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fasstrack

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Posts posted by fasstrack

  2. Joel Fass-Sean Smith at Walker's Restaurant this Sunday, 8/18

    in Live Shows & Festivals

    Posted · Edited by fasstrack

    This Sunday:

    Joel Fass, Guitar; Sean Smith, bass


    Walker's Restaurant


    16 N. Moore St., Tribeca (corner of Varick, 1 block north of Franklin St. stop on 1 train)


    8-11 PM Music in back room


    Excellent food, spirits, service

     

    http://walkerstribeca.com/

     

    Sean and myself have played this room around 6 or 7 times this year, plus my gigs. We're old playing friends, and are getting tighter all the time. Please give us a listen.

     

    Thank you,
     

    Joel

    seanjoel.jpg

  4. Musicians/jerks

    in Miscellaneous Music

    Posted · Edited by fasstrack

    On 23/04/2004 at 10:05 AM, Guest akanalog said:

    one time ron carter played at my hometown's local community center-real small place of course. this is a little new jersey town and i have no idea why ron carter was even there...some jazz musicians live in the town including ts monk and i think john lee and monk puts on a "giants of jazz show" every year at the local middle school which usually gets some big names-i have seen jackie mclean and phil woods, for instance, on the same stage used for my 6th grade assemblies. anyway, carter played with tony reedus and james williams in this small little space for like 20 people maximum and afterwards my friend who is a drummer and was writing a research paper on jazz went up to carter and inquired if he could ask him a few questions about being a jazz musician and carter refused to speak to him at all. he said he didn't have time to speak to him and just blew him off-i think he might have actually said he did not want to be quoted. i could understand if this had been at some big club but it was a totally informal intimate show and no one was rushing off anywhere. the baird community center does not seem like the kind of place where one should act like a prima donna.

     

    also a friend in rhode island went to the newport jazz festival with a friend who was a pianist and they saw les mccann sitting down at a table and the pianist went up to mccann to say how much he liked his music and that he too was a jazz musician and mccann said-"white boy playing jazz? i don't think so." i always thought that was a funny story and don't hold it against mccann. mccann might have been drunk and the pianist friend probably looked like a stoned out college hippie. this story was told to me also, so i cannot verify it personally.

    Ron was nice and on my side as a student at CCNY, and has been loving to and concerned about a mutual friend. 

    But I can't resist recounting two Joe Puma-Ron Carter stories that also show Puma's withering wit:

    Puma was working a duo gig with Ron. Supposedly Ron had complained on break that he didn't want to play any more Gershwin because 'he ripped off my people'.

    The comeback:

    'Tell you what: Next set we won't play any tunes at all, and you can beat on a log'.

    Ouch, and with more than a dollop of uncalled-for racism, but still a classic one-liner.

    When I recounted this to (guitarist-luthier) Carl Thompson he told me 'You don't know the other story'.

    'What story?'

    'Joe couldn't find a bass player for a gig, and someone said 'why don't you call Ron? I think he's open'. Joe declined, and kept calling bass players and striking out. Again, someone said 'No, really. Call Ron'.

    'Nah, I don't wanna work with a bass player who talks like David Niven'.
     

  5. Honoring the Teachers

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted · Edited by fasstrack

    No one else? I'm disappernted. 

    I also studied with Marshall Brown, possibly known here for his Newport Youth Band (including an international version).

    He had a workshop every Wednesday afternoon. Gene Allen and Hod O'Brien were there with us kids.

    He recorded all the sessions, and afterwards would sit in his easy chair, pick his nose and critique guys' performance on the tape. That was a great idea, because recordings don't lie. He enumerated what he liked and didn't, and why.

    An aggressive brusque man, he would grab the guitar out my hand, saying 'here, gimme that, kid'. He didn't play well, except in his own mind, but he played enough to dramatize a point. Or he would show me off to Hod, telling me to play Lush Life on his D'angelico.

     He's the guy that started me playing 4/4 rhythm guitar, because when I got there my comping, he observed, 'has no rhythmic impulse. Sounds like a f%^&ing washing machine'. The rhythm guitar thing was some of the best advice for a young player. I don't believe you can swing in your solos if you don't know 'the circle'. 

    Humiliation and torture were part of his palette, too. He had a hapless piano student, Timothy. Once Timothy played an intro not to Marshall's liking, so he lit into him:

    No, no, no Timothy! I don't want anything fancy. I don't want anything flowery. I don't want anything creative. (voice rising in a crescendo of wrathful, contemptuous hostility, with white spittle emerging from both sides of his mouth) I just want some fucking time, Timothy!!! Timothy would put his head---by now the color of a purple sofa---down. But he learned, as we all did.

    Marshall's immense, thick-skinned ego sometimes interfered with good pedagogy, like when he would say 'as you know, Joel, no one plays more compositionally than me'. I'd be thinking 'right, no one but Pops, Bird, Pres...). He was not a great player, despite his brazen statements to that effect. What he was was a great thinker, and astute critic who could hear immediately hear what a student's weaknesses were and the proper remediation. He was a guy with a polar bear hide who brazened his way through life on brute force of his personality, but he taught us all well---and before us Ronnie Cuber, Eddie Gomez, Mike Abene and others as kids.

    Marshall's intensity and antics, like his spittle shower on poor Timothy, would eventually lead to a stroke. He recovered, taught and played again, but finally succumbed to a worse stroke. I thought he was a hell of a man and great teacher for me, personality flaws be damned. He gave me my first real ensemble experience (I had been playing guitar duos, mostly in guys' apartments) and evidently saw potential since he took me on as a 'scholarship student'. I never paid a dime for that Wednesday workshop...

  8. Death of the iPod (Everyone's buying vinyl)

    in Audio Talk

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

    If you think living in NYC is cheaper than living in the country, you've been listening to all the wrong real estate agents. I'd bet your cost of living is at least twice what ours is. And we're not even truly in the country (even though we have nothing but farmland behind us). 

    I don't wanna live in the country. Like Danny Rose I got carbon monoxide in my bloodstream.

    Just want the city to return to the days of old. Sort of like a Jewish Miniver Cheevy...

     

    8 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

    I share the irritation with mobile phone conversations as conspicuous display (at least we iPod/earbud types don't inflict our 'sounds' on others). The other day I was waiting in a cinema foyer and a middle-aged couple had their mobile on speaker phone so they could both hear the person on the other end and talk back. The entire foyer could have joined in the decision making about what needed to be bought for the party. 

    Mobiles are a case of technology having advanced so rapidly that an appropriate set of manners to deal with them has been unable to keep up. Back in the olden days of tethered phones it was normal to take a call in the hallway where others weren't distracted. Today people will take (or even make) calls in a restaurant or pub regardless of the people they are eating or socialising with. It's striking the speed with which this all changed.

    I own up to a fogeyism commensurate with my age on this one.      

    ...And their conversations are so mundane. 'I'm in the supermarket', or 'I just got on the bus'. Who f$%^ing cares?

    And loud. Total atomized, boorish and selfish self-absorption...

  10. Death of the iPod (Everyone's buying vinyl)

    in Audio Talk

    Posted

    10 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

    Wow...

    Seriously? 

    I'm thinking a nice home in the country should be in your future...

    Nah. Can't afford it on musician bread, and anyway I'm still proud to be a NY gutter rat. All my friends and the world's best music are here.

     Just letting off a little steam.

    Nice thought, though...

    15 hours ago, JSngry said:

    Dude, you live in NYC, right? Look up a cat named Elliot Alderson, he can help you out.

    ? Who he, and where he?

  12. Death of the iPod (Everyone's buying vinyl)

    in Audio Talk

    Posted

    Had enough of this s^&t. I'm only human, and have reached my breaking point.

    My online complaint form to MTA:

    :This morning, just after 9 on BX19 #4333, a woman was talking loud and using vulgarities on her cell. I politely asked her to modulate her tones, as there was no seat available to move to. She unleashed a barrage of unprintable mean-spirited vulgarity at me. I next approached the driver, explaining what had occurred. His answer? What do you want ME to do about it? I wanted him to, next time he stopped, go to where she was sitting and politely ask her to modify her behavior. I soon found a seat in front, but she continued her verbal spraying, sometimes staring defiantly my way. I again approached the driver. Silence. Me: 'No answer?" He: 'No answer'. 

    I paid my fair, and am entitled to ride with my ears and self unmolested. IMO the driver could have done as I asked, but opted to co nothing.

    What do you have to say to this?

    Thank you.

    Sincerely,

    Joel Fass

  14. Stevie Wonder's Modulations

    in Musician's Forum

    Posted · Edited by fasstrack

    I like the places the bridge goes in Visions. I don't know that it modulates exactly, more like it wanders then comes home like the prodigal son. Reminds me of some of Benny Golson's tunes like Along Came Betty or Whisper Not with the half-diminished pivot chords. When I have some energy I'll post the changes. Took it off the other day.

    Then there is this wonderful surprise at the end of You and I: The tune is in F. When he sings 'You and IIIIII...' that last time he flips very cleverly to the key of Ab. 

    Off the top of my head, away from the guitar: First measure Db Maj7 (3 beats), Db Maj7 C Min7 Bb Min7 (8th note triplets on last beat) 2nd measure: Ab Maj7 (3 beats), Ab Maj7 G Min7 F min7 (8th note triplets, last beat) 3rd measure: Bb/C (2 beats w/ritard starting) C7 (b9? 2 beats w/fermata) // F maj7 Fine

    Now that I think about it, another nice little deviation---though not a modulation---is in the bridge of If It's Magic: after it goes to Amin for a bit it resolves to E Maj 7 rather than the expected and much more common E7. 

    Little touches like that make him the songwriter he is.

    Beautiful stuff, and his voice still gives me chills...

  15. Honoring the Teachers

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted

     It is important. And I have been lucky to have great ones, on and off the stand.

    This is from a post I made earlier on a jazz guitar forum. I put it here in the hopes it may stimulate some discussion of other members' teachers:

     ...But the guy who taught me the most about composing, repertoire and being a rounded musician was the late John Foca. John was a jazz accordionist as a teen, but had to stop due to back problems. So he played organ in a club date band weekends and taught 40 hours and more a week out of his Mill Basin, Brooklyn home. They called him Johnny Solo in the club date biz, because his given name sounded like a curse over the mic. He was a composition and theory major at the Manhattan School, and studied under one Ludmila Uelelah, who was not at all fond of jazz. He taught me about form and critiqued my pieces when I brought them in. He would suggest better chords and was the one who hipped me to avoiding unisons between lead voice and bass. He was a great teacher.

    After a long teaching day his 'delinquents' like myself, Ralphie, Big Gary B. would knock on the door at midnight and hang out until he kicked our wild young asses out around 4 AM so he could finally get a little shuteye before beginning the next grueling teaching day. He would hold court and make sure we ate as we all had intense discussions about music and everything else, broke balls and asked questions about life.

    Mr. John Foca taught me to be a musician and a man. I can still hear him saying, as he pinched my cheek, 'SHIMINUD! When are you gonna become a musician?

  16. Some Changes On If You Could See Me Now

    in Musician's Forum

    Posted · Edited by fasstrack

     (Concert)
    Ballad Tempo:
    Bar 1: Eb Maj7 (2 beats), Eb Maj 7 E9 Eb 13 A 7 (1 8th note each) Bar 2: Ab 13 (3 beats), D dimin. (1 beat) Bar 3: Eb Maj 7 (2 Beats), C Min 7 Cb Min 7 Bb Min 9 Eb 7 (1 8th note each) Bar 4: Ab min 7 (2 beats), Db 7 Ab Min 6 (1 beat each) Bar5:
    G Min 7 (2 beats), Gb Min 7 Cb 7 (1 beat each) Bar 6 (1st ending): F Min 7 (2 beats), Bb 13 Ab 13 (1 beat each) Bar 7: G 13 G b13 (1 beats each, C9 #5 C7 b9 (1 beat each) Bar 8: Cb 7 #5 #9 Cb 9 (1 beat each), Bb 13 b5 E 7 # 9 (1 beat each)

    D.C.


    2nd ending: F Min 7 (2 beats), Bb 13 E9 #11 (1 beat each) Next measure (with coda sign): Bb Min 11 Eb 7 (1 beat each), Ab Min 7 Db 9 (1 beat each),  Next measure: Eb/G F min7 (1 beat each), Eb6 Bb Min 11 (1 beat each)


    Bridge: A Min 11 (2 beats), D 9 D 9/C (1 beat each), Next measure: B Min 7 E7 b9 (2 beats each)Next measure: A Min 7 (2 beats) D9 D7 b 9 (1 beat each) Next measure: B min 7 E7 b 9 (2 beats each) Next measure: A Min 7 B Min 7 C Maj 7 (1 8th note each 1st 2, 1 beat 3rd), C Min 7 F 13 b 9 (1 beat each) Next measure: D Min 7 G Min 7 Db 13 (2 beats 1st, 1 1/2 beats 2nd, 1 8th 3rd) Next measure: C Min 7 F7 b9 (2 beats each) Next measure: F Min 11 Gb 9 Cb Maj 6/7 #11 Bb 13 b 5 (1 beat each)


    D.C. al coda


    Coda: Ab Min 7/Bb (2 beats), Ab Min 7 (2 beats)Next measure: Eb/G Gb 13 (2 beats), F Min 7 Bb 13 b5
    Blowing changes are the regular changes. Don't have a final ending yet. Hope you guys/gals like it...

  24. Denis Charles

    in Artists

    Posted

    Thanks, gents, for the nice response. Good to know he's remembered. I liked him.

    FWIW: That street band played by the fountain just east of the Plaza Hotel. The other members were a bassist from Japan whose name I've  long since forgotten (I do remember he had Sam Jones's autograph on his bass), and a 20-year-old Don Braden, new in town. That trombone player has long since receded into the ranks of jazz supernumeraries, a crowded field...

    13 hours ago, felser said:

    I love the Cecil Taylor sides with him and Buell Neidlinger.  Fascinating rhythm section.

    He also played with Sonny Rollins in the Bridge period. According to Denis, everyone in the group got a vote on whether to keep him---and Jim Hall voted him out (possibly because of his 'habits')...

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