This guy really gets it:
http://www.cruiseshipdrummer.com/2014/11/things-i-learned-at-billy-mintz-concert.html?m=1
Django Gold: In His Own Words
“I don’t know why people are so upset. The fact that I even know who Sonny Rollins is just proves how cool I am. Plus I can spell Miles Davis and Dexter Gordon’s names correctly. I am not just cool, I am hip. I am a hip hipster. The hippest hipster in town. How else would I know who Sonny Rollins is if I weren’t hip? He plays the saxophone right? (Notice how correctly I spelled “saxophone”.) In fact, we are such good friends, I thanked him for letting me use his name in my hysterical satire. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t let me use his name. Only haters care about that. If you don’t get how cool and hip I am, then you are a hater. Hater. Hater. Hater.
I dig Miles and Dexter and Diz. You can tell I dig them because I used their names in my brilliant caricature. Also, I used the word “dig” twice just now. Did you notice that?
As I proved in my ingenious pasquinade, I am hip enough to know that the drums are a very loud instrument. When I was little, I wanted to play the drums so everyone would have to look at me and see how clever I am. But now I don’t care about being clever. I just want to be hip. And I am hip. I am so hip. Just look at my sulking twitter profile photo. Is that hip or what?
So you haters can all stop attacking me. Sonny Rollins is not a hater. In fact, if you asked Sonny what he thinks of my piece, I’m sure he’d say he loved it and that I am so hip. Go on, ask him! Right now. I’ll wait.”
-By Django Gold as told to Roberta Piket
Something I Need to Remember When I Start to Get in Trouble at the Piano
Playing Jazz: Forget Your Scales and Patterns
Young musicians are often very concerned about what scale or mode they are using. While it’s important to have a strong knowledge of theory, at some point in the maturation process one must get beyond thinking about scales to the concept of playing musical ideas.
The title of this post is admittedly a bit sensationalistic. I’m not advocating that you literally “forget” the scales and patterns that you’ve learned (Okay, maybe most of the patterns, except for the really hip ones, which are probably the ones you came up with on your own. Just lose the ones you were fed from a play-along record.)
Improvising using specific melodic material or motives, without worrying about “making the chord changes”, is a practice device for learning to think motivically and develop your ideas in a logical progressive manner, as opposed to playing a sequence of unrelated “jazz patterns”, which all too many musicians (even some professionals) lean on.
To begin practicing, pick a very short motive or phrase from the tune on which you’re working. Don’t worry about playing the changes for now; begin with a series of three-note phrases.
Here’s an example of a solo that is completely “motive-based”. What I mean by that is that I am ignoring the changes altogether. When I play this introduction to Thelonious Monk’s “Monk’s Dream”, my goal is to squeeze as much as possible from these short, simple motives.
As you progress, focus on varying the patterns through transposition, inversion, retrograde, diminution, augmentation, etc. (If you don’t know what these terms mean in a musical context then look them up.)
When you feel ready, you can try this exercise over the chord changes of a tune. I suggest you start with a tune that has simple changes that are easy to navigate so you don’t have to think about too many things at once.
This is a practice exercise. At first you will sound forced, mechanical and awkward, just as you did when you first tried to play over changes. As the process of motivic development becomes more intuitive your playing will develop in maturity and coherence, and you won’t be just another purveyor of licks.
For School Band Directors: How Can I Maximize the Impact of a Visiting Clinician at My School? Part 2
In Part 1 of this post, I talked about how to maximize the positive effects of having a visiting artist give a clinic or master class at your school. I’d like to discuss some other thoughts I’ve had on this subject over the years that I’ve been an educator and clinician.
3. Start on time. If at all possible, prepare the room where the clinic will take place ahead of time. If the artist has to stand around for 30 minutes while the previous class clears out, chairs are being moved, and amps are plugged in then you are wasting the artist’s time and your money.
In some circumstances it may not be possible to set up in advance of the class time – if, for example, there’s another class in the room immediately before. However, there’s no reason the artist should have to be around for that. This is not a matter of the clinician being a prima donna, but more of a practical matter. Usually visiting artists are on a tight and often grueling travel schedule. They may be performing in a local club until 2am, and then getting up bright and early to be at your school (hopefully) on time. Respect the artist’s scheduling and sleeping needs by being realistic about what time the clinic will really start. An artist who is well-rested and feels that her time is being respected will be a better clinician, and more willing to stick around after the “official” clinic has ended to answer questions.
4. Live music is the best teacher. My final suggestion for clinics may seem self-serving: If the artist is performing in your town, whether at a concert in your school or at a local venue such as a jazz club, encourage your students to go to the performance. There’s no substitute for hearing live jazz, and seeing the artist put his words into practice is an invaluable learning experience for your students that simply cannot be duplicated in the classroom.
As in Part 1 of this article, comments, especially from clinicians and band directors, are welcome.
Kennedy Center to end Women in Jazz Festival
So apparently Jason Moran has decided women have reached parity in the jazz world:
Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival begins final year as women-only showcase
Billy Mintz 4tet near YOU this week
I’m looking forward to three shows this week with a great quartet . It’s a rare opportunity for you to hear both Billy’s original compositions and west coast saxophonist John Gross, one of the best.
Billy’s writing is really engaging. I think you’ll enjoy this music and I hope you’ll come out this week.
I’m also playing (along with John, Billy and Putter) with saxophonist Lena Bloch 1/31 at Culture Shuk at East End Temple in Manhattan. We’ll be playing standards, and a few originals by members of the group. Lena, in a courageous if foolhardy move, has also asked me to sing a number of tunes.
The Billy Mintz Quartet
Billy Mintz – drums
John Gross – tenor saxophone
Roberta Piket – piano
Cameron Brown – bass (1/29)
Putter Smith – bass (2/2, 2/3)
1/29/13 West Orange, NJ Whole Foods West Orange
2/02/13 Brooklyn, NY Ibeam
2/03/13 New York, NY Smalls Jazz Club (afternoon show)
Jazz Pianist Roberta Piket Plays Standards and Sings at Smalls in NYC with Putter Smith and Billy Mintz
Media Contact: Geneya Brooks, assistant@robertajazz.com www.RobertaJazz.com High-res photos: https://robertajazz.com/press-photos-2/
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pianist Roberta Piket brings a new trio to New York’s Smalls Jazz Club on Monday July 23rd, featuring west coast bass stalwart Putter Smith and drum great Billy Mintz. Focusing on the American Songbook repertoire, Roberta, who has been singing with increasing frequency, will sing several of her favorite standards including Burton Lane’s Too Late Now, the Harold Arlen classic Come Rain or Come Shine (which begins as a vocal/drum duet with Mintz) and the Gershwin standard He Loves and She Loves.
Bassist Putter Smith is one of LA’s busiest musicians. He has worked with Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Warne Marsh, Alan Broadbent, Bob Brookmeyer, Billy Eckstine, Diane Schuur, Lee Konitz, Jackie and Roy, Carmen McRae, Gary Foster, Art Farmer, Blue Mitchell, Art Pepper, Ray Charles and many more.
In an extraordinary career spanning nearly 40 years, Billy Mintz has played with Lee Konitz, Eddie Daniels, Harold Danko, Mose Allison, Mark Murphy, Bobby Shew, Charles Lloyd, Vinny Golia, and the Alan Broadbent Trio. In recent years, Mr. Mintz has taken on new roles as a bandleader and a composer, performing his own compositions with various ensembles. He also frequently performs solo drumset concerts.
Roberta Piket Trio Monday July 23rd, 2012 at 7:30 and 9pm, $20 admission good for the whole night, all ages admitted Smalls Jazz Club | 183 W. 10th St. at the corner of 7th Ave. in New York City.
For video and sound clips please visit www.robertajazz.com
Why Pop Music Sucks Today
SOLO: New Solo Piano CD Release coming August 1st
For immediate release
Contact: Geneya Brooks | Thirteenth Note Records | assistant@robertajazz.com www.robertajazz.com
For a courtesy press copy of Solo either on CD or via mp3 download, please email: assistant@robertajazz.com
Artist: Roberta Piket
Title: Solo
Label: Thirteenth Note Records
CD Release Date: August 1st, 2012
Thirteenth Note Records is pleased to announce the August 1, 2012 release of pianist Roberta Piket’s ninth CD and her first solo piano recording. “I get restless easily and I’m always looking for new challenges,” Roberta reflects about her decision to record, at this point in her career, a full-length solo album. Her most recent CD, Sides, Colors, explored the pastel shades and supple textures of an ensemble enhanced with strings and woodwinds. Love and Beauty, from 2006, presented her advanced concept of the modern jazz piano trio. And on her 2003 release, I’m Back in Therapy and It’s All Your Fault, she experimented with electric instruments and groove-oriented pieces.
So, for Roberta, a solo CD represents a new musical challenge, another fresh area of exploration, and the next step forward in her continuing growth as an artist. “This is the first time I’ve done a recording of almost all standards,” she continues. “I felt that for my first solo recording I wanted to start with material as fundamental and malleable as the standard repertoire, a common reference point that I am very comfortable with. After my last few records, this CD wasn’t so much about stepping out of my comfort zone. It was about finally stepping back into my comfort zone, and finding out if I still have something to say.” ”
Grounded in both the modern jazz tradition and the works of the contemporary classical composers she admires, Roberta combines an infectious swing with an adventurous harmonic sense. Her playing, characterized by both a strong sense of direction and a striving for new territory, is at times melodic and pensive, at other times angular and dissonant.
Roberta has played professionally as a sidewoman with David Liebman, Rufus Reid, Michael Formanek, Lionel Hampton, Mickey Roker, Harvey Wainapel, Eliot Zigmund, Benny Golson and the BMI/NY Jazz Orchestra and has thrice been a featured guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, on National Public Radio. She has also performed with some of the most interesting musicians in European and American creative music, including drummers Klaus Kugel and Billy Mintz, and saxophonists Petras Vysniauskas and Roby Glod and Louie Belogenis. A gifted composer as well, Roberta was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk BMI Composers’ Competition.
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