Today I went to the Frontier Jazz Fest. It was for jazz band. I played an improvised solo on Birth of a Band (composed by Quincy Adam Jones) in the key of B flat. We played an arrangement of my favorite jazz piece by FAR, Autumn Leaves. A rockin' sax soli blew the judges away. I mean, who DOESN'T like a well accented group of woodwind instruments playing real music? Oh yeah, that's right... Most of the kids in America. It's really unfortunate that 'hot bands' like LMFAO get more views on you tube than the good stuff like Miles and Charlie. Anyway, I guess instead of competing against others, I was competing against myself so I can grow as a musician and plainly just improve my sound... I am in love with Adderley's tone and just his all around sound. You hear him playing, and it's like you're literally hit in the head with a 'cannonball.' Haha! I literally fall out of my chair and go "Woah, that's Adderley on sax..." Okay my point is, I want a sound like that. I want people to turn on the radio, and say, "Yep, that sounds like Webster on alto."
When I listened to the other bands at the festival I saw ways our band could improve, and ways we were excelling other bands. I listened to the other alto sax solos especially. I mean, some of these kids were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Seriously. Like some of those older kids? Woah. Like this kid from another school, I think his name was David. His tone was really good. He sort of had a Charlie Parker style to him. I mean, he seriously has the potential to get that good! I think his solos were written though.
I have to admit that I typically dislike written solos. It's like, how can someone put their feelings into a written piece of music? How can someone have fun with a blues scale and 'scream' what they have to say in a written solo? That's why I'm an improv kind of girl. I like it because it's totally free. There's rules, but it's not like you're grounded.
Improvising is like yelling your feelings. If you're mad, don't freak out at someone. Just pick up your sax, and scream it. There's less profanity in the language of jazz, anyway. ;)
"Jazz is a language, it has a vocabulary, an accent. A vocabulary is the things you have to say. But... if you don't have an accent, it's boring. Accent your vocabulary."
-Byron Stripling
By the way, check out Stripling on you tube He's an AMAZING trumpet player. In fact, he performed at Frontier Jazz Fest and I saw him live. Click the link below and check out my video.
-Katie :)
by the way, my name's Damon Dore, haha, and i don't like them either, but i improv a lot, and my teacher makes me do written ones sometimes.
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