Darrell Grant has performed extensively both as a sideman with such jazz luminaries as Betty Carter, Tony Williams, and Roy Haynes, and as a bandleader and solo artist throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He is a Professor at Portland State University where he also directs the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute.
Friday – Feburary 26th – “Influences”
The Grieg Lodge (Norse Hall) - 111 NE 11th (& Couch) - 11:30 PM - 2 AM
THE PLAN
As musicians we are the sum of our influences. We are influenced by many things– mentors, musicians, sounds, places, experiences…
Friday’s session will revolve around this idea of influences.
The goal is to come up with 10-12 vehicles to explore over the course of the night. What do I mean by a vehicle?
A vehicle could be a song, a melody, a groove, a set of changes, or just a concept to make music around.
Where will these vehicles come from?
You.
Your ideas are welcome. Use this blog to post links, clips, ideas, start discussions, explore other people’s ideas.
What develops here we bring to the session and deal with it in real time.
Learn more about the session
Potential Session Vehicles
Herbie Hancock-Butterfly 1974
I like this tune because you can go so many rhythmic directions with it.
Definitely want to do Coltrane’s Resolution at the session. Any takers? Here is Branford’s quartet doing it live
Witchi Tai To
Country
Witchi Tai To
Amazing Grace
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jim olding aka jacques says:
re:the pepper video: the 1st segment was recorded @ the hobbitt early on a sunday afternoon for a documentary by sandy osawa that was just beginning to be shot, mid-late ’80s. everything about that gig was tainted by embarrassment for all in attendance (as i’m sure anyone who was there will surely remember..) –& a most inauspicious note for the film’s prospects.. ms. osawa had a brilliant concept, but really didn’t know a lot about jim or his career at the outset. some years after his death, sandy presented a short version for comments by family & friends, & believe me, every nit was picked. to her everlasting credit, she went back to the proverbial drawing board after a crash course in all things pepper from a number of sources, & in reasonably short order, completed a wonderful , & longer, film portrait, “pepper’s pow-wow”, that should be seen! it plays down some of the original footage & incorporates more interviews & clips from later concerts. speaking of which, the 2nd version of his tune on the video above came from one of his last concerts & features amina claudine myers. though he was suffering through the effects of chemotherapy at the time, jim turned in one his strongest performances of his life that night! (i’ve seen the whole concert on video)–for more info go to: http://jimpepperlives.wordpress.com/home/ & keep an ear to the ground for announcements about some exciting pepper-inspired events coming up later this year!
House Players
Darrell Grant-piano, organizer
John Nastos
John Nastos is a freelance saxophone and woodwinds player in Portland, Oregon. He can currently be seen with groups such as the Bobby Torres Ensemble, the Art Abrams Swing Machine Big Band, and as a sub with the Mel Brown Septet. He is also running a year-long project called Duo Chronicles in which he and Clay Giberson present a new song in video each week.
David Ornette Cherry-piano, melodica
“In my world, the piano, the keyboard, sounds of nature and numerous instruments of traditional peoples and those who reside in urban society, touch and effect each other with a calming and symbiotic fervor. I compose with the idea that all exist in a world of harmonies which mirror life evolving away from the chaotic (to the positive). There’s not just a co-existence but a melding of forms to produce a single musical expression.” http://www.davidornettecherry.com
Eric Gruber-bass
Reinhardt Melz-drums
Session Questions
What is a piece of music from within the jazz tradition that has played a major role in your development?
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One of my all time top 10 tracks. Keith Jarrett American Quartet w/Dewey Redman. Why? Looseness, groove, melody, inside/outside playing. Simple framework that allows lots of expressivity.
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Monk is another influence. Why? Singable melodies, changes that make you feel like you can fly on them. Simple framework-expansive possibilities- ex: Hackensack
Here is the Monk version
Here is link
for Bill Frisell
from an album called Lookout for Hope -
I’d have to say Wayne Shorter’s “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum” has been a big influence for me (as well as many other Wayne tunes). The chord progressions in the A sections are really refreshing to my ears… there’s such a strong pull from one chord to the next, but it takes such a unique route. The B section offers a nice bluesy interlude. Overall, a great little journey between the cerebral and the emotional. Very singable melody, too.
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Haitian Fight Song by Mingus is the tune that made me love jazz and the bass. The spontaneity of the arrangement, catchy repetitive melody, simple form, burning solos and rhythm section, and overall fire with which the band plays make this song, for me, the embodiment of the spirit of jazz.
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Sam,
Thanks for the post of the Mingus tune. We’ll call it on Saturday night & see if we get some cats to play it.
-Darrell -
“Falling Grace” is a tune that I’ve always loved to play. I think it would sound great as a long slow build from a rubato solo piano (or some other instrument) intro, building up into time and through collective improve over the form, and with the melody stated only at the end. One of the most inspiring things to me about jazz has always been the process of mutation that occurs over the course of a tune, especially as played by people like Miles Davis’ Sixties quintet, or Kenny Wheeler’s group from “Gnu High.” I think it’s important to keep alive a tradition of doing this to classic songs, rather than (er, in addition to) just preserving them in a more direct form. I will try to post a .pdf of Falling Grace, maybe we can play it this weekend!
What is a piece of music from outside the jazz tradition that has played a major role in your development?
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Always wanted to find a way to connect jazz to Irish music. The spirit is the same I think. This track is one of my favorites. Why?
This band -the Bothy Band- is to Irish music what the Coltrane quartet was to jazz. The cohesion & singleness of purpose of their playing, and the good feeling the groove creates. Plus a cool melody. -
Darrell,
You’re getting pretty close to traditional country music.
The Irish fiddle tunes were brought to Appalachia where they evolved for a couple of hundred years, back in the “hollers.” In the 1920’s, country music went mainstream with the advent of the phonograph and radio.
Country music blended with swing jazz in the 30’s and 40’s, and some of the hottest musicians of the period were in Western Swing big bands. Even Les Paul started his career as a country musician, “Rhubarb Red.”
But I can tell you, us old country boys would have a tough time today with your jazz charts and time signatures.
Maybe we can meet halfway over a good ole fiddle tune like Sally Goodin. In this clip, note the Texas-style jazzy backup on guitar and bass, using walking chord inversions to liven up basically a two-chord tune. -
Thanks Hank, Very cool. There are lots of examples of jazz players dealing with country & fiddle influences. A bassist on our session- Sam Howard has lots of it in his own music. Two of my favorite examples are late saxophonist Micheal Brecker’s “Itsbynn Reel.”
and bassist Marc Johnsons tune called “Samarai HeeHaw,” which I’ll see if some people want to play at the session.
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Along the lines of the folk music conversation, I thought I’d point out one of my favorite groups – Bill Evans’ Soulgrass. Definitely not straight-ahead folk, but a logical fusion of folk/Americana and jazz.
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John Nastos says:
One of the first musicians I ever listened to, according to my parents – Leo Kottke. I’ve always wanted to find a way to create this sort of sound within a jazz framework and using the instruments I play (woodwinds) but have never really been able to pull it off.
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To me Jazz absorbs all types of music, which it generally swallows whole and transforms. Almost any music can be turned into a jazz piece, ala Pops or Sonny Rollins. Personally, I have been heavily influenced by Asian ideas such as Zen, and also the sounds of Asian instruments such as wood flutes, and their metaphorical extension to woodwinds such as the saxophone as practiced by Coltrane, leading to the concept of practicing the meditation of music and finding my way in the world with that. This has led me to embrace forms such as Japanese Enka music, which, for example, might weave a shakuhachi flute and acoustic guitar in with a studio orchestra to back the singer, who is telling a story. I want to tell that story with my horn. The Enka story lines and songs bear some relevant parallels to vintage Country/Western music in the USA, which I am also versed in through Hank Williams, Willy Nelson, Bob Wills,etc. Which brings us back to the old Swing/Jazz-Country/Western crossover- an earlier blurring of lines between genres in early-mid 20th century Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Illinois,Tennessee and Indiana. 12 & 16 bar Blues , 32 -bar AABA songs, and other forms were common to all of these genres.
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Also, the Bourree from No 3 in C Major. So compact and economic, clear chord movement, singable melody, minor bridge, almost a pop tune!
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“Machine Gun” by Jimi Hendrix… specifically the versions of it from his Fillmore East concerts. Improvisation is certainly important to Hendrix, but otherwise, I don’t think anyone would call this “jazz”…
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Great calls everybody.
Shoehorn-I’m really interested in the enka music. If you are there Saturday night, please play an example of it. Maybe we can figure out some basis for jamming on a piece.
Sam- I’ll work on getting the chord changes off the Bach Bouree and bring them on Saturday.
John- What a beautiful piece that Leo Kottke song is. Reminds me a lot of the Irish music-lots of ornamentation, simple harmony, same rhythmic feel. I bet we could come up with a vehicle for Friday or Saturday to try around this
Darren- The Hendrix thing is straight up blues. Maybe you wouldn’t call it jazz but it is derived from the same source.
Is this jazz? I’m bringing this to the sessions to see what we might make of it.
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I’ve always been really into the way Wes Anderson uses music in his movies, and the Kinks are a great band whose music has been featured in his films often. This song is from the great album “Lola vs. the Powerman,” and it was in the movie “The Darjeeling Limited.” I grew up on rock music and I still listen to it regularly – lately I’ve been into the Dirty Projectors, Sufjan Stevens (the album “Come On and Feel the Illinoise” is really good), Spoon, and the Beatles (later stuff, mostly the white album).
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I love the song “Red River Valley”. It’s very simple, but something about it is just absolutely heartbreaking.
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Darrell, the Bothy Band is one of my all time favorites!
Of course more recently I’ve been strongly influenced by West African music, it sort of all started when I heard Ali Farka Toure (guitar) and Toumani Diabate (kora)’s album “In The Heart of the Moon”
That song, Kaira, is not the oldest of traditional kora tunes, but is one of the most influential and, as one of the great Gambian masters said “Kaira is like a well from which everyone can drink.” Its title means “Peace”, incidentally.
Anyway I’m not sure if there’s a way to use this as a vehicle for the jam, but it’s pretty simple, there are a few key melodies and a few ways to play the groove. I can bring a sketch tonight and we can maybe try it out, or not, either way I’m looking forward to it!
Andrew
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I can bring a couple of charts. A lot of the songs used Rhumba beats, but can be Samba or swing, etc.
Does your music draw on any geography, place or physical environment?
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I think in the sense that my influences have strong roots here, yes. Jim Pepper and Oregon were both strongly rooted in the Northwest and maybe even contribute to what may be considered a Northwest sound. Definitely not the “west coast cool jazz” sound from the 50s and 60s that I’ve never associated with the Northwest – more California.
What music of your cultural heritage informs your own playing/composing?
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As a side-effect of growing up in Wyoming, building miles of barbed-wire fence, and driving in pickup trucks for hours across the endless ocean of the great plains, I was exposed to a fair amount of country music. Though it took me years to really embrace it as an art form, country music is beautiful in it’s simplicity, honesty, and universal appeal. Both jazz and country are born from the blues and indivisible from the history of America. Some of the main ties between jazz and country music are the relationship between melody and harmony, improvisation and the idea of soloing over a song form, and a shared blues heritage. The king of country music is Hank Williams, and one of his best known tunes is “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” Bill Frisell does a great version of it on his album “Ghost Town”, and pianist Jed Wilson has done a great arrangement which I’ll post above and bring to the session. Here’s Hank’s version for reference:
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Sam,
Can’t wait. Email me the PDF as well in case you have trouble posting it.
Darrell
DG:
My suggestion is a simple one and that would be to establish a “theme” for each evening. That could involve having each evening’s tunes be some combination of “the music of…” (Duke, Bird, Miles, Trane, Wayne, the Messengers book, Horace Silver, Latin, Brazilian, etc.). Or it might be that on a given night you challenge the participants to play tunes from a particular period or tunes in some way affiliated with Portland and Portland musicians. Establishing some form of structure or theme(s) will help you to overcome the typical jam session malaise where endless horn players step up to the mic one-upping each other playing endless choruses. Ask the typical person who is still relatively new to the music and that kind of endless choruses improvising over the same theme is a big turn-off. And take care to limit the drum solos — nothing causes an audience’s collective eyes to glaze over more than aimless paradiddles. Anyway, that’s my two cents — and I applaud your sincere effort at making your sessions a richer experience… and that should go for both musicians and audiences.
Peace,
Willard Jenkins
http://www.openskyjazz.com
Home of The Independent Ear
Thanks Willard,
I’m curious, if you have used this approach at Tri-C or other festivals you have been involved with.
DG
I am glad to see that Darren Klein invoked Hendrix. One part of what made Hendrix interesting was his mastery of every part of the signal path as part of his instrument. Not just the guitar, but the amp and all the boxes on the way to it were really under the jurisdiction of his intent, and his sound and the way it changed served his musical goals. Sonny Rollins on some his mid-sixties stuff like “Alfie” seems to foreshadow Hendrix in a way, with his tone sometimes morphing from note to note.
As for the country and folk stuff, it is good to see that Hank Sinatra pointed out that it has brushed against jazz more, and has roots that are closer to some of jazz’s, than some people realize. My dad used to sing and play (guitar) stuff like some of the tunes that have been mentioned in some of the comments when I was really young.
A jazz progression that epitomizes a lot for me is the changes to “Confirmation”. I probably don’t need to post a link, right? Some players that I have not seen mentioned but that probably everyone knows about are Wes Montgomery and Grant Green, and George Benson. These and lots of others are big influences on guitar players for many reasons, one of which is they just make a person love the guitar more. There are some great G. Benson things on youtube–his tour with Earl Klugh, tunes with the McCoy Tyner trio, stuff from the seventies like “Take Five”.
Something that some of you might not be aware of, but that might be a fun inspiration and influence, is music from the Middle East. The quarter tones might sound pretty sour at first, but can be a nice flavor if you give them a chance.