I was flipping through my jazz Real Book (which contains lead sheets for many popular jazz standards) and came across the tune “I Got it Bad and That Ain’t Good” by Duke Ellington. I remember that my late grandmother, who I love very much, said this was one of her favorite songs, and I can see why: it’s a simple and heart wrenching ballad that is so beautiful – it makes me think of all the emotions relating to romance, love, loss, hope, and personal self-worth.
So I realize that learning to sing is a long and many faceted journey, of which I have taken the first few steps today. I sang the Duke Ellington tune for about 15 minutes and then thought that in order to figure out what I should focus on during my practices, I should make a recording of myself singing. By listening back to the recording I will be able to act as a more critical listener and decide what I want to change or improve in my singing.
I also thought that by posting my first singing recording here on this blog, I might inspire or encourage someone else to also take the first steps to learn how to sing. For me it is kind of intimidating to be surrounded by many good singers, each who has progressed along this journey in their own way. But I know that my sound will be unique and I know that all I will need to do is keep listening to myself and working towards the goal of finding my own voice.
Here is my first attempt at singing “I Got it Bad and That Ain’t Good” by Duke Ellington. Feel free to use the player below or get the MP3 here.
My friend, vocalist Angela Molineux, dropped by my place in between her trips to New York and London, and we recorded an original song called I Need More.
We wrote this song around three years ago, and it has been good to let time pass and see how we grew musically since then. I would describe this song as jazz/pop – listen closely for the “Pretty Bunny” line!
Two weeks ago, Gio Escueta and I made a video of us performing the jazz standard My Foolish Heart. Click here to view the video on Youtube, or feel free to use the player below.
If you’d like to download the MP3 of the performance, feel free to grab it here.
> My Foolish Heart (MP3 time 3:34) – as performed by Gio Escueta (vocals) and Geoff Peters (piano)
This tune is a popular jazz standard that has been recorded by many jazz greats. Wikipedia has more info (click here); here is a brief excerpt:
Update: May 2nd 2009: I found a great Youtube video of Kurt Elling performing My Foolish Heart live in Paris (click here to view or use the player below).
My friend Gio Escueta wrote an emotional pop song called Lonely Days and we recorded a performance of it in a Youtube video last night. (I’m playing piano in the video and Gio is singing).
This is a beautiful duo performance by the master jazz pianist Chick Corea and the incredibly versatile virtuoso vocalist Bobby Mcferrin.
It’s one of my favorite jazz Youtube videos at the moment, because it’s an amazing example of rhythmic interplay, varied textures, use of time and space, jazz idioms, and synergy and flow in a performance. There are killer solos by Chick Corea and Bobby Mcferrin. I have watched this video like 20 times by now, and I still get new ideas every time I watch it. During the performance Mcferrin makes a joke about being “not quite sure of” the line about the sunburned hands – perhaps he or his special someone doesn’t get sun burns! 5 stars! [Via Youtube]
Oh, the power of nostalgia! Madeleine Peyroux‘s voice has been described as “smoke and whisky”, and is often compared to the late, great Billie Holiday. Says Shelly Woodworth, director at Vilar Center in Colorado, “Peyroux isn’t imitating anybody, she has her own story to tell and is proving herself to be an original interpreter and an open receptor to songs from earlier eras – an artist who channels vintage jazz and blues with chilling accuracy.”
There seems to be a growing market for twenty-somethings who sing straight ahead vocal jazz. Sara Gazarek is another of these. According to this Seattle PI article, “she has won numerous honors, including the John Coltrane Memorial Scholarship, the Hilton Head Jazz Society Scholarship and the 2003 Downbeat Student Music Award for Outstanding Collegiate Vocalist,” and she will be performing at Jazz Alley in Seattle this Monday. Sara’s web site has five full length tracks to download and listen to, including a version of Some Day My Prince Will Come that is quite similar to Holly Cole’s version of I Can See Clearly Now.
Yesterday I went to a concert at the Vancouver Public Library as part of the Sweet Basil Jazz Festival – vocalists Kate Hammett-Vaughan, Karin Plato, and Jennifer Scott, singing with the Chris Sigerson trio featuring Rene Worst on bass and Tom Foster on Drums. I especially enjoyed Jennifer Scott’s version of Felicidade by Jobim. Funny, I found out later that this was the first time the group had played together, and was the first time the trio had seen these arrangements.
Had a lesson with Chris Sigerson today. Worked on a Cedar Walton tune called Holy Land. holyLand.mid. This one is like a jazzed-up gospel tune, with a classical-style piano interlude in the middle. I also had prepared There is No Greater Love, for which he showed me a cool “deceptive cadence” Ab7 A7 BbMaj7 instead of going directly to BbMaj7. And we worked a bit on All Of You, where he showed me this really cool #11 voicing for Bb7b9 (B,D,E,Ab), as well as pedalling over Bb for the A section. An exercise he gave me for improving my sense of time is to look at my watch and try to count 15 seconds without looking, and check to see if I’ve kept good time. This will be fun to try whenever I’m waiting for the bus. A phrasing tip he gave me was to make up some nonsense words that have a rhythm to them, and think of them when playing.
Today I saw the Metronomes at the Silvertone on Commercial Drive. Colin suggested we go, since the guitar player, Neil Cruickshank, plays in Leisure Lab.
Very funky, inspiring stuff. Makes me want to JAM!!! The pianist had a good setup – a Rhodes/Synth combination – it was interesting to observe his technique: at one point during a funk tune he was moving his whole forearm up and down rapidly, playing in perfect syncopation. He was also doing very interesting moves with his left hand – not just filling in chords but rather adding a tasteful rhythmic element. Too bad the audience turn-out was not too great – most of the audience members were musicians themselves. I wonder whether you have to be a musician to appreciate this stuff.
