Freedom in the Groove featuring Joshua Redman
The album "freedom in the Groove" features Joshua Redman with a small ensemble of Bass, electric guitar, and drums. In different songs Redman plays the alto, soprano and tenor saxophone. The CD shows many different aspects of Jazz, spanning many different feels, tempos and intonation.
I was really impressed with the diversity of the album. The typical song on features Redman soloing over the standard rhythm section of the bass, piano and drum set. Occasionally Redman will trade solos with the piano or the guitar, but obviously the album mainly features the saxophone. Despite this, Redman and his small ensemble show an incredible amount of diversity.
The CD starts out with what I would consider to be your typical Jazz tune, "Hide and Seek." An alto saxophone soloing over the rhythm section, with the piano throwing in a little counter melody or even sharing the spot light with a solo or two. However, as soon as the second song begins I realized that there is a lot more to Joshua Redman than the "typical" jazz song. "One shining Soul" gives out a much more laid back feel to it. The Saxophone and guitar share the melody for much of the song giving me flash backs to the dentist office or an elevator. The group then picks up the pace with "Streams Of Consciousness" which features a much more up beat feel, making me want to tap my foot. Redman again takes the solo with an extremely fast pace, using the full range of the tenor sax. The thing I enjoyed most about this tune was the electric guitar solo toward the end. The laid back sound gives a big contrast to the up beat feel of the song.
The remainder of the CD seems to have the feel of one of the first three songs, adding a little variety with some blues sound, a little call and response, and some stop time rhythm. However, I was really captivated by the sixth song on the CD entitled "Invocation." The song begins with a tenor sax solo, which makes me picture an old mystery movie. The added reverb on the sax gives the idea that he is playing in an open hall. The entire song is very free form.
Imagine attending a concert in which if you were to close your eyes, you would assume that the music you are hearing is being created by a cast of band members, each playing their respective instruments. Contrary to your assumptions, however, this band only consists of one member. Keller Williams, dubbed by critics as a one-man-band, is one of a kind both in his musical talent and his solo act. Very few solo musicians have mastered such a multi-dimensional sound and captivating live show as Keller, making him standout amongst today’s musicians. Keller’s ability to perform improvisational live shows, form a large and dedicated fan base, and share the beliefs and attitudes of the hippie generation has given him the musical identity of the jam band genre in addition to his personal identity of being a solo act.
Listening then, I just thought it sounded nice, but analyzing it today I can truly appreciate the care that went into their work. There aren’t many songs that give me chills, but every time I hear their rendition of Landslide (written by Stevie Nicks), I can feel it head to toe. The pacing of the instrumentation and harmony coming in is simply perfect.
Richard Cook & Brian Morton. The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. Seventh Edition. East Rutherford, NJ: Penguin Books(USA), 2004
Jazz is referred as “America’s classical music,” and is one of North America’s and most celebrated genres. The history of Jazz can be traced back to the early era of the 20th century of the U.S. “A History of Jazz” presents From Ragtime and Blues to Big Band and Bebop, jazz has been a part of a proud African American tradition for over 100 years. A strong rhythmic under-structure, blue notes, solos, “call-and response” patterns, and
A couple of other songs they played were “Bothered,” “Cruel and Pretty” and “Changes Come.” If you had never heard the band before tonight, this is where you would probably think all the songs sounded very similar. Slow, piano and sad. The variety lies in the songwriting, if you start paying attention to the lyrics now, you’d have a different opinion. I almost think what they say is so poignant sometimes it should be in a book or poem by itself. But on the other hand, if you took away the way Barquist sings it, or the accompanying instrumentation, I doubt you would get the same idea. They can even make an acoustic guitar sound like it’s in pain and crying.
The performance in Palmer on the 7th, which took form as a quintet, highlighted not only these qualities in her playing but also the spontaneity of her live persona. She effortlessly wove in and out of her vocal role, at some points improvising, at others, feeling her way about the stage by way of the music, giving her band a wide berth to bring out what they wanted while they took the melody themselves. Nothing felt regurgitated or tired, and all on stage seemed to genuinely enjoy their time intensely, acutely attuned to their contribution to the whole, engaging the listener in a seemingly spontaneous, conversational narrative. Marvin Sewell on guitar, Ed Howard on upright bass and Xavier Davis, playing masterfully the trifecta of keyboard, organ and piano, all took generous solos, but never crossed the line into
What I enjoyed was the way that it was a sad, and inspiring song that kept the atmosphere very depressing and emotional, it really make you want to cry. I also really like his trumpet solo, which just added to the affect. It was vey loud making it stand out and it was so sad, that it really made me want to cry. It was a really smooth piece all on the same low music playing until he picked up the trumpet making it stand out louder then the rest of the piece. In the end he sorts of just mixes his trumpet part back into the song making the tone change back to a very low and depressing tone with nothing sticking out. All the notes were very low making the piece very smooth. Overall, he didn’t change it much except for making it a bit more on the jazz side. If you are interested in this song just go to YouTube and write down " Louis Armstrong- When You Wish Upon A Star (1968). The 3rd song is "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've seen." Many people have done classic variations on this song and it was a very famous song when it was first
“West End Blues” begins with a 12-second trumpet solo that displayed Armstrong’s wonderful range and demonstrated the syncopated styling unique
The first song played was from a genre that I had previously taken a test on, Sonata. The musicians played the song by the book. There were three movements and polyphonic texture. It was even fast and jerky. Nonetheless, this is the part where my rollercoaster was going down. In my opinion it was boring. Although very well played, the song itself did not interest me. I did not like the roadrunner, coyote essence of the song. The piano accompaniment would sometimes play the melody and let the clarinet follow and then they would switch. This to me seemed force instead of like the Sonatas that I listened to in class. However, apart from the musical aspect of the first piece there was a certain intensity expressed by the performers. I had never seen a
The majority of the pieces featured a rather slow steady beat, provided by the drum and the piano, while the other instruments (mainly the brass section) were used to play the main motif along with some minor ornamentations. The third song they played, one of my favorites, was simply a steady 4/4 tempo kept by the drum, with some minor variations. The saxophone and trumpets took turns drifting in and out to carry the melody. The saxophone player delivered an entertained solo which consisted of very light and amusing trills, this created a very soothing and relaxing
The jazz band I observed played a series of six different songs. Although all the songs were categorized as jazz, each song had its own special style and sound to it. The band consisted of three different players. Paul Meyers, the guitarist and composer, Andy Eulau, the bassist, and Dave Rataczak, on drums. The songs performed were entitled “Love for Sale” by Cole Porter, “Once I Loved” by Antonio Carlos Jobim, “Stars” by Paul Meyers, “Blues for Mel” also by Paul Meyers, “Last Night When We Were Young” by Harold Arlen, and “Samba Novo” by Luis Eca.
“Gibraltar” and “No No No”, both highlights of the album, are interestingly minimal in their approach: both really only have piano and percussion as a background for Condon’s voice. Both explore wonderfully exhilarating territory within a restrained palette, and both find a glorious balance in these seemingly contradictory characteristics. Kind of like a bright early spring
middle of paper ... ... The multiplicity of visions found within Morrison’s novel mirrors the multi-instrumentation of combo jazz and various solo ‘viewpoints’ from which a tune is played by different band members (Pici). Such a non-omniscient and non-omnipotent narrator makes storytelling an ongoing development, just like it is with the jazz music.
I noticed he constantly switched from the synthesizer to the keyboard, and this was to change the tune and make it sound layered as I mentioned before. I also noticed that at times he played the keyboard slowly and other times he would play extremely fast. So rapidly that I even questioned how a man can first not only move his arms so fast but also play so beautifully at such high speeds. A tune he played even sounded like a swish-swashing sound, and I was amazed by how a synthesizer and keyboard can possibly make such sounds. I also noticed that for this song that both Lionel Loueke and Dave Holland played the guitar, and I think this was to match the fusion electric instrument style. Overall, the entire band did a great opening for their performance; everyone looked like they were doing their own thing and were very content.
The overlaying form of the tune is relatively standard compared to a lot of the Big Band era tunes. However, it is the slight adjustments and additions that make it interesting and engaging for listeners beyond the different harmonic and instrumental ideas. For instance, the song follows an AABA form, however, there are feel changes and timbre shifts that differentiate it from other jazz songs that had previously been released. For instance, each A section starts in the latin/afro-cuban style. There is an intro as well that starts with an ostinato bass pattern that outlines the two alternating chords of the A section that carries throughout the A section (Thomas). There is a strong presence of layers in this song: on top of the bass, there is the latin/afro-cuban drum groove along with a saxophone effect that has small, stepwise motion. The next layer in the A section features a solo trombone that plays a mellow sounding legato line that is responded to by the trumpet section with a strong interjection every two bars. This continues for 14 bars and at the end of the A section there is a two bar change where the band moves from the latin/afro-cuban feel into a very straight ahead swing feel. At the end of the first A section, there is a very brash and harsh trumpet interjection where the trumpet plays a higher and lower note back and forth three times. The general layers of the bass,