Terrific Rhodes sound...good player, too.

he has a few more videos on there also....

You're right, Chas. The guy's a player. He'd be fun to jam with. And the Nord sounds great!

Playing like this is part of the joy of being a musician. The only thing missing is other players of comperable skill and attitude.

Now that's where it's at, for me, at least.


R.

Yeah... good player. Sounds like he could dial back the vel sensitivity a bit (probably those light keys!) when playing with a track, though.

Same thing we talked about on another thread... it helps to have the drums and bass rise a bit once we start spanking it! Having them plough on as if nothing happened is a bit TOO mechanical, for me.

Has anyone tried to use sidechain expansion on backing tracks? With a REALLY long release, it might help to get audio tracks to pop a bit more in response to frisky live playing... just a few db, not much.

But all in all, I guess if he had just got the rhythm section up in the first place (it sounds very much like him playing ON a track rather than IN the track) it wouldn't have been so bad.. (not that it was bad, just could have been better).

It's a fault we almost ALL fall into, playing ON the track, as if we were listening to a monitor mix, rather than IN the track, as if we were listening to a playback. It takes courage to play so quietly we can hardly hear ourselves, which is often where we need to be when comping! I don't think I can remember the last member demo that didn't sound like the solo and even the comp (if one is ever played!) could easily go down a few db to sit in the mix better....

Only recording ourselves constantly, and then being this critical can fix this... you just have to dial down the patch until it sounds right on playback, and to hell with how it makes you feel while you are actually playing

I have often thought, when listening to the incessant whining about how poor the OTHER players were, in bands that OMB's used to play in, what does this say about the quality of the whiner himself?

Great players make up for a lot of day to day niggles (if you are into playing music, that is!), but you seldom get to play with them if you can't cut the mustard yourself. So, all too often, these guys are playing with the B or more likely, C team players, and that's how they get their attitudes. But the problem rests with themselves, not the poor players that were all they could get!

Me, I'd rather play with a strung out Bird than the most punctual, soberest 'entertainer' out there...

"Me, I'd rather play with a strung out Bird than the most punctual, soberest 'entertainer' out there...
"

WOW!!! Not I....

I have zero respect for dope heads...It is a choice you make....and the wrong choice at that..I don't care how good you are..or think you are.....give me the sober guy...at least he will remember he had a good time..

And that's it in a nutshell.

Genius often comes at a price. Are you happier to have never played with it, and avoided it's little problems (or big ones) or would the opportunity to work an play and learn from the best in the business make putting up with the baggage some of them carry worth while?

Let's put it this way... were any of us here fortunate enough to have jammed with Parker, Miles (the list goes on forever) etc., do you think we would be bitching about them the way we do some slacker stoner that CAN'T play worth a damn, sober or not..? Hell NO! They'd be bragging to their grandkids till the day they died...

Not too many of us saints around here, anyway (unless the drugs have made us forget our peccadilloes!). And even fewer capable of hanging with the greats!

Sorry, Fran, but I'll take Miles or Bird bombed over you sober, any day! At least they always played what they did

Yes, the genius players often carry baggage, but what a delight to listen to and learn from.

When I was in high school, I had the honor of playing upright at a local facility which was called NARCO. It was a narcotics treatment center, and over a three year period, sadly, I got to play with the "who's who" of the jazz world of the early 60's. It was a sad but life-changing experience. A few years later, I ran into some of the same players in LA. They regularly made trips into Lexington to "dry out".

You've heard of and even heard recordings by many of the people I ran into at NARCO. To name them would be disrespectful.

To have met and heard them was an honor.

R.



[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 11-19-2008).]

Definitely NOT my style. I've never enjoyed someone playing rhythmic scales. Where's the connection to the melody? IMHO, anyone who move that far away from the original song for that long is just playing for themselves.

OK, start throwing the arrows. I know that that's what great jazz is all about, but as I said - It's not MY style.

I hear you Diki, but I'm gonna meet Fran half way. It's a lot more fun playing with a great player who is clean, sober, and ego-free than a great player who has had a few brain cells ah, chemically removed. Sadly, it too often goes with the turf. I think it may be the stress of seeing glorified karaoke machines manned by pushbutton 'musicians' take all the good-paying gigs . Or a public that prefers a 'Madonna' to a 'Sarah Vaughn'. Or hamburger to filet mignon. Or Fundamentalist religious principles to uh, common sense. Oops, getting off topic here.

chas