Iris / Wayne Shorter

[arensky]

More Jazz from Equinox. It's much better now that we've rehearsed ! 

The tenor sax player now plays a Yamaha pro model, and I'm playing a Fender Rhodes Mark I / 73, mfd. 1977    Enjoy!

[mephisto]

Nice

The sound on the piano was very debatable(But I guess there is something I am missing here?).

I really liked how relaxed the music was, remined me a bit of Bill Evans. And I am always ready for some cool-jazz

[arensky]

Nice

The sound on the piano was very debatable(But I guess there is something I am missing here?).

I really liked how relaxed the music was, remined me a bit of Bill Evans. And I am always ready for some cool-jazz

I've been told I look like Bill Evans, but have never been compared to him; thank you, that is quite a compliment!  Actually I've been listening to and absorbing a lot of Ahmad Jamal lately, and I can hear that influence in these recordings (I will post more if y'all would like that, this was a good recording session).

Heh, the piano is debateable because it's not a piano, it's a Fender Rhodes. This was the electronic keyboard of choice for Jazz and Rock musicians throughout the 1960's and 70's, used extensively by Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder and others. The tone is produced percussively by a hammer striking a wire (called a "tine") that is wired to a guitar-type pickup AND screwed into a brass resonating bar on the other end. Here is the "Rhodes Super Site", read and learn all about them.

http://www.fenderrhodes.com/home.ph

Lol you couldn't give these away, 20 years ago, everything had gone digital. But lately musicians are getting back to these and the old Hammond B-3 organ, the sound has a fullness and richness that no digital keyboard can match. My wife bought this when she was in high school doing club gigs. It was not played from about 1983 to 1999, when we brought it to our home out West. It then sat in the garage, unplayed until this June. I was dissatisfied with my old Kurzweil K1000, which plays great but it just sounds too much like Tears for Fears or Kate Bush, if you know what I mean. When the other members of Equinox found out I had accsess to this instrument they flipped. It's a beast to move, (a two man job) but it's worth it. The audience reaction to the group improved a lot when I started using it at our gigs.

It's helped my playing a lot, too. Not being a piano, it's made me explore different possibilities in my Jazz playing that are now evident in my acoustic piano work. Anyway, here it is, with the cover off for a view of the inside...

                                                                         

[berceuse]

Very well done, arenksy! It's great to see some jazz being posted. I'm listening to it as I am typing and I have to say that your comping really is reminiscent to that of Bill Evans (as already pointed out). I loved it, keep the recordings coming!   

[arensky]

Bump. 

[pianistimo]

what did you do to get the lid off that?  i thought it was superglued.  it just snaps off? 

i like the end...too...how you fade into 'bweep, bweep, bweep.............'  and then 'bweep.'  you are very generous to give so much time to the sax and drummer.  you don't hog the stage.  you have an innate sense for jazz.  i like the re-emergence, too.

did you ever hear david sanborn (saxophonist)?  the sax player reminds me of his casual style.

[arensky]

what did you do to get the lid off that?  i thought it was superglued.  it just snaps off? 

Yes, it's just set there, you just snap it off. It's best to keep it covered, it's impossible to dust...

i like the end...too...how you fade into 'bweep, bweep, bweep.............'  and then 'bweep.'  you are very generous to give so much time to the sax and drummer.  you don't hog the stage.  you have an innate sense for jazz.  i like the re-emergence, too.

Well, nobody likes a stagehog. That's what I enjoy about playing with these guys, no one is dominant and we share the space, that's what chamber music is about, imo. Although some serious sparks flew between two of us ( not including me, who defused the situation) at this recording session.

No matter, that was resolved and we've started performing again in better venues for more $$$, a trend that hopefully will continue. 

did you ever hear david sanborn (saxophonist)?  the sax player reminds me of his casual style.

He is a bit like Sanborn in his phrasing, but Sanborn generally plays alto, our guy plays tenor.

[marik]

I've been told I look like Bill Evans,

Never thought of it, but you actually do

Awsome playing. I love the sound of those old Rhodes.
Wish you lotsa gigs

Best regards, M

[etcetra]

I know this is an old post but I felt compelled to comment.. there is some great stuff in the improvisation, I really liked some of the stuff that was happening, it was very musical..I really like the rhythm section.. wayne's tunes are very impressionistic but they are very rhtymically driven and they swing hard, and i really liked the fact the the performance captured that.I just wanted to give some suggestion.. maybe i am not qualified to do so but I am guessing you are primarily a classical pianist? (correct me if i am wrong).

I felt like the lines were wondering from time to time, and having some bebop lines under your hands can benefit quite a bit.  I don't think you have to be able to play like Bud Powell, but most people that play post-bop do carry that element into their playing.  I also think it would help to simplify.. using the blue scale, rhytmic reptition..using chords in improv as part of the solo.. you are already doing them but i guess it would be nice to have more of that.

I remember liking the part where you played the triplet and I really liked that..i think another thing to develop is the rhyhtmic aspect.. there are so many hemiloas that you can play and it really compliments the style.. for example playing triplets and accenting every 2 notes or ever 4 notes or or making 2 measures of 3/4 into 3 measures of 2/4 by accenting every 2 beats (found in Barque music often)..

I know I am saying a lot but these are things I found in post bop that is part of the vocabulary.. when I hear Herbie Hancock he has all of that going on.. like at the end of his solo on Speak no evil he plays 3/4 over 4/4 (accenting every 4 triplet).. and how he is mainly using blues licks on Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum

again i just felt compelled to write something because there were so many great things about this solo, i just thought if all those elemnets were there you will be kicking some serious @$$ as some would say

[arensky]

I know this is an old post but I felt compelled to comment.. there is some great stuff in the improvisation, I really liked some of the stuff that was happening, it was very musical..I really like the rhythm section.. wayne's tunes are very impressionistic but they are very rhtymically driven and they swing hard, and i really liked the fact the the performance captured that.I just wanted to give some suggestion.. maybe i am not qualified to do so but I am guessing you are primarily a classical pianist? (correct me if i am wrong).

Thanks for listening and I'm glad you like it. I like Shorter's impressionism with an edge too. I think he's the most gifted of the jazz composers of the 1960's and 70's. I always find something new to do when I play his pieces.

"Primarily" a classical pianist? I don't know, I play and perform in both idioms and don't favor one over the other. When I'm playing jazz I'm playing jazz and when I'm playing classical I'm playing classical, it's two different facets of what I do. What did you hear that made you think I'm primarily a classical pianist, I'm really curious. I posted a performance of a Scriabin Poem here and Zheer asked if I played jazz, he must have heard a hint of that in my phrasing. Heh, classical pianists call me a jazzer and jazzers call me a classical player. It's all just music to me.

I felt like the lines were wondering from time to time, and having some bebop lines under your hands can benefit quite a bit.  I don't think you have to be able to play like Bud Powell, but most people that play post-bop do carry that element into their playing.  I also think it would help to simplify.. using the blue scale, rhytmic reptition..using chords in improv as part of the solo.. you are already doing them but i guess it would be nice to have more of that.

I think you mean "wandering" ; you're right, there's a lot of randomness in my playing here. I was consciously trying to do something different of my own so I threw out a lot of conventional or familiar devices. Overall I think I was pretty sucsessful in the attempt.

I remember liking the part where you played the triplet and I really liked that..i think another thing to develop is the rhyhtmic aspect.. there are so many hemiloas that you can play and it really compliments the style.. for example playing triplets and accenting every 2 notes or ever 4 notes or or making 2 measures of 3/4 into 3 measures of 2/4 by accenting every 2 beats (found in Barque music often)..

]I know I am saying a lot but these are things I found in post bop that is part of the vocabulary.. when I hear Herbie Hancock he has all of that going on.. like at the end of his solo on Speak no evil he plays 3/4 over 4/4 (accenting every 4 triplet).. and how he is mainly using blues licks on Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum

Those are two of my favorite Hancock performances, particularly Speak No Evil.

again i just felt compelled to write something because there were so many great things about this solo, i just thought if all those elemnets were there you will be kicking some serious @$$ as some would say

Thanks again for listening! I appreciate your thoughtful advice, and will consider it at my next jazz gigs.  I posted another piece from this recording session, I think it was "Inner Urge", check it out.