Another Track!

So it’s nearing the last month of the Take Five’s ensemble project and there is still a lot of work to be done before the final product will be ready for performance. However, in the weeks that have past I am fascinated at the extent of which we have developed as a band and utilized all our research and mentor‘s advice to the Jazz band we now stand at. Although it has taken us a while to get to this stage in these last few weeks the rest of our set should hopefully fall into place.

Mainly working on the three tracks we have done –Sing, sing, sing, Why Don’t You Do Right and Minnie the Moocher – we began introducing the finer details of the cotton club jazz era such as dynamics, stabs and blending of instruments to replicate the horn section.

As a drummer my confidence has gradually grown from week to week with help from our drumming mentor and I hope in the weeks to come that this will gradually increase with the professionalism of the whole show!

Until next time!

Sing, Sing Sing!

So we are finally getting a grasp of the Cotton Clubs early swing feel and are well under way to grasping the blend of imitation whilst bringing it in to the 21^st century with our line – up of two guitars, electric bass, piano and drums! In terms of my individual instrument I have spent the week listening to the early drummers of this era such as Chick Webb, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, analysing their concept and technique to playing in these big bands. As I mentioned last week it was generally agreed that once we understood the feel, the songs should hopefully fall into place and it seems that this week has shown that it was true. On arrival it was dicovered that our keyboardist Alison had arranged and transcribed the Benny Goodman version of ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ to our set up. This led to us getting a solid grasp for the structure and all the separate parts and overall making the rehearsal a lot more straightforward. Our lecturer came in and seemed happy with our progress from the following week however we were reminded that due to the upcoming holiday that we were looking up to a maximum of 7 rehearsals before the gig.

Overall, this week has shown the band that we work best with the sheet music in front of us where we can all follow it and pick up at a bar of our choice. It is now been decided that this will be the chosen method for rehearsing as we are now running low on time and need to consider learning three tracks per rehearsal if we are going to accomplish the task in time.

Since we are now on holiday for a week it has become highly important that we keep in touch over the holidays and use the time to practice new tracks on our own.

The Cotton Club it is!

So after disputing and discussing the element of our project the band as a whole has come to the decision to research and perform songs from the Cotton Club. The Cotton Club was famous for its Jazz and even though it featured some of the greatest African American Jazz artists the club was known to refuse black’s entry to the club. This week did not contain as much practical performance however with our new tutor and the knowledge he has of Jazz a greater understanding of our project is now felt throughout the group. Yet again with Jazz, this is an area I am uneducated in especially when it comes to creating the same sound and feel that the drummers of that time did with such virtuoso. As our tutor is a jazz drummer I was able to attain useful feedback on how to improve my playing and recommended music I should be researching and attempting to replicate. In all, this week’s events have been both stressful and educational into jazz and more specifically the Cotton Club sound. Although as a band we feel like we are struggling slightly with this challenge I enjoy the difficulty and experience that the project will bring. It does seem as if we have been coming in every week without an idea and played in what seems to be “musical confusion” but one thing I have learned from this week is to come in with not only a solid knowledge of the song but the whole style and feel that is needed to play it. It seems that once as a band we have managed to recapture the sound of this club the songs will hopefully fall into place and we will be able to relax and consider our performance as a whole.

Although it has been a stressful last four weeks with mixed views on our style and proposal as a whole I feel we are now beginning to get a more solid foundation and look forward to the challenges, lessons and experiences that the project will bring.

Ensemble Project Entry 3 – The Pioneers or the Cotton Club

It seems since our first decision as an ensemble to take on the phenomenon of jazz there has been mixed views and support. The band itself seems to be falling down this route, still struggling to decide on a strong research view to choose from. At the moment the choice lies between “pioneers of Jazz” and “Songs from The Cotton Club (New York)” however now that we have an efficient and fast way to communicate with each other it shouldn’t be too hard to put together a set list for next week’s rehearsals. In practice I already feel we are improving significantly and beginning to understand the style better with each chosen track. This week our lecture came in and filmed our progress and enquired into our song choice. For the video we played the popular Bossa Nova “Girl from Ipanema.” And overall played well and used dynamics extensively to our advantage. Although this song is significantly under our belt I have a feeling that with our alteration in research we may have to scrap it! Even if this is the case “The Take Five” are hopefully soon to be a gigging band outside of college and so the more tracks the better to add to our repertoire! That’s about it for this week but I shall keep all 0 followers up to date on what the chosen research project will be!

Ensemble Project Entry 2 - The Take Five

My jazz ensemble project now known by the more original name “The Take Five” has now accomplished a second successful practice with three possible tracks well under way. Now that last week’s excitement and enthusiasm has simmered slightly the band has had time to consider our proposal in an attempt to narrow down our chosen project to a more doable topic. As we have recently found out, Jazz is an incredibly broad style with hundreds of sub genres being created as the years went on. To cover all of these from the birth of Jazz to modern day in our show and research report would almost be an impossible task given the time we have. With this mind we have managed to minimise our project to researching jazz from only the 40’s to the 60’s, exploring how it evolved in this period and how from the classics new styles, structures, harmony and many other attributes came to pass. As we stand at the moment I still feel that we are focusing mainly on our song choices without actually researching each ones relevance to the project in hand. With time though, I hope that both will come together making our project proposal a strong candidate for a high grade. Jazz is a genre I love but know very little about and so with time I hope the experience of all of this will educate me greatly in the phenomenon. We soon hope to be rehearsing twice a week and already have a few offers for small gigs just to get us warmed up for the final show however it is still the early days . Well that’s all for now! An update will follow next week!

Ensemble Project Entry 1 All Jazzed Up!

So it’s the first week back at college and already my ensemble project is well underway. After discussing with others the genre they were most interested in I have managed to get involved in a 5 piece line up to study the progression of Jazz. Although our line up of drums, keyboard, two electric guitars and electric bass is not the most sought after to tackle the genre I hope that we will be able to put our own twist and personality into each song while keeping mainly to the originals structure and feel. As a progressing musician I feel that putting a signature sound to a performance is important and so look forward to the challenge of finding balance between tradition and originality. As the first rehearsal draws to an end we feel as a group there is a strong understanding of where we want to go with this project titled “The Progression of Jazz”. Starting out with such innovators as Gershwin we hope to take a famous figure from each decade and perform one of their songs gradually revealing how Jazz has evolved and branched off into other genres, such as the creative polyrhythmic jazz of Dave Brubeck to the Jazz - Funk fusion of Herbie Hancock! With a few songs in mind for next week I look forward to researching into the evolution of this genre and the challenges that playing this style on drums will bring to me. I feel that Jazz is a rarely performed style at Perth College and hope that with time and enthusiasm this project will help to make the style more popular with the institute. By this time next week it is hopeful that we will have our first possible three tracks laid down and learned. I’ll update the blog next week on how this has come to pass!

Introduction

The aim of this blog is to regularly update the progress of both my Individual and Ensemble project as they develop throughout the year. The blog will mainly focus on my progress with both bands, evidence that we have been rehearsing and general research into both assignments. Stay alert for my first ensemble project entry as we get started in first semester!