Release the Temple of Doom soundtrack on CD!

As if the review in this blog of the Crystal Skull movie wasn't a big enough clue, I'm a bit of an Indiana Jones fan. Regardless of my feelings on each individual film, one element of the entire movie series is always of the highest quality: the scores of John Williams.

Every Indy movie has a corresponding soundtrack on CD. Well, almost every movie does. The Temple of Doom soundtrack is noticeably absent. No CD has ever been released and no plans have ever been announced. I don't know why; the music is haunting, exciting, and perfectly captures the emotion of each scene. I challenge anyone not to get chills listening to the music from the scene where the human sacrifice takes place. The bug tunnel and spike room track is one of the most fun for me to listen; the only problem is that I have to have the movie playing to hear it. That's not a bad thing, I just would like to be able to listen in my car or at my computer while I do something else.

Let's start a campaign. Let's inform the powers that be to release the soundtrack on CD. I'd settle for a transfer of the original LP, but if we could get a Raiders treatment where the entire score is presented in chronological order would be even better.

Sonny Rollins comes to Chicago!!!

You may have already heard this somewhere else, but I just found out about it tonight.

Sonny Rollins, one of the last great giants of the hard bop jazz era, will be at the Chicago Jazz Festival in Grant Park. The entire lineup of events and performers can be found here, but Sonny appears to be slated for a 6:30 performance in the Pritzker Pavilion on Aug. 28^th.

Anybody who has been to this site knows how much of an influence Rollins has been to me personally, so getting a chance to see him live anywhere is an opportunity not to be missed. When that opportunity is on the lakefront in beautiful downtown Chicago, I can't imagine a better scenario.

The festival goes to Aug. 31^st, with many other quality artists and performances during the festival. Hope to see you there.

Class Act Videos now on YouTube!

Hey Everyone,

If you've perused my site, you'd hopefully know that one of my steady playing gigs is with Class Act Big Band. I just found out that videos from the last two gigs are now available for viewing on YouTube. I've included the link to one video here. To view the rest, just type in Class Act II Big Band into the YouTube search bar and it should pop them up. There are four videos total ranging from 15 seconds to 2 minutes. The person who took the video also told me that he is planning on taking videos at future gigs. You never know, I might be up there next.

City of Angels - Festival 56

Hey.

I just had my final performance of the Festival 56 performance of City of Angels. Having never seen the show and not heard the music beforehand, I didn't know what to expect. After 10 performances, I can not only say I know the music pretty well but also say that is one of my favorite shows to play.

The score is wonderfully written, making full use of the jazz language as well as providing a few innovations. The only musical that has better writing in the jazz idiom is West Side Story. The story is clever and fairly easy to comprehend, with plenty of opportunity for comedy and drama. Even though it was tiring, especially after a 5-day run of at least one show a day, I am proud to have been a part of this production. The pit orchestra consisted of community players as well as a few brought in specifically for this festival. Everyone put forth %100 effort and words cannot express how blessed I feel to have shared this time with them.

For those of you who haven't had a chance to see a Festival 56 production, you're missing out. For being located in North Central Illinois, this festival doesn't skimp on the talent. Actors and actresses at all stages of experience populate these productions and the quality is apparent. This isn't Joe the mechanic overacting in his spare time; these people know their craft. There are only three shows running until the middle of August for this current season. Hopefully, this festival of theatre will continue to stage quality productions and hopefully I'll be asked to participate in another musical production.

Until next time, take care.

New TOP Live CD!!!

Hey everyone,

Just got word through the grapevine at soulmusicnews.com that there will be a new LIVE album of Tower of Power released Aug, 26.

The album was recorded in 1973 in Boston, MA and sounds like it includes the lineup from the famous Tower of Power album. The original tape is coming from Dave Garibaldi's personal archive of rehearsals and live shows. I am obviously unable to judge the quality of the tape, but any new material from TOP, even live shows, is something worth getting excited over.

Tower of Power only has two live CDs and three DVDs, and none of them feature what many consider to be the defining lineup of the band. Imagine; Lenny Williams vocals live; that alone makes me ready to plunk down my money.

Amazon is taking pre-orders now, so you can guarantee yourself a copy now!

Indiana Jones reviewed

Last night heralded the return of one of the most iconic characters in cinematic history. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull premiered across the nation. As a longtime fan of both the movies and particularly the music, I thought it might be fun to do a blog movie review. So here goes.

(SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read any further if you don’t want plot elements revealed.) The movie takes place in 1957, almost 20 years after the events of the Last Crusade. The main enemies this time are Russians instead of Nazis, with the prize relic being a skull of alien origin. The skull was taken from a temple in the Amazon that chronicled alien activity across the globe. The rest of the movie involves the race to return the skull to the temple to discover its mysteries.

I went in not expecting the cinematic Second Coming as per George Lucas’ suggestion. That being said, I have mixed feelings about the movie. Firstly, Russians don’t make a compelling enemy to me. Communist Russia has always struck me as more of a misunderstood political ideology than the evil threat Senator McCarthy claimed it was. As a result, I didn’t really find myself hating the main baddies as much as the Nazis. Nazis for the most part seem to make everyone’s blood boil. I get more enjoyment out of watching a bad guy I can’t stand get bashed by the hero. The other element of the skull itself and the whole alien aspect doesn’t seem to be the best fit for Indiana Jones. Mixing history, antiquities, and science fiction is a hard mixture for me to accept for some reason.

From an action sequence standpoint, there are some fun set pieces that hearken back to those days of Indy riding horses, tanks, and trains. The motorcycle chase through the university campus was a fun sequence to watch. Another fun sequence that was more character driven was Orellana’s Cradle. The main action piece of the jungle chase was more of a mixed bag. While some stunts and shots were done with stuntmen and real vehicles, there were a few shots that were done electronically. One scene in particular involves Shia LaBeouf straddling two moving vehicles. The scene is taken from the point of view of someone lying on the ground looking up.

I know that CGI has come a long way and the line between what is real and what is computer generated is blurring, but certain camera angles are dead giveaways. There is no way to disguise a shot looking up at a man straddling two cars with the “camera” keeping pace as anything other than CGI. The spatial relationship of objects won’t allow for the suspension of that much disbelief. To, me it was an unnecessary shot that took me out of the spirit of the scene. There are just some modern filming techniques that I don’t care for and the reliance of CGI to create unrealistic points of view for a scene is one of them.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the movie and I would go see it again. It was great to see Harrison Ford in a movie where he actually smiled and stammered comically at points. I also have to think the casting of John Hurt in his role was planned purposely. It was a clever nod to one of Hurt’s previous roles in another film.

Where the movie hits and misses at times, the music is all hit to me. John Williams went back and scored the movie very much in the vein of the first movie. That famous Indiana Jones theme is more prevalent throughout the movie. In the Last Crusade, it was used less because Spielberg did not want to use it all the time to “press the action button” as he put it. But after 19 years, that theme needed to be heard more to help the viewer re-establish the link to the character. Bravo John and Stephen! Other themes are heard as well. Marion’s theme and Henry Sr.’s theme are heard at various points when the character is on screen or referenced. The new theme for Cate Blanchett’s character makes nice use of horns in a strong fanfare like statement. The melodies relating to the alien element are appropriately eerie, with use of strings and dissonant chords. It does borrow some elements from other scores dealing with aliens, but Williams puts his definitive stamp on it.

So, there you have it. I would recommend seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There will definitely be times that you see some of the old magic that made this series a hit. If you are a fan of the previous films, you will enjoy this film. The extent to which you do enjoy it is based on your own personal taste in movies.

Getting started in Improv-part 1

As a teacher, I often look around and wonder how I can make learning music not necessarily easier, but more accessible to younger or newer students. As a fan of jazz and a student myself of the art of improvisation, getting started in improv seems to be the largest hurdle for any student I've ever known. Once a person gets past the initial stage, it seems like the only thing that can stop a person is their own personal drive to succeed. With that being said, what will follow is a series of post that most succinctly discuss the initial foray into improvisation.

The steps included in this post are:

1. Develop your sense of swing


2. Develop rhythmic ideas


3. Learn your scales

Step 1 - Develop your sense of swing

This to me cannot be emphasized enough. The ability to hear swing and reproduce it on your instrument is critical, no matter what instrument you play. Let me explain. Swing is derived from the articulation of the eighth note. A scale in eighth notes played with a "concert" articulation (I hate the term "legitimate") could be written like this:





If you were to swing the scale with jazz articulation, you would create something like this:





Just that one note change creates a whole new feel. Shifting the slur one note to the right puts a slight accent on the "an" of the beat, which is the essence of the swing style. A colleague of mine, whom I respect as a knowledgeable jazz educator, uses the term "back-accenting" to describe this form of jazz articulation. From my own experience, back accenting in certain ranges of my instrument is easier than others. The goal of any person developing their sense of swing should be to maintain a consistent articulation style from the lowest pitches to the highest.

So, what can you use to practice back accenting? I would say almost anything, provided you are able to separate the times when it's appropriate to back accent versus concert articulation. Etude books, all 12 major scales, and songbooks are all full of opportunity to acquire proper jazz articulation. When you practice, use some kind of metronome. I have a regular Dr. Beat, a CD Metronome (which can be found at www.paulcarman.com/store/home.php) and my trusty Band in a Box computer program. All of these tools and more can be used to help develop your sense of swing.



Step 2 - Develop your rhythmic ideas


For this step, listening is key. Listen to recordings, and I mean any recordings, not just jazz. Listen to your favorite band. Listen to the rhythms they use in their songs and try to sing them back. Than play those rhythms on your instrument. Play the rhythms on a single pitch or a scale fragment. WRITE THEM DOWN! A lot of people seem to think that since improv is music that isn't pre-written, you should never have to write. That is completely inaccurate. Writing down rhythms has multiple benefits. You internalize a rhythm more if you write it down, and you become more selective about your rhythmic choices. Another tool that you could use for this, besides the CD metronome and Band in a Box, is the Aebersold Play Along Volume 24 Major and Minor. By the way, I'm not getting paid to mention these products, I'm just sharing what tools I've used myself.



Step 3 - Learn your scales


Oh no, the dreaded "S" word. Scales!!! Yep, that's right, you got to learn your scales. Start with the major scales and learn each one, there's 12 total. I would start with one octave up and down (no need killing yourself playing more than that right now). Be sure to monitor your articulation while you play. Check to make sure you're back accenting throughout the scale. In addition to learning the scales, learn the key signatures by heart. You may even want to make some kind of flash cards to quiz yourself when you're not playing your instrument.



Final Thoughts


OK, well, that's enough steps for now. There are more to come, but before I sign off, I just want to stress one or two more points. First, this is not something that will happen overnight. It takes many weeks and even years depending on how well you want to improvise. Which brings me to my second point, your progress will be determined by how hard you work. If you just want to have fun and goof around in a community jazz band, there's is nothing wrong with that, and you may find that following all these steps is not for you. That's cool. I hope you enjoy the music making process. But, if you want to play as well as the masters you here on those old jazz records of yours, it will demand a great deal of time and energy. Lastly, when you practice, everything is kind of done at once. You won't practice scales without practicing back accenting, music can't be regimented like that. When you focus on rhythms, you will also be re-emphasizing the scale work you've done and back accenting. Everything is connected.


Alright, that's it for me. Later.