Who here plays Jazz?

[Haden Olmsted]

Im beginning to get more and more into jazz. Mainly because its what im studying at school but im really starting to get into it. As far as guitar goes im really into Grant Green, and of course Wes Montgomery. who else here is into jazz, and do you get to play out much?

[stratfan7]

Im beginning to get more and more into jazz. Mainly because its what im studying at school but im really starting to get into it. As far as guitar goes im really into Grant Green, and of course Wes Montgomery. who else here is into jazz, and do you get to play out much?

 

 

I'm into jazz. I'm terrible at it, but I really enjoy it. It's so damn hard to play it well! I'm into Wes and Grant too, they're both amazing.

[mnewb1]

trying to develop an appreciation

 

I've been tryin on some Grant Green, Kenny Burrell

a little Wes, Tal, Joe Pass...

[Saturn]

I have been into jazz for a long time. Tried my hand at playing it but not really my bag I guess. Every time I start playing jazz riffs some how the gain on my amp just magically kicks on and I start playing crunchy rock licks.

[metallica_00]

I'm fairly crappy at it, but I enjoy it. I can read charts and comp pretty well now, but I don't have much vocabulary to improvise with (while still sounding jazzy), and I don't read single note lines well. My gateway drug was bluesy players who have some jazz or fusion tendencies like Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, Johnny A., etc. My senior year of college (last year) I joined the jazz big band and really enjoyed it and learned a good bit. Being more immersed in it made me appreciate it more. I also did some quartet gigs with a few guys. Wish I had started doing it earlier. Now I just play at home for an audience of myself. It's just one of many genres I enjoy. What comes out is just a mix of everything.

[Haden Olmsted]

Yeah, im really starting to get into it. Its a music i can really appreciate from a variety of perspectives. I joined the jazz guitar ensemble at my school, which will be great to have on top of my jazz guitar lessons. Im still having some trouble soloing... i just cant seem to sound "jazzy" enough... but im working on it.

[3shiftgtr]

Yeah, im really starting to get into it. Its a music i can really appreciate from a variety of perspectives. I joined the jazz guitar ensemble at my school, which will be great to have on top of my jazz guitar lessons. Im still having some trouble soloing... i just cant seem to sound "jazzy" enough... but im working on it.

 

 

Keep at it dude. We talk alot about it in the HC lesson loft. Jazz is a never ending learning curve. Part of the reason I like it.

 

I play everything from fusion to straight ahead to contemporary to jazz jam band and more. I love playing guitar and gigging in all styles, but my favorite is anything with some jazz. Just fun a hell. I just love to improvise. And when you get cats that have big, quick ears, man it is a BLAST!!

 

And no matter what style you are into, someone is combining jazz with it somewhere.

[soundcreation]

I'm a drummer and my teacher when I started out was a jazz drummer so yeah I frickin love it. Rock will always be my first love, the music I listen too most and the music I play, but jazz and it's musicians are really just a cut above.

[Jkater]

I'm not a true jazzer but it is a language that I understand enough to reproduce what I hear almost convincingly BUT I can't really create something in that style because I don't thoroughly understand the theory behind it. To put it simply, I can play already arranged pieces, memorize them and recreate the groove and carry the tune but I can't compose or improvise in that style. I can, on the other hand, "jazzy up" songs because I have a good knowledge of chords ad how they function.

I also play in a big band since about two years. We gig rarely but we rehearse every two weeks. That's a big learning curve and I absolutly love it. getting better at it, too.

So to the question "do I play jazz?" the answer is yes but as a cover player for solo pieces and in a comping role in the big band.

[RaVenCAD]

I don't like or play jazz itself, but I love the guitar tones of it and that's the sound I use for most everything I play. I LOVE that warm, round tone.

[DaveAronow]

I LOVE jazz especially the older big band Glen Miller type stuff and alot of older type jazz variations such as Dixieland, Swing, Beebop, Gypsy Jazz and so on. Its funny though, as much as I love the vintage music, arrangements and compositions, I dont like the old production. That is why I love to hear modern bands that play old school versions but record in modern studios with modern recording equiptment and techniques.

 

 

A KILLER band I listen to on a regular basis, is one of The United States Airforce bands, the airforce has several bands, called The Airmen of Note. They almost exclusively play Glenn Miller Type Jazz with a few suprises thrown in, but they are a collection of some of the best jazz musicians playing in any one band today. You just cant keep a big band like that with that much talent around these days because they could never draw enough or sell enough to keep a machine like that in the black. The only reason The Airmen of Note can obviously do it because it is on the Airforces Dime. Too bad because there are some phenominal musicians alive today but they are all scattered about and rarely congregate in big band masses in one organization for very long, or at least not long enough to call themselves a permanent "band".

 

My Father was an NYC professional musician, trumpet player, till he got drafted into the Army during Korea in which time he joined the third Army band and served out his time as a trumpet player for the band. I grew up with him blowing revellie in my ears as a child. He was always jamming the jazz around the house.

He was absolutely beside himself thrilled when I expressed interest in music and I got my first bass guitar at 15. ( I had actually spent many years playing classical piano but never took it seriously). I remember the day I brought that guitar home, and the horrow in my dad's eyes when I went up to my room and fired that bass up to 10+ and started blasting AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Cheap Trick. Old dad was like, what have I done?

 

Today, thirty years later, he is still like, what have I done.

 

I really LOVE jazz but it is the one genere that I dont completely understand. It is like I dont feel a connection with it like I do just about all other generes, like I am an outsider listening to a bunch of people that "get it" play and do their thing. I want to understand what it is they are doing so badly, but I can only fake some of the rudimentary stuff. Any real jazzer wouldnt be fooled after the first musical phraze I would play.

 

Still I LOVE listening to jazz, especially old school stuff, and just about all of its variations.

 

As a musician, I can "play" just about anything, but to do jazz right, you have to understand it, and I am ashamed to say that I dont completely get it. Vast quantities of it are a mystery to me. Maybe one day they will let me into the club, but at the rate I am learning, that will be several lifetimes away from now.

[soundcreation]

I LOVE jazz especially the older big band Glen Miller type stuff and alot of older type jazz variations such as Dixieland, Swing, Beebop, Gypsy Jazz and so on. My Father was an NYC professional musician, trumpet player, till he got drafted into the Army during Korea in which time he joined the third Army band and served out his time as a trumpet player for the band. I grew up with him blowing revellie in my ears as a child. He was always jamming the jazz around the house. He was absolutely beside himself thrilled when I expressed interest in music and I got my first bass guitar at 15. ( I had actually spent many years playing classical piano but never took it seriously). I remember the day I brought that guitar home, and the horrow in my dad's eyes when I went up to my room and fired that bass up to 10+ and started blasting AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Cheap Trick. Old dad was like, what have I done? Today, thirty years later, he is still like, what have I done. I really LOVE jazz but it is the one genere that I dont completely understand. It is like I dont feel a connection with it likje I do just about all other generes, like I am an outsider listening to a bunch of people that "get it" play and do thjeir thing. I want to understand what it is they are doing so badly, but I can only fake some of the rudimentary stuff. Any reall jazzer wouldnt be fooled after the first musical phraze I would play. Still I LOVE listening to jazz, especially old school stuff, and just about all of its variations. As a musician, I can "play" just about anything, but to do jazz right, you have to understand it, and I am ashamed to say that I dont completely get it. Vast quantities of it are a mystery. Maybe one day they will let me into the club, but at the rate I am learning, that will be several lifetimes away for me.

LOL...I think I'm the other way around...I understand it very well (at least drumming wise) but just don't have the skills to play it well.

Personally I think some people are overly intimidated by jazz...whether it's playing or just listening as a music fan. Sometimes this attitude is projected by the stereo typical "jazz snob" music fan, but I've never really seen this attitude from the musicians themselves. It always seems to me the musicians are about stretching themselves as far as they can on their given instrument, both technically and improvisation ally.

I think if you just set aside preconceptions about the music you find it's just another logical extension of the blues in the same way rock was. Rock took the blues and straightened it out and jazz took the blues and swung it even more.

[DaveAronow]

 

LOL...I think I'm the other way around...I understand it very well (at least drumming wise) but just don't have the skills to play it well. Personally I think some people are overly intimidated by jazz...whether it's playing or just listening as a music fan. Sometimes this attitude is projected by the stereo typical "jazz snob" music fan, but I've never really seen this attitude from the musicians themselves. It always seems to me the musicians are about stretching themselves as far as they can on their given instrument, both technically and improvisation ally. I think if you just set aside preconceptions about the music you find it's just another logical extension of the blues in the same way rock was. Rock took the blues and straightened it out and jazz took the blues and swung it even more.

 

 

No, Im not listening to it as a drummer. In that sense, I completely get it. The rythms, the patterns, I understand offtime signatures perfectly, even some pretty odd ones. It, for me, has nothing to do with the people or attitudes, or any of that. When I hear some phenominal player just go off on some wild solo tangent, I can hear how awesome it is, I can hear how great and virtuostic the player is, I can hear how great the music is all coming together on a whole, but I just dont understand it. One of my biggest attributes has always been my ear. I can listen to the most insane lightning fast Paganini violin Concerto, and even though I might have never heard it before, it just makes perfect sense to my brain and I can actually see the patterns, and performance on the fingerboard in my mind. I hear all the intervals, and phrases perfectly as the music goes by. It is like my brain is a computer that analyzes and notates the music as it goes by. I just completely understand it and instantly process it, and "get it".

My brain doesnt do that with jazz. It is like they are speaking some other language, and I KNOW what they are saying is awesome, but I can only hear the "sound" of the language. I dont understand the "words" they are actually saying. Im learning more every day, but by and large, it is prtetty much a mystery to me. Im very good at playing back lines someone plays to me and for the most part, I can track music with many different instruments almost instantaneous, in real time. I can play along with the radio and pretty much get the gist of any song in real time as it happens depending on the levels of sophistication of the music, but for the most part, I cant do that with Jazz. My brain just doesnt think like that, and I SO wish it did.

 

One day.....

[Orange Jackson]

I've a been accused of having a jazz flavor, but I sure can't play jazz chords, Soloing is another story though, I love to improv.

The biggest thing in Jazz to hit me lately is Miles. I have been listening to Miles for 20 years, but more recently I'm really getting into his fusion stuff (1968-1972). His phrasing is amazing of course and his approach to each note is very elegant, very thoughtful, lots of space in there too.
So that has been a big influence on my playing, you can pluck notes, but to really play them, and have them say something, is an art in and of itself.

"In a silent way" is a great example of this. It doesn't hurt that a young Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock are sprinkled in there too. A great electric jazz/ rock fusion album.

[Pascal]

"In a silent way" is a great example of this. It doesn't hurt that a young Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock are sprinkled in there too.

 

JAZZ POLICE!

FREEZE!

 

It's John McLaughlin, not Metheny.

[Orange Jackson]

JAZZ POLICE! FREEZE! It's John McLaughlin, not Metheny.

 

 

Busted!!

 

I knew it was McLaughlin too, damn fingers.

 

 

[akapuli]

Glenn Miller...
second opinion from Jazz Police?

[Mid Life Crisis]

I play a bit of jazz; I drift in and out of it really but when I'm into it I play it all the time. I love the tone (which is not that hard to get really) and it's great fun just to noodle around with some jazz progressions, mixing things up a bit. One thing about jazz is that it's actually not that challenging technique-wise. There are none of the massive bends or huge vibratos that you get in blues and rock. You need to have a good ear for melody and harmony, and be able to understand how to play multiple inversions of chords, which are hardly ever plain vanilla major or minor ones.

[BydoEmpire]

I'm learning to play it, but I'm not very good. If a song catches my ear I'll pull out the Real Book and go through it. It's just not a priority for me, but learning a jazz tune here and there helps me work on my reading skills and helps me practice different chords & voicings, changing keys in a solo, rather than rock-style sitting in one for the whole song, etc.

 

I really dig gypsy jazz, and I know a couple of those tunes. I like listening to jazz in small doses - it's not something that I have on all the time. That said, my favorite jazz guitarists:

 

Joe Pass #1 - Virtuoso is just an amazing album

Django Reinhardt

Charlie Christian

 

Non-guitarists I like a lot:

Miles - Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, etc.

Coltrane

Sonny Rollins

Ella Fitzgerald

Cannonball Adderly

[paulojcduarte]

Do we call this Jazz?

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

[Pascal]

Pretty much 90% of my music library is Jazz, World Music and anything in-between. So this is also what I've been trying to play for a while.

But I'm not a very dedicated player and only took a handful of lessons, so all I can achieve is a mediocre approximation of jazz. That is, provided the grid is simple enough...

[Les Paul Lover]

JAZZ POLICE! FREEZE! It's John McLaughlin, not Metheny.

Made me actually laugh out loud!!!!!



Play it a bit myself, but haven't worked on a new piece for ages. Defo not my forte.
I enjoy listening to some too, but not all jazz is equal IMO. Some is beautiful, some akin to easy listening. Some noise like too...

Not enough of it in my CD collection though.

[scuzzo]

some times i can pull off a jazzy kinda flavor every once in a while but knowing all the inversions and extended chords and weirdness that is in a jazzy players vocab.. not a chance... im about as fake as they come in that aspect..

but i consider jazz to be an influence..

[Pascal]

Made me actually laugh out loud!!!!! Play it a bit myself, but haven't worked on a new piece for ages. Defo not my forte. I enjoy listening to some too, but not all jazz is equal IMO. Some is beautiful, some akin to easy listening. Some noise like too... Not enough of it in my CD collection though.

Check out your mailbox, bro. :poke: