“They’re Playing Our Song”

It’s your wedding reception and it’s your money. So the band you hire should have no problem with playing your song. You know: the one you and your sweetheart pick for the first dance. The one that sets the tone for the dance floor. That, and any other song you particularly like.

Of course, you need to take a few steps to ensure that you get what you’re hoping for. Here is some sound advice from The Knot: “Explain what you’re thinking about in terms of musical selections….If there’s a song you really want to incorporate and [the band doesn’t] know it, they should be willing to learn from sheet music you provide them. If they’re resistant to the idea, find out if it’s because they think it won’t work with the instrument (they are, after all, more in the know than you; ask them to come up with some doable alternatives of a similar style). Or if it”s a case of just because, this is the time to do the cha-cha out the door.”

Assuming you’ve decided to engage a jazz combo for the live music at your reception, let me expand on the above with a few pointers:

* Discuss with the band leader well in advance which tunes you’d particularly like to have. If the leader doesn’t have a certain tune in his or her selection, then the two of you can work out how you’ll obtain a lead sheet for the band. Alternatively, you can describe what you”re looking for and ask for suggestions.

* Be realistic about your expectations. Jazz bands can be quite flexible, but they”re still jazz bands, not variety bands. If it’s a ballad you’re looking for, such as “Tenderly” or “My Funny Valentine”; or if it”s a swing standard a la “Take the A Train” or “Just Friends,” then you”re in the sweet zone. On the other hand, “Free Bird” probably isn”t in the repertoire.

That’s a general rule of thumb. Each band has its own degree of flexibility.

* Exploit the versatility. Good jazz bands are uniquely adept at creatively reinterpreting tunes. So…”Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise”: is it a ballad, a bossa, or a swing tune? Answer: It can be just about anything you want it to be. The band may make that choice spontaneously in performance, but you can capitalize on the possibilities. Maybe you”ve got a favorite tune that you”d like to hear done a bit differently. No problem. Just ask.

December 4, 2007 by
Filed Under: Entertainment, Event, Jazz, Music, Saxophone, Weddings

Practicing Altered Dominants

I had a blast playing in church this morning! Most praise team music isn’t complex; it”s primarily diatonic stuff that gives me a chance to work extensively in a particular key center, hashing out pentatonic licks, bebop scales, and so forth. It felt particularly good to be playing nice lines in the altissimo register–like, “Hey! I can actually get around up here!”

But this evening in my practice session, I drilled down into more complex material. Last year I was working heavily on my diminished whole-tone scales. More recently, I”ve been hammering out my Jewish scale, which is one name I”ve heard applied to the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale. I”ve been running the same digital patterns over both scales, working my way around the circle of fifths to develop facility in every key.

Both the DWT and Jewish scales have built-in tones that work perfectly with altered dominant chords. But each scale has its own very distinctive sound. So I”m now implementing a new approach in my practicing that will help me integrate the two scales fluidly, so I can rapidly shift from one to the other. Tonight, I took the tone center of Bb and worked on both scales in it. I chose Bb because I find it to be one of the more challenging tone centers for these scales, particularly for the Jewish scale.

Challenging is good. I like “challenging”–particularly when I can feel the results settling into both my fingers and my ability to hear more colorful melodies and note choices. Love those flat ninths and flat sixths! It takes work to get them onto my palette, but I really value having the ability to toss them onto the musical canvas when and how I choose.

Growth: there’s no end to it in music. There’s always something to learn, some new discipline to work on. The endless demands of mastering an instrument can be frustrating at times. But they’re also one of the things that, for me, make playing the sax so fulfilling.

December 2, 2007 by
Filed Under: Entertainment, Jazz, Life, Music, Saxophone

Supercell Deficiency Syndrome

You’ve heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), right? Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s kid stuff compared to Supercell Deficiency Syndrome (SDS), a condition unique to storm chasers.

If you’re not obsessed with wild convective weather, you’ll think I’m crazy, but storm chasers know exactly what I’m talking about. You pine for warm temperatures, rich dewpoints, and high CAPE. You crack open your front door on a windy day just to enjoy the shear created by the draft. You empty a feather pillow in front of an electric fan and yell, “We have debris!” You”re desperate.

Me too.

A few minutes ago, I looked out the window to see snow flying across the parking lot here at my apartment. Yes, snow. You know: the stuff we Michiganians wax rhapsodic over at this time of year. “O lovely snow!” we say, omitting the “h” in true poetic fashion. “Lo, how it joyously pirouettes like myriad ballerinas from the soft November ether.” We love snow.

By February, though, our opinion of snow has modified somewhat, as have the adjectives we use to describe it. Snow is no longer soft white dancers twirling gracefully earthward. It is frozen pigeon poop in flake form plopping out of the sky to cover the roads with slush and ice. We no longer say, “Look at the lovely snow!” We say, “Look at that $%@& filthy white crud!” We hate snow.

Today, I notice that the snow is accompanied by wind, which as a general rule I”m fond of, but not at this time of year. Wind in April is glorious; wind in November is freekin” coooooold! I think to myself, “Four months before storm season.” Then I think, “Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

Okay, well, by now you”ve gotten a feel for the kind of guy I am. Positive. Creative. Motivated. Do you think for a minute that I intend to spend this winter languishing indoors, cocooning myself in the throes of SDS, weeping and pining away for the lack of decent storm chasing weather? Yup, that’s the plan. No, wait a minute…I mean, no way! I’m an upbeat kinda guy, a regular little sunbeam, so of course I have a goal for these next few months. I”m going to use them to bone up on my forecasting skills. I’ve contacted the National Weather Service here in Grand Rapids, and I”m making arrangements with a couple of the meteorologists there to give my two storm chasing partners and I a little coaching. I”m totally serious about this. I”m hoping that by the time the 2008 storm season begins to roll in sometime around March, my buddies and I will know a lot more about severe weather forecasting. We didn”t do bad in 2007, not for three lads from Michigan. But I”d like to do better this coming year. I’d like to be equipped to make better, more knowledgeable judgment calls in the face of the constantly shifting atmosphere. I know enough now to realize that, when all is said and done, some decisions will still be a flip of the coin. It’ll just be a better-informed flip.

Okay, okay, enough on that, eh? I’ve grown into an incorrigible weather freak, and some of the stuff I””ve written is probably gobbledegook to you. That”s one of the joys of learning: building up a huge stockpile of terminology to sling around, thereby impressing myself with my vast knowledge and boring the crap out of everyone else.

In all seriousness, I miss the storms. I really do. They make me come alive in a very special, wonderful way. But Supercell Deficiency Syndrome or not, I”ll make it through this winter–and you will too. These next few months are just a reminder that life has its seasons. And, like you, I have things to keep me occupied. Besides educating myself in weather, I hope to get more involved in my church and build my writing and music businesses. I’d like to make this frozen season a fruitful one. By God”s grace, I will.

So maybe winter isn’t such a bad thing after all.

But snow is still frozen pigeon poop. That”s my opinion, and I”m stickin” to it like bird turds on cold pavement.

November 27, 2007 by
Filed Under: Humor, Life, Storm Chasing

From the Heart

Whew! Back from Dallas, where my mother, sister, and I spent Thanksgiving with my brother Brian, sister-in-law Cheryl, and new–and first-ever–nephew, Samuel. This trip down there was my introduction to Sam, and I must say, he”s cute as a button. Handsome, too, and with gobs of personality. I would go so far as to say that, when it comes to all-around, world-class winsomeness, this little guy has monopolized the market. He”s certainly got his mom and dad wrapped around his little finger, not to mention his grandma and aunt. As for me, well…”Uncle Bob” (gotta get used to that concept!) found himself feeling unashamedly moist around the eyes as he sat there in the couch, looking down at that sleeping little black-haired baby boy cradled in his arms.

This is my third blog posting on a website dedicated to jazz and the saxophone, and frankly, I don”t feel like writing about either. Music, after all, is just a slice of something much larger called “life,” and at its best, music gives voice in some way to what life is about.

When I was a young man, I defined so much of life, and myself, by music. I saw through a very narrow lens. But the lens has grown much bigger as I”ve gotten older. My playing has improved–but more importantly, by the grace of God, so have my heart and my outlook on life. A long history of shaping experiences somehow filters in to inform the stuff I play and–when I slip on my singer/songwriter hat–the songs I write, infusing them with an added dimension, a richness I hope my listeners can feel.

In a strange way, as music becomes less consuming, it becomes more meaningful. The less that music is its own message, the more it has something to say. It becomes a voice for many things. In some way, from now on, little Samuel will find his way to and through my horn. Not through any conscious effort on my part, I”m sure. But there will be a little more gentleness, an added dash of laughter, an extra playfulness, a deeper sense of wonder, and a touch of sadness as well, all with Sam”s wide, innocent brown eyes behind them.

Life is a long song. May we play it sincerely, passionately, and well.

L’chaim!

November 24, 2007 by
Filed Under: Jazz, Life, Music, Saxophone

The Perfect Note

I”m still in search of the perfect note.

Last Sunday I played a big band gig with the Grand River Big Band, where it was my privilege to sit next to tenor man Hugh DeWitt. In the middle of a killer R&B tune, Hugh slid up effortlessly into his altissimo range to nail a beautifully placed note–a long, screaming tone that couldn”t have more clearly declared itself to be the emotional high point of the tune if it had hung a sign around its neck that said so.

There was a perfect note if ever I heard one.

I’ve spent years developing my technique on the sax. I won’t say I’ve mastered bebop, but I’ve got a good foundation in it, and when I”m in peak form, I can really get around my horn. I can play fast.

nBut these days, my goal is to slow down and let fewer notes say more, with greater creativity and conviction. It’s a challenge. Certain tunes and styles are so energetic that I naturally gravitate to a flurry of chops. It takes discipline to slow down, un-busy myself, and see what I can do with fewer notes.

I”m getting there. More and more, my internal editor is informing my playing, guiding me toward the union of technique with melodic taste and harmonic sensibility to create musical statements I’m genuinely pleased with. Sometimes I could even swear I’ve hit the perfect note.

Musicality is what it’s all about. The point really isn’t to play slow any more than it is to play fast. The point is to play musically, to make technique serve beauty and taste at any speed. That’s my goal. I’m not where I want to be yet–but I”m a lot closer than I was five years ago.

November 20, 2007 by
Filed Under: Entertainment, Jazz, Music, Saxophone

In Praise of an Alto Sax Icon

Phil Woods. If you know that name at all, you say it with reverence. What a master of the alto sax and the bebop language!

Phil is a torchbearer for the American songbook, steeped in the history and tradition of jazz while always maintaining a fresh voice. In his hands, the old standards acquire inventive and refreshing reinterpretations, while newer, contemporary tunes root into a deep and sweeping musical legacy. Depending on the context, Phil”s ideas pour forth with relentless ferocity or tender and exquisite lyricism, all with a buttery smoothness that belies the man”s phenomenal command of the horn.

If you ever are fortunate enough to catch Phil Woods live, watch his fingers. The striking thing about them is, there”s nothing to watch. His fingers barely move. The most amazing, jaw-dropping double-time passages come tumbling out of his horn, but his fingers seem barely aware of it. That is economy of motion, if you please! And always with that fat, generous sound and highly personal sense of swing that instantly identify Phil as the man behind the horn.

I remember my first exposure to Phil back in my college jazz days. Having heard of him from a fellow sax player, I went out and purchased his I Remember album. Good choice. That old vinyl LP opened my eyes to the relationship between beauty and technique. I couldn”t get enough of the album. My Phil Woods collection grew and continues to grow, but I Remember remains one of my favorites.

You can’t play alto sax and not go through Phil. He has influenced my playing perhaps more than any other alto player, and that includes Bird and Cannonball. I”m sure you”ll read more about him in my future posts. For now, it seems appropriate to begin this blog with a tribute to a true jazz legend–the nonpareil Phil Woods.

Be sure to check out Phil’s website.

November 19, 2007 by
Filed Under: Entertainment, Jazz, Music, Saxophone
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