It appears to me, and I could be wrong, that the exemplar is someone playing over, or along with a MIDI or MP3 file.

Oh, and Joe Ayala gets my vote for the best overall player.

Gary

DNJ, Tony, Just listen to the tune and let me know if anyone you know can play similar to this guy on tunes similar to "Have you Met Miss Jones."

I assume that Chas and Diki in fact, do not play like that guy. Their expertise it seems to me is more into the "Funk" stuff, and I assume they do that well. I like funk, but two of those in a row for me on the bandstand is enough for a 45 minute set. However, the tune and player I mention here is what I could play all night without letup, if I were that good.

Russ, are you of that calibre? I know you play very good, but only you know if it's as good as the example here. I don't care if you can do it with a comb and tissue paper. The keyboard or whatever isn't the most import thing, but on the bandstand this player in the example would make me play and sound better by his comping and chord structure.

Tony, The job of the bass player is to know the chords. Some of the best musicians are bass players because of knowing chord structure as the basics of playing bass in the first place. Along with the chords you have to know the scales that fit the chords. However, playing do, re, me, fa, so, la, ti, do on every chord will only make you sound like an idiot. Ha ha! It ver simple but oh so complicated.

I said this before. The telephone uses 10 digits to make millions of millions if not trillions of trillions of phone numbers. A horn has 12 notes between octaves. Add to this the way the note is attacked, the volume, the tonguing, slurring, lipping along with the fingering tricks, and different octaves and you get infinity. All of you science students here should really appreciate this opportunity to do so much with so little, eh?

Gary, no, that is all arranger... Pianostyle mode, Bass inversion on. You can see him holding the root with the LH, and then it's simply good technique on the solos. See him go from Var1 to Var2 (with the fill) at 0:35?

The only thing going on in the ACC is bass, drums and that background organ comping, the primary comping coming from his playing rather than the machine.

This, with jazz, to be frank is the way to do it. The less ACC you have, the more important what YOU play is, and the more you can vary it and make it your own. The minute you rely on enough machine to be really noticeable, that's the minute you start to realize it's a machine!

Those exact same chops (although he might go to more rootless chords) would work in a live band situation. I'd be surprised if this guy plays primarily with machines... What a waste if he did!

And brickboo... I can't honestly recall a user demo from anyone a regular here, myself included, with skills as strong as this. I've heard some downtempo stuff that gave it a run, but when he moves into the double time soloing, no, in fairness, I can't recall any of us getting there.

This kind of supports something I believe... By the time your chops are this toned, you tend to play with PEOPLE! The best line up to play with YOU, and finding a gig that will support three of you isn't that big a chore provided you've got at least a minimum degree of people skills and showmanship. While the arranger is doing a decent job of following him around, it is still a poor substitute for a live drummer and bassist.

The better players can hear this. Sometimes I wonder if some here can.

Oh Diki,
How about me emailing you my post and you figuring out what I'm trying to say, edit it, and sending it back to me to post ,eh? Would that work for you?

Oh, I couldn't afford to pay you though, because I only make $50 at the nursing homes where I play. I raised my price to $65 dollars last year and most don't call me any more.

There is always someone who is willing to play for free just to have a place to play around here. I also am not able to sell hot dogs here either. They just want Steak, potatoes, tacos, and burritos. Oh, don't forget the booze and the drugs. Can you imagine driving around the Rockies with cliffs at every other turn all doped up. "SCARY" to say the least.

Tony look!! I've hijacked my own thread.

Diki,

I went back and watched again - it's as you say. I guess that's similar to Yamaha's Full Keyboard mode of fingering, which is pretty neat to use once in a while.

No doubt about it, he's a very talented player.

Gary

Yes, Gary. If your chops are primarily piano based, and you can solo and comp well either solo or in a duo or trio JUST on the piano, arrangers can do a very good job of tracking your playing, and as long as you keep the ACC to the minimum (bass, drums, maybe a simple jazz guitar or organ comp), you can play without the mechanical nature of the arranger becoming apparent much.

I always have all my ACC Parts on the D-Beam to easily mute (leaving me bass and drums) and to be honest, this is how I prefer to play in arranger mode. I'll unmute what arranger ACC parts I might need for a solo section to give a bit more support, but having come from a live band background, all I ever really need is the basic rhythm section, and I'm happy. I'd rather I played a piano comp and played the brass parts than leave it to the machine.

BrickBoo, Sounds like you have a basic understanding but knowing what to play over a chord is not as important as what to play over a progression. Turn letters into words, notes to phrases.

Back to the ii, V7, I (Dm, G7, CMaj) progression...a very basic and ubiquitous progression in many, many pieces. When you see these 3 chords aligned like this you can play a CMaj scale over the entire progression paying attention to starting and ending notes. Start the Dm chord on a F, A, or C; the 3rd, 5th, or 7th of Dm yet still in the CMaj scale. As the I or CMaj comes end on an E or B (3rd, 7th) and hear the color of each.

Eventually this will lead to the understanding of using a harmonic minor scale over a half-diminished ii, V7, i (ie; d dim, G7,c min).

Now you are creating jazz words or phrases. Learn the words and sentences will soon follow.

Eventually you'll know a Dominant 7th chord can be played with a Mixolydian (or 5th of the major) scale.

We studied Charlie Parker's Omni Book to see some interesting "licks" over certain chords and progressions.

I'd suggest buying Jamey Aebersold's Vol. 3 & Vol. 54, especially the Vol. 3. An entire scale syllabus is in each.

As I right this I think it's impossible to "teach" a language on a forum post but hopefully you can get some direction and begin the never ending journey to playing lucid jazz words, sentences, & paragraphs!!

I've spent the past year moving from trumpet to the arranger and building my repertoire. It's a lot of new learning. My next project is to record a good sampling and post to my coming web page. As with anything its one step at a time. I know its easy to preach but harder to walk the walk. I do not pretend to be the best at anything but I know my music and improv receives praises from fellow musicians (very important to me) and my audiences.

To me it's a work of love. Good Luck with your journey.

BTW: Tony, Thanks for the kind words.......appreciated.

Gary, thanks for the kind comment!

Joe