Are there any venues in East SF Bay, preferably Berkeley/Oakland, that host jazz jam sessions that are open to all comers (e.g. an amateur saxophone player such as myself)? Such places must exist, but Google and Craigslist have both failed me so far.
posted by zeri
on May 9, 2013 -
2 answers
Identify this jazz tune titled "Just For Fun", which featured a lot of block chords with an unchanging upper voice, and some pretty interesting harmony. It was either all piano, or piano and a minimal rhythm section. Post-bop-y, maybe "third way" (ala Bill Evans).
posted by phrontist
on Apr 1, 2013 -
3 answers
Trying to remember a jazz musician. He went commercial way back in 60's I think.
He played trumpet I think.
One tune I recall was "Elephant Walk"
He was a very big man. He was on TV for quite a while.
Can anyone remember this?
posted by JayRwv
on Feb 24, 2013 -
2 answers
Lately, I can't get enough of the sound of McCoy Tyner's piano from the recordings he did with that great Coltrane quartet. I'm wearing those grooves thin. What else should I be listening to?
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posted by .kobayashi.
on Feb 11, 2013 -
6 answers
I've played classical piano for years, but I'm just starting out with jazz and blues. A friends is learning bass guitar from scratch. Can anyone recommend some easy riffs or chord progressions we could play together?
posted by morninj
on Feb 5, 2013 -
6 answers
I am trying to find a vinyl LP 33rpm record I owned second hand in the UK in the late 1980s. I remember it being called something like "Ellington in England" or "The English Ellington", but I might be wrong! at any rate, it featured tracks from Duke Ellington's 1930s tour of England, and one of the tracks was "Ain't Misbehavin'" - a vocal, not an instrumental, version. The record I remember was most probably released in the 1970s, but could conceivably have been 1960s.
Various extensive web searches and some decent Ellington discographies have come up blank. I'm not wrong am I? I'm not remembering something that never existed? Help me, Mefite Ellingtonians!
posted by pyotrstolypin
on Jan 26, 2013 -
6 answers
Which book should I buy to replace the (non-existent) 10th edition of "The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings"?
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posted by avysk
on Dec 26, 2012 -
1 answer
I just heard a recognizable piece of music at a Christmas event, but can't name it.
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posted by dhartung
on Dec 25, 2012 -
3 answers
I would like to explore the world of (classic) big band swing music. What LPs, 45s, or artists would you recommend for a newb?
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posted by missed
on Dec 9, 2012 -
14 answers
Name that band filter: Could be a song called "Shifting of the Sand". I believe I have found the song, but I'm having a hard time finding the jazz-y band singing it...
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posted by foxhat10
on Nov 26, 2012 -
2 answers
What do the cool dead kids listen to? I'm looking for vintage spooky pop with a particular flavor: that sparse, echo-y
Day-O/
Ghost Town mournful message from beyond-the-grave sound. With a beat.
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posted by roger ackroyd
on Oct 16, 2012 -
28 answers
I'm buying CDs for a friend to fill in his jazz collection. What are good online resources to help me pick the best discs?
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posted by kristi
on Oct 9, 2012 -
9 answers
What are some songs or clips from songs that slowly build up by adding instruments one at a time and/or by featuring one instrument at a time?
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posted by ch3cooh
on Sep 15, 2012 -
27 answers
Please recommend music similar to
this Jack Teagarden version of
When Your Lover Is Gone. Slow, instrumental, a little bluesy - I'm trying to class up a cocktail party overlooking the Pacific Ocean but can't afford a band.
posted by one_bean
on Jul 24, 2012 -
7 answers
For me Miles Davis Bitch's Brew is the epitome of good driving fusion /jazz / rock.
Help me push the envelope. I remember some Wayne Shorter, Stanley Clarke, Billy Cobham, Weather Report, John McLaughlin.
I need more of this good music in my life.
posted by adamvasco
on Jul 18, 2012 -
21 answers
Has anyone attended any of the Jazz Master Classes at Marciac in August? Any words of wisdom to pass along? Where did you sleep? Where did you eat? What were the surprises? What do you recommend to a newcomer?
+ two extra questions on jazz workshops in general and on this jazz festival in particular..
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posted by ruelle
on Jun 26, 2012 -
0 answers
I'd like to find more music like the song "What You Feel" from the episode "Once More, With Feeling" from
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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posted by johnofjack
on May 21, 2012 -
10 answers
I love
The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn and would like more music like it! Suggestions? I particularly love them live and acoustic and wish their albums were just recorded in a room with a mic or two - so lower fi is cool; More produced isn't what I want. Also particularly love the vocalist and vocal harmonies (although instrumental is great too). Thanks!
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posted by SampleSize
on Apr 29, 2012 -
3 answers
What are your favorite current recordings with good dynamic range, preferably jazz and blues?
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posted by thrasher
on Apr 25, 2012 -
9 answers
What was the music playing in the brothel scene in the latest Mad Men episode (Season 5 Episode 5 - 30 Signals)?
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posted by kookywon
on Apr 16, 2012 -
2 answers
Looking for Jazz with lots of vibraphone and trombone, together on one album.
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posted by querty
on Apr 12, 2012 -
7 answers
I've been listening to jazz for some time, but I haven't been able to get into free jazz. Whenever I try to listen to free jazz albums, they sound chaotic to me. It sounds like pure noise and my mind can't seem to digest it. I'd like to be able to understand and appreciate free jazz better. Are there any particularly accessible free jazz albums that you could suggest I try? Or any sort of approach for being able to "get" free jazz?
posted by Proginoskes
on Mar 13, 2012 -
33 answers
The "Pink Panther" theme and the "Peter Gunn" theme are both jazz pieces created by Henry Mancini in the 1960's. But musically, how are they similar? If I add Lalo Schifrin's "Mission Impossible" theme ... is this a particular flavor or genre of jazz? If I like these as music, what other pieces (that are not necessarily theme songs) would I like?
posted by musofire
on Feb 2, 2012 -
27 answers
Hello MeFi. I'm curious as to the correlation between software development Design Patterns for and Jazz Standards.
Usual loot from Google: Some dude who thought of it first (and used it as a nice allegoric explanation in
Programmers Stackexchange and a somewhat geeky ironic coding-related mention ("
Jazz supports interaction through event listeners").
These are all nice examples of the basic similarity between the two, I'm looking for more, though.
Are you aware of any materials that somehow approach this idea?
posted by lipsum
on Jan 25, 2012 -
2 answers
What do non-classically trained singers do for vocal warm-ups and conditioning? Looking for information on how untrained pop, rock, and jazz singers practice and keep their voices in good shape.
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posted by pupstocks
on Jan 25, 2012 -
5 answers
I am a classically trained bassist that wants to learn jazz and get over my fear of improvisation. How can I practice in my spare time to further this goal?
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posted by masters2010
on Jan 20, 2012 -
5 answers
Any idea how to acquire the source music from the new Scorsese film
Hugo? The stuff the band is playing in the cafe and party scenes, in other words?
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posted by Shotgun Shakespeare
on Dec 30, 2011 -
5 answers
Help me find video clips of female jazz pianists with stage presence! I'm looking for moments where the camera captures the stage presence of jazz ladies at the piano, their entrance, how they carry themselves, their hands on the keys, their interaction with their band-members, their final bow, everything. Thank you.
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posted by ruelle
on Dec 25, 2011 -
17 answers
Somewhere in the Ken Burns documentary Jazz, a musician who played with John Coltrane remembers a story about Coltrane defending one of his musicians with violence in some way, and then ends the story with the punchline: "You have to be willing to Die for a motherfucker." Who was that speaking?
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posted by Potomac Avenue
on Dec 1, 2011 -
4 answers
I'm making a short (20 second) animation in the style of
John Hubley's commercials and I'm looking for some music similar to
this ad to score it. It needs to be just bass and drums (mostly bass) with no trumpet or vocals or anything. I know Dizzie Gillespie
worked with Hubley so I've been listening to his last.fm station all day but I can't find anything that doesn't have too much trumpet. Public domain would be great (but not essential).
posted by Chenko
on Nov 21, 2011 -
3 answers
Hey, did you ever see The Conversation? Remember how the soundtrack was mostly one dude on a piano? Can you recommend more music to me like that, where it's really engaging and moody like The Conversation soundtrack, but it's also just one guy?
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posted by malapropist
on Nov 5, 2011 -
17 answers
