ilikethetrumpet

I'm a university trumpet player and gig alot in the summers but more freelance quintet/pops/orchestral stuff. Obviously I should have been keeping up my jazz playing, but... regrets, regrets.

After a time away from improvising or playing in the jazz idiom I find that my articulations are too heavy and I can't swing, I'm either too ricky-ticky or too straight. One of my teachers reminded me about the metronome, so that's been helping, but I'm still not swinging like I want to be. Any advice?

Bear

All I think any of us can say is know what you want and keep blowin' until ya get it. After being away, just make sure your swing doesn't turn into the dotted eight/sixteenths I love to hear so much. Did you catch the sarcasm? lol, take care Sir.

ilikethetrumpet

Yeah, that's a real problem! This summer I started "stretching my ears" back and listened to alot of goofy Fletcher Henderson-type stuff. It's great music, but that's not the sort of feeling I want coming out of my horn at a straightahead jam session.

gridjam

POPS- play with Pops, then Lester Young, Dexter Gordon,Chet, more Pops,
Clark Terry, Miles-Kind of Blue(learn all the solos).People with strong,yet individual swing feels. Play and transcribe....

Books with helpful advice and practical exercises- John McNeil (art of jazz trumpet) and Hal Galper -Forward Motion.
have fun!
Hey- nice table Bear. Don't leave that like that during a party!!ha

ilikethetrumpet

Thanks alot! It's coming back like riding a bike and all. I started trying--trying--to play along with Weather Bird. That'll be a project, but it swings like mad.

Vulgano Brother

Once we learn to play dotted eigths and triplets correctly, swing can be a little more difficult. Try thinking of the swing as a quintuplet (divided 3 + 2) or if you can actually subdivide that, go for a Milton Babbit kind of 13ths divided 8 + 5. This should get us to stop counting and start feeling the swing again. Accenting the wrong notes will get it to swing harder, of course. Have fun!

Bear

Eh, no worries, I'm not much of a partier... and if I do, it won't be in my clean house, HAHAHA.

to get back on track, I've come to notice that "being on time" is not a clear as it was say just twenty years ago.

ilikethetrumpet

What do you mean that it's not as clear these days?

I don't disagree, and I think I get what you mean, but I'm not sure, and it seems interesting.

Vulgano, good idea, although it's something to work up to. Lately I've been warming up with Schlossberg but trying to change the underlying (imaginary) pulse in my head from a ride cymbal to drum and bass to something like a Haydn symphony. Hey, it helps from getting bored.

I will tell you, one of my teachers was this amazing saxophonist from Puerto Rico who would just practice and listen and think music 24-7. I saw someone come to him on his "dinner break" with a question about Donna Lee. Just to remember how he phrased the head he solfeged it up to tempo while keeping 2 and 4 in his feet and tapping clave with his free hand (the other had his food) from memory. There's a great big world of rhythm out there, donthcaknow?

duval

Does anybody have any tips for jazz phrasing/timing in really contemporary stuff - I tend to either have way too much swing or play it like it were latin??? Some of the modern guys get a really 'jazzy' (sorry) feel to their phrases but they seem to be playing it straight 8ths (Brecker especially) Am I right in thinking this is what Bear was mentioning when he said "I've come to notice that "being on time" is not a clear as it was say just twenty years ago."?

Smithi20

The Atomic Mr Basie and any other Eddie Lockjaw Davis.... gotta run, but would like to comment on how time has developed... when I have more of it!