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The Holy Grail
Like A River
Work Station
Leading Edge?
How To
Christmas List
Dear Santa,
As you know, Christmas Day is also my birthday.
This year, I've been a very good boy and a hard working dog.
Please bring me anything from this list:
- CD: Grand River Crossings by Geri Allen
- Book: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
- DVD: Johnny Staccato
- Large black Rudy Vallee-style megaphone
- Autographed Nicholas Payton pocket square
- Medjool dates grown in Dateland AZ
- Custom personal cologne designed by David Carlos Valdez
- Working replica of the Mystic Seer
- Hat like the one Mark Gross wears on the cover of Blackside
- Property taxes windfall
- Chili and lime saladitos
Thank you!
Love,
Dmitri
Broaden Your Horizons
So Killing
I Know This Sounds Crazy
TWO, FIVE, WONDER WHAT'S FOR LUNCH?
INTENDED approach to improvising:
Don't think. Just listen and react. Don't play licks and patterns. Create melodies. Let the horn sing, and play from the heart.
ACTUAL thoughts while improvising:
Here comes the turnaround...classic Brownie riff goes here...nope, this tempo's all wrong. Bop scale! Cleverly ironic Daft Punk quote! Ooh, that was hip. Nobody caught it, of course. Now C-sharp diminished up the...Fail! Awww. Nick Payton wouldn't have missed that high note. Third valve is sticky...uh...where does the bridge go again? No idea. Blues lick! What the hell is happening? I wish the bass player would play the damn roots. Sloan Sabbith. Sloan Sabbith. Sloan Sabbith. Two, five, wonder what's for lunch? Hey now, that was kinda awesome. Sloan Sabbith. Oops, lost the form.
MANIFESTO
COURSE CORRECTION
This week, Sassy and I have enjoyed the hospitality of some friends who've generously provided lodging for us in their home while I play a few gigs in the area.
Their son (let's call him Freddie) is a very talented young aspiring jazz trumpeter.
Although I regularly give master classes on the road, and have done my share of classroom teaching, spending time with Freddie and his family over the past week has been a powerful reminder to me of what it means to be a serious musician and what an industry jazz education has become.
At the age of 16, Freddie has already taken advantage of more specialized training and travel opportunities than I had in my college years, and he's already twice the player I was in high school.
Freddie's days are so full that I'm actually hesitant to call him an "aspiring" musician. Not yet a high school senior, he's already playing professional gigs, studying advanced concepts and techniques, taking and teaching private lessons, listening broadly and living a decidedly music-centered life.
Freddie studies privately with two teachers: one for trumpet, another for jazz.
He's a veteran of jazz camp, Jazzschool, the Grammy band, SFJAZZ All-Stars, J@LC Essentially Ellington and Monterey NextGen.
He participates in a summer music mentoring program and leads sectional brass rehearsals for his school jazz ensemble. He's won awards in all the regional and national honors programs you've heard of and several that you haven't. And he's already performed on the most prestigious jazz stages worldwide: New York, Monterey, Montreux, North Sea, Umbria.
I never practiced like this kid, not even at Interlochen. He hits it hard for hours every day. Each morning I awaken to the sound of Freddie's horn, methodically working its way through James Stamp warm-ups, Clarke etudes, Clifford Brown turnarounds, articulation and lip flexibility exercises and chord scale after chord scale. Every afternoon he has a rehearsal or two with this or that band. Every evening he practices again.
When I was Freddie's age, my bedroom was a shrine to Lindsay Wagner and Spencer's Gifts. I had only just begun to take private lessons and didn't take them very seriously. I loved to play but hated to practice.
Freddie's room is a hardcore crucible of brass: his chair, music stand and horn are at the center, surrounded by stacks of lead sheets and method books. His walls are festooned with festival posters and images of great jazzmen. On his desk a laptop computer is open to an overstuffed iTunes library. Two speakers face the practice chair.
I spent a couple of hours trading riffs with Freddie, and am astonished by his proficiency on the horn and his familiarity with the nuances of the jazz language. He's already familiar with every classic recording I mention, and he seems to own nearly all the available Aebersold and music-minus-one collections of standards. He has a remarkably sophisticated ear for modern harmony and can toss off bebop clichés over complex changes at bright tempos. He listens to all the same jazz heroes I do, plus the latest recordings by Alex Sipiagin, Ambrose Akinmusire and Billy Buss. He already knows the tunes, licks and lore that I learned in my five years at Berklee.
The other night I invited Freddie to sit-in with me and the band on "Invitation." The audience was knocked out. He played a mature solo, including some very creative motivic development. After the set, Freddie was appropriately gracious and grateful, pausing to individually thank each member of the rhythm section. He even possesses enough charm to balance all that swagger.
After 30 years in music, I'm now at an age when I think it's important to pay it forward. It's been my belief that I have a responsibility to share what I've learned over the course of my life and career, and to mentor and encourage the next generation of musicians.
But if they're at all like Freddie, I don't have the time.
I need to practice.
— D.M.
SAY ANYTHING
WHERE I LIVE
TRUE IMPROVISATION
BEETHOVEN FLASH MOB - "Ode To Joy"
COOL
NO FOURTH WALL
LISTEN MORE DEEPLY
WEAPONS-GRADE EARWORM
TECHNO-GRATITUDE
Today I was able to re-connect with several clients and friends, learn Art Farmer's solo on "The Squirrel," check out Donny McCaslin's set @jazzbaltica, study a new twist on a favorite business practice, admire some beautiful photos, peruse the amazing reading list of @Art_Garfunkel, listen to a cool BBC interview with @Jimmy Cobb, read @JasonDCrane's latest poem, and watch a classic Star Trek episode -- all without leaving my solitary bunker in the lonesome desert. Thanks, Internet!
MUSIC
"It is the very act of concentrating on writing music which makes it
difficult to do, since ideas normally arise when one is not focused
but when one is open in some way."
—Brian Eno
"Music should go right through you, leave some of itself
inside you, and take some of you with it when it leaves."
—Henry Threadgill
"The jukebox just played 'I'd like to settle down but they won't let me.'
Merle Haggard. It's always a bit like that. People don't want you
to be satisfied if you're a musician."
—Tom Waits
SOUND OF THE FLUGELHORN
In case you missed it, here's my recent radio interview,
discussing the Sound of the Flugelhorn with Blaise Lantana
on the Phoenix NPR affiliate KJZZ 91.5 FM.
DON'T TRY
"When you try to make the changes, you lose momentum.
Don't try. Don't think. Just listen and play what you hear."
—Art Farmer
"Don't think you are, know you are!
Stop trying to hit me and hit me!"
—Morpheus
"Do or do not.
There is no try."
—Yoda