2/21/20 - Lyle Mays and Pat Metheny

Lyle Mays was my contemporary, and it was so sad to hear about his death last week at the age of 66 from "a recurring illness". Lyle was an integral part of The Pat Metheny Group for about 30 years, creating the textures and colors that carried Pat's soaring guitar. His abilities went far beyond jazz, and in many ways he was an under-appreciated artist.

Here is a live performance of their song, "September Fifteenth", dedicated to Bill Evans. The song was recorded on their duo album, "As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls," released in 1981. This live performance is from 2000. About 5 minutes into this tune Lyle plays a solo that is more Debussey and Ravel than Bill Evans; this is where his heart lies.

Mays, who cherished the technical and analytical aspects of his craft as well as the improvisational part, also was a self-taught computer programmer and architect who once designed a house for a relative.

During a recent tour, Metheny said, he could tell that Mays had “had enough of hotels, buses and so forth.” The lifestyle of constant touring is challenging and takes a toll on musicians, Metheny said.

Mays remained with the Pat Metheny Group until 2010—when he not only left the group, but also began paying increasingly less attention to the music business in general. “It’s not that I have a real desire to leave the music industry—I kind of feel like the music industry has left me. Or left all of us,” he said in a 2016 interview. “People don’t want to pay for music anymore.”

https://youtu.be/QxK1Mf6_yBw?t=8

2/7/20 - Franck Violin Sonata, with Pinchas Zuckerman

Pinchas Zuckerman - Franck Violin Sonata

 In these stressful times, it is worthwhile to take a few moments and remember the beauty that great artistry can create. Even if you just have time to listen to the first 5-6 minutes of this, it may bring you some joy. This is my favorite Violin Sonata of all, written by Cesar Franck in  1886 as a wedding gift to a friend. Performed by Pinchas Zuckerman with MARC NEIKRUG on piano. The piece is  notable for the difficulty of its piano part, when compared with most of the chamber repertoire. Its technical problems include frequent extreme extended figures—the composer himself having possessed huge hands—and virtuoso runs and leaps, particularly in the second movement (though some passages can be facilitated by employing a spare hand to cover some notes). 

https://youtu.be/tns2uBCoal0?t=109

1/31/20 - Ben Hong, cello - Hallelujah - Tribute to Kobe

Ben Hong, Cello - Tribute to Kobe Bryant - Hallelujah

These are the words of Kobe Bryant:

"You have to dance beautifully in the box that you are comfortable dancing in. My box was to be extremely ambitious within the sport of basketball.  Your box is different than mine. Everyone has their own. It's your job to try to perfect it and make it as beautiful a canvas as you can make it. And if you have done that, then you have lived a successful life."

Ben Hong from the Los Angeles Philharmonic was given the honor of playing a solo cello piece behind last night's tribute to the life of Kobe Bryant at Staples Center.

Please enjoy Ben Hong's improvisation on the Leonard Cohen song, "Hallelujah" and this 6 minute tribute video.

https://youtu.be/XR4zWhcazoA

1/24/20 The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

They were four kids that grew up in rural Ontario Canada, listening to late night radio from Nashville, TN and Cleveland, OH. At some point they met up with Levon Helm from Marvell, Arkansas. By 1960 they were touring with Ronnie Hawkins' Rockabilly Band. In 1964, they separated from Hawkins, after which they toured and released a few singles as Levon and the Hawks and the Canadian Squires. By now they were a road-tested, kick-ass rock and roll band. The next year, Bob Dylan hired them for his U.S. tour in 1965, introducing rock'n'roll to a folk music audience that booed them every night. They were all in their early 20s.

In 1966 when the tour ended, Rick Danko found this big Pink house in Woodstock New York, and the 5 Band members moved in, and started creating what may be the most unique American Music ever made. It was not Rock, or Folk. Robbie Robertson's vision was to create an album of story telling, evocative of the past, but living in the present, miles away from the drug-fueled psychedelia of the late '60s.

Their first two albums, released in 1968 and 1969, still stand as some of the best music to come out of the '60s.  The Band continued to play stadiums and festivals until 1976, when they left in a triumphant final "Last Waltz" in 1976, filmed by Martin Scorsese. Here is a clip from that concert, please enjoy The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

https://youtu.be/jREUrbGGrgM

1/17/20 Wes Montgomery and Harold Mabern

Wes Montgomery - Round Midnight

Continuing our deep dive into guitar-piano jazz ensembles, here is a beautiful version of the Thelonius Monk composition Round Midnight recorded by Wes Montgomery.

Here is the amazing life story of John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968). A self-taught musician, Wes never learned to read music. He picked up a guitar at age 20 after hearing Charlie Christian. He never planned to be a musician, always holding a day job while he played gigs at night. Five years later at age 25 he was tapped to tour with Lionel Hampton. This lasted two years, but Wes had a wife and kids and hated flying, so he spent the next 10 years playing gigs around his home town of Indianapolis.

Wes and his brothers moved to California in 1957, and his career began to take off. He recorded his first album as a leader in 1960, and went on to record 22 albums(!) before he died of a heart attack in 1968.

This video is from the European tour that Wes did in 1965. Here he is with

Wes Montgomery, guitar
Harold Mabern, piano
Arthur Harper, bass
Jimmy Lovelace, drums

https://youtu.be/MOm17yw__6U

12/27/19 - B. B. King - New Years Blues

B. B. King - How Blue Can You Get?

 Christmas and New Year's Eve bring on the feeling for me of, "Is this all there is?" The blues follows close behind, and no one embodied the blues better than B.B. King. He was born September 16, 1925, on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, near Indianola. In his youth, he played on street corners for dimes, and would sometimes play in as many as four towns a night. In 1947, he hitchhiked to Memphis, TN, to pursue his music career. 

His economy of style, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players, from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck.

King performed tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing on average at more than 200 concerts per year into his 70s. He often joked that he kept touring because of his need to keep up the child support payments (It is reported that he fathered 15 children with several different women. After his death, three more have come forward, claiming King as their father as well.) He was still touring in 2014, but the tour was cut short due to health problems and he died in May, 2015.

This recording from 1989 when B. B. was 64 years old shows him still in his prime.

11/22/19 Jazz & Blues Revue - My Favorite Things

My Favorite Time Of The Year - Party On!

One of my favorite things each year is when I get to perform our Holiday Show with the Jazz & Blues Revue: an 8-piece group featuring three fabulous female singers, Courtney Lemmon, Gina Saputo and Crystal Starr. This year we have a new location at the ROOFTOP of the La Peer Hotel in West Hollywood. This will be the FIFTH year doing this mix of R&B Christmas tunes and the new location is festive and fun. $25 cover charge, doors open at 6:00 for dinner and the music starts at 7:30, so come join us on

SUNDAY DECEMBER 8.

This song, made famous by the unlikely combination of Julie Andrews and John Coltrane, is a perfect blend of styles for the group: A holilday standard with a jazz pedigree,  Here is a performance (with 55,000+ views on YouTube!) of the Jazz & Blues Revue performaing my arrangement of MY FAVORITE THINGS.

https://youtu.be/HBlKdSHeSeg?t=4