Pleasantville Surprise

Today while surfing channels on television I stumbled across a scene in the movie Pleasantville. It was the scene where Toby McGuire’s character was in the soda shop telling the people about the book Huckleberry Fin. Don’t ask me what Pleasantville was about because I don’t really know. What I do know is they played two jazz tunes in the background as he talked. One was Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” and the other was “So What” by Miles Davis from the album Kind of Blue. The chill that ran down my spine when I heard that familiar bass line, Bill Evans comping and Jimmy Cobb’s signature crash at the entrance of Miles solo is the reason why I’m doing what I’m trying to do. I love this music. I’ve heard “So What” a million times and it will never cease to move me in some special and surprising way.

Holiday gigs

I played a few gigs over the holidays. One was a Christmas Eve gig where I did mostly section work with my good friend Lorenzo and another alto player. It was a lot of fun. In a horn section there is a certain camraderie that you can’t find anywhere else when you’re playing with cats that love music. No egos. No negative vibe. It made me play better and look forward to more opportunities like that one. Special thanks to Robert Stocks for the invite.  The man is a musical genius and a beautiful cat to boot.

Another gig had me playing some Neo Soul/funk material with some jazz tunes thrown in for good measure. As always it was a good time and we made good music. The audience seemed to enjoy themselves and ultimately that is the measuring stick.  We played some jam tunes at the beginning of the set where nothing was written out and I really struggled with that. Part of it was style but most of it was using my ear trying to figure out the key so I could solo freely. I’m hoping that gets better and easier with time. I do know that I seem to play better with traditional jazz tunes/standards and that is mainly because that constitutes 90% of my listening habits. I seem to “hear” material a lot easier over straight ahead jazz tunes than anything else.

New Year – Same Goals

I had setup some goals for 2006 as I do every year. While I think I did ok with some I did terrible on one – transcribing solos. I didn’t do nearly enough. I started off strong the first few months but then I slacked off terribly. Granted, part of the reason why I did was to get my chops together with the Claude Gordon routine. The routine can be extremely time consuming and I was completely out of gas and chopped out once I got through most of the exercises. As a result I found myself not spending nearly enough time on jazz material. I really need to figure out a way to continue to get stronger as a trumpet player and still address some of the things necessary to be a better improviser. I’m open to suggestions there and will seek the advice of some of the folks I trust.
So my goals for 2007 include:

• Transcribe more solos – no need to elaborate there.
• Learn my scale modes – while I know my major, minor and dom7    scales I usually only play them from the root. I’d like to be able to play    any of them starting on any note. I think that would help me avoid the usual    trap of starting all my phrases on the ROOT of the chord changes. It gets    old fast.
• Attend a Jazz Camp – I’m not sure which one I will attend but    in 2007 I will be attending a week long jazz camp. I think I’m at a point    now where I can benefit from the experience.
• Continue to improve as a trumpet player – while jazz is my    ultimate goal I won’t get anywhere as long as I struggle to play the    trumpet. This will continue to be a priority for me.

Happy New Year to All!