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Concert was awesome. Wonderful Musicality. Some amazing solos.

All compositions and arrangements were by the members of the orchestra. The Monk was very good. The pianist was awesome.

Chris Crenshaw, trombone is going places.

NOTE: Everyone read charts. That needs work, they fluttered to the floor way too much. Oh and the funny moment, which in all the years with bones, the aforementioned Chris got the 9th position on the trombone, so the slide was about 3 feet away.

The drummer was facing us, we were dead centre upper balcony 4 rows back. But he was looking at right angles. He almost never looked forward, just right. Then I saw him turn the page. Reading a chart. Now I've never seen that in jazz.

What was striking I don't think the actual music has 'legs'. Will it be played 30 years from now? Will their arrangements endure. I don't know, but I wouldn't bet a lot of cash on it. They showed off virtuosity. The showed great ability. But a composition needs a signature. Like great classical music you hear the riff, and say, yup. Or some jazz tunes like Satin Doll.

Wadda I know.

I had fun, great train trip, nice hotel, good food, and some 'shopping', (shudder).
Worth the 80 bucks a ticket? Yes, those dudes were tight. Never heard a wrong note. That from a guy who drops his keys on the floor and hears nothing, but for a deaf guy it was still loud enough, and I got most of it.

The future of music is experimentation and extrapolation. Things move on. The music of the 15th century had an influence, but evolution brought about many things, and will continue to do so.

That said I don't suggest you pay 80 bucks a ticket to a performance of works by John Cage. The silence is deafening at times.


John Conley
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John, glad you enjoyed the show. As I stated earlier I saw him at the Flynn Hall in Burlington Vermont, 2 years back and the show was awesome. All members were featured giving them an opportunity to demonstrate their virtuosity on their instruments.DennisD


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Quote:

What was striking I don't think the actual music has 'legs'. Will it be played 30 years from now? Will their arrangements endure. I don't know, but I wouldn't bet a lot of cash on it. They showed off virtuosity. The showed great ability. But a composition needs a signature. Like great classical music you hear the riff, and say, yup. Or some jazz tunes like Satin Doll.

Wadda I know.




You know a lot John. Very happy for you that you're healthy enough to make that trip. My biggest criticism of modern jazz is it's lack of soul, taste, whatever you call it. Almost all of the compositions are merely vehicles to show off everybody's virtuosity. Every time I hear something new on jazz radio and it comes time for the sax solo, I can visualize the guy sitting in his music room with a metronome practicing all the cliche' scale lines until he gets them fast enough to put in the tune. When the greats played super fast stuff they put in original lines and figures along with the scales. Not any more. Now before someone jumps on me of course there's some good new stuff but it's basically like my favorite quote from Theodore Sturgeon aka Sturgeon's Law, "90% of everything is crap". The older I get, I think that percentage is going up.

Bob


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Hi everybody

John and Bob : +1 here. Seems to me that nobody writes jazz themes anymore. I did listen to some Monk arrangements by Marsalis that I liked a lot. Maybe I'm caricaturing too much. A few chords on top of what I wouldn't call a melody and like you said Bob, scale lines going from top to bottom. Hey, I'll never play as fast as these guys, but I don't mind a bit. Anyway, composers like Ellington, Porter, Gershwin up to Monk and Mingus knew how to write a theme. It had substance and intention, a signature like John said. Even if I really like Shorter, Hancock and (some) Coltrane, maybe themes like yes & no or impressions were the start of that kind of writing, which is built only on a few chords, with a minimalist sort of melody. Then you improvise practically whatever you want. Some musicians told me they felt freer with that type of writing. I think a more thought out theme gives much more material. That being said, I do feel like an old buzzard when I say things like that. What can I say, some jazz music nowadays just doesn't interest me.

Like John said : "Wadda I know".

Last edited by Pierre Julien; 02/09/11 11:28 AM.

Best of all and hope your day is a nice one

Pierre

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