1. I've recently developed an interest (read: disease) in learning
secondary instruments to complement my musical development on the bass.
However, I havn't resorted to leaning the obvious seconds (drums, piano,
guitar). I've picked up the Alto Horn, Flugelhorn, Euphonium (I really like
brass) and Doumbek. Now, I don't intend on making a career in any of those,
but I am an advocate of adding instruments to the current jazz convention.
It's very nice to be a wonderful Tenor Sax player, but isn't it more
interesting to form a sound on an instrument that has not yet developed its
own jazz vocabulary? Actually, its even more a challenge because the Alto
Horn doesn't even have a place in legit music (excepting the tradition of
British brass bands). As well, the Eb Fake Books have all been written with
the Alto/Bari Saxes in mind, making the ranges of many songs unplayable
(oh, you saxes just love to play around C6 don't you?). Anyway, the purpose
of this is merely a call for people to make jazz interesting by altering
the status quo of Jazz instrumentation. In the one hundred years that jazz
has been around, we've changed the tone (on sax: wide vibrato to tight
edged), we've changed harmony (II-V to modal, quartal, etc.), we've
experimented with melody (tonal to atonal, dodecaphonic, pentatonic,
different scales) but instrumentation has moved very little. So, do Jazz a
favor and take a solo on the bassoon, ok?
2. Can anyone explain to me the concepts behind McCoy tyner-style quartal
harmonies? Where do they fit? Are they merely voicings in 4ths of regular
chords, or are they harmonies in their own right (as in Schoenberg)? I've
found interesting places for them in solos and accompaniment, but I'm not
sure of the theoretical basis behind them.
3. The Electric Bass IS a legitimate jazz instrument. Why are Jazz
university programs not teaching it? (except maybe Berklee)
Adam S. Fine | *Pretentious Music (Musiko Pretendema)
afine@interlog.com | http://www.interlog.com/~afine/
| *Couch 750
| http://www.interlog.com/~afine/couch.html