Mike Kanan is a great accompanist. But he’s pretty humble about his achievements in this regard. I personally find accompanying a vocalist extremely challenging and was definitely primed to get some first-rate advice from a pianist gigging with some of the major vocalists out there. But surprisingly his whole approach is very down to earth and his philosophy about it is very practical and has been arrived at by working things out over time, as well as through discussions and experiments with fellow musicians (to be referred to in follow-up parts). As some of his comments might suggest, one of his most important assets may be his grounded personality. Even…
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Hangin’ with Mike
It wasn’t my intention to interview Mike Kanan per se as pick his brains about piano. But given his greater stature in the music biz the questions just flowed on my part and with my my new toy the Zoom digital recorder in tow, I was able to capture the whole event. I had first seen and heard Mike several years ago on a TV broadcast of vocalist, Jimmy Scott, where he performed his accompanist role and feature solos letter perfect. I was very impressed with his professionalism. He has since made several records with star jazz vocalist Jane Monheit. His work on her last album, Surrender is spot on…
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Across the Barline and Beyond (another Jimmy Raney book preview.. Still workin’ on it!)
One of things that I must repeatedly emphasize about Jimmy Raney is his unique improvisational abilities as it relates to rhythm, and in particular his mastery of the more subtle and beautiful asymmetrical rhythm. It’s mind boggling how his monumental achievements in this area could’ve gone so largely unnoticed. I have noted in prior blogs his mastery of 6/4 and 5/4 phrases over 4/4. See here: Jimmy Raney’s polyrhythmic concepts part1 and here: Jimmy Raney’s polyrhythmic concepts part 2 In this blog’s example, 5/4 and 6/4 are used in combination, which is definitely more complex(!), but Jimmy Raney handled such things with ease. The example is a phrase from Jimmy’s…
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Man Vs. Machine
Do you have a love hate relationship with computers and technical gadgets? I know I do. At times it seems like the gadgets have their own spirit and intentions and in some cases (as in below story) openly defiant. And forget about the manuals. I want to constantly shoot the authors of them. And gadgets always screw up at the same time don’t they? Which is contributing to my personal persecution theories… Case in point. I bought a Motorola 2.4 ghz cordless phone w/ answering machine. I was happy with the purchase and got it for a good price. But for some reason it would not correctly update the day…
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When At a Loss for Words…Post Pictures
In the absence of any substantial thoughts/ideas on my part, click below MySpace link where pics were posted recently: Jon Raney MySpace page. Guess which ones are camera phone shots…uggh. Some great old photos of Dad as though. They are snapshots of the originals which were auctioned off by EBay. Read prior blog about EBay. Click the “pics” link below the sidebar photo when you get to MySpace page. (Sorry, you need to login or sign up for MySpace in order to see the photos)
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Communication in the Internet Age
The pre-e-mail and Internet world is difficult to imagine now after years of its entrenchment in our daily lives. I was musing about when the first rudimentary email was launched at my former employ, the now defunct Guggenheim Museum Soho. E-mail and Internet communication occupies this vast space between mailing written letters and yakking it up on the telephone, along with everything in between: chatting, both written and voice enabled, message boards and… oh yeah blogs with reader commentary. With the addition of graphics, audio and live hyperlinks to other sources of related interest, electronic correspondence is a whole new accelerated communication paradigm. It’s simply different when you “speak” to…
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The Recording
Tne J-maan… makin’ records…The Rainster… playin’ tunesOf his own..with a band…the BAND-maanHavin a hard timemakin’ recordsplayin tunes..of his own…with a band…He’s a complainsterThe J-maan… 90’s SNL characters aside. I was discussing on my forum (in my usual self-critical fashion) a recording done with bassist, Ed Fuqua and drummer, Eliot Zigmund. Sax and trumpet were added on 3 tunes: father and son team Dan & Tatum Greenblatt. (See also Charles Monteiro video snippet of session). I also enlisted old pals, bassist, Mario Rodriguez, drummer, Todd Isler and guitarist Billy Newman on a couple of more latin oriented cuts. So how did it go? For starters let me say this: I was…
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My Double Life
Some time ago I spoke about my full time day gig at ThomasNet. At that point I was still getting the hang of everything. I was suddenly put in the html driver’s seat with license to throw the switch to send our newsletters to hundreds of thousands of subscribers. After some trial by fire, I feel pretty comfortable with everything – even last minute email blasts with lots of edit change requests. But this does not mean I am ready to say I’m an html expert on my resume by any stretch. I am a functioning newsletter production manager, but my html design skills are in need of an upgrade.…
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Preparing for Success? I think not…
Often I wonder if there is a way to predict and bring about- through preparation- a successful performance. But the older I get the more I feel it’s not possible. Why? Well, tell me truthfully whether you have had one of these experiences: 1. You were well rehearsed but played worse than you usually do2. You were well rehearsed but not spontaneous3. You didn’t practice at all and played great4. You did a lot of practicing and played very well and felt practicing paid off.5. You were not prepared at all and played like shit6. You were really looking forward to playing but then it was a disaster7. You were…
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Jaco Pastorius
In my early years, I got heavy doses of Jimmy Raney, Bill Evans, Bob Brookmeyer, Cannonball Adderly, Pat Martino, Stan Getz and whatever records my brother Doug inherited from Dad. Doug put many albums on reel to reel tapes (the mp3s of yesteryear in terms of packin’ your favorites on one unit). Plus I heard my brother making recordings, jamming with himself and transcribing solos by Dad, Charlie Parker and Sonny Stitt. Sometimes half speed. When my brother left for Europe, that’s pretty much where my head was at in high school. I listened to the same records and it was all great but very traditional stuff. I would wear…
