THE OTHER SIDE..

What started my like of Jazz music??  I can't honestly say where it started or why.. One year I decided i was going to look for Vince Guraldi  music and I found the song I was after and it was on a classical music disc.. Seems strange to be starting out a jazz entry talking about classical music, but that fateful day saw me get into two separate genres of music at the same time and with a single disc.. :

Schroeder's Greatest Hits..   Reading the reviews on Amazon, it is highly thought of.. It is simply one of the best overall classical discs and features a few of my favorite pieces..  Prelude in C Major by J.S. Bach

The jazz composition I was originally after was Linus & Lucy, the version here is not the version on the cd..

A group I got into on the same day as the classical/jazz purchase was a group called the Pat Metheny Group and I thought it was strange that I would get into this type of music but..  You know sometimes I can't explain it.. I just go with it..

David Benoit was a strange find.. I bought the tribute to Vince Guraldi album and had it for quite a while before looking for the artists who contributed to the disc.. It was easy to pick the first artist, take my favorite song on the disc and get his music.. In this case the song was Linus and Lucy and the artist was David Benoit. The song I have chosen is "Freedom At Midnight"  since it is an original composition of his..

I thought I would put in a quick little showing off bit here.. Steve Smith might be better known as the drummer for the "hey day" era Journey, he is in fact in the hey day of his jazz drumming.. The show off portion of this is where he shows how tightly he holds his sticks.. Which reminded me of when I was in a band and everyone thought I held my sticks so tight because I was so loud, and that wasn't the reason I was so loud and I would tell them to try to pull the sticks out of my hands and with so much effort everyone could pull the sticks out of either hand with the greatest of ease (most of them had this wind up of gonna pull me over if they couldn't  budge the sticks)  I barely held the sticks at all..  And here Steve shows the different sounds texture you get with how tightly he holds the sticks..

This quickly has become about drummers..  Dave Weckl is one of the great jazz drummers..  This solo is just one of many on the internet.. There aren't many drummers who impress me but this guy.. In a whole new league.. As most drummers who play jazz or have a jazz background are more impressive.. Most drummers in rock & roll that are very good have a jazz background and are doing rock to get back to their first love  jazz.. Except for Dave here who was jazz only..  

Jamie Cullum is more old school vocals.. Along the lines of Frank Sinatra but he really is fantastic to watch live..

Finally Simon Phillips, drummer extraordinare, another example of a great drummer who can play any music, but jazz.. There is where he excels at..   The great "Force Majeure"  (Major Force)  DEFINITELY!!


BH