SST Blog

As the blues says, “I woke up this mornin’ with an awful achin’ head.”  Actually, it’s 2017, and I woke up this holiday weekend morning and checked my emails and Facebook messages.  On my feed was a video of Mike Abene talking about how, if you are a jazz musician, you need to know your musical roots.  He went on to say that you don’t need to write music like Basie, Ellington or Lunceford, but your music should reflect that legacy.  Mike’s playing and writing never sounded like any of those three bands that he cited, but it was always...

300 years ago, the greatest composer who ever lived was getting older.  Several of his sons became composers and became even more popular than their genius father.  They wrote in a newer, simpler style—less chromatic and contrapuntal than the old man.  300 years later J.S. Bach is revered and many musicians (myself included) consider his music to be the cornerstone of Western Music.  I learned harmony and counterpoint by studying Bach.  Not only that, but I learned how to tell a compelling and satisfying story from hours and hours of letting those wonderful complex textures seep into my soul.   ...

I've been reading Robert Rawlins' book, Tunes of the Twenties and All that Jazz.  He talks about popular songs being written to sell sheet music for amateur singers and pianists.  The phonograph and radio changed all that and more difficult music could be written for professionals.  Broadway shows became the source of most popular songs. With the invention of talking pictures, movie composers like Harry Warren were contributing greatly to the repertoire.     Jazz composers (who moonlighted as instrumentalists and bandleaders) wrote and recorded lots of original tunes and some songs with lyrics, but the amount of coverage they...

I hear so much music every day--songs, arrangements, compositions and solos. What makes some attractive, compelling or absolutely great?   Honestly, for me, most music doesn't rise to even these levels. I've been told that I'm a musical snob, a purist, and a bunch of names that include 4-letter words. I'm OK with other people regarding me as an elitist. I don't want to spend my listening time on music that doesn't thrill me and that I can't learn from. You are what you eat. I firmly believe that my music is as good as it is because I have spent...

When I was a young man, I heard a story about a trumpet player who wanted to buy a horn that once belonged to Harry James. The young musician asked the owner of the music store if he could play the trumpet and see how it felt. "Sure, go right ahead," said the smiling older man. So, the youngster proceeded to play all over the horn. It responded beautifully, had a great tone and was really in tune.   The only problem was that every time the young man tried to play a high C, no sound came out. Try as...