When i was at VCU i missed a show of the jazz faculty playing Dark Side of the Moon in it's entirety. They all became instant legends with the students after that.
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Double Bass Pop songs for a jazz gig?
- Thread starter Greg Scheer
- Start date
When i was at VCU i missed a show of the jazz faculty playing Dark Side of the Moon in it's entirety. They all became instant legends with the students after that.
A lot of the examples people have posted remind of a King of the Hill episode where they were discussing someone’s Christian rock band: “you’re not making Christianity better; you’re making rock and roll worse!” Some of these examples name drop the original song, but strip it of its essence. In the best examples, the original song becomes something of a neutral vehicle for a really great improviser. None of them produced that magical moment in which the song is transformed and speaks with a new voice. I’m thinking, for example, if Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nail’s “Hurt.” Even Trent Rezner said that rendition forever changed the song. This is not to disparage any songs people have proposed. I just haven’t fallen in love with any of them yet. The more practical issue for this particular gig is that we don’t rehearse ahead of time and players are coming in and out of the group all the time. If we were to do a successful pop cover it would have to be in leadsheet form and it would be played in what you see is what you get fashion.
I don't want to enter this morass again, and I know it's about groups not individuals. But, there's no instrumentalist I love any more than R. Roland Kirk. And I mean love, listening to him fills me with love. In my Kirk arc I first loved all the earlier stuff. Then I loved the Black Classical Music later stuff. But the middle stuff took me the longest, in particular Volunteered Slavery. Now his version of "I Say a Little Prayer" pops in my head all the time. He sings it with such beauty and intensity, he loves the song even though it's a middling pop tune. None of us are Kirk -- I feel pretty safe making that claim -- but in the end more than a vehicle for improvisers its about how much you love the tune. Who would have thought the "Theme for Spartacus" was the most beautiful tune in the world before Yusef Lateef and Barry Harris and Ernie Farrow and Lex Humphries played it like it was?
Yes, and who would have imagined how Hank Williams' songs would sound when interpreted by Ray Charles?
How about "Three o'clock in the Morning"? This was a waltz written in the 20's, souped up by the Andrews Sisters in the 40's and later given the Dexter Gordon treatment. Getting back to Rahsaan Roland Kirk, his recording of "I love You, Yes I do" didn't change the song but the way he plays it is somehow special.
New successful covers I've heard lately has been like samba or boss nova versions of pop tunes from the last 20 years but some can be overdone. I like BP arrangements but they can be over the top in their own way.
Hank Hill is The Oracle and that was one of his best truth bombs!
Movie music, especially classics from the time of standards, works a lot better and has far less baggage.
I was kinda half joking, but playing pop tunes from 50 years ago ain't quite going to connect with the younger crowd. Lawrence of what?!?
Andy Rehfeldt (who did the cover of Metallica) is brilliant in his tongue-in-cheek covers. I think there's room here to have some fun. Jazz is way too f'n serious.
Andy Rehfeldt (who did the cover of Metallica) is brilliant in his tongue-in-cheek covers. I think there's room here to have some fun. Jazz is way too f'n serious.
This is actually one of my points - A. It isn't going to connect and B. they WILL recognize it and probably already do not like that music.
That Hank Hill quote is gold and I agree with all of your points. For me even the best of the examples shared don't move me. The only two pop covers I dig are "Sand Castle Magic" as done by Fly and "Exit Music for a Film" done by the Brad Melhdau Trio.
John Goldsby
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- Mar 4, 2003
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Hey @Ed Fuqua — This reminds me of a trio gig that I played for several weeks one summer at a resort hotel in Cooperstown, NY (birthplace of baseball!). We played in the bar every night to a group of local regulars, nursing their hard stuff, plus the occasional baseball tourists (usually guys from a "team" somewhere, chugging a lot of beer).
We were three aspiring beboppers, playing our jazz in the corner, just trying to swing and mind our own business. The hotel manager would make regular rounds and stick his head into the bar every once in a while to make sure we weren't slacking off, but also to make sure that we were playing "his kind of music," which as I recall was "Hello, Dolly" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."
We would be jamming on rhythm changes, Confirmation, Countdown ... whatever ... but whenever the manager came into the bar, we would immediately segue directly into either "Hello, Dolly" (strong, swinging shuffle backbeat) or "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (sometimes as a waltz, sometimes as a 4/4 beboppish medium swing). No modulation, no rhythmic preparation ... the second we spied his face, we were playing "one of his favourite tunes." It was a strange cat-and-mouse game that kept us entertained.
@Greg Scheer — We were lucky that we kept the gig as long as we did, and I DO NOT recommend this as a way to get over on the club owner—who in your case seems like a reasonable person.
I’ve got a ‘contrary’ story, John. We played a pick up gig once a month in a club just outside Reading, Berkshire. There was a guy who had a jazz column in the local paper who used to breeze in and would give us a write up. One gig we played Girl from Ipanema (have I spelled that correctly?) and he roasted us in his column pointing out that there were so many great tunes from ACJ and why did bands always just play GFI?
So when he next came in we immediately segued to GFI. He duly wrote up the same rant in his column. We repeated this twice more before he saw the joke.
So when he next came in we immediately segued to GFI. He duly wrote up the same rant in his column. We repeated this twice more before he saw the joke.
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Even for pop music that will resonate with whatever demographic is in the joint, most folks are listening for 1. an EXACT rendition of that song they heard, so if you play it with a 6/8 afro cuban feel or in 5 or the waltz in 4 or in any manner differently from the exact rendition, it is not recognized as such by the audience 2. the signature guitar/vocal/horn lick in its signature location, so that if the piano plays the guitar lick, or the guitar plays the horn lick, or the horn plays the vocal lick it is not recognized as such by the audience.
Kurt Elling was doing some nice arrangements of pop tunes and those didn't propel him to heights of international stardom. Likewise Mehldau, Iverson, etc. etc. etc. They play the tunes they do because whoever in the band brought them in was hearing something in them that they liked and were hearing both their specific voice and the band's specific approach to in the music. So Brad's going to approach KNIVES OUT in the same manner that he approaches BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH. And doing the former isn't going to endear him any more to folks who like Nick Drake than the latter.
Kurt Elling was doing some nice arrangements of pop tunes and those didn't propel him to heights of international stardom. Likewise Mehldau, Iverson, etc. etc. etc. They play the tunes they do because whoever in the band brought them in was hearing something in them that they liked and were hearing both their specific voice and the band's specific approach to in the music. So Brad's going to approach KNIVES OUT in the same manner that he approaches BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH. And doing the former isn't going to endear him any more to folks who like Nick Drake than the latter.
Music in a general is in such a weird state rn. Grunge is about to turn 30 years old, which means there are pockets of young generations that have barely heard it. New music (save for a few) has pretty much gone stagnant due to the near demise of radio and the rise of streaming services and labels playing it safe.
The most melodic stuff these days is like BTS and Bruno Mars.
That's what I'd do. I like BTS. I'd go jazz warp one of their songs.
The most melodic stuff these days is like BTS and Bruno Mars.
That's what I'd do. I like BTS. I'd go jazz warp one of their songs.
That's when I checked out of listening to mainstream pop/rock radio. So there's older generations that haven't heard it, too.
I've heard of Bruno Mars but BTS is a new name to me. I've heard neither. I'm so out of touch I could never play in a Top 40 band like I did 40 years ago
