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Are all up on the front page of this site: https://bruuuce.com
reading through the promo blurb just now, I do wish people wouldn’t start splurting about how masterful jazz is and how it needs years of study blah blah – Bruce has always been a jazz artist and I do wish people wouldn’t put it up on a pedestal. Someone who is reasonably competent can play jazz – learn a few scales and get improvising
In fact I think it’s the “fear of the unknown” that makes people think that jazz is something you need a phd in to be any good at it. Once you know where you can go on a jam the rest is easy.
Jazz is never going to become more accessible to the public whilst this elitist mentality prevails. (one of my favourite parts of the 3 nights DVD is telling that sax player to shut up when he starts on the ‘ooo – jazz is so studious, jazz needs years of education’ nonsense.)
ok rant over.
Looking forward to this immensely
Kind regards
Dave Rich
You know, I didn’t realize this was going to be entirely instrumental. Not necessarily a good or bad thing. Just a fact I didn’t know… Dave R., interesting to get a musician’s dissenting opinion on the intricacies of jazz, especially the part about its accessibility.
daverich wrote:reading through the promo blurb just now, I do wish people wouldn’t start splurting about how masterful jazz is and how it needs years of study blah blah – Bruce has always been a jazz artist and I do wish people wouldn’t put it up on a pedestal. Someone who is reasonably competent can play jazz – learn a few scales and get improvising
In fact I think it’s the “fear of the unknown” that makes people think that jazz is something you need a phd in to be any good at it. Once you know where you can go on a jam the rest is easy.
Jazz is never going to become more accessible to the public whilst this elitist mentality prevails. (one of my favourite parts of the 3 nights DVD is telling that sax player to shut up when he starts on the ‘ooo – jazz is so studious, jazz needs years of education’ nonsense.)
ok rant over.
Looking forward to this immensely
Kind regards
Dave Rich
Easy to those with the gift already, Dave, and those who have heard you play can attest to yours.
Those of us who can’t even bang a biscuit tin* in time can only listen in awe, though.
*Britishism
si_twining wrote:Those of us who can’t even bang a biscuit tin* in time can only listen in awe, though.ah but that’s when you say you were improvising with another time-sig and actually it meets up every 57 bars.
Kind regards
Dave Rich
I think Bruce is more of a jam artist than jazz artist.
My musical interests have been primarily jazz, but have always been a Hornsby fan. The fact that he has DeJohnette and McBride on this record is amazing!–You don’t get that kind of support usually when you do your first jazz record. I guess when you’re Bruce and you know as many musicians as he does, you can pull that sort of thing off.
As I expected, there will be a lot of standards on here. I hope Bruce can lend his unique signature to these songs, because a lot of times you don’t always get that with standards.
I wish Bruce would do a series of completely improvised solo piano shows running along the lines of Keith Jarrett.
And for the love of God, we need more tour dates with this trio! This is unacceptable!
daverich wrote:reading through the promo blurb just now, I do wish people wouldn’t start splurting about how masterful jazz is and how it needs years of study blah blah – Bruce has always been a jazz artist and I do wish people wouldn’t put it up on a pedestal. Someone who is reasonably competent can play jazz – learn a few scales and get improvising In fact I think it’s the “fear of the unknown” that makes people think that jazz is something you need a phd in to be any good at it. Looking forward to this immensely Well said daverich! Jazz is something someone chooses to play. Bruce is great at it! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again……..Jazz is Bruce’s calling.
It is his destiny! I’m a telling ya! 😆 I’m looking forward to it with great anticipation!
David Day
Lake Lanier, GADavid Day wrote:Well said daverich! Jazz is something someone chooses to play. Bruce is great at it! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again……..Jazz is Bruce’s calling. It is his destiny! I’m a telling ya! 😆 I realized I needed to clarify something I said earlier in another thread about Bruce (and Sonny) majoring in jazz.
You don’t need to “major” in anything to be good at want you do. I can personally testify to that! On the other hand, I find it interesting that jazz was Bruce’s choice as a “major”. It just tells me that was his interest “way back when, long time ago”!
(What song did that one come from? )I’m sticking to my story. Jazz is Bruce’s calling!
It is his destiny! I’m a telling ya! 😆 David Day
Lake Lanier, GAcan’t tell you how stoked I am to hear this
my comments on comments…
you can’t be a jam musician without ever hearing jazz and if your influences were other jam musicians , i would guarantee their influences were from jazz somewhere along the linemy initial thought that we won’t get some insightful pearls of wisdom in any lyrical matter was a bummer but that quickly dissipates for the opportunity to hear bruce talk through his piano ….so stoked for this!
there is an art/skill to play jazz or even jam. sure anyone with reasonable skills can play it but does it sound good? a key element is knowing when not to play something but also as the great hornsby had once said “why play 1 note when you can play 5?” the bigger question is are you playing the RIGHT 5 notes?. you could be a great studio musician but may not have the chops to play good sounding jazz or jam.
yes, good point–jam artists (knowledegeable ones, at least) would almost certainly have been influenced by jazz musicians
but I wouldn’t lump those two together, not for one moment. it’s something very different, and I think Bruce has eluded to this to some extent from the press release.
no doubt….jam band is clearly a subcategory of jazz not an equal
i can jam way better than play strict jazz music
clindsay wrote:yes, good point–jam artists (knowledegeable ones, at least) would almost certainly have been influenced by jazz musiciansbut I wouldn’t lump those two together, not for one moment. it’s something very different, and I think Bruce has eluded to this to some extent from the press release.
One of the things that has bugged me for the longest time is this tendency for people in the music world, especially that cliquish subset known as music academia, to pigeon-hole various styles and give them their official nod of sophistication while thumbing their nose by omission at those that they haven’t annointed. I was a Music Composition major in the early 80s. The young, hip, cool faculty members were all what I call academic jazz weenies. Because jazz had a place in the music curriculum, it was given the supposed status of being somehow more sophisticated than that slovenly rock and roll that I was into. Hecik, even the then-cutting edge electronic music classes were more of a testimonial to Walter/Wendy Carlos than they were to what people like Pete Townshend or George Harrison or some of the progressive rock keyboardists like Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman were doing with electronic syntheziers. I loved the idea of being one of the iconoclasts in the department by using compositional and arranging techniques that I had learned from loving The Beatles and having bought all of the editions of CHicago Sketch Score. Oy vey. It’s all music, regardless of sub-genre, and it’s all very improvisational, and it’s mostly all very good.
zncstr wrote:smart kids listen to classical
smart cool kids listen to jazzwhen i had just left school the smart kids listened to Genesis and the cool kids listened to “nu-synth-pop-garagey-type-housey-funk-acid-remix – duh what do you mean you’ve never heard of that genre? “- type music.
Kind regards
Dave Rich
ha!
actually, thats just an ad I hear on one of the SIRIUS jazz channels
daverich wrote:zncstr wrote:smart kids listen to classical
smart cool kids listen to jazzwhen i had just left school the smart kids listened to Genesis and the cool kids listened to “nu-synth-pop-garagey-type-housey-funk-acid-remix – duh what do you mean you’ve never heard of that genre? “- type music.
Kind regards
Dave Rich
pretty sure the whole smart kids vs. smart cool kids is referring to the baby einstein phenomenon
http://www.babyeinstein.com/While I have some jazz likes (Jean-Luc Ponty for sure, among others), I can say this for certain – Bruce & co. can certainly play jazz. I’m certain some will absolutely love it, and I’m equally certain that others won’t. Jazz isn’t for everyone for sure. I’m hearing that we’ll get an early taste of the cuts (trust me!), and you will be able to hear for yourselves and decide. Look for more on this within the next few weeks…my early review is “Oh YEAH!’
from what I’ve heard of the t-monk track someone posted, they’ve managed to make it not sound too urgent and sit back on the groove of it (yes there is a groove there somewhere
).This might be because of them being seasoned musicians who are able to play that stuff for the love of it rather than the “‘cos i can” mindset.
Kind regards
Dave Rich
bryandunn wrote:While I have some jazz likes (Jean-Luc Ponty for sure, among others), I can say this for certain – Bruce & co. can certainly play jazz. I’m certain some will absolutely love it, and I’m equally certain that others won’t. Jazz isn’t for everyone for sure. I’m hearing that we’ll get an early taste of the cuts (trust me!), and you will be able to hear for yourselves and decide. Look for more on this within the next few weeks…my early review is “Oh YEAH!’Not just “Oh YEAH!”, but “OH YEAH!” I’m a telling ya!
David Day
Lake Lanier, GAWhen I was in high school, the smart kids were into Cat Stevens, CSN (and sometimes Y), and all the nouveau (for then) folk- rock. The “deeper” of the lot did the Seals and Crofts tangent. The cool kids were into The Who or Black Sabbath, with an ELO contingent in the mix. The band geeks were into Chicago and Maynard Ferguson. Still other kids ran the gamut from The Spinners to Parliament Funkadelic. I straddled all the camps, and added in my own special dose of Beatle freak to the mix. Damn, I’m old.
Rich
rdiakun wrote:The band geeks were into Chicago and Maynard Ferguson.Now that brings back memories! I was such a band geek I saw Maynard Ferguson in concert-twice! Add AC/DC to your list and you’ll almost have the complete run-down of what music I heard at home & at school.
Jackie
[quote quote=”treahI was such a band geek I saw Maynard Ferguson in concert-twice![/quote]
Yeah… me, too. Once in Norfolk, and once in Richmond. Fast forward many years later to the mid 90s when I was at the “Friendship Festival” at Lafayette Park in Buffalo. Since Canada Day is July 1, and US Independence Day is July 4, the folks in Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ontario (just across the river) have a nice little 3-day to-do that is quite cool (fireworks every night!). So, I’m laying on a blanket under a tree so as to avoid the heat, and I’m digging on a free outdoor concert by Crash Test Dummies. Who should show up next? Maynard and whatever band he had at the time. It was odd not hearing him playing any of the Jay Chattaway charts that made him big in the 70s, but there was no mistaking the squealing trumpet. At least Buffalo’s Bobby Militello, sax player in Maynard more popular bands, showed up to jam with his old boss. I was sad when I heard Maynard Ferguson passed away.
Hi all – there are 2 ‘snippets’ of songs off the new release on http://www.BruceHornsby.com – look right at the top of the home page…thoughts?
It is his destiny! 
)
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