Tuesday, April 22, 2003

Mingus Mingus Mingus

Happy Birthday to Charles Mingus, born this day in 1922. Read more about this troubled genius of the bass at:

    The Real Mingus Web run by Sue Mingus (Charles' widow)
    An interview with Sue Mingus

Thursday, April 17, 2003

Spring update

I know, I know...I'm not really updating my blog as often as I should. It's just that so many other things keep coming up that are more interesting to do. Like watching TV and taking naps.

Last weekend I jammed with the jazzbos again, and we covered some interesting material, like Steely Dan's Josie and Paul Winter's Icarus. We're taking about a month off due to other commitments, and getting back together in May.

I've been looking through the leadsheets in the Big Fake CD, and it very interesting to look at the different transcriptions of the same tune. Often the same tune shows up in 2, 3 or 4 different books. Take the tune Bluesette, for example. In the Real Book, it's just 24 bars -- once through the head. It's much the same in The Book. But the Jazz Fake Book has 4 full verses with lyrics, including the eight-note "bridge" section and an out-chorus with ending. So, it pays to look at all the versions. I've been thinking about printing out all of the books and either binding them separately or just adding them to a 3-hole binder. I did the math and found that the CD contains 4067 leadsheets (although, as mentioned earlier, some are duplicates), on 4677 pages. If I print double-sided, that would be just under 2500 pages, 5 reams of paper. I think not.

A band I'm hearing about more and more is the Robert Randolph Family Band. If you thought pedal steel guitar was only good for adding a whiney background to country music, give these guys a listen. They are hot, bluesey, and soulful.