Gigs This Weekend

I have two fun gigs this weekend. The music will be drastically different, but should be enjoyable.

Up first is my Friday night gig in Glenside, PA. It’s a fundraiser for Glenside Youth Athletic Club (GYAC). The event is billed as Comedy Night: three NYC comics and a warm-up band called the Weekend Squires. I am the “special guest” with the Weekend Squires. The schtick with this gig is that the band picks a pop artist/band to cover and then they do instrumental versions of the tunes. I joined the Weekend Squires for last year’s GYAC Comedy Night and we played all Black Crowes tunes (a bit rough cuz the Crowes singer basically sings the same thing on almost every tune – blues scale notes). This year the band that we are covering is The Clash. I’m playing on about 70% of the tunes – playing the original horn lines as well as lead and back up vocal lines. Sometimes I’m playing all these parts at once. How is that possible, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you; thanks for asking. I have a new toy which lets me play multiple notes at once.

For my birthday (March 14^th in case you want to make a reminder for next year!), my wife and mom bought me a Boss PS-6 Harmonist pedal. This thing has been so much fun! Using Boss’ words, here’s what it does:
“Meet the new BOSS harmonist, with four intelligent pitch-shift effects and three-voice harmony in one convenient unit. Among the effect modes are Harmony, Pitch Shifter, and Detune, plus the all-new Super Bend for authentic pedal-bending effects and wild three- and four-octave pitch sweeps. You can even control pitch with an optional expression pedal. The harmony function is fast and simple to use, and supports a variety of interval patterns. It’s easy to create rich, three-voice harmony: choose a major or minor key, and set SHIFT to 3-VOICE—that’s it! The PS-6 Harmonist is an unbeatable combination of superior sound quality, ease of use, and powerful pitch effects, all under one hood.”

I’ve been fooling around with this pedal for the last month and because of the nature of this Weekend Squires gig, I think it’s a perfect time to debut the Harmonist. Some tunes I’ll use the three-part harmony, some tunes I’ll add to my pitch an octave above and an octave below, and some tunes I’ll use the Detune function which is basically a chorus effect. To further treat my sound, for some tunes I’m also going to play through a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal – the idea is to make the trumpet sound less like a trumpet. I’ll probably mainly use the distortion on my solos.

So all in all, I’m looking forward to this gig. Though I won’t be getting paid (it’s a fundraiser and I’m donating my time), it will be fun to test out this new gear. Plus, I’ve grown a new appreciation for The Clash. Their drummer, especially, was pretty darn good. And transcribing some of their tunes has confirmed in my mind that I need to start a ska band in the near future. More on that later….

So, the next gig is Saturday’s big concert at Montgomery County Community College. Courtesy of the Ars Nova Workshop website, here’s the deal:

On April 28 at Montgomery County Community College, Bobby Zankel’s big band the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound will premiere a new piece written for the ensemble by legendary pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams. Recently named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master and a member of Downbeat Magazine’s Hall of Fame, Abrams is a co-founder of the hugely influential Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and a composer whose work and influence spans the diverse history of classic, modern and avant-garde jazz. At 81, he continues to wield an enormous influence through his recordings and teachings, not least through some of modern jazz’s most important musicians.

Ars Nova Workshop has also hosted a four part blog about this concert by writer Shaun Brady – you can see the posts at http://arsnovaworkshop.org/

I wrote about this concert a few weeks back – check out the videos. There is a new video with pianist Vijay Iyer:

and also an interview with Muhal himself:

My favorite Muhal quote from this video is a real gem: “I don’t really advise people, but I would say be honest and true about music and practice and study. Forever.” Love it!

The Warriors and Muhal have been rehearsing for a couple of months and the music is ready. It’s one very long epic composition entitled “Soundpath.” In short, it’s badass! Muhal is a true master. And he has been such a joy to work with. He stands in front of us, a real maestro, but very humble and very accessible. He laughs, cracks jokes, and dances along with music – he’s 81 but with his energy and enthusiasm, you would think that he’s half that age. And he’s really encouraging us, pushing us to really get into the sound, to really explore. The whole process has been a blast and I’m excited for the culmination – our concert at MCCC.

Oh, I almost forgot - a special bonus for the Warriors for this concert is that we will also be welcoming into the band two master improvisers: the great trumpet (and a favorite of mine) Herb Robertson and the master trombone player Steve Swell. It’s been great hearing these guys with the band. And it’s been a real treat sitting next to, and getting to know Herb. This show is gonna be awesome!




A new development: since this concert location is kinda out-there for some folks, Ars Nova Workshop has organized a bus trip to and from the Clef Club in center city Philadelphia to make things easier for you.

Tiny Desk Rudresh

Have you seen/heard any of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts? On a fairly regular basis NPR All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen brings in musical guests to perform in the NPR office – like, actually at Boilen’s office desk. I have never watched one of these Tiny Desk Concerts that I didn’t enjoy, although some I enjoy more than others. Recently I watched Tiny Desk Concert with alto sax master Rudresh Mahanthappa and I was pretty blown away, so I figured that I would share.

Back in May 2010 and again in March 2011, the big band I play with, Bobby Zankel and the Wonderful Sound, played a couple of concerts with Rudresh – the first one just outside of Philadelphia, and the second at the Iridium in NYC. 9You can watch the first concert here). We played a suite of music that Rudresh wrote and it was a ton of fun. Rudresh’s new album is called “Samdhi” and it is awesome. This Tiny Desk Concert features the same bass player: Rich Brown, but instead of David Gilmore on guitar, this Concert features frequent Rudresh collaborator Rez Abassi on guitar. And the drummer for this Concert is the great Rudy Royston, a favorite of mine (and a favorite of many others considering how many people he’s been playing with since he moved to NYC from Denver). Needless to say, this band is pretty sick. And the intimate (it’s a freakin’ office!) environment makes for an interesting and personal visual performance.

Hope you enjoy:

http://www.npr.org/event/music/148034483/rudresh-mahanthappa-tiny-desk-concert

And if you like this, maybe also check out a somewhat recent Tiny Desk Concert with legendary guitarist Bill Frisell playing John Lennon tunes solo. That one was great too!

Interviews: Jason Moran and Bobby Zankel on Muhal Richard Abrams

Here's a cool interview with pianist/composer Jason Moran talking about legendary pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams. The part about Mr. Moran’s composition lessons with Mr. Abrams sure reminded me of “Week Four” from my lessons with Dennis Sandole (I'll have to post some of that stuff soon). Very interesting.

The Philly ensemble with whom I have the pleasure to play, Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound have begun rehearsing with Mr. Abrams. We will be performing some brand new music of Mr. Abrams' in concert at Montgomery County Community College on April 28, 2012.

Here is the Jason Moran video:

And here is a Bobby Zankel interview in which he discusses his personal history, including this upcoming concert with Muhal Richard Abrams:

Practicing: Sound the Trumpet

I’ve been switching up my practice routine a bit lately. Sometimes I get into ruts. I tend to focus a lot on tone and sound and playing exercises – flexibility, slurs, lip bends, scales, etc. This is all good stuff to do, but I’ve been finding more and more lately that while this kind of practicing helps me keep my trumpet technique in shape, it’s not really helping me on a lot of my gigs. Sure, it’s important to maintain ones chops – range and endurance and basic technique – but I only have so much time each day to practice. Most of the money I make from playing is from private cocktail jazz gigs and from church/wedding gigs. Maybe I should be focusing my practice attention on making my playing in those situations better. Instead of playing tonguing exercise in Arbans, why don’t I make up my own, specifically creating exercises that work on arpeggios or scales that I might use while improvising on a tune. If I’m doing lip bends, why not do them in the form of the triads from the Giant Steps progression? I’m starting to realize that I need to make the most of my practice time to truly get the maximum amount of musical benefit out of the little time that I have. The key for me is going to be, I think, finding the balance of keeping the trumpet maintenance portion of practicing in balance with the music making part of practice (learning tunes, playing etudes, practicing music for upcoming shows/projects). I just discovered a really cool website and iTunes podcast series that’s been giving me some great ideas.

Sound the Trumpet: How to Blow Your Own Horn. There is a ton of info on this site and tons more if you start clicking the links. Chicago-based trumpet player and educator Jonathan Harnum has put together a massive amount of info on his site. And he also created a pretty sweet podcast series on iTunes: Sound the Trumpet: Podcast for Trumpeters. This past weekend I listened to the podcast interviews of jazz trumpeters Avishai Cohen and Ingrid Jensen. Harnum specifically questions these masters on what and how they practice the trumpet. Hearing how these players balance the time they have with what they need to work on has been a big inspiration for me. The Ingrid Jensen interview was particularly enlightening, specifically with regard to her use of a drone in her practicing. She sets up a tanpura drone (but one could use anything to create a drone – or for that matter, another person can create the drone if practicing with someone else) in whatever key and then she practices off of it. Scales or arpeggios or patterns or even progressions with the intent of hearing the actual intervals in relation to the drone note. And the cool thing is that the drone could be the tonic of a chord or it could be the third or the fifth, or whatever. This concept really reminds me a bit of my friend and bandleader Bobby Zankel’s interpretation of Ornette Coleman’s Harmolodics concept. This drone practicing is all about developing the ear. But at the same time you can practice necessary trumpet technique. I just downloaded a free tanpura app from iTunes. I’m going to practice with this tonight to see what kinds of things I can come up with. I might try to keep the drone going and set up a pulse with my metronome and then assign myself a scale to play. Or maybe triads over a partial cycle of fourths.

The possibilities are endless. And this is really the key to practicing. There is so much to learn and the journey is such an individual one. We have to make the most of what we have. A quote from Jensen’s interview sums it up nicely:

“Really get it together as it’s supposed to go, but also explore with it; take it down the road, take it for a walk around the block, climb to the top of a building and come back down with it, and then come back and play it exactly as it’s supposed to be as well.

There is no end point. The more you learn, the more that you find out there is to learn.”

I’m excited to explore my practicing more. I always enjoy playing but I’m going to try, or rather allow myself to make the most of it. Check out this site and the podcast. Great stuff!

Upcoming Gigs

Two gigs of note this week. Thursday night I’ll be back at Tritone with Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound. It’s been almost ten years that the band has had our once a month gig at Tritone. I’m not sure what’s on tap this month. We might play Bobby’s music like we always do or we might also include some music by the great alto saxophonist, Steve Coleman. Why? Because the Warriors have a big concert on Saturday at Montgomery County Community College with Steve.

Like last year’s amazing concert (you can watch it HERE) with alto giant Rudresh Mahanthappa, Bobby has invited (with some serious grant funding, of course) a guest composer to come in and write a whole new suite of music for the band and perform it with us. Rudresh wrote “Dasha” for us. Steve has written “Stasis and Change“ for us. Steve’s music is really hard. Really intricate interlocking lines and melodies, very rhythmic, very exact. Some of the guys in the band prefer a looser aesthetic so this is going to be a bit of a challenge. But because Steve’s language is so singular he is bringing down from NYC a few of his students/bandmates to flesh out our band and lend some support. It’s already been a great learning experience. A few more rehearsals should tighten things up and we’ll be ready to roll.

Here is some more info on Steve Coleman if you are interested:
http://www.m-base.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Coleman

Practicing: Saving Enough For The Third Set

Last week I had a several gigs and several rehearsals. All in all, it was a fair amount of playing for me. I only get to practice 1 ½ to 2 hours (a little more when I’m lucky) a day so I need to make the most of that time to build significant strength, endurance, and efficiency so that I can handle a decent workload when my playing schedule calls for it. And when the playing schedule is heavy I need to remind myself to play smart.

After the second set of a Warriors of the Wonderful Sound gig I remarked to friend and fellow Warriors trumpeter Adam Hershberger: “I feel pretty good tonight. I feel like my chops are still fresh and I could keep going. I should be in good shape to play all weekend now.” Adam replied “yeah, you gotta always remember to leave enough for the third set.” Well, considering all of the heavy and hard playing we have to do on a Warriors gig, I’m grateful that we only play two sets at our monthly Tritone gig. Three sets would probably shred my face.

Leader and composer Bobby Zankel writes really dense and long charts. The trumpets rarely get much rest. And these are long tunes. And usually pretty long sets. And they’re loud sets. So naturally trumpet players are going to get tired. Now, most of the guys in the trumpet section play music full-time and they also teach. They are playing several hours a day more than me. They usually have better endurance than I do because of this. I’m not complaining or making excuses, but it is what it is. The other thing in this band is that there is plenty of room for solos. If I wanted to be aggressive, I could play two or more solos a set. Solos in this band can be long and you have to blow loud and hard the whole way. It can – and will - tire you out. Sometimes I just get really into the music and I want to get up and take as many solos as I can (without being a jerk to my bandmates, of course) - just want to get that music out and get off. So yes, sometimes this an ego thing too. Stand up and do your thing. Show off what you’ve got. That’s cool. There’s a place for that sometimes. Although, I generally believe that the best solos/improvisations are completely devoid of ego. The music is divorced from those connections to “me” and “I” and when that’s the case, magic can really happen.

Well, the other night Bobby told the band before the first set “let’s mix things up tonight. Don’t take a solo in your regular spots. Let someone else take it.” There are a few tunes on which I often take solos. I gave them to other guys that night. I ended up only taking one solo the whole night. It was a decent one. I had fun. Said my stuff and that was that. I was fine with it. I didn’t let my ego fool me into thinking that I needed to blow a bunch of choruses on many solos to prove my worth as a trumpet player and musician. I was content to just play my parts, take my one solo, and not blow out my chops. I was thinking about the “third set.” In this case, the third set wasn’t really a third set, but the two rehearsals the next day, and then the next gig coming up. And because I was thinking ahead I was playing more intelligently and ultimately more efficiently. It sounds like a simple thing, but it really is something that I need to be more conscious of. Playing in the moment (you never know when it will be the last) but also thinking about what is coming next and making sure I will be physically equipped to play what is required.

Save some for the third set. Pace yourself. Play smart. I need to keep these things in mind – on stage and in the practice room. Thanks for the advice, Adam!

Adam Hershberger laughing at me NOT saving enough for the third set!!

Upcoming Gigs

Things have been busy for me musically so far this year and March appears like it will continue that trend. Here are a few open-to-the-public shows coming up that I wanted to let you know about:

Thursday, March 3^rd – Back at Tritone with Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound. The band is just a few months away from celebrating our tenth anniversary and things have really been heating up lately. This week the Warriors are rehearsing with alto saxophonist/composer/band leader/force of Nature Steve Coleman. We have a big concert coming up next month (Saturday, April 9^th at Montgomery County Community College) featuring a program of Coleman’s (complex, but really cool) compositions. More on that show later. But catch us at Tritone this week. Good, cheap food and booze. Great, loud music starts at 9:30pm.

Sunday, March 6^th – I will be playing a 1K Recordings live web broadcast with guitarist Tim Motzer. Tim and I have had a duo thing going for a few months now and it really is a lot fun. Tim plays some amazing things on the guitar and I get to use a lot of extended techniques on the trumpet. We’ll be making some pretty cool soundscapes improvisations. Our session is part of a series that Tim has been doing – live audio and video recording broadcast live on the web. You don’t even need to put on your outside pants for this one! Here’s the link to watch us – we start at 3pm: www.webillishus.com/watch/1k-sessions.

Wednesday, March 16^th – Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound hit the NJ Turnpike heading north. We will be performing at the Iridium in NYC with saxophonist and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa. Sets at 8pm and 10pm. Last May the Warriors played a concert with Rudresh world premiering a new suite of his, “Dasha.” The band sounded great and had a blast playing Rudresh’s music and we are excited to reprise that endeavor again – this time in NYC.

Friday, March 18^th – I’ll be playing at the Blockley with PhillyBloco. Last weekend PhillyBloco played a smoking show in NYC and on March 19^th we’ll be celebrating in Philly with a CD Release Party. I’ve got a copy of the new CD and it sounds wonderful. It’s a live recording but so much time was spent with the mixing and mastering that it sounds studio-quality. If you like Brazilian music, if you like to dance, if you like getting sweaty, this will be a great night for you!

I hope that some of you, dear readers, will be able to come to some of these shows.

Reflections On Studying With Dennis Sandole

This is a long post and one that I’ve been writing little by little for a while now. Hope you enjoy…

I consider myself to be pretty lucky – I took weekly lessons from Dennis Sandole for almost three years (until he passed in September of 2000). I started studying music with the Maestro, as his students often called him (to his face I called him Mr. Sandole) in December of 1997. I had very good reason for doing so. My buddy, saxophonist Jon Cole and I had been in a band together at the University of Pennsylvania, and then we joined another band together called Fathead right after school. By the end of 1997 Fathead had been doing plenty of touring and my trumpet chops were getting worse and worse (I was never that serious about pursuing music and though I played throughout college, I rarely ever practiced – I was an English major). In between tours Jon had started taking lessons with Sandole and after only a month and a half he was already sounding better and playing some more interesting things in his solos. Meanwhile I was getting worse. My ego couldn’t handle that so I asked Jon for Mr. Sandole’s number; I called him and set up an audition. It was a good move for me and the next few years of study really impacted my life in a positive way.

I remember being nervous walking to the Maestro’s 1622 Spruce Street studio that first time. This was the guy that taught Coltrane after all! – and a bunch of other jazz giants (many of whom I didn’t know about at the time). When I went inside I realized that the studio was really just a big downstairs living room in an old (but really nice) Philly row home. Tall ceilings, wood doors and wood molding around the windows and walls. The carpet was a brownish color. Everything was kinda brown in there including the grand piano and the Maestro’s chair. In fact, Mr. Sandole was wearing a tan sports coat over a brown sweater and khaki pants. Even his hair, which I’m sure would have been white, had been dyed brown (!). I introduced myself, sat down, and was asked a bit about myself and what I wanted to learn. I don’t remember how I replied but I do remember that I was then asked to play something. I think I just made something up on the spot. It probably wasn’t very good. Mr. Sandole asked me a few more questions, “Who was your trumpet teacher?” “Frank Eisenreich in Pittsburgh.” “Well, Frank Eisenreich gave you a very nice tone on the trumpet. Did he teach you any piano or theory?” “No, not really.” “Well he should have. We will work on that.” I guess I had been accepted. Then Mr. Sandole told me about how his lessons were going to be structured, how I would need several music manuscript books (one for him and the others for me), and he also told me about payment for the lessons. It was $50 a lesson. You had to take a lesson every week – no skipping or taking once a month – consistency was the only way toward improvement. And the money was never to be discussed again. When my lesson was through I was to place the money (or check) on the right side of the piano keyboard. It was my responsibility to make sure that I placed the money there. If I was short one week I would make it up the next. “Do you understand?” “Yes.” “Then we don’t need to discuss this again.” Then he wrote my first lesson for me.

A cool thing about studying with Dennis Sandole - the lessons he wrote for me were just for me. They had never been written before and they were written specifically for me – geared toward my needs and weaknesses. I can’t speak about other students’ lesson material because everyone received personalized material that was created specifically for them and their needs.  That said, from what I can gather from other students, there were some structural things that most students’ lessons shared. Lessons were built on a four week cycle and the breakdown was often similar. Here’s how mine were built – and again, the elements of the Maestro’s literature (that’s what he called it, so that’s what I call it) I received were different than what other students received. Many (probably most) other students were more advanced than me so what they studied was probably heavier than what I had. “Stick with me, Bart, and I will take you to the heights of virtuosity.”

Week One – Chord Progression, Arpeggio, and Piano Voicings
The chord progression (called A1) was always written in 3/4 time - at least for me it was (I still don’t really know why – if any former students have an explanation for this I’d sure love to hear it) - and my progression was usually four or five bars long with one chord per beat. The Maestro would write a line that went with the chord progression. And a lot of the time there would be a weird scale at the end of this progression, maybe some strange altered scale that, honestly to my ears, usually sounded like an extension of the weird melody line that went with the four or five bar chord progression. My job was to memorize this four or five bar melody and transpose it into the other eleven keys. I’ve never been very good at memorizing and I think I got freaked out at the idea of having to memorize all of this music every week so I wrote out my exercises in all twelve keys. To get the most out of the material I should have memorized it. Sandole told me that Coltrane memorized his lessons in all twelve keys (he often took two lessons a week – eight years worth of literature in four years, Mr. Sandole told me). Bobby Zankel told me that he memorized his. Anyway, just playing through those melodies in all keys was a real workout – on the chops, but more importantly on the ear. I had never heard anything like those melodies before. They were so strange and weird to me, and thus, challenging to play.

Next up (A2) was an arpeggio that the Maestro gave me.  Memorize it and play it in all keys. This I could do. I didn’t play them fast, but I could play them without mistakes. Subsequent Week Ones would have me playing an inversion of the original arpeggio – again in all keys. This cycle continued every Week One until I exhausted the notes and started a new arpeggio.

Week One for me also included some work on the piano. “Don’t neglect the piano!” the Maestro told me. Sorry Maestro, I still neglect the piano (and it shows!). My piano material was originally just basic voicings – either for specific chords or for the A1 progression itself - but as time went on the voicings got more and more advanced. I should go back to that stuff now. I’m sure it would be really helpful.

So that was Week One.

Week Two - Substitute Chords, Ear Training, and Rhythm Studies
Week Two’s lesson began with Substitute Chords (B1) but after a while that morphed into Turnbacks. The same idea from A1 applies – a four or five bar melody line, but this time the chords in the second, third, fourth, fifth bar were all substitute chords for the first bar’s chord (Ex. Dmi7b5 and Fmi7b5 were subs for G7). The whole line and progression had to be played in all twelve keys. When I practiced B1 I would just look at the melody line as one big long line and I would look at the chords subs as something else entirely. Maybe that wasn’t the correct way to approach it, but that’s what I did.

Next came Ear Training (B2) and for me that usually involved singing scales (and their inversions in subsequent B2s) using solfege (do, re, mi, etc.).

Then came Rhythm Studies (B3) which I really enjoyed. I worked out of the Maestro’s list of Latin rhythms. The assignment was to compose a four or five bar theme using his rhythms and combining eight consecutive notes (moving forward or backward) from any of the melody lines in A1, B1, or C1. Ultimately, the longer I studied, the more literature I accrued, and this exercise almost gave me the freedom to write whatever I wanted – still within the construct of the rhythm studies. I also used to apply this exercise to the chord progressions from A1. Over the years some of these little B3 melodies have turned into full length tunes.

Week Three – Tritone Principles, Sight Singing, Compose Paraphrase on C1
Week Three started with C1 which for me, initially was based on Sandole’s Tritone Principle. C1, again, was similar to A1 and B1 in that I was given a melody line that went along with a chord progression. The difference here was there was one chord per beat (again in 3/4 time). In bar 1 the first chord (beat one) could be a G7 and the third chord (beat three) would be Db7 (tritone sub). The second chord (beat two) would be a passing chord to get to the tritone, in this case it might be an Abmi7. Again, the whole line and progression had to be played in all twelve keys. And like B1, when I practiced C1 I would just look at the melody line as one big long line and I would look at the chords as something else entirely.

C2 was Sight Singing for me. Usually out of the Melodia book (I never made it to Modus Novus like some students). I would have specific pages assigned to me and I had to sing the lines with “movable do,” “fixed do,” and with just a sound, no solfege syllable, like “dee, dee, dee.”

C3 was a fun assignment. Take the melody line from that week’s C1, write out the notes (not the rhythms) in order (the theme), write it out in retrograde (backwards), and superimpose one on top of the other (diametrically opposed). When I did this I wrote the theme in blue ink and the retrograde in red. Together they looked pretty cool. I sometimes used the whole entire four or five bar line and sometimes I split it up into one bar at a time segments. Then the idea was to compose melodies based on these blue/red diametrically opposed notes. Again using 8 notes in a row, going left or right, either blues or reds, or a combination of blue and red. And if I wanted I could use the rhythms from his list of rhythms or I could use whatever rhythms I wanted. I usually tried to get these melodies to go along with some kind of chord progression. This was a fun exercise.

I should also mention at this point that anywhere during weeks One, Two, or Three I could be given some of the Maestro’s scales. Some were what he called exotic scales, and as time went on I started getting some of his own synthetic scales which I assume were built on his combining two existing scales to create a new scale. These scales were supplements to my regular workload. He encouraged me to play them in all keys. I could also use them for the assignment in Week Four.

Week Four – Composition
Week Four, D1, D2, and D3, was my favorite week in the four week cycle. I really looked forward to it. The D1 assignment was to pick a song, a standard – once the Maestro found out that I listened to a lot of blues he would encourage me to pick Mingus or Monk tunes. I was to take the chords from just the first eight bars of the tune (“don’t go past the eight bars or that will diminish the quality of your work”) and if I felt like it, I could reharmonize the progression using his chord substitutions from B1. This would often create a totally different sounding progression. Then I had to compose a theme to go with this new progression. I had to use eight consecutive notes from his literature (A1, B1, C1, scales, etc.). I could use the notes going forward or backward. And here’s the kicker – I could use his notes or if I felt like it (and I often did), I could sharp or flat any of his notes. I could also give each note whatever duration I wanted and I could use whatever time signature I wanted. Essentially I could write whatever the hell I wanted but I still had to work within his constructs. Often times the lines would sound like me but sometimes the shapes of the lines were his. I also had to write lyrics or poetry to go along with my theme and progression. I used to think that I was writing some good poetry for these D1s but the Maestro never seemed too impressed! :)

I usually got lazy with D2. Shame one me. I missed out. The D2 assignment was to take my new 8 bar chord progression from D1 and write chord voicings for it. Mine were usually pretty lame – and it showed when I had to hop on the piano and play them at my lessons.

D3 was kind of like D1 – compose an “improvisation” that accompanies the theme/melody and progression I had just written, and I had to use the same rules from D1.

Week Four was a lot of fun and I really put in a lot of time writing these exercises. And a lot of these melodies ended up becoming full-length tunes or the basis of tunes. Whenever I am writing and I hit a wall, I can always use the Maestro’s literature and mix it up in this way to create something totally new and totally mine (at least that’s the goal).

As time went on, my As, Bs, and Cs changed a bit. I received gradually more and more complex literature. The weird lines would start to get groupings of fives and sevens (because Sandole sensed that I needed that). The chord progressions would start to sound stranger and stranger. And my ears opened up wider and wider. To be honest, a lot of this material was (and probably still is) over my head theoretically. But I knew that there was something there for me and I knew that Mr. Sandole would not be around forever. I had to get some of that literature before the opportunity was gone.

I should also say that I really liked Mr. Sandole. He made me feel special, like I had something to offer. But he wouldn’t really compliment me or blow smoke up my ass. Sometimes he didn’t really mention anything about what I had just played for him at all. He would maybe just smile and nod or say “good” and write out the next week’s lesson. And if I was ill-prepared he might barely say anything to me, leaving me feeling really low and determined to not repeat that performance the next week. We would also have some great conversations – about music and musicians (he told me he was fan of Jimi Hendrix!) and also personal things. He had a warm smile and a subtle sense of humor. He met my girlfriend who is now my wife and I swear he flirted with her! When I told him a couple years later that my wife and I were going to have a baby, he was so excited. With the biggest smile I ever saw on his face he told me how happy he was for me.

I remember feeling like one of the special students when he asked me a few times to go around the corner to the deli on 17^th Street to get him a sandwich and some juice. Not everybody got that job! I can still hear his voice in my head. I asked him once if he ever smoked – I was sure that he had. He told me that when he was young he had smoked for about ten days but quit. “You see, Bart, when I was a young man I was very vain, and I didn’t like the way the cigarettes stained my fingers. When I saw that I quit smoking.” The last few lessons I took were at Mr. Sandole’s apartment in Roxborough. His health was declining and getting to town and back was getting to be too much. The last lesson I received was twice as long as anything I had ever been given before. It was the hardest A1 I had ever played. I think I had one of his final lessons. I believe that Dennis Sandole was a genius. That’s not something you find every day.

In the future I’ll be posting some of my Sandole literature. Hopefully it will be of some interest for people.

Gigs This Weekend

Short post today (the listening contest is still live though)...just a reminder about two gigs this weekend:

TONIGHT - Friday, January 21^st at World Café Live (downstairs) – I’ll be playing with Philly Bloco, a 22-piece Brazilian Carnival band.  This band is a blast to play with.  Crazy high energy party band.  All covers – about half Brazilian tunes and half a mix of New Orleans tunes (Dirty Dozen, Dr. John, Meters, etc.) and American pop/R&B tunes (some Stevie Wonder and some Otis Redding) that get a samba treatment.  If you like to dance this would be a good show to come to. 

 

TOMORROW - Saturday, January 22^nd at The Rotunda with Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound (also on the bill is Sonic Liberation Front, a great band that I used to play with).  FREE SHOW. Bobby’s avant big band is like no band you’ve ever seen.  Traditional big band instrumentation but the music is purely Bobby’s conception and aesthetic.  Bobby has created his own language on the alto saxophone as well as in his writing and arranging.  It’s powerful, dense, funky, challenging, engaging music and the band is stocked with some awesome musicians.  We also play the first Thursday of every month at Tritone.

 

Inaugural Post

So since is the first official blog post on Outside Pants I should probably have something real important to say.  But I don’t really so here are some upcoming gigs of mine that I thought I'd mention:

Friday, January 21^st at World Café Live (downstairs) – I’ll be playing with Philly Bloco, a 22-piece Brazilian Carnival band.  This band is a blast to play with.  Crazy high energy party band.  All covers – about half Brazilian tunes and half a mix of New Orleans tunes (Dirty Dozen, Dr. John, Meters, etc.) and American pop/R&B tunes (some Stevie Wonder and some Otis Redding) that get a samba treatment.  If you like to dance this would be a good show to come to. 

 

Saturday, January 22^nd at The Rotunda – I’ll be playing The Rotunda - for the first time in about two years – with Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound.  Bobby’s avant big band is like no band you’ve ever seen.  Traditional big band instrumentation but the music is purely Bobby’s conception and aesthetic.  Bobby has created his own language on the alto saxophone as well as in his writing and arranging.  It’s powerful, dense, funky, challenging, engaging music and the band is stocked with some awesome musicians.  We also play the first Thursday of every month at Tritone.  I’ve been a Warrior for ten years now.  Nice.

 

Friday, January 28^th at the North Star Bar – I guess it’s that time of year again.  This is turning into a tradition – although, something tells me that this will be the last time.  Fathead – the great Philly band I used to play and tour with back in the mid and late 90’s is having another reunion show.  The guys are going to relearn a lot of our old tunes and play them for the people who supported us like crazy back in the day.  Everyone is a little older now, but I’m sure that won’t slow us down.  I think we played that music better at last year’s reunion show than we did when we were a full-time band.  Always good to see and play with old friends.  It was a badass band!

 

Thursday, February 3^rd at Tritone – the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound reconvene.  Gearing up for our April concerts with Steve Coleman (4/9) and with Rudresh Mahanthappa (4/20 at the Iridium in NYC).

Hope to see some readers at these shows. 

And in the words of my friend Rosemary C.: Thanks for Caring, Thanks for Sharing.