, "Fever" so much! Where did you come up with the inspiration for that recording?

JB: That particular song….actually, I had written much of that song quite a bit earlier, it had just been sitting around , and I didn't have much of a production concept for it. There was this project, I don't know if they are still doing it now, but a band with drummer Zach Danziger and bassist Tim LeFavre called Boomish. I had heard their first recording, and I thought it was some really brilliant stuff. I thought they were possibly on the edge of something really unique. So I invited Zach to be involved with the drum approach on that tune. That was a time when I was still into programming and trying things….what I had not written at that point was the solo changes, which just sort of keep escalating throughout the song. That just sort of spilled out.

 It was fun making that record. There was a lot going on in my personal life at the time. I had two very young children at the time, they were one and three. A lot of that was really freaking me out! Fatherhood felt really new to me, and a lot of that feeling went into that recording.

GC: Did you spend a lot of time mixing that recording? Because the mix sounds really great to me…

JB: Glad to hear that. I get pretty fussy about that. Mixing is something that I'm actually kind of obsessive about. That was 1999, that was the beginning of the decline of the music industry, maybe now we're at the bottom. But then it was a small budget. I did a lot of the recording myself. I used to have my own project studio. I had a loft right across the street from here, and I ended up recording a lot of the stuff there. The tune on the record called "Mirrors", Zach's drums were recorded there. I just wanted to see what real drums would sound like on this tune. So I put a C414 mic up above the kit and a SM 57 in front of the kick drum. We did one or two takes and I thought it sounded great. It had that sort of lo-fi thing to it. That was the beginning of when it became cool to be cheap and dumb, so to speak! And that made it on the record.


GC: Do you think that now that the budgets are dropping, the sound quality is dropping? Or because of the technology, things are sounding better for less?


JB: Both. I heard a recording the other day, I won't say whose, and it sounded harsh, and brittle, and kind of cheap! I think the problem is that now a lot of people think that they can be the artist and the producer and the arranger and the engineer. I think people still love music from the 60's because you didn't have that at all: you had the artist, the composer, the arranger, the lyricist. It was a group effort. You get a lot of cool things when you have a collaborative effort.


GC: You're touring with Steely Dan now, what is your set up with them?

JB: Acoustic Piano-we travel with a Steinway. A Hammond XK-3C, which is one manual of a digital Hammond, and the Nord Stage. That's it. The Nord Stage is great. Great clavinet and Rhodes sounds.


GC: Are you planing on doing more things as a leader at some point?

JB: Yes, though I'm finding that much of what I've done as a leader doesn't pay what some of these other things pay! When you have kids, you have to set your priorities. I was invited to a festival in Mexico with my own group a few years ago,  and they asked me to confirm almost a year in advance. And then Steely Dan announced their world tour. And I signed a contract. And then the management said that the tour was going to be extended, which conflicted with my gig in Mexico. I really didn't want to cancel my own gig, but Steely Dan made it clear that they don't want to sub out the rhythm section. So the people in Mexico were pretty upset; they started talking about lawyers and such. I thought I would be on their blacklist  forever. But then they asked me to come down with my band the next year! I couldn't believe they asked me again! But I had to turn it down, because Steely Dan was planning a tour of Australia around the same time. And then the Steely Dan tour fell through! So I could have done the Mexico festival. It's Murphy's Law, I suppose.

GC: You are a prolific composer. Did you ever study composition?

JB: I studied a little bit. Indiana University.But I studied with a guy who was really into this 12 tone Schoenberg stuff. Honestly, I didn't learn a lot from him. Most of my inspiration comes from listening and playing a of of music. If you play Ravel's "Tombeau De Couperin", it's just perfect music, complete. Any great music! Bach still knocks my socks off. Solo piano stuff, Chopin can really be amazing. But also, Tom Waits' Bone Machine does that to me as well.

GC: I hear a lot of different influences in your music, but I hesitate to call it "eclectic" because that can be a negative connotation from certain folks.  But I feel like your albums hang together cohesively.

JB: Sometimes I feel like my albums are more like musical "little cities." Sometimes when I'm writing a song, the song will take on the characteristics of a person. And then once I feel like it's a good song, there's a point where the song takes over. I'm not writing it anymore. If I get at least 16 bars….I mean, I reject 9 out of 10 things that I write. But once I accept it, it starts to become a character. Then I say, "How does this character walk, how does he talk, is he sad, is he happy?" He's like a person in a town. And then you want to have other people in the town. But how boring would the town be if everyone it it was the same! Of course, there is a line that can be crossed; if you have a song that's a Country-Western duet fooled by something that sounds like Wagnerian Opera, followed by a Led Zeppelin type song. That's sort of over the top…..

GC: I get the idea. Although……(Laughing) that gives me an idea……Anyway, you taught at Queens College for a while?

JB: I taught there for a year, and I was also teaching at Rutgers the same year. It was ok, my kids were 7 and 9 years old, and I thought about maybe shifting my career towards teaching, so that I could be around the kids more. And then there was an advertisement in a trade paper about a job at Berklee College of Music for a Dean of Composition. So I submitted my stuff, and I made the short list. So I sent some more material. So then I made the finals, the top 3. So I flew to Boston. I swear to God, I've never been more stressed and nervous! I felt like I was being vetted for Supreme Court Justice or something. At the end of each day, there would be a big panel of other Deans, looking at you…..and I guess I felt like "wow, this just isn't me"! What ended up happening is that....they didn't pick anybody! The academic world can be strange…..


GC: I agree!

People who do well in the academic world have to have the mind of a politician. And everybody's looking over their shoulder, afraid they are going to get the axe. And, at the time, I just didn't want to play the game.

GC: Do you see yourself teaching in the future?

JB: If somebody came to me with a job and I didn't have to go though a maze to get the job, and they were very straightforward about it, I might consider it. Depending on where and so forth.

GC: Do you enjoy teaching?

JB: If it's good, I enjoy it. If I have a good student who is feeding the energy back and forth , then yes, of course. But sometimes I get students who I just know in my heart that it's not going to happen for them, and that can be tough. I had an improv class at Rutgers, and I tried to give students a sense of reality. I had a bass student in the class who had problems keeping the form for any tune. Yet this person expressed to me that he wanted to work on advanced soloing techniques. I said, 'Really?". But I had to get real. I said, "If you want to work as a bassist, people are going to hire you to play THE BASS. You've got to be able to keep the form through a tune. That's what you need to do first to get hired."

http://www.jimbeard.com/

Blast from The Past: My First Gig At Smalls in 1995

1995: The year I moved to New York City. I would have moved sooner; getting attacked by a lunatic on the 2 train in 1990 made me hold off for a while. Apparently, riding the subway after dark in the 80's and early 90's in New York was a gamble. Things have changed dramatically; the subways are relatively safe (although they say in New York, "anything can happen". So if you are on the subway, just try to look like you are from New York, or you've at least lived there for more than 3 years. Don't stare at anybody, and don't draw attention to yourself and you'll be ok.). But I was afraid for a long time, until my desire to play jazz with the best players outweighed my fear of being attacked on the subway. And eventually, I could ride the subway at all hours; even after a Bradley's gig, which would end at 3am, I would take the subway to Brooklyn.

Gary Thomas

That year, even though I was new in town, somehow, I was able to get a gig as a leader at Smalls.The band I chose was pretty odd for the room: Gary Thomas on Tenor Saxophone, Ed Howard on Bass, and Falk Willis on drums. Small's then, and somewhat now, tends to lean more towards bebop and more mainstream jazz, more than say a place like The Stone, or like The Knitting Factory (which was active in 1995). I suppose I was a bit stubborn back then, and I really wanted to present my music in a particular way. I heard later that many of the Small's regulars were, shall we say, critical of the gig. However, I also remember that Kenny Garrett came to the gig to check out Gary Thomas. I only had one more weekend at Smalls in 1996 before a hiatus of at least 10 or more years. Now, thanks to the graciousness of proprietor Spike Wilner, I am once again playing gigs as a leader at Smalls.( The next one is in July, I'll keep you posted!)

Falk Willis

German native and drummer Falk Willis recently sent me a link to a 4 audio file set from that performance. I think he or I, I don't remember, made a cassette recording of this gig. The audio quality is not outstanding, but the music, in my opinion, is pretty interesting. Thomas is ferocious, and Willis drives the band with crispy passion. It's revealing to hear myself at age 25. Have I improved? Maybe the better question is, have I regressed? It seems like another lifetime ago, but it also serves as a reminder that becoming a jazz musician is a lifelong process. You want to know where you are going, but also know where you've been. ( I made that up just now! Ha ha...)

So here is the link to the music. The first tune is called "Ultimatum", the second tune is called, "Ancestral Wisdom", the third is " It's You Or No One," and the last is an incomplete take of "Hyperspace", which is a pretty challenging melody. The first two songs I ended up recording for Criss Cross in 2001; they appear on a CD called Ultimatum. It's available on Itunes. "Hyperspace" was recorded in 1996 on one of Gary Thomas' CDs called Found On Sordid Streets. That might be on Itunes also, it's on the Winter&Winter label.

Enjoy!

http://soundcloud.com/falkwillis/sets/gary-thomas-sax-george-colligan-piano-ed-howard-bass-falk-willis-drums-live-at-smalls

Tour Diary May 2011: Jack Dejohnette Group in Europe Part 3

How can I sleep when
I need to practice the rudiments?

What a difference some sleep makes! I'm feeling much better now that I've gotten four decent nights of sleep. Although, I must say, this tour started out with a bit of sleep deprivation, but it was nothing like my son's first year of life. That boy did not want to SLEEP! During that year, I was thinking that my wife and I would just go on like that forever, that we would never sleep again for the rest of our lives; that perhaps this was some sort of punishment for unknown sins or something. Thankfully, finally, Liam figured out how to sleep through the night, although he still likes to get up pretty early. I remember other musicians I know who had children saying they got more sleep on the road than at home; I never believed them until Liam was born!

In my last entry, I wrote that we were going to Schloss Neuhardenberg. It's a place in the former East Germany which has a rich history, dating to 1348, when it was a village called Quilitz. This village was once the geographical center of the Kingdom of Prussia. (Some say it was originally a Slavic settlement.)

Schloss means palace, or manor, and that refers to the "castle" built around 1762 by Joachim Bernard von Prittwitz, a soldier who was awarded the town because he had helped to save King Freredick's life during the Seven Years War. In 1814, Karl August Furst Von Hardenburg took over the town. Here is where it gets interesting. This is from the Neuhardenberg website:

Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg 

The castle and the related properties remained in possession of the family. In 1921 Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg took over the Neu-Hardenberg estate. He later participated in the preparations for the attempt on the life of Hitler on July 20, 1944, by allowing, among other things, Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg, Henning von Tresckow and others to use Schloss Neu-Hardenberg to work out the plans for the assassination attempt relatively undisturbed. If the plot had been successful, the count was designated to become chief police president in Berlin and Brandenburg, a key position under the given circumstances of a national crisis. Three days after the failed attempt, however, Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg was arrested in the castle under dramatic circumstances before he could attempt to take his own life, and was taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where despite serious injury and grave danger to his life he survived.

Wow! I guess they had a real life Inglourius Basterds going on there in Schloss NeuHardenberg. After the war, the town , being in East German territory, was renamed Marxwalde, and was a model for the German Architecture Academy. It was also a garrison for the East German Army. When the Berlin Wall fell, they decided to call it Neuhardenberg again. Now it's a place which seems to be dedicated to art and music. They have a pretty extensive concert series; many of the concerts take place in this little historic church right next to the hotel that we stayed in.

I'm always interested in how a small town in the middle of eastern Germany will have the money, and the interest, to bring Jack DeJohnette and his band, and yet, most cities in the United States have neither the funding nor the desire to bring high level jazz music. It's kind of sad to me, that this band will most likely never play in Baltimore, or Philly, or Washington D.C., but we will play all over Europe in small villages.

Schinkel Church

And the concert went very well. It was not a huge crowd, since the Schinkel Church, literally a two minute walk from the hotel, could not, I imagine, hold more than 500 people. But the crowd was completely engaged, and they asked for an encore, even after 90 minutes of continuous music. And then they brought each of us a bouquet of flowers. Very classy! Again, the level of love and respect jazz musicians get everywhere except North America is still strange to me. I could never imagine Lorraine Gordon giving the band flowers after a set at the Vanguard! (Can you?)

Maybe it was a nightclub back in the day....

On to Athens, Greece! Most people spend a week or two in sunny Greece on holiday. Unfortunately, we only got about 36 hours, just enough time for a couple of Greek salads, a sound check and a concert. Regrettably, I did not go to the Acropolis, but I could see it from the rooftop restaurant. (It reminded me of when basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neil was asked, after he made a visit to Athens, if he went to the Acropolis? "We went to so many nightclubs, I don't remember the names of all of them...") While in Athens, I ran into drumming great Ralph Peterson, Jr., and I was able to get an interview with him. Hopefully, I'll post it sooner rather than later.

Now we are in Hamburg, Germany for a few days. We still have almost two weeks to go! In the meantime, here are some pictures from my Iphone. Nothing too exciting, but at least some visual representation of the tour. I've gotten out of the habit of taking pictures on the road. I think the last time I did it was when you still had to bring rolls of film to be developed. Enjoy!

in front of the hotel

nice little pool in front of the hotel

back of the hotel

our road manager, Ben Surman: "Stop asking me how long it takes to get to Athens!"

Dave Fiuczynski checking his luggage

bassist Jerome Harris

Jack and Ben checking in the bags

Ravi Coltrane: "One more donut, please..."

Jack, reading the paper

This was in Dusseldorf, the connecting airport. We thought it was funny....

view from my room in Athens

Jack tuning the drums

Jerome at soundcheck

This is the Onassis Cultural Center in Athens. It was sold out!

Dave and his double neck guitar

Ravi at soundcheck

My set up: Grand Piano, Nord Stage, Laptop controller, Yamaha Motif. The pocket trumpet is sitting on the piano

Another view of my set up

My view of the concert

Jack's view

The band after the concert and a few drinks

rooftop pool

view from the rooftop

You can barely see the Acropolis

Athens Airport: we thought this was funny too

Miles Davis' Solo on "So What"

Most people who know me know me as a jazz pianist. (Funny because the other night at a performance, our guide told that she was surprised that I would be playing piano, because someone told her I was a "keyboard" player. Good thing piano and keyboard use the same fingerings...) But I really started as a trumpet player. I gave it up for a long time, and I barely have a chance to play now. When I told Jack Dejohnette that I also played trumpet, he asked me to bring my trumpet for the tour, because "it adds another color to the band." So I've been playing one tune a night; luckily, it's a tune in B minor concert (C# minor for trumpet. A sarcastic "Yay".)

I'm trying to practice a little every day while we are on the road. One cannot really miss a day from trumpet and expect it to sound or feel good the next day. The "embouchure", or facial muscles that are used with the mouthpiece to produce the trumpet sound, are very delicate. I developed very bad habits as a kid, and I actually had to drastically change my embouchure twice. I struggled a lot with the "embouchure", probably more than most. But on this tour, I can get through one tune, and it's good enough for the novelty of a keyboard player (or piano?) standing up to play trumpet and get some pity applause.

I want to get back into trying to learn solos on trumpet. In college, I initially transcribed trumpet solos: some Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, and Woody Shaw. (I think I even transcribed part of a Lew Soloff solo from Blood, Sweat, and Tears. But it had too many high notes and I couldn't play it.) So I'm going to go back to basics and learn this Miles Davis solo from "So What", probably one of the most classic solos. It's not technically difficult, but it's a great musical statement. Miles was a minimalist, but his solos have great architecture, which is something that I find many students fail to understand. I talk a lot about how the "shape" of a solo has to be like a book , or a movie; you want to have something interesting happening, and a sense of "going somewhere", otherwise, why will people pay attention to it? There has to be some kind of drama, even if it is subtle( as it is in the case of Miles Davis).

So here is the solo. I transcribed this a few years ago on a keyboard, so it's in concert key. I'm determined to get to it on the trumpet. Posting it here is extra motivation. If you see me, ask me if I can play it yet. Don't be a jerk about it! But, hey, everything is a work in progress....

Why The Grammys Are More Irrelevant Than Ever

Two Grammys and millions of dollars! Good for you....

There was a big brew-ha-ha over the recent decision by NARAS(National Academy of Recording Arts And Sciences...wow, it sounds so scholarly....) to cut the Latin Jazz Category(as well as many other categories)from the Grammy Awards. As expected, there has been outrage from the Latin Jazz community. The great Latin Jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri spoke out against it. Many have made accusations of racism. Some have suggested that the move came as a way to punish small independent labels. Indeed, the "restructuring" of the awards, which actually eliminated 31 categories, was prompted by an open letter to the industry by, oh what a surprise... A Record Company Executive!

First of all, I think that there has been a huge rift between what goes on at the Grammys and actual MUSIC. The music INDUSTRY now, in terms of what's considered POPULAR, is mostly Theatre Of The Absurd. Unfortunately for us musician types, this Sideshow of Mediocre Insanity does better numbers than real music making. I heard that some of the so-called Hip Hop royalty have been critical of the recent choices for Album of the Year (Herbie Hancock) and Best New Artist (Esperanza Spalding) because they didn't sell anywhere near as many units as the Hip Hop Artists. The problem is, the Grammys are based on VOTES by members of NARAS. Why can't we have a truly great artist like Herbie Hancock acknowledged in a Music Awards ceremony, even though he doesn't sell as much as the seriously over-hyped Kanye West?(I don't like his music, but I did admire him for his remark on live TV about "George Bush doesn't care about Black people". I thought that took guts. But then he tearfully retracted the remarks. So I'm back to merely hating his music.)

Justin Bieber: Boy Band Of One...

My thought is this: if it's really coming down to a contest of sales vs. artistry, then why don't we just have two separate Grammys, so to speak? Why not have NARAS, celebrating the caterwauling of drug addicted strippers, middle school age Boy Bands of One, and the millionaire rappers who raps remind you of their riches, on one side, and then, something different-I don't know, let's call it The National Academy of Musical Achievement (NAMA), on the other side, which can deal with singers and musicians who actually care about singing and music! Let NARAS go it's own way, and let it become a virtual Olympic Games of Selling Audible Crap. If it's about numbers, USE the numbers to decide, in the same way the stopwatch and the finish line defines a 100 Meter Dash. Then give Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Whomever sells the most albums is WITHOUT QUESTION the ARTIST OF THE YEAR. (Even if it's the shittiest music you've ever heard, which wouldn't even matter to today's Music Executive.)

There's no reason that we, the people who have our own opinions, not ones that are forced upon us by advertising, couldn't demand an alternative. Maybe another way to do it would be to have jazz, classical, and other independent minded musicians boycott NARAS. Personally, I don't watch the Grammys, I don't buy any of that "music", and I've never been interested in joining NARAS. I don't know-maybe if I was a member, I could have more of a way to protest this trend. But obviously, this decision by NARAS shows that the higher ups could care less about their lowly dues paying members. It could turn out to be a mistake by NARAS in the long run. I believe that the trend should be, if the Grammys is truly a celebration of musical achievement,  to be MORE inclusive, not less. Most of the award presentations don't make the television broadcast anyway, so why does it even make a difference? Are the Grammy statuettes made of real gold, and NARAS can't afford so many to give away?

As much as I have bashed much of so called Contemporary Music in earlier paragraphs, I do believe it has a right to exist. But if this decision by NARAS to eliminate these categories is a move to punish the little guy (which takes the form of indie labels), then obviously, they don't believe in OUR right to exist. Unfortunately, much of the public doesn't care; they only listen to what's on the radio or TV. But the internet could actually change that, and that might be our saving grace. The grass roots nature of independent online marketing can make a difference. And I believe that is what scares the big companies; they don't want the playing field leveled. The reduction of categories by NARAS is similar to the Big Auto companies killing the electric car and lobbying against public transportation; they don't want a real alternative. This is capitalism at it's worst. It's no different than gangsters shooting their competition. Maybe we can find a way to shoot back.

Milli Vanilli: innovators in lip synching... and being terrible