My favorite things

May 15, 2012

My first encounter with Lynne Arriale

Ever heard of her play? Well, this is my first encounter. Nice, but colorless, let's say. She sure has learned classic music. I see it clearly from her play. Her tone is quiet and lonely somehow.

I was watching Woomy Schmidt interviewed her. The video is listed here with the title of "An Interview with Jazz Pianist Lynne Arriale (part 1 of 2) " . She said that she was adopted. She could have been lonely in her youth, I guess. And I hear it in her play. Does it? Well, at least it sounded me that way.

Woomy is a quick interviewer. He may sound too hard to be interviewed. But I liked him. He is talking with someone to entertain other people, after all.

Now, Would you like to listen to her play? Here's one:

At his interview, she said that McCoy Tynar is her respected jazz player. Does she sound one? No, I don't think so. Woomy asked her: What makes the great tune?

She replied saying; "A Great tune needs to tell a little story. Just like a short story in literature. Has beginning, middle and end. And one thing that is very important with great tune is having the first idea be completely engaging. In another word, we hear that idea 'n somhow our ears just relates to that. y'know, something universal that idea has touched. Then the big question is what needs to follow. What must be the next phrase. 'know, there are several versions with Beetobens 5th syphony. Well, he rewrote sections. And historians can looked at it saying 'see, the ultimate version we know is the best.'"

"When I'm writing a song often we have one idea and have another one ans, which one feels right idea that needs to follow organically. And again that's very subjective, and there's no books says this is what needs to happen next. But we look up the shape, we look at the idea and answer and an another idea and it takes us to engage a little musical journey."

Right, she is a professional piano player all right.

May 1, 2012

Jon the cocktail piano, in England

Hey, this guy's hilarious. I can build up lots of funny story concerning to his daily life. Here's one.

As Jon arrived home, a few minutes before midnight, his wife was standing at the entrance and blocking his entering to his home. As he's lots taller than his wife, he asked her why he could not enter.

She answered saying: "Oh, Jon, you have to smile at me with that silly empty smile first." Jon said "Well, OK. but you cannot say it an empty smile, y'know" She said "Oh? I didn't know that".

Taking an advantage of this situation, well that was just that he was taller than she though, he said; "Her majesty didn't say that my smile was empty. You cannot argue with the Queen"

"Yeah, I know, That's why I'm arguing with you at this moment. Now you have to show me that silly smile so that I can . . . . . . "

Well, since I am not the native English speaker, I cannot complete this story with big laugh. But you can, right?

I was going through You tube searching with a keyword of "jazz pianist in England" and I got him. It's a kind of surprise that Her Majesty is present to make a comment. I have no idea how well he is known in England. So, I am not sure how famous he is.

Now, you sure will notice the way he look at camera, right? That's funny. And the piano play is so old and that reminds me of the good old cocktail piano, or champagne music. Besides, he should have tuned piano before he took this video.

Mar 30, 2012

I have noticed there's a lot of Tristano at U tube.

I have never picked up Lennie Tristano. I had only a couple of LPs of his. I had a lot of Bill Evans, Red garland, Wynton Kelly, Oscar Peterson and such. But never was fond of listening to Lennie. For one thing, his piano play sounded me not American. I mean, his sound is rather modest. It was not like Peterson. Well for that matter, Wyton Kelly did sound modest as well but he swings a lot.



Now I notice that there are many of his recording on You Tube. And along with him, I have noticed a guy named Dave Frank. I didn't know him but boy! he is nice. It sure indicates America is where the jazz has originated.

This webpage gives you splendid guides on Dave. Well, this is for my reference, tell you the truth.