Over the past few years I’ve become a big fan of Duke Pearson’s piano playing, composing and arranging. My introduction to his music came via David “Fathead” Newman who always liked to play Cristo Redentor, a piece arranged several times by Duke Pearson. Pearson played on many classic sides and some of those records have become personal favourites of mine. “Mean What You Say” with the Thad Jones/Pepper Adams Quintet and Duke Pearson “Dedication” have both spent time in heavy rotation on the Rega.

Lately I’ve really been into Duke’s 1968 date “Introducing Duke Pearson’s Big Band”. It goes without saying that the writing and arranging is outstanding but there’s also some fine playing from a few guys I’m less familiar with like Burt Collins and Lew Tabackin (both of whom make solo appearances on “New Girl”).

And of course lets not forget Roker and Cranshaw! Check out Roker’s ensemble playing on “New Girl”. So tough.

New Girl

Mississippi Dip

Introducing Duke Pearson’s Big Band
Blue Note, 1968

Piano, arranger-Duke Pearson
Trumpets-Jim Bossy, Randy Brecker, Burt Collins, Joe Shepley, Marvin Stamm
Trombones-Garnett Brown, Jimmy Cleveland, Benny Powell, Julian Priester
Bass trombone-Kenny Rupp
Alto saxophone, flute, piccolo-Jerry Dodgion
Alto saxophone, flute, bass clarinet-Al Gibbons
Tenor saxophones-Lew Tabackin, Frank Foster
Tenor saxophone-Pepper Adams
Bass-Bob Cranshaw
Drums-Mickey Roker

Enjoy!!!

I was checking out a John Riley clip over at Jon McCaslin’s always excellent Four on the Floor blog the other day and I was reminded of something I was messing around with a while back.

It’s pretty straight forward. Take the first column of Stick Control and play the R’s on the bass drum and the L’s on the snare with your left hand. Keep time on the cymbal and play the Hi Hat on two and four.

Now what you do is take each pattern through three different subdivisions. Start with straight eights for four measures, then eighth note triplets and finally sixteenth notes. You’ll have to adjust your cymbal beat so that you are using a dotted eighth/sixteenth note figure for the straight eighths and sixteenth notes.

Here’s what the first five exercises sound like:

I like this exercise for the endurance, coordination and most importantly for the mental challenge of changing subdivisions. Make sure you start slow enough so that the sixteenth notes don’t break you!

JC

I love this rhythm section and as always I’m simply in awe of both Hank Jones and Billy Higgins. Check out “The Oracle” to hear more of Hank Jones, DAve Holland and Billy Higgins.

What’s up this week? Katie Malloch appreciation night at the Jazz Cellar.

Here are the official particulars from the Cellar’s website:

CORY WEEDS QUINTET AND GUESTS

She will be on stage with The Cory Weeds Quintet and guests Melody Diachun (vocals), Cam Ryga (alto sax), Chris Gestrin (organ), and Chad Makela (baritone sax). First set is at 7:30 pm, second at 9:30 pm.
Come meet Katie and hear some great music! To reserve, call 604 738-1959. Tickets are free.

I’ll have a full report from this event Thursday or Friday.

JC

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Victoria BC drummer Josh Dixon this past week. Although I lost touch with Josh when I moved to Montreal in 1993 he meant a great deal to me as a young drummer trying to find my way in the world of jazz.

Josh was one of the first real jazz drummers that I ever saw perform live. I’ll never forget him coming to my high school when I was in grade nine and playing in a trio with pianist Louis Rose and bassist Russ Botten. After that I made a habit of going to check him out at the restaurants and cafes around town when ever I could. Eventually he started giving me the opportunity to sit in on his gigs, always offering encouragement and advice. He gave me a few formal lessons but most importantly he was always happy to hang out and talk about playing music.

Josh turned me on to many great records and inspired my love of funky old drums and cymbals with his Ludwig Jazzette kit and his dad’s old K he used on every gig back in the early 1990′s. I’m sure there are many Victoria musicians and music fans who have fond memories of seeing Josh with Dave Keen at Pagliacci’s or burning it up with Terry, Noah, Mike and Sean at Ferris’ on Yates, or perhaps more recently his excellent roots drumming with Lionel Leroy Ward. He was a tremendous talent.

Josh was one of a kind and a true gentleman. He will be missed.

Happy birthday to one of our nation’s finest musicians!

Don on Bass:

Don on Vibes:

Don on piano:

Don Thompson. What can you say? He’s really, really good.

If you’ve purchased tickets hang on to them or contact the box office at 250-740-6100

Snow sucks!

Today I’m off to VIU in Nanaimo to teach a few lessons and play a show with The Big Band Sound. I can’t remember ever having four gigs with a big band in the same week. Imagine, cats used to do this every night for weeks on end at the same club!

All good this weekend at The Jazz Cellar. The cats were in tip top form and we had a full house each night. It was especially good to have a pair of new arrangements from Bill Coon to add to the book.

I’m feeling a bit more comfortable in my band leader shoes these days but man, MC-ing a show is an entirely different matter. Whenever I pick up the mic I feel like a bad Zach Galifianakis impersonator. Whatever. I’m working on it!

Here’s one of our new pieces:

Big band is not an entire night of saxophone, piano, bass and drums playing ballads and burnouts with trading fours or eights on every other tune. Nor is it the place for me to try out all of the “Philly” Joe I transcribed last week. These were the things that mattered to me back when I “hated” big band and yes if you’d asked me, when I was a University student, “Cahill, what’s you’re favourite big band record?” I would have replied “Big band? I hate big band.” Of Course it was a hatred based purely on fear and ignorance and was fortunately just a phase.

What I’ve come to realize over the last decade or so is that big band is in fact a vehicle for every element of jazz music. It’s piano trio and orchestra all at once. Bombastic and rude one minute then reflective and beautiful the next. It can be precise and technically brilliant or it can be greasy, loose and right on the edge (my favourite). As a drummer I find it poses all kinds of challenges and it’s never easy but when it’s right it’s really right!

The four records pictured above are all quite different but aside from great composing, arranging, ensemble playing and solos the key commonality for me is how much fun each one sounds like it was to make. These dates serve as a reminder to me every time I put them on the turntable: don’t forget to have a good time!

(click on the photo and you should be able to read the record titles)