My friend Marcus and I created an ear training video on identifying chords. It’s available at EarPractice, on Youtube, or by using the player below.
In the video I play a series of chords on the piano and after each one, pause for the viewer to identify the kind of chord (such as Major, minor, dominant-seventh) and the key (such as C, A, etc), before revealing the answer. This is a useful exercise and is something you can do with a friend too, once you get the idea.
Last week I took a holiday from work and attended a jazz workshop at the Victoria Conservatory of Music in Victoria, BC, Canada. It was a fun week of attending concerts put on by the faculty, and going to piano masterclasses and composition classes by New York jazz pianist, composer, and producer, Misha Piatigorsky.
We had some student jam sessions, and here is a video recording of myself (Geoff Peters, piano), Luke Elliott (drums) and Simon (bass) playing the tune called Little Sunflower by Freddie Hubbard.
It was recorded at the Superior Cafe on Superior Street in downtown Victoria BC Canada (a great place for live music in Victoria with bands performing every day).
Little Sunflower by Freddie Hubbard
Watch video: Youtube
Download song (free): Mp3
We also recorded another song at the jam, the tune Angel Eyes by Matt Dennis. It features Jillana Rathjen on vibes.
Angel Eyes by Matt Dennis
Watch video: Youtube
Download song (free): Mp3
I decided I am going to start a “Song of the Week” on this blog. Every week I will post a blog about a new song that I have found that I think is really great. There will be links to where you can listen to the song online and also purchase it.
Ninjaspy
The first Song of the Week (SOTW) is a track by a band based in Vancouver BC Canada called Ninjaspy (band web site, myspace).
Ninjaspy is innovative in that they combine and blend genres in their music. They are a Hardcore Punk Rock band mixed with Funk and Ska/Reggae. Fusion is something I really enjoy, whether it is with food, music, or even other kinds of art.
While this blog is primarily about jazz and jazz piano, my friends have said that I have eclectic tastes in music, and I intend to write about any sort of music that I think is good. I was listening to the tracks on the Ninjaspy myspace page in the background and was working on something else, and suddenly I thought, hey, that’s a really cool song.
The song is called Hit by a Cement Mixer (iTunes link, imeem link). It’s a hugely dynamic song, going from a gentle whisper of a city soundscape to full on Hardcore screaming, to a catchy ska groove.
The best part of it is at 1:22 in the track (and several other times where the section is repeated), where there is a relaxing lull moment (just before 1:22) followed by a burst of guitar and excited screaming that ends in a harmonically beautiful guitar cadence.
The lyrics are quite graphic and dark, but poetic. I didn’t catch all of them when I was listening to the song, but when I read them on a lyrics site I was a bit shocked. But a fairly depressing theme goes along with the band’s Hardcore and edgy roots – it’s crying out and it says something.
I practiced over an hour on the tune Joy Spring by Clifford Brown, as well as some technique. I am using the melody of this tune like a study exercise for working on my technique.
Last weekend I played a couple of gigs with my band, the Geoff Peters Trio, and we recorded one of them using my Minidisk player and my camcorder. The band is myself on piano, Mark White on bass, and Greg Murray on drums, and we were performing at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel Vancouver.
Here’s a treat for jazz piano lovers. I’m really excited to share a live recording of the Phil Dwyer Trio, featuring Phil Dwyer (piano), Ken Lister (bass), and Jesse Cahill (drums) performing at the Jazz Cellar in Vancouver BC Canada on May 15th 2009.
Here is a little bit more about the musicians (from their Web Sites which are linked below).
Phil Dwyer:
Musician Phil Dwyer has been a force on the international jazz scene for over two decades. A critically acclaimed composer, arranger, and musical director, as well as gifted, intuitive perfomer on both saxophone and piano , Dwyer has performed with everyone from Aretha Franklin, Ian Tyson, and Gino Vannelli to jazz greats like Red Rodney, Ingrid Jensen, Randy Brecker, Tom Harrell, Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Don Thompson, and many others.
Before returning to his west coast roots on Vancouver Island in 2004, Dwyer spent 15 years as one of Toronto’s busiest studio musicians appearing on hundreds of recording sessions, and working as a commercial composer and arranger. He also was a regular performer at Toronto clubs Top O’ The Senator and Montreal Bistro, with Dave Young, Marcus Belgrave, Renee Rosnes, Carol Welsman, Moe Koffman, Randy Brecker and many others.
Doubling on tenor sax and piano, Dwyer was a member of the Hugh Fraser Quintet when they won the Alcan Jazz Competition in 1987 and the Juno Award for Looking Up in 1988. A long-time partnership with bassist Dave Young has produced a pair of recordings including 1993 Juno Award-winner, Fables and Dreams. Phil was also arranger, composer, and conductor on Guido Basso’s 2003 Juno Award-winning recording, Lost in the Stars. Dwyer has also made three recordings with Robert Occhipinti and was a featured soloist on the bassist’s Juno-nominated Yemaya.
Ken Lister:
Ken Lister has been playing jazz bass professionally since 1983. He is currently based in the Vancouver and Vancouver Island area, where he performs and teaches. Ken has extensively toured, both within Canada and internationally; including Australia, the British Isles, Cuba and South America.
Ken is a member of the Hugh Fraser Quintet and VEJI (the Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation). As a member of the Hugh Fraser Quintet, Ken won a Juno Award for the Best Mainstream Jazz Album of 1997.
Ken also performs with the legendary jazz guitarist Pat Coleman in his trio, with Juno Award winner Buff Allen on drums. In addition to leading his own Sextet, he has performed with many great musicians including Slide Hampton, Chucho Valdes, Kenny Wheeler, Joshua Redman, Herb Ellis, Charlie Byrd, Rob McConnell, Ian McDougall, P.J. Perry, Sam Noto, Don Thompson, Tommy Banks, Carol Welsman, Kirk MacDonald, Bob McLaren, Jerry Fuller, Lorne Lofsky, Phil Dwyer, Ingrid Jensen, Misha Piatigorsky, Guido Basso and many others.
Jesse Cahill:
Jesse Cahill is known and respected as one of the foremost drummers on the Canadian jazz scene. He started playing drums at a young age and worked his first professional gigs at 16 in restaurants and clubs in his hometown of Victoria, British Columbia. In 1993 Jesse moved to Montreal to study music at McGill University, graduating in 1999 with a Bachelors Degree in Jazz Performance.
Influenced by the jazz and R&B Greats of the 1940s, ’50s and ‘60s, Jesse has worked with jazz legends like David “Fathead” Newman, George Coleman, Red Holloway, Dr. Eddie Henderson and Charles MacPherson, as well internationally recognized artists such as Eric Alexander, Joe Magerelli, Jim Rotondi, Ryan Kysor, George Colligan and Bobby Shew. He also performs regularly with top Canadian artists including Tilden Webb, Jodi Proznick, Brad Turner, Phil Dwyer, P.J. Perry, Mike Allen, Neil Swainson, Bill Coon, Ken Lister, Miles Black, Roy Styfe and many others.
Jesse is a member of the Juno nominated and National Jazz Award winning Jodi Proznick Quartet. His recording resume includes sessions with Phil Dwyer’s Sax Summit, the Brad Turner Quintet, the Tilden Web Trio and the Chad Makela Quartet. He also has two recordings in his own name: the first, “Night Crawlers: Presenting” on Cellar Live, was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2007 National Jazz Awards, and the second (which Jesse also produced) “Featuring: Red Holloway” is due out in early 2009.
Now on to the music… Phil and the band have generously given me permission to share these recordings with jazz piano lovers and music students on this blog. In his description of the concert, Phil wrote that they would be “saluting some of our favourite piano trios, including Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Errol Garner, Ahmad Jamal and others”. The concert was fabulous!
Hope you enjoy the concert (this was the first set). Please support live music in your community and check out these musicians’ live performances when they come to your area!
Also if you liked the music you can purchase the musicians’ CD’s by contacting them through their web sites: Phil Dwyer, Ken Lister, Jesse Cahill.
Phil Dwyer Trio performing live at the Jazz Cellar in Vancouver Canada on May 15th 2009.
I have just witnessed one of the most spectacular live performances I have ever seen, of improvised music.
The band was the New York trombonist Steve Swell’s group, with Hamid Drake on drums, Jemeel Moondoc on alto saxophone, and William Parker on bass. They gave a stunning performance at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, after having been on the road together for about 3.5 weeks.
I have never seen anyone play so intensely on the trombone, as Steve Swell did tonight. He played lines that any sax player would envy, and his whole body shook with incredible energy as he moved the trombone effortlessly through space like it were a toy. Steve Swell is a powerful man, physically as well, so he has mastered and tamed his instrument like not many can. As well as playing highly in an”avant-garde” style, he also showed off his beautiful tone and melodic sense in a middle number, which left me sitting and thinking that I could listen to this music forever.
One who nearly stole the show was Hamid Drake on drums. I can’t even begin to describe what he was doing on those drums, but his playing showed a technique so deep, with such command of every possible sound that can be made with a drum kit, and such speed, energy, force and precision that drove the band into reaching new heights what seemed like every few seconds. I thought Lewis Nash was my favorite drummer before today, and while I still highly regard Nash, I must say that my mind has been forever changed! Drake rules!
The likes of the great Jemeel Moondoc on alto saxophone is not seen very often on the Vancouver jazz scene, and what creativity and talent he showed through his instrument! CJBS likened his approach to “the looseness of bar room blues with post-Ornette multi-key vigor”, but what I thought was the most impressive was how he easily exchanged musical ideas with the other players, especially Swell and Drake.
I think it is the hallmark of a good improvised performance when you can tell that the players are truly listening to each other and are subtly complimenting, supporting, and bouncing ideas between themselves. It makes listening more rewarding when you suddenly realize that “hey, the drummer just echoed that sax lick”, or “that sax player just carried on the phrase the trombonist started”. That happened for me a lot tonight, so I was very impressed.
And not to be outdone was William Parker on bass. CJBS calls him “one of the most inventive bassist/leaders since Charles Mingus”, and I can easily see why. On each of his many bass solos, he did something totally new, such as closing off the strings near the top of the neck and playing the strings near the tuning pegs (that created a very cool high-harmonic effect which he punctuated with the occasional deep tone). His sound was immaculate… so resonant and full, but yet with a sense of time and place that glued together the whole ensemble.
You might notice that it’s very late at night as I am writing, and I don’t usually write such long articles, but it’s only because I was just so excited from this concert that I had to share it with you. Definitely check out these guys’ recordings, or try and see them live if it is at all possible.
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