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Voodoohead Productions
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11/17/2012 9:19:07 AM
---- Updated 11/21/2012 10:58:26 AM
Thelonius Monk and his minimalist jazz style
Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982 was a giant in the world of American Jazz, his piano technique and style was dis-similar from other pianists, he was considered somewhat an elephant on the piano as one critic who disliked his style but nonetheless his influence is an important part of the jazz idiom
This song is kinda along the same lines of Monks playing style and usage of dissonant chord structure and atypical melodic curves. the tones and colors are like a shattered rainbow or perhaps glass scattered about when a rock hits it. anyways, I wrote this a few years ago, away from the piano come home and played it, and of course added some of my improv thing
forgive the sound quality, it was done on an older vid camera, the whole thing was really done for my students and also have the full scored out rendition of it. so see what you think.
Slip Slidin' composed by Bryon Tosoff
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Shoe City Sound
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11/18/2012 12:51:40 PM
---- Updated 11/18/2012 1:02:14 PM
I'm not sure I've seen the video to this one - it's really good with just the piano the lamp the lace and the disembodied hands haha - also like your version of From Me To You. It sort of speaks to my opinion of another post on the Pipeline about which is more important the artist or the song. I don't think everything the Beatles ever did was so extraordinary and particularly this tune, but in this piano jazz style, it takes on a whole new (and better, in my opinion) spin.
D
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Voodoohead Productions
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11/18/2012 1:46:53 PM
thanks Dolores
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Tom O'Brien
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11/18/2012 5:47:02 PM
This is interesting, because I really dug the first piece - it did unexpected things to my ears, and that's always a good thing, but "From Me to You" just doesn't work for me unless it's the original. I don't think it was really that strong a song, it's just that it was arranged and performed perfectly for what it was, and that made it stellar. While your playing is top-notch, Bryon, and I can appreciate all the interesting choices you're making, I can only enjoy this piece if I try and forget what it originally was. A lot of early Beatles is that way to me - it was the singer and not the song - usually it's the other way around for me.
And in case I didn't say it enough, that first piece was amazing.
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Voodoohead Productions
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11/18/2012 6:49:39 PM
---- Updated 11/18/2012 7:38:09 PM
thanks Tom, the sound is in the ear of the beholder, it is art, and form and it is like what you may do with your own actual art, someone may dig it, another may not.
yes, it depends on your personal preference of originals vs covers and done in a different way, i do this type of thing with a lot of beatles songs due to the fact their arrangements fit quite well for chord progressions (strong melodies) and the jazz idiom , but actually it is the chord substitutions that I am all for and love adapting songs and tackle them from a whole radical approach. I do this and build voicings and chords underneath the melodic curve....I use a lot of rootless chords as well as tonic chords when necessary. but mostly I look for the opportunity to incorporate the circle of fifths and such......I guess it is just the way my mind is wired and I prefer to twist things around ......of course it is not for everyone, although jazzers and clubs and places I play at where those who are into this style dig it all, including the jazz standards, i just try to take it to the next level by changing things around, not for most people...thanks for acknowledging the slip sliding tune.
addendum to above
so Tom
If you just like "originals", then you probably wont like my cover or version of this tune here linked up I can see clearly now-that cool hip johnny nash tune that I got permission from to redo a different arrangement of,, instrumental only though, this tune has been picked up by a number of radio stations that do jazz and easy listening tunes
It has had limited radio success of course nothing fantastic but gets spins, but i always get comments whenever I play it, and have taught it and many other covers of pop tunes to many stduents and graduates from music colleges and universities and other very accomplished pianist and piano teachers, not that i am the cats azz and a great player, but i provide a different way to do songs that we normally take for granted of what we think they should sound like
FLY ME TO THE MOON
This is one I teach students for incorporate the walking bass style. one that is more familiar as a jazz tune fly me to the moon. i use a variety of approaches, comping and some melody to help players learn to listen if they are working with a singer and just learn to just back them up with out getting in the way. but also know when to take off and improv and use of the melody of a song. also this style is good when you are doing a solo thing. and want to pick things up and perk peoples ears up, then do from me to you, or other laid back tunes. anyways last post of my stuff, i have done enough here
hope it works
anyways...appreciate you and Dolores check out my vibe here at the pipeline
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Shoe City Sound
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11/18/2012 7:39:31 PM
Yeah, love cover tunes. I love to do them and I love when other people do them. The Beatles actually have done lots of cover tunes themselves.
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Voodoohead Productions
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11/19/2012 7:27:42 AM
I have done covers in bands from Black Magic Women to Like a Rolling stone and Van Morrison's Brown eyed girl and of course tons of other songs ,and we always tried to make it sound as close to the original as possible. but it is more fun to twist it up and make it your own. and as a solo artist now, that is what I like doing, I have a jazz version of Stop in the name of love. which people really dig and a slew of other piano solo jazzed up covers that are fun to do,and of course all my own originals and that my friends is what it is all about, having Fun! Enjoying the moment, bringing your music vibe to others, cause that is what it is all about cheers
bryon
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Stoneman
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11/19/2012 11:45:48 AM
Slip Slidin' is a very awesome piece. I liked it because I understood it. For me, jazz has to make me feel something or it loses its luster. Thelonious was obviously a master musician and songwriter but I just didn't understand most of his work. His music went way over my head. I tried very hard many times but it always made me feel kind of bored. Growing up, jazz was the center piece of everything we listened to. My grandmother use to kick back with a glass of vodka and orange juice. She listened to all of the greats like Jimmy Smith, Kenny Burrel, Cannon Ball Adderly, Charlie Parker etc. As she would listen, I would often hear her say "He's talking to me now" whenever a musician did something extraordinary. It was like the music became a personal conversation between her and the recording. She felt it through and through and had all the compositions memorized. She would look at me and say here it comes. Did you feel that boy? I would nod my head in approval because I could feel it for sure.
When she listened to Thelonious it was usually because company requested it. It was required music for the household but she never said "He's talking to me now" when she listened to it. But Stanley Turrentine and Ramsey Lewis, Miles Davis, Dizzy, Art Tatum and her had daily musical conversations.
While in recording engineering school I had to take a class in American musical history. It was a fascinating class and there was a whole chapter we had to study on Thelonious. It was the hardest chapter for me. Mainly because we had to listen to many of his compositions. I guess his music just doesn't talk to me the way others from the BeBop era do. He had that swing but it was a bit incoherent for my taste. Everything seemed kind of out of place and that seemed strange. But there is no doubt that Thelonious was a musical genius and pioneer that will forever be one of the roots that link modern jazz with its grandparents.
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Voodoohead Productions
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11/19/2012 3:44:24 PM
---- Updated 11/19/2012 10:18:25 PM
Thanks as always Stoneman for your perspective and thought provoking points of view and historical snapshot. you are indeed a connoisseur of many types of music and knowledgeable in your background of the various genre....thanks for your nod and appreciation for my tune, one day I will record a better track, that was mostly for my students as they play this one as well and I have it scored out. many do a lot of my originals from jazz to classical and pop tunes. the quality is not the greatest, but the structure is important to teach to others, it is indeed catchy and that is what perks peoples ears up when they hear it, because it is unusual and unorthodox
always like your insight and time you take to provide such an in depth look at things and appreciate your input a lot
here is one of the other gigs I did near the end of my times playing with the bluevoodoo. playing on an out of tune piano with no mic or amp.
black magic woman cover of the peter green tune (fleetwood mac) made really famous by Santana
thanks again
bryon
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