I’ve taken a strong liking to a song written by Mal Waldron called “Left Alone.” It is a beautiful and expressive ballad that I heard for the first time on a DVD called “The Mal Waldron Quintet Live at the Village Vanguard.” I brought the DVD because of Woody Shaw but I most moved by this tune played on solo piano by Mal during the closing credits. It is so beautiful… I later discovered that I had the tune on two CDs – One played by Eric Dolphy (Far Cry with Booker Little) and another by Terence Blanchard (The Billie Holiday Song Book). I would love to be able to play this tune one day… it truly moves me. I’ve been hunting down all the versions of it that I can… this is when owning an iPod can be extremely beneficial (and expensive). I may learn the head and record it for my site one day. This is when I wish I played piano so I could write down the changes.

Had another great week musically… I did a lot of tune practice this week. I found out that my master class will be performing on November 14th at the same cafe that we practice in. We will be doing the following tunes:

Freddie Freeloader Take the A Train Autumn Leaves Summertime

I feel pretty good about all the tunes except for A Train. I’m better with it but I’m not totally comfortable with it yet. I just need to spend time with it and I haven’t. On Freddie Freeloader I let my brain get in the way in the last 4 bars. Most people know that they do not follow the standard 12 bar blues format. The easy way out is to just use the blues scale but I try to get fancy and usually end up fluffing notes. Still, I’m confident I will be ready in time.

I’m having a blast in the master class. The chemistry of the group is good and I think that will come out in the product that we present. The article that ran last week got us a bass player and it really rounded things out. On Autumn Leaves I am faced with the challenge of playing that G on top of the staff with the guitar player… that is probably my top note in my playable range so the concert will be a good indicator of whether it is in “my bag” or not. More than anything else, this class really has me focused on my goal – jazz improvisation. I know that every two weeks I will be playing with a group… communicating…. learning… and preparing for concerts. That is the point of all this hard work… right?

I sold the Couesnon flugelhorn and purchased a Jupiter 846RL. First impressions are very, very good. The Jupiter is carbon copy of the Yamaha 631 and in my opinion it is hard to justify paying the extra money to go with Yamaha. Construction is good, great valve action and it sounds great. It is a keeper. I dare say that if you are in the market for a flugel, you should definitely check this one out before dropping the customary $1000-$1500 for a pro horn. More than anything I’m glad to get equipment out of the way so I can get back on music.

Right now I am using a Curry 1.5F mouthpiece with the flugel but I’m already thinking about getting a matching Monette. After the past few weeks of playing on my B2 I think it is the way to go. If you have followed my journal entries over the past few years you know that I have been around the world on mouthpieces… Only 3 have really floated my boat and two of them were made by Monette (B4S & B2). In terms of sound, intonation and comfort I haven’t found anything as nice. Case closed. Draw your own conclusions.

Against my better judgment here is a really REALLY short sound clip of me playing on the beginning of “Autumn Leaves.” This is an example of the type of playing I am trying to work towards. I’m not there yet — these ideas don’t come out often and a lot of times they are not automatic. I usually lie in wait for a II-V7-I progression to pop up and then I ambush it with these types of licks. Still, it is a start and I think it sounds better than some of my earlier efforts. Recorded on the Lawler with the B2.  I also copied it to my Sound Room page as a reference to previous efforts.