Teasing the Korean

Kenny Drew - Undercurrent

I picked it up for a buck or two during the Great Vinyl Purge of the 1990s. I was happy that Alice was on the album, as I was trying to find a lot of her stuff. I was acquiring a lot of Coltrane on vinyl at that time, and some of the later albums blur together for me. I will have to revisit.

Lou Donaldson - Gravy Train A pop/thump-thump session for the conga player.

Interesting. In the summer, I listen to Afro-Cuban jazz and exotica. But Bossa strikes me as winter music, perhaps because of its inherent sadness. I listen to Bossa generally between January and March.

Curious if anyone's musical choices are influenced by the seasons. Mine definitely are, although I can listen to jazz pretty much any time of year. I tend to like singers and standards this time of year for some reason.

I have long been obsessed with this tune, which has that private eye sound I adore:

A very funny HBO comedy called Barry, with Bill Hader.

Cannonball Adderley - Nippon Soul Dominic Frontiere - The Outer Limits

You haven't Googled it by now? https://www.discogs.com/master/87552-John-Barry-Goldfinger-Original-Motion-Picture-Score

Thank you! I agree about musical memory and muscle memory. My musical strength is having a very good ear - Charlie Banacos ranked me in the upper 5 percentile of his students - but technique was always my weak point, even when I was "good." I was of the mind that if you have a good ear and taste, the technique can always be acquired, but that never quite happened for me to the degree I'd hoped. I suspect that I may need to start out primarily doing slow, deliberate technical exercises for the majority of my practice time, and then make more time for other aspects later.

There was a time in my life when I was very serious about the piano. My life was relatively simple then, and I practiced four hours a day. My regimen consisted of a combination of technical exercises; practicing a classical piece or two - very poorly, I might add; exploring the harmonic possibilities of a standard in great detail; soloing over a tune in 12 keys; working on patterns, chord voicings, and chord progressions in all 12 keys; and probably a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember. My life is much more complex now. I have a demanding full-time job that often requires evening and weekend work. I am married to Ms. TTK, own a home, and am responsible for the health and well-being of two cats and several houseplants. Working remotely during the pandemic, I would occasionally waddle over to the piano to work on something, and during that time, came up with a few arrangements of standards that came close to what I accomplished years ago. Anyway, I would like to get back into a routine where I practice, say, one hour a day on most days of the week, and am a little overwhelmed as to where to begin. I think I would need to devote at least 15 minutes of that time to technique. But I'm looking to get bang for the buck in abbreviated practice periods. I am not planning on gigging, and I have nothing to prove, but I would love to get back to the point where I can sit down at the piano at a party, play standards, and not have anyone leave or complain. Would love to hear from some of the professional, semi-professional, or would-be professional musicians out there who have faced similar schedule challenges at points during their lives, but managed to keep their playing more or less intact. Thanks in advance.

Existing thread:

You guys are talking about singer songwriters. I am talking about instrumental piano players in multiple genres who enjoyed a certain degree of celebrity in the postwar era.

BTW, is there distortion on the CD of All Night Long? I don't remember the LP sounding that way.

As I observed in the Peter Nero thread, which died a quick death, it is interesting when you think of how pianists as a category enjoyed a certain degree of celebrity in the 1950s and 60s. In jazz, you had Dave Brubeck, Erroll Garner, George Shearing, and Oscar Peterson. In pop, you had Ferrante and Teacher, Peter Nero, and Liberace. Regarding classical, there isn't a thrift store in the US that doesn't have the Van Cliburn Tchaikovsky album. Horowitz and Rubenstein were more or less household names also. What was it? Do you think that more houses had pianos at that time, and that the piano as an instrument was more imbedded in the culture? Did more kids take piano lessons then than they do now?

I saw him in the late 1990s in a small club, and he did not play particularly loud at all.

Morricone - Vergogna Schifosi Various - The Time Tunnel, Volume 2

It's kind of remarkable to think of how popular pianists were in 1950s-60s. Not only pop artists like Peter Nero, but even some classical and jazz pianists enjoyed a certain degree of celebrity.

Thanks. Happy customers - that's what we here at Organissimo want!

How is the sound on this one? I hate to disappoint you, but the jazz album is probably the least interesting album in the entire set. IMO.

I listened to the entire album. Either my ears adjusted, or the saxes were getting louder as the recording progressed. I hopped right on the recent-ish releases of Both Directions at Once and Le Chat Dans Le Sac, but I am on the fence with this one. I will probably get it though.

I wonder why they didn't use any spectral technologies to bring up the saxes and bass. The piano is nice and loud though. Listening to the ABC broadcast. The off-mic sax through my laptop speakers sounds almost like a viola in places.

Yes, that's what I plan to do. Which post to do you recommend I go back to? I appreciate any direction or insights you might share.

No. Late to the party. Which post do you recommend I read?