Practice log, more benefits!

Just wanted to share one of the benefits of keeping a practice log. Write what you worked on, what you are struggling with, how you felt about your session and most importantly, what went well.

Tonight for example I was struggling with my upper register. I played a fellows Mk6 tenor the other night and got Selmer lust going. There is just something so likable about the upper register of those horns, this wailing quality, almost an 'E' vowel. My old horn likes a more 'ooh' sound. So I shaped my mouth like I would say 'E' and that's what came out the horn. I can pretty much get whatever I want out  of my instrument and this helps me to stay out of that old equipment distraction. I also pulled out a Rovner ligature I have that I forget about. The response got quicker, altissimo easier, sound got darker and richer all in a matter of seconds. This is the kind of stuff I forget. Without writing this stuff down I'm likely to find a $1000 solution to a $2 problem.

I also keep a brief journal about my writing sessions and let someone know. Keeps me motivated and accountable, like taking lessons. I can fool myself into teaching myself but without another human being that I show up to every other week, I'm not likely to do the work. As a result of that kind of rapport, my playing is growing leaps and bounds.

Being an organized musician! It is possible!!!!

with love, JB

Ornette Coleman

Today is Ornette Colemans 84th birthday I just learned. I was moving my van when I heard this on WKCR (best radio station EVER!) and got inspired to write about him.

I saw Ornette perform about 7 years ago in Portland Oregon at the jazz festival, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Joe Lovano introduced him and Ornette came out from behind the curtain and said "we'd like to play for you some music that comes from a time before music was written" in that sweet voice of his. And that's exactly what he and his band did. His son Denardo Coleman was on drums and the rest of the band consisted of 3 bass players (one upright, one piccolo and one funked out wah and fuzz Fender Jazz bass!). With Ornette the music doesn't kick off, you don't wait for a solo to end so you can clap politely or anything else a too trained jazz listener expects, you simply need to give in to the music. Many folks with good seats (expensive seats!) walked out looking rather confused. Now, I'm a strong proponent of walking out. It's not about dislike or like, it's about message. I'll get a message and it's just not the message I need so I leave. God bless those who are guided by their feelings! And....this enabled us to move up even closer!

Yes, the music we heard that night was ancient. He was an old man by this point. His chops on trumpet and violin weren't what they used to be but I still dug what he could do. His alto playing was pure Ornette. And that's the word, pure. This music felt so pure, like an undiscovered stream high up in the mountains.

First time I remember hearing Ornette was in college. I was at Berklee and this was 1986. I loved jazz, old jazz, I wasn't down with what was happening around me in music though. What they were teaching didn't resonate, but I loved my teachers at Berklee. One of them, an ear training teacher I had put on some Ornette. I fell in love from the first note! So much humor, so much depth and so, rebellious! Some of it sounded like a detective movie on laughing gas! Then there was Lonely Woman (I had heard Branford Marsalis play a lovely version of this song on a tape) and again, that purity of emotion. That pure tone. I have to be careful of that song being played by it's writer. I will listen to it for months straight and not get much done. Ornette was reason #2 for me declaring I must play the saxophone at some point in this lifetime!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sq9PE-2JVA

And of course, it wasn't just Ornette. It was the way Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell or Billy Higgins played together in the rhythm section. And the way Ornette and Don Cherry played together. That chemistry that makes great bands great bands. People that are willing to risk everything in music to make something new. And new never gets old. Somehow this ancient music never gets old.

Thank you Ornette and happy birthday! JB