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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Just completed marking up my first jazz number for the praise band. There are 32 different chords with 212 chord changes, lots of 9ths, 11ths and 13s, all beat in 1. There is no melody line than I can see or hear, the bass player continues to grouse about missing notes that don’t exist, the drummer follows everything perfectly while staring straight up at the ceiling, the pianist builds up a sweat working his hands a mile a minute even though his sheet music shows nothing but written chords above blank measures, and my ad lib lead line takes on a decidedly bluesy feel that has little or no relationship with what the others are playing. It is all I can do to keep up (some of the time). Lose your place and there is no chance of recovery. I don’t even know what key it is written in, although there is a recurring Fm7/Fm6 pattern beneath the solo lines, so maybe that’s it. And yet, everybody continues to ask for more. I guess you just gotta love jazz, even though I’m not sure I understand it. |
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Location: PDX | Another way to put it:
"So bascially, as long as I use symentrical shapes
in a musical way, I can play any notes I choose,
anytime I solo ...."
_____
gh1 |
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Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | What music like that has to do with a praise band is beyond me. Church ain't the place to put on a performance.......... |
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Location: NJ | Tell that to Jesse Jackson . . . . |
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Posts: 1017
Location: Budd Lake, NJ | What is the song you're laboring over, Prof. BB? Where did your worship leader find the song? Or is it a house original? I don't think I've ever heard a jazz worship tune before, although I went to a jazz vespers once at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC. (It turned out to be so musically cerebral that it was beyond me; in my case, an unfortunate waste of the musicians' time--and mine, too.) |
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Location: SoCal | Tell that to Jesse Jackson . . . .
I rest my case.... |
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Posts: 1900
| ..preach it, moody, preach it... |
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Posts: 1900
| ..'musically cerebral'...a great way to put it.. |
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Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Originally posted by Jewel's Mom:
What is the song you're laboring over, Prof. BB? Where did your worship leader find the song? Or is it a house original? I'm not sure where the leader obtained the music. It has the name of the composer/arranger, and it could very well be the leader himself as he has provided us with others that are his own arrangements. It is sitting on a music stand at the house. The title is "Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus" or something very similar to that. There are no words. It is, to my ears, just a jazz arrangement that contains a religious reference in the title. It could very well be that the verse is based, loosely or otherwise, on some published version of this tune, but I certainly don't recognize anything I hear. |
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Location: NJ | 'musically cerebral'
St. John the Divine's can get that way.
The Paul Winter "Solstice" shows are always a perennial favorite of mine . . . |
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Posts: 555
Location: Wooster, Ohio | Interesting, Our praise band is more Chris Tomlin meets Neil Young. We better watch out however, we may approach the pearlly gates someday and hear jazz coming from within.
Steve |
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Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | Our band is Lutheran, which means it's pretty conservative. I keep trying to push it in more of a Babtist/Gospel direction, but it may be a lost cause... I'm just glad to have a place to play and to be needed. |
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Posts: 4413
| Originally posted by moody, p.i.:
Our band is Lutheran, which means it's pretty conservative. I keep trying to push it in more of a Babtist/Gospel direction, but it may be a lost cause... I'm just glad to have a place to play and to be needed. Conservative? Explain your shirts. |
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Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | I'm the exception.... they even let me sing because they need a guitar player. |
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Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Originally posted by ProfessorBB:
but I certainly don't recognize anything I hear. Funny, that's what EVERYBODY says about my covers. |
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Posts: 370
Location: Isle of Man, UK | "Jazz ain't nothing but what you get when you push a rock 'n' roll four-piece down the stairs..."
I don't recall who said that, but having played with some fantastic jazz saxo-mo-phonists and trumpeters, I'd like to add the well-known saying "why use one note when 74 will do?".
I think that it's a talent and an art, don't get me wrong here. I'd admire anyone who can play it and keep up, so well done indeed, Prof.
JB |
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Location: GA USA | Hang in there, BB.
Flint, our praise band is more Tomlin with no Neil Young. I'll trade ya. My garage rock tendency just doesn't fit so well. |
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Location: Wooster, Ohio | Captain, the key is to make sure that your youth group has a youth Sunday with their band, then when you come back the next Sunday they are more grateful and you can get away with more.
Steve |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I played off and on for 25 years in several Methodist churches, and I thought their music provided a great mix of traditional and contemporary. This new Praise Band I've joined provides all the music for an early morning contemporary service in a large Presbyterian church. I lead a middle school youth group some 30+ years ago in a Presbyterian church and it struck me then that their contemporary song book represented a number of songs that had appeared in the top 40 at one time or another. I believe it has much more to do with the preferences of the band leader than the denomination. |
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July 2005
Posts: 3410
Location: GA USA | We had our 2nd appearance of our new Praise band yesterday, and the worldwide debut of the Captain on the Viper. As I've said before, the tapes from our soundboard are unlistenable for music, so I set up a boombox in the back of the auditorium to tape the music. To describe it in a word... wimpy. Unless I'm playing when nobody else is, you can't even discern that there's a guitar in the mix. I know that with the youth band, the leader has gotten his own sound guys, since the official sound dudes for the church were keeping his guitars so low. Something to work on. |
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March 2003
Posts: 555
Location: Wooster, Ohio | Captain, we have the came soundman. My key to being heard was buying a Genz Benz 200 watt acoustic amp and later two extention speakers. Gives you the ability to control your own fate. It does take a long time to work out the sound system. Ususally never all that you need and I do think the church sound men have a tendency to mix out the guitars.
Steve |
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July 2005
Posts: 3410
Location: GA USA | Okay, there's an idea. I had my amp pointed at me so I could hear the guitar all the time, and let the house guys control what was heard by the populace. I could just as easily place the amp behind me and project more sound outward, confounding the playa-haters. Thanks, Flint. |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | So far, I've been using the Trace Elliott pointed directly at me. I can hear it just fine. I'm not sure what the house hears through the board, but a few folks came up to me after Sunday's service with comments, so they're hearing something. |
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Praise band jazz is tough