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

Gary
[/quote]

Gary, thanks for the kind comment!

Joe, I just listened to "Night Sonnet" on you site. You're a real player. I'm not trying to find fault or embarrass you. You sound very, very good. I just want to know if you are as comfortable with uptempo Jazz. If so, would you kindly direct me to something of yours that I can listen to. I would really appreciate it.
Thanks a bunch,
Boo Hargis

I have posted some tunes Boo, not strictly arranger - but if you feel like it have a listen...just click on my sig..

Dennis

Dennis, it doesn't count unless you play at least 14 chords each measure!

DonM

So Texas Swing is right out?

Everyone should listen to this again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7JAA71x92I
I wish I could improvise half as good on my sax as this guy does.

Now, how many here knows what chord the guy is using on the last note of the melody on the second tune. Don't look at his left hand. Just listen. This is something any accomplished Jazz player's ear should recognize. Steve Tyrell uses it on "I Can't Get Started" before resolving to another chord and then to the root ending chord.

Isn't this fun educational and entertaining. If not, maybe you should take up knitting. Just kidding, the Devil made me do it. Sorry!!!

Please don't tell the name, (Then everyone will know what it is, OK?). Just say I know what it is. I'm anxious to see who knows it first. I know Russ will know and then maybe Diki, Chas or Joe. The San Francisco Kid I think would know it too, but haven't seen him around lately.

Just put on your Stan Getz or Sonny Rollins' lp's...or Dexter Gordon maybe??

Jazz is a bottomless pit we can so easily fall into... Once you hold up the greats as a reference, unfortunately, we are ALL destined to live our lives in abject misery as we achieve nothing even remotely close to those guys!

Gods walk (or walked) amongst us...

The only mitigating factor is, most of the 'gods' that walk amongst us now look back to Bird or Miles etc., and feel that same abject misery! Some geniuses define the genre, and all we can do is struggle to even get in the ballpark...

I've always had a deep appreciation of jazz, played my fair share, but I've never gone down that rabbit hole. I'm happy to be an all-rounder. I like my jazz, but I like reggae, rock, country, classical, alternative and pop, even! Once you set your happiness up by how well you play jazz, you are either one really talented SOB, or you are miserable! I am happy simple getting close to Roy Bitten or Rabbit Bundrick, Chuck Leavell, guys like that. No way in heaven or on earth, no matter how much I practice, am I ever going to come close to Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, or Herbie Hancock!

So study it by all means, but be careful how and where you set your goals. Who wants to set themselves up for disappointment?!

Me? I just play what sounds nice, even if simple. And whatever tune grabs me at the time.

One thing I have stopped doing is cover tunes at gigs that are JUST like the record. After 25+ years of doing same, I finally switched on to the fact that even playing someone elses tune, one still needs to add personal interpretations. And apart from "rednecks" most folks at shows actually appreciate a fresh approach to a song.

It is one of the reasons I guess I have moved away from "arrangers" per se. I felt constricted by mindless looping of the same short part. I woke up one day and realised it was why I got tired of perfectly good instruments. Simply because, the repetitive nature of the system, insidiously affected my musicality at a lower level than I had realised.

hmmm..wow too D & M there but others may catch on to my drift here

Mind you systems I am using now are not that much better, but they are at least better, in my way of thinking anyhoo

Well, as good as it can be without playing with other live players

Dennis

Diki,
Are you gonna accept my post, edit them, send them back to me to post or what? Are you ignoring me, you don't like me, or are you deaf? Ha ha!

Diki, When I started back playing in 2001 or about, I couldn't play my old mouthpiece worth a crap. I was dumbfounded. I got in touch with my old sax friend who I hadn't seen since the middle sixties, but I knew he was still and always had been playing. He's gigged with Dr. John and even did some things and hung around a bit with David "Fathead Newman. I knew that if he couldn't help me no one could.

After we had a few chats on the phone for the next couple of months,I said I didn't want to embarrass him but wanted to ask a question that was very important to me. He said ask anything you want.

I said You've been playing music from the gitgo and I know that you couldn't hold a day gig for more than a couple of hours and laughed. I asked can you play like Dexter, Rollings, or Coltrane etc. He said exactly what you posted above.

He said Boo, there comes a time when you have to realize that they guys you're talking about were geniuses at what the did just like Einstein was a genius at what he did. You can't believe how much that profound statement kept me going.

He said you have to accept that and just do what you can do, and don't worry about what other cats can do. Diki, you two guys are from the same mold and this was nice to hear again from you even though you're all wrapped up in "Country." LOL!!!

You still know what you are talking about and appreciate jazz too. I'm glad you're a member here. I don't give a crap what anybody else thinks about ya. You're top notch even though you do step on some toes every now and again. Remember this: "The Truth Hurts," some people sometimes. LOL