Fall 2013 - Jazz on a Sunday series with MMC and Madtoast Live
In September:
Jackie Allen and Hans Sturm Band with Dane Richeson, drums and John Moulder, guitar http://www.jackieallen.com/
This IMW was especially interesting with the combination of vocalists and instrumentalists that participated in the music making. Jackie's band has so much layering and a spontaneous improvisational aspect few vocalists have in their bands. It was exciting to see the audience member musicians take the stage and interact with these world class musicians, the results were exciting and fresh.
In October:
Tony Monaco on B3 Organ
http://www.b3monaco.com/ great instructional material at this website!
WOW! WHAT a show and what a great groovy, jazzy wonderful feeling was in the room with Tony!
When musicians took the stage with Tony he made everyone be at ease and quickly got the place grooving and feeling good with players at every level. Had to be there .... it was SWEET!
In December:
Ray Rideout Quartet - Paul Hastil- keys, Jim Huwe - drums, John Mesoloras - bass
http://madisonmusiccollective.org/Events/RayRideout.shtml
GREAT swinging, grooving CONCERT and IWM did not happen due to snowy weather.
Carmen Lundy Residency in June 2013
Stuff has been happening but IMW has gotten behind in writing about the things happening.
During Carmen Lundy's residency in June the workshops in partnership with the Madison Music Collective were amazing. 40 + people got to sing in the choir directed by Carmen Lundy, Leotha and Tamera Stanley. The choir had a successful performance at the annual Isthmus Jazz Fest with a large audience. The workshop for singers and instrumentalists was highly insightful and took everyone up a notch or 2.
Days of Wine and Roses
Our next jam is Sunday Feb 2nd. Some people might be shocked we're holding the jam during the Super Bowl, but that's just a football game. Let's get real, this is a JAZZ JAM!
Last year we had a large turnout during the Super Bowl and we expect the same this year. Check out this week's terrific rhythm section: UW-Madison professor Johannes Wallmann on piano, UW-Whitewater lecturer Brad Townsend on bass, and the New Breed's Michael Brenneis on drums. The Youngblood Brass Band's Tony Barba will join us on tenor sax and as our educator.
The Tune-of-the-week is Henry Mancini's "The Days of Wine and Roses." It is a 32 bar ABAC form and the A section is fairly routine except for the D7b5b9 in bar three which creates interesting possibilities. The 1st 4 bars of B are a 3-6-2-5. The next 4 bars make most sense to me as a 3-6-2-5 of V7. This sequence is worth looping to get in your ear and under your fingers. The C section is somewhat similar to the B section of "Night and Day," and the A section is similar to the A section of "East of the Sun."
Although we haven't featured "East of the Sun" yet, the point is that recognizing similar sequences and chunking these tunes together is a helpful memory aid (for a list of tunes with similar chord sequences see Ralph Pratt's tonal centers page).
Learn Jazz Standards has chord charts and videos and a practice track is available on Ralph Pratt's site. My experience is it's best to learn the melody by ear and be able to play arpeggios through the changes prior to using practice tracks. You'll avoid wasting time with aimless noodling, and appreciate knowing the tune well enough to keep it together if your rhythm section starts floundering.
Tony emphasizes the same points:
It is so much easier to solo over this song if you have the melody memorized. Phrases come quite easily if you can hear the melody running through your head during your solo. And of course make sure you can hear the difference between the B and C turnaround portions of the song. If you play piano or know a guitarist or pianist, it's a good idea to run through these chords and use your ears to hear how the harmony moves.
Au Privave
Our next jam is this Sunday, January 19th with trumpeter Dave Cooper as our educator. Joining him will be Dave Stoler - piano, Keith Lienert - drums, and John Mesoloras - bass. Dave picked Au Privave as the tune for us to focus on.
The first thing you might wonder is how is it pronounced and what does it mean? From researching the web it seems it is not an actual word so can be pronounced however you want. Regarding its origin, here is a quote from a forum offering a reasonable explanation:
... a Frenchman posted the following, " I've always heard that it's a phonetic mis-transformation of the french "Après Vous" (like "After you" I guess), that you say when holding a door for someone, from a time CP was playing France."
..."That makes sense, because Max Roach recorded the tune in the '50s as "Apres Vous.""
Au Privave is a 12 bar blues with a few extra chords inserted into the basic framework. Bar 4 is a 2-5 into the 4, bar 6 is a backdoor to the 1, bar 8 has a 2-5 into the 2, and bars 11 and 12 are a 1-6-2-5 turnaround. If that sounds like gobbledygook or too much to think about, remember you can simply play notes from the blues scale, play basic jazz-blues changes, or the more advanced changes of Au Privave. The choice is yours. Play at the level you are comfortable at.
Sometimes we have so many jammers that we repeat the tune-of-the-week to accommodate everyone. If we have lots of jammers this week we'll do Au Privave in different keys (F, Bb, Eb) to keep it interesting.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvdQYSWOobc]