This is a big topic, but have you given any thought to writing about how the free(r) side of the music "works"? The dissemination of "jazz education" materials means that any kid without a convenient mentor can pick up some direction to explain the nuts and bolts of how Charlie Parker or Robert Glasper organized their music-making (even if some of these explanations are subpar, anachronistic, misleading, and of course they're not sufficient to make great art). This was true even when I was a teenager 30 years ago, and it's vastly more true now.
Back when I was a teen I couldn't find ANYTHING to help me comprehend the nuts and bolts of Ornette Coleman or late Coltrane or Cecil Taylor or Sun Ra. That situation has also improved somewhat, and I've listened a lot more, and I've developed some notions of my own (including that there's much more variety of how the music is organized in "free" than in "straight ahead"), but there's still not that much against which to sanity-check my suppositions. Your comments on the Ornette-influenced world have been helpful, and Joe Morris has both written and said some helpful things, all of which point to the primacy of melody as organizing principle. But I still feel like, especially with stuff that isn't directly in the Ornette lineage, I have no confidence about where composition ends and improvisation begins, or whether there are organizing principles I can't hear in the improvisation.
I have heard that Joe Morris has a good way of discussing all the different free jazz styles. One thing you didn't mention in your comment is how musicians sound together: For example, Ornette for me almost requires Charlie Haden. The best Albert Ayler is with Gary Peacock. Cecil Taylor had Jimmy Lyons. That may be one way inside a bit further. I'll mull this a bit more.
I'll be around, a bit less than I used to I guess. Umbria next month, Barcelona residency November, December duo with Greg Osby, some possibles on the calendar for next year. I live in hope!
1) You've occasionally offered a youtube score video for some of your works, at least as far back as"Every Note Is True", and most recently, "Into The Dark". Do you want to make those scores available in the more "traditional" form of just a piece of paper to be read and played? And not just something to scroll by as one listens to the track on youtube? In other words, a pdf? (I recently requested as much, and forgive me if I am incorrect, but that you didn't oblige made me consider the possibility that there is a reason you don't care to do that.)
2) You eschew chord symbols in your pieces. Why? I get that in the case of "Into The Dark", for example, it is not meant to be improvised, and of course that is one function of chord symbols. But do you not like the notion of using a chord symbol to just reflect the overall harmony of a section? I get that if a piece is just to be read, chord symbols are superfluous, but do they not give insight into how the composer is thinking about that black dots that are actually to be played? (Indeed this is why I wanted to print and play "Into The Dark"... I wanted to reverse engineer your harmonic thought process.)
1) Ach, I fear sharing scores is simply incompetence with email. I see redunzl, is that you? THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST. When I'm on my old laptop I'll send. I could add some of my things to the dropbox but both Brahms and Bartók flatly refused to use their own music when teaching, and I'm hardly at the level of a Brahms or a Bartók.
2) Carla Bley told me that she always used chord symbols even when she wrote it all out. I didn't argue the point but I kinda thought she was wrong! I want to keep something horizontal in the motion, something that chord symbols can't describe. This is the lineage of Ellington, Monk, Strayhorn, Shorter, Ornette -- and early Carla Bley (my fav Carla Bley).
1) Yes, that's me. Thanks in advance for sending it my way!
2) Fair, but was it an intentional omission (chord symbols) of the artists you cite? Or was not having them simply common practice back then? It would make an interesting investigation -- the evolution of chord symbols in printed sheet music. I always assumed their genesis was tied to the popularity of the ukulele at the time of the sheet music boom in the early part of last century.
I asked specifically about including them in your composition -- what about transcribed solos? I notice you omit them there too. For example, "Doodlin'" in your dropbox. Sure, someone can read your transcription and play along, but isn't the point to get insight into Horace's thinking? Even though it's essentially a blues, isn't it helpful for a student to know, for example, that what occurs in bar 42 happens over Db7? Sure, we all know blues changes, but having the symbols over the transcribed the solo is easier than looking for a double barline to determine where in the form we are (or worse, dividing the bar number by 12).
Not trying to argue, just sincerely interested in your take on this!
Yes, you are right to dig a little deeper here. Let's take a familiar Wayne Shorter piece, "Nefertiti." The chord symbols are just so darn complicated, and then the symbols don't include voice leading!! Arrgh. Much easier for Wayne to just write it out. Herbie told me sternly, "There is no E-flat on the first chord!" So, are you gonna write in bar one "A-flat major 7 flat 5 (omit 5)" or just the pitches "Ab d g c?" For me (and I guess for Wayne) just writing the pitches is so much better. Chord symbols obscure even basic complexity. (If "basic complexity" is a term lol.)
In my work as educator, I think that students are too beholden to chord symbols, so -- for example -- the omission of chord symbols on "Doodlin'" is a deliberate act of gatekeeping. My transcription is essentially useless unless you can make the leap to understanding the harmony from pitches alone. I may be wrong to enforce this approach, and I find your comments intriguing. However, there are no chord symbols on Beethoven or Brahms. Why put them on Horace Silver, who (unlike Beethoven or Brahms) even adds in blues material that never fit a vertical harmony? That is my point. Horace Silver is NOT less sophisticated than Beethoven or Brahms.
Started working with a Taubman teacher as I was having some elbow pain and it’s been a lot of fun. I filled out the very “find a teacher” form you recommended, and Bob Durso (the man!) recommended one of his own students. Also a good break from repertoire (trying to fit Schubert C minor impromptu into my head).
I also treated myself to a Hammond clone.. two manuals. This has been a dream of mine since I was a boy and heard “Hush” by Deep Purple.. later I learned of gospel and organ trio jazz. I’m so excited!
Thanks for the tip on Taubman. Already feeling less tense.
I'm imagining a sign, similar to "NO STAIRWAY" from Wayne's World, which says "NO HANON"
Hanon/Cortot/Czerny/Dohnanyi denied
While I assume Taubman teaching is against such exercises, I suspect it's because students just don't know what to do with them and teachers inadequately explain their purpose.
From hanon ex 1 itself:
"Stretch between the fifth and fourth fingers of the left hand in ascending, and the fifth and fourth fingers of the right hand in descending." - the Taubman teacher weeps!
But - this is what I always did! And I thought, in C, one finger per white key was the natural, neutral hand position. One could definitely play this exercise ergonomically, but Monsieur Hanon certainly doesn't explain how to.
Very well said. You know, there are Dohnanyi exercises that are about stretching and about crossing, and I would not share those without further commentary. The ones I shared are really about being at the key and firing the electrons, not stretching (not that I would advise keeping the hand still). I kind of think you would really need to be long-winded and bombastic to hurt yourself with the exercises I sent.
I always learn a lot from your writing and your music. I had a chance to thank you in person in between sets one night at Black Cat in SF for your generosity in making your educational material available (charts, background notes, etc.), but it merits saying again: thank you for your generosity!
(I had a heavy phase listening to them - on their own records and the records they made with John Coltrane (AC), Pharoah Sanders (LLS), Gato Barbieri (LLS) - - - )
My first thought is they both owe an immense debt to McCoy Tyner. Indeed, all of so-called "Spiritual jazz" is an extension of McCoy. My favorite Alice is on the last live record of John Coltrane in Harlem. Very beautiful. I haven't heard so much exposed LL Smith really, I had one record with Cecil McBee and Al Foster MAKE SOMEONE HAPPY that was OK but I don't remember that much about it. I suspect he was most suited to just helping create the right texture behind a power horn, although I just looked at the discography and there's a lot I don't know.
I just wanted to say thanks for pointing me to your Crimes of the Century essay. I have been devouring the books listed, and the essay is being passed around the Criminal Justice division of my agency. The Parker novels, Ellroy and George Higgins have been highly praised here by others.
Kia ora Ethan! I’m a selfish bass player, so I have to ask: you’ve played a lot with Thomas Morgan and Ben Street (my two favourites!) - what in your opinion makes them so special to play with, and how are they different when viewed from the piano chair? Thank you!
two of the greatest EVER, and I mean it — and I've played with Charlie Haden, Ron Carter, and Buster Williams. Reid Anderson is also great. What makes Thomas, Ben, and Reid so remarkable is their overall musicianship, they all have a vision of music. I like bassists with this kind of strong personality, at least in an improvisational context. In terms of Thomas, Ben, and Reid they would all agree on Haden and Jimmy Garrison. Very important influences, at least for me: Haden and Garrison. Yeah. Thomas is less judgmental than Ben or Reid. You can play anything with Thomas and he will validate it, while Ben and Reid in certain moods will try to fix the music on the fly, which can work but not always.
Can someone pls offer how Percy Heath is valued by the community at large. Ben Street mentioned PH in an interview, I listened to a lot of mjq. PHeath seems able to establish a handshake w the vibes John Lewis has taken as his laboratory, and PH’s transitions are effervescent to me in a manner I hear shares a joyful forward buoyancy I feel hearing Billy Higgins and Elmo Hope.
I just talked to Hyland Harris about Percy Heath last night. Incredible swing. The 54-55 Miles Davis records with Percy are the highest level, the F blues alone: "Bag's Groove" "Walkin'" "Dr. Jackle" all that etc
How fascinating, thank you for this insightful answer! I’m reminded of Jarrett’s story about a drawing by Motian depicting Lafaro as a blobby shape and Peacock as a spiky one. I agree, Peacock is definitely bossing the band around on Evan’s’ Trio 64 - to great effect!!
I dig TRIO '64. Peacock is amazing on it, but also Paul Motian has found his thing, that's the best Motian with Bill Evans by a country mile. However I actually think LaFaro is more bossy with Evans than Peacock. Peacock is on his own track, Evans is free to ignore, whereas LaFaro is insisting to be heard (on swing things like "Solar" and so forth, I'm not complaining about "Jade Visions" or the ballads).
thanks for the Dohnanyi Exercises - I didn't know them at all. Interesting, it reminds me of the Alfred Cortot book on piano technique. Do you know it and if so do you prefere Dohnanyi and if so why?
And an important warning in the introduction, to look at things like that as "potentially dangerous".
By the way, do you know the four Rhapsodies by Dohnanyi? They're great too.
Marc-André Hamelin and Bill Charlap both use Cortot — two strong arguments! I think Cortot and Dohnanyi are kind of the same thing really. BUT Cortot goes on and on and on, while Dohnanyi is very short and simple. That said, I think Hamelin uses like just two pages of Cortot, and actually the two pages that are closest to what I shared of Dohnanyi, a basic “held note for polyphony” idea. I can’t imagine anyone doing all of Cortot systematically, it would take another lifetime.
Oh and I have heard the Dohnanyi Rhapsodies. His music is perfectly organized for the piano -- which is one reason to treat his slim volume of exercises seriously!
Thanks for your writing, Ethan, I've discovered so much inspiring music through you!
I have a question: I'm directing an amateur big band, we're playing an arrangement of "Cantaloupe Island". I got annoyed at the chart cause the arranger changed the C in the melody over the Db dominant to a C flat. That doesn't happen in the original recording, obviously. But then I came across a live version from the 90s where Wayne Shorter does play the Cb. So I'm wondering, have you, in your infinite knowledge of the back alleys of jazz, come across any leads on why or when this change of thinking might have happened?
I don't know the answer, but like yourself, I consider C natural to be the righteous path.
At one point I did kind of look into other Hancock versions a bit and seem to recall that C flat is in quite a lot of later Herbie. In the realm of total speculation: this safer C flat option "got over" more with a general audience, plus it was just easier to explain to his later colleagues.
This is a big topic, but have you given any thought to writing about how the free(r) side of the music "works"? The dissemination of "jazz education" materials means that any kid without a convenient mentor can pick up some direction to explain the nuts and bolts of how Charlie Parker or Robert Glasper organized their music-making (even if some of these explanations are subpar, anachronistic, misleading, and of course they're not sufficient to make great art). This was true even when I was a teenager 30 years ago, and it's vastly more true now.
Back when I was a teen I couldn't find ANYTHING to help me comprehend the nuts and bolts of Ornette Coleman or late Coltrane or Cecil Taylor or Sun Ra. That situation has also improved somewhat, and I've listened a lot more, and I've developed some notions of my own (including that there's much more variety of how the music is organized in "free" than in "straight ahead"), but there's still not that much against which to sanity-check my suppositions. Your comments on the Ornette-influenced world have been helpful, and Joe Morris has both written and said some helpful things, all of which point to the primacy of melody as organizing principle. But I still feel like, especially with stuff that isn't directly in the Ornette lineage, I have no confidence about where composition ends and improvisation begins, or whether there are organizing principles I can't hear in the improvisation.
I have heard that Joe Morris has a good way of discussing all the different free jazz styles. One thing you didn't mention in your comment is how musicians sound together: For example, Ornette for me almost requires Charlie Haden. The best Albert Ayler is with Gary Peacock. Cecil Taylor had Jimmy Lyons. That may be one way inside a bit further. I'll mull this a bit more.
Any plans on touring Europe? Or UK at least?
I'll be around, a bit less than I used to I guess. Umbria next month, Barcelona residency November, December duo with Greg Osby, some possibles on the calendar for next year. I live in hope!
A two-parter:
1) You've occasionally offered a youtube score video for some of your works, at least as far back as"Every Note Is True", and most recently, "Into The Dark". Do you want to make those scores available in the more "traditional" form of just a piece of paper to be read and played? And not just something to scroll by as one listens to the track on youtube? In other words, a pdf? (I recently requested as much, and forgive me if I am incorrect, but that you didn't oblige made me consider the possibility that there is a reason you don't care to do that.)
2) You eschew chord symbols in your pieces. Why? I get that in the case of "Into The Dark", for example, it is not meant to be improvised, and of course that is one function of chord symbols. But do you not like the notion of using a chord symbol to just reflect the overall harmony of a section? I get that if a piece is just to be read, chord symbols are superfluous, but do they not give insight into how the composer is thinking about that black dots that are actually to be played? (Indeed this is why I wanted to print and play "Into The Dark"... I wanted to reverse engineer your harmonic thought process.)
1) Ach, I fear sharing scores is simply incompetence with email. I see redunzl, is that you? THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST. When I'm on my old laptop I'll send. I could add some of my things to the dropbox but both Brahms and Bartók flatly refused to use their own music when teaching, and I'm hardly at the level of a Brahms or a Bartók.
2) Carla Bley told me that she always used chord symbols even when she wrote it all out. I didn't argue the point but I kinda thought she was wrong! I want to keep something horizontal in the motion, something that chord symbols can't describe. This is the lineage of Ellington, Monk, Strayhorn, Shorter, Ornette -- and early Carla Bley (my fav Carla Bley).
1) Yes, that's me. Thanks in advance for sending it my way!
2) Fair, but was it an intentional omission (chord symbols) of the artists you cite? Or was not having them simply common practice back then? It would make an interesting investigation -- the evolution of chord symbols in printed sheet music. I always assumed their genesis was tied to the popularity of the ukulele at the time of the sheet music boom in the early part of last century.
I asked specifically about including them in your composition -- what about transcribed solos? I notice you omit them there too. For example, "Doodlin'" in your dropbox. Sure, someone can read your transcription and play along, but isn't the point to get insight into Horace's thinking? Even though it's essentially a blues, isn't it helpful for a student to know, for example, that what occurs in bar 42 happens over Db7? Sure, we all know blues changes, but having the symbols over the transcribed the solo is easier than looking for a double barline to determine where in the form we are (or worse, dividing the bar number by 12).
Not trying to argue, just sincerely interested in your take on this!
Yes, you are right to dig a little deeper here. Let's take a familiar Wayne Shorter piece, "Nefertiti." The chord symbols are just so darn complicated, and then the symbols don't include voice leading!! Arrgh. Much easier for Wayne to just write it out. Herbie told me sternly, "There is no E-flat on the first chord!" So, are you gonna write in bar one "A-flat major 7 flat 5 (omit 5)" or just the pitches "Ab d g c?" For me (and I guess for Wayne) just writing the pitches is so much better. Chord symbols obscure even basic complexity. (If "basic complexity" is a term lol.)
In my work as educator, I think that students are too beholden to chord symbols, so -- for example -- the omission of chord symbols on "Doodlin'" is a deliberate act of gatekeeping. My transcription is essentially useless unless you can make the leap to understanding the harmony from pitches alone. I may be wrong to enforce this approach, and I find your comments intriguing. However, there are no chord symbols on Beethoven or Brahms. Why put them on Horace Silver, who (unlike Beethoven or Brahms) even adds in blues material that never fit a vertical harmony? That is my point. Horace Silver is NOT less sophisticated than Beethoven or Brahms.
Started working with a Taubman teacher as I was having some elbow pain and it’s been a lot of fun. I filled out the very “find a teacher” form you recommended, and Bob Durso (the man!) recommended one of his own students. Also a good break from repertoire (trying to fit Schubert C minor impromptu into my head).
I also treated myself to a Hammond clone.. two manuals. This has been a dream of mine since I was a boy and heard “Hush” by Deep Purple.. later I learned of gospel and organ trio jazz. I’m so excited!
Thanks for the tip on Taubman. Already feeling less tense.
Oh this is terrific to hear! I am a Taubman advocate. Please don't tell your teacher I handed out Dohnanyi today lol.
I'm imagining a sign, similar to "NO STAIRWAY" from Wayne's World, which says "NO HANON"
Hanon/Cortot/Czerny/Dohnanyi denied
While I assume Taubman teaching is against such exercises, I suspect it's because students just don't know what to do with them and teachers inadequately explain their purpose.
From hanon ex 1 itself:
"Stretch between the fifth and fourth fingers of the left hand in ascending, and the fifth and fourth fingers of the right hand in descending." - the Taubman teacher weeps!
But - this is what I always did! And I thought, in C, one finger per white key was the natural, neutral hand position. One could definitely play this exercise ergonomically, but Monsieur Hanon certainly doesn't explain how to.
Very well said. You know, there are Dohnanyi exercises that are about stretching and about crossing, and I would not share those without further commentary. The ones I shared are really about being at the key and firing the electrons, not stretching (not that I would advise keeping the hand still). I kind of think you would really need to be long-winded and bombastic to hurt yourself with the exercises I sent.
Any thoughts on Gil Evans as a piano player on his 50’s and 60’s records?
I love the wonderful solo piano intro to "Las Vegas Tango" but I haven't heard so many Gil piano things really.
Great looking cat, “not Ernst von Dohnányi”.
Bassist?
haha! A admit it is just a friend's feline. However, if I made a sultry album of mood music, I have the cover at hand.
Check out my reflections on Sonny Rollins, Don Newcombe, Frank Barnes and the connection between Black Jazz musicians and Negro League baseball players published in Baseball Prospectus. https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/107713/newk-and-newk/
beautiful article, Victor, thanks for writing and sharing. made the morning for this son of a dodgers fan from Canarsie.
for the first time in my life, I realize "Two Bass Hit" is a pun on a double.
thanks for link!
I'm playing a standards gig soon on guitar with a piano player and a bassist. What five songs should we add to our set list to freshen it up?
Monk, "Criss Cross"
Warren, "Summer Night" (Chick Corea arrangement)
Porter, "I Concentrate on You"
Strayhorn, "The Intimacy of the Blues"
Goodman/Christian: "Air Mail Special"
Amazing suggestions! I have only tried to play one of these (the Porter). I have a month--we’ll see what we can do. Thanks!
I always learn a lot from your writing and your music. I had a chance to thank you in person in between sets one night at Black Cat in SF for your generosity in making your educational material available (charts, background notes, etc.), but it merits saying again: thank you for your generosity!
aw thanks for that. And I remember meeting you, thanks for saying hi!
How about a list of your "three least known but favorite [books/records/authors/musicians]"?
*cracks knuckles*
Esoteric composers: Stefan Wolpe, Ralph Shapey
Mellow jazz piano players named Jimmy: Jimmy Yancey, Jimmy Rowles
Crime novels: THE RED RIGHT HAND by Joel Townsley Rogers, HOPSCOTCH by Brian Garfield
Hopscotch-thumbs up
Alice Coltrane
Lonnie Liston Smith
Any comments about them?
(I had a heavy phase listening to them - on their own records and the records they made with John Coltrane (AC), Pharoah Sanders (LLS), Gato Barbieri (LLS) - - - )
Kind regards
Tom Gsteiger (CH)
My first thought is they both owe an immense debt to McCoy Tyner. Indeed, all of so-called "Spiritual jazz" is an extension of McCoy. My favorite Alice is on the last live record of John Coltrane in Harlem. Very beautiful. I haven't heard so much exposed LL Smith really, I had one record with Cecil McBee and Al Foster MAKE SOMEONE HAPPY that was OK but I don't remember that much about it. I suspect he was most suited to just helping create the right texture behind a power horn, although I just looked at the discography and there's a lot I don't know.
I just wanted to say thanks for pointing me to your Crimes of the Century essay. I have been devouring the books listed, and the essay is being passed around the Criminal Justice division of my agency. The Parker novels, Ellroy and George Higgins have been highly praised here by others.
oh I love it! Thank you so much!
Kia ora Ethan! I’m a selfish bass player, so I have to ask: you’ve played a lot with Thomas Morgan and Ben Street (my two favourites!) - what in your opinion makes them so special to play with, and how are they different when viewed from the piano chair? Thank you!
two of the greatest EVER, and I mean it — and I've played with Charlie Haden, Ron Carter, and Buster Williams. Reid Anderson is also great. What makes Thomas, Ben, and Reid so remarkable is their overall musicianship, they all have a vision of music. I like bassists with this kind of strong personality, at least in an improvisational context. In terms of Thomas, Ben, and Reid they would all agree on Haden and Jimmy Garrison. Very important influences, at least for me: Haden and Garrison. Yeah. Thomas is less judgmental than Ben or Reid. You can play anything with Thomas and he will validate it, while Ben and Reid in certain moods will try to fix the music on the fly, which can work but not always.
Can someone pls offer how Percy Heath is valued by the community at large. Ben Street mentioned PH in an interview, I listened to a lot of mjq. PHeath seems able to establish a handshake w the vibes John Lewis has taken as his laboratory, and PH’s transitions are effervescent to me in a manner I hear shares a joyful forward buoyancy I feel hearing Billy Higgins and Elmo Hope.
Any clues wld be appreciated.
Th you.
I just talked to Hyland Harris about Percy Heath last night. Incredible swing. The 54-55 Miles Davis records with Percy are the highest level, the F blues alone: "Bag's Groove" "Walkin'" "Dr. Jackle" all that etc
Thank you!
How fascinating, thank you for this insightful answer! I’m reminded of Jarrett’s story about a drawing by Motian depicting Lafaro as a blobby shape and Peacock as a spiky one. I agree, Peacock is definitely bossing the band around on Evan’s’ Trio 64 - to great effect!!
I dig TRIO '64. Peacock is amazing on it, but also Paul Motian has found his thing, that's the best Motian with Bill Evans by a country mile. However I actually think LaFaro is more bossy with Evans than Peacock. Peacock is on his own track, Evans is free to ignore, whereas LaFaro is insisting to be heard (on swing things like "Solar" and so forth, I'm not complaining about "Jade Visions" or the ballads).
Hi Ethan,
thanks for the Dohnanyi Exercises - I didn't know them at all. Interesting, it reminds me of the Alfred Cortot book on piano technique. Do you know it and if so do you prefere Dohnanyi and if so why?
And an important warning in the introduction, to look at things like that as "potentially dangerous".
By the way, do you know the four Rhapsodies by Dohnanyi? They're great too.
Marc-André Hamelin and Bill Charlap both use Cortot — two strong arguments! I think Cortot and Dohnanyi are kind of the same thing really. BUT Cortot goes on and on and on, while Dohnanyi is very short and simple. That said, I think Hamelin uses like just two pages of Cortot, and actually the two pages that are closest to what I shared of Dohnanyi, a basic “held note for polyphony” idea. I can’t imagine anyone doing all of Cortot systematically, it would take another lifetime.
Oh and I have heard the Dohnanyi Rhapsodies. His music is perfectly organized for the piano -- which is one reason to treat his slim volume of exercises seriously!
Thanks for your writing, Ethan, I've discovered so much inspiring music through you!
I have a question: I'm directing an amateur big band, we're playing an arrangement of "Cantaloupe Island". I got annoyed at the chart cause the arranger changed the C in the melody over the Db dominant to a C flat. That doesn't happen in the original recording, obviously. But then I came across a live version from the 90s where Wayne Shorter does play the Cb. So I'm wondering, have you, in your infinite knowledge of the back alleys of jazz, come across any leads on why or when this change of thinking might have happened?
this is really the right kind of question!!!
I don't know the answer, but like yourself, I consider C natural to be the righteous path.
At one point I did kind of look into other Hancock versions a bit and seem to recall that C flat is in quite a lot of later Herbie. In the realm of total speculation: this safer C flat option "got over" more with a general audience, plus it was just easier to explain to his later colleagues.
Original record is a MASTERPIECE
Which one does Jeff Goldblum play?
😄
haha glad you asked! I did my research on Herbie when working on this piece https://ethaniverson.com/received-wisdom-jeff-goldblum-chord-scales-the-ireal-book-and-kamasi-washington/. I was going to make something of a deal out of Goldblum's C flat but then it turned out later Herbie played it also
Any chance you'll play St Louis anytime soon?
I'd love to! Get me a gig! I'm also happy to play my solo piano James P. and Coltrane set in a home or workshop situation.