Wayne Shorter’s ‘Footprints’ was the tune of the month in Matt Warnock’s Jazz study group. This is my end of the month submission for feedback.
On Matt’s suggestion from last month I switched my focus from technical to musical items. So rather than use x scale and y arpeggio, I used a different idea for each chorus.
As Matt says, “Scales and arpeggios are a means to an end, if you keep focussing on the means, you’ll always play in a technical way. If you focus on what those means can do for you, create musical ideas, then your focus is on the end result, making music.”
“The word ‘jazz,’ to me…only means ‘I dare you.” Wayne Shorter
I played in Em so that I could use open strings. To a drum pattern that I found while practicing to random drum beats on my looper (something I do quite often). I tried to use a theme for each chorus. This was the first and only take after setting up levels. I like this tune a lot……another great month. Thanks Matt.
0:00 Chords 0:37 Melody 1:11 Melody + Ornaments 1:45 4ths 2:19 Single String 2:45 Bend + Tap + face 😉 3:40 Patterns ala Bickert 4:03 Just play *2 5:15 Chords 5:48 Melody + Ornaments 6:26 Out
For the past 4 years I have put out an album to document my musical adventures. Remembering to Forget is this years album. There’s a range of styles, however, all are heavily influenced by my study of jazz guitar with Matt Warnock. It’s his teachings, approach and creativity that I have put into practice here. I hope you like it.
Here’s some background for each track….. Time to Think… From an original idea by PatrickM. Because sometimes we need time to think, to reflect.
Argo Phosphine… From time to time I get an invite from a local record label to submit a track for a compilation album. The brief – Call for the « PHONOGRAPHIES » project
For the “Phonographies” project, each artist is invited to compose a sound or musical piece containing field recordings. The composition should contain recordings through samples or it may be a raw « one-shot » piece.
I insist on the fact that your composition must absolutely contain sounds recorded around you or in your sound banks: that is the point. This is what will make the link throughout the project.
There were storms at the time, and during the day there was acrid smoke from the forest fires 300kms away, and what seemed like the endless noise of jet engines. I wanted something relentless and disonant. I recorded the sound of the storms, also the sound of the frogs. I used pickscrapes for the sound of the jets. White noise from a flanger and various guitar sounds with the guitar is drenched in reverb and delay. Percussion from loops of unequal lengths and some ‘one shot’ sounds from an old recording. Argo Phosphine is an anagram of Phonographies.
Beseechingly Yours… My tip of the hat to one of my favourite guitar players Derwin “Big D” Perkins.
Pocket Queen… Taylor Gordon a.k.a Pocket Queen on Instagram. Every so often she posts a drum loop and invites musicians to do something with it. This is my attempt at one of those.
Infant Eyes – Wayne Shorter… A cover of Infant Eyes with Lyda Van Tol. This was my Jazz study group’s tune of the month for July (https://www.mwgcourses.com/). Lyda didn’t know the tune, she sight read it from the lead sheet. What a fab voice, and what skills!
Juillet… Simply a tribute to July making use of some tasty chord moves I’d learned in the jazz study group.
Remembering to Forget… The title track. It’s a thing to do at the end of a serious practice session on guitar. Just forget everything and play…..but you have to remember to do that.
Andalusian Cadence… Exactly that. Let the cadence do the work and play the least I can while making sure to hit the ‘meaningful’ notes.
La Belle Riviere Gorre… Another one for the local record label to submit a track for a compilation album. The brief – Call for “CARTES POSTALES” project
(Based on the idea of Argentinean artist Carlos Devizia) Each artist will have to choose one of the most beautiful natural places in the world for them. They will compose a sound (or music) piece inspired by that place. We at Camembert Électrique believe that there are so many beautiful places in our world, that they deserve to be honoured musically.
I chose one of my very favourite places. The River Gorre near Saint Auvent. Just a stones throw from where I live. I walk there often and I find it to be a magical place. I make a point of stopping to just watch the river flow for a few minutes.
The weather has been grim. It’s been raining for days. More guitar time then! On the Strat-Talk forum where we discuss all things stratocaster there is a weekly challenge that I sometimes join in with. This week’s challenge was to record oneself playing over a backing track for Wayne Shorter’s Footprints. I liked the sound of of it, and decided to gve it a go. I spent a happy morning teaching myself the melody by ear then recording this…..
Here’s what we have…. Drums intro, 4 bars keyboard turnaround, 2* Melody, 4 choruses improvisation, 2* Melody, 2*tag, outro. I recorded using a 1967 ‘Chet Atkins’ Gretsch Country Gentleman – also know as the George Harrison guitar, through a DV Mark Little Jazz amplifier into Ableton Live. The backing track was posted by Monte over on strat-talk. Here’s the challenge thread in case you fancy having a go, or checking out what other players made of it.
A great morning on the guitar learning about a tune that I was not familiar with. What you been up too?
“Footprints” is a jazz standard composed by saxophonist Wayne Shorter and first recorded for his album Adam’s Apple in 1966. The first commercial release of the song was a different recording on the Miles Davis album Miles Smiles recorded later in 1966, but released earlier. It has become a jazz standard.
Armed with a funky drum loop from Taylor Gordon aka The Pocket Queen, some flute parts from an old recording and a rainy day here’s what I came up with….
I found The Pocket Queen on Instagram. The flute was from an old recording I did with Tim Bragg. The mixing, arranging, and guitars parts were by yours truly. I hope you like it.
Dédiée aux cigales Cicadas Brood X. Tous les 17 ans, les nymphes de la cigale de Brood X creusent un tunnel vers le haut en masse pour émerger de la surface du sol. Les insectes perdent ensuite leurs exosquelettes sur les arbres et autres surfaces, devenant ainsi des adultes. Les cigales matures volent, s’accouplent, pondent des œufs dans des brindilles, puis meurent en quelques semaines. La combinaison de la longue vie souterraine des insectes, de leur émergence quasi simultanée du sol en grand nombre et de leur courte période d’âge adulte permet à la couvée de survivre même à une prédation massive.
The final music collaboration of 2020. Our cover of John Hiatt’s Hangin Round Here. All the parts were recorded at home, then put together. We hope you like it. We hope that 2021 will be your best year ever. Happy New Year!
Jim Condie – Vocal, Dobro Guitar Jon Medici – Acoustic Guitar Dave Purple – Harmonica Serge Bardot – Bass Andy Bennett – Drums Madame Blanc and ‘The Crew’ – Backing Vocals
The BellRays True Believers is a facebook group for fans of The BellRays that are more than fans. They are True Believers. A place to hang with like minds and the band. Special offers, LIVE events and more to come.
Blues is the teacher. Punk is the Preacher. It’s all about emotion and energy. Experience and raw talent, spirit and intellect. Exciting things happen when these things collide.
Bob Vennum and Lisa Kekaula made The BellRays happen in 1990 in Riverside, California but they weren’t really thinking about any of this then. They wanted to play music and they wanted it to feel good. They wanted people to WANT to get up, to NEED to get up and check out what was going on. Form an opinion. React.
So they took everything they knew about; the Beatles, Stevie Wonder, the Who, the Ramones Billie Holiday, Lou Rawls, Hank Williams, the DB’s, Jimmy Reed, and Led Zeppelin (to name a very few to whom “BLUES IS THE TEACHER”) and pressed it into service.
Those bands and artists have since become “buzz words”, things to imitate and sound like. That was never The BellRays intention. The BellRays were never about coming up with a “sound”, or fitting in with a scene. It was about the energy that made all that music so irresistible. The BellRays’ influences learned from the Blues and then learned how to to make it their own. The Beatles wanted to play R&B, converted that energy and invented “Rubber Soul”. The Ramones were trying to be Del Shannon or Neil Sedaka and out came “Rocket to Russia”.
The BellRays believe combining Rock and Soul is not meant to be a conscious effort. You shouldn’t have to force them together because they’ve never really been separated in the first place. It’s an organic trail that flows through Bob and Lisa and the current rhythm section of Bernard Yin (Fur Dixon, Par Avion ) on bass and Dusty Watson (the Sonics, Dick Dale) on drums, and comes out honest and urgent. You will learn and you will feel. Blues is always teaching and Punk is always preaching.
With all bars and restaurants closed, and travel banned for non essential purposes there was no way Bennetti’s Jazz Blues Club could go ahead in March. Instead we put out our first ever online broadcast. This featured music from members only. You can listen to it here….
Music from Norrie Snakebite Burnnett, Tim Bragg, Andy Berry, Ann Ellam, Rod Millgate, Madame Blanc, and Steve and Ev’ from Highland Hotclub.
