Just picked up the flute for the first time in a few days. What I immediately noticed was that the work playing through tunes on piano the past couple of weeks and also the concentrated work on shakuhachi with Yosio this week have translated into a fatter flute sound as well as clearer thinking when it comes to playing scales and chord changes. All roads do lead to Rome. There is one goal: freedom. Freedom to play what you want to play, say what you want to say. Myriad technical/theoretical challenges in between.

Shakuhachi:

This is Yosio Kurahashi's last day in NY this time (he comes 2 or 3 times every year). I had my private lesson with him yesterday and we played through the great Gaikyoku piece Yae Goromo. This piece is extremely challenging - some say its the most difficult of the repertoire that we study. So far I would agree. It's certainly the longest, clocking in at around 25 minutes - if you have stamina issues, this will certainly address them! Hence the note above about the flute playing. I can lay off a few days and still my sound improves from the shak playing. I wonder if its not also a conception thing (?). (that said, if you really want to achieve something, "laying off" is not the answer - its just nice to know I don't LOSE too much ground in between)

What you really notice sitting across from sensei Kurahashi is his tremendous sound coming at you. Not so much blasting loud as much as very pointed and exhibiting many different colors, depending on the desired effect. Its made me really focus on the actual sound I'm making. The shakuhachi is capable of so many different tonal effects, but at the end of the day, its the ability to just play low Ro with an even, nice, full tone that sets players apart. As easy as that sounds, it takes literally years to have enough in the tank to even begin to think in these terms. Its the old cliche of learning all the rules so that you can forget them. I'm very self conscious about giving shape to the phrases and that is entirely unmusical. To just be able to play and have all these things deeply embedded into your playing seems to be the goal. That's when these pieces come alive. That's the difference betweem someone just reading it down versus someone who literally makes you hear the feeling of Edo period Japan, transports you to an altogether unique and beautiful sonic space.

Tunes:

I've got a little folder on the piano of about 5 tunes that I've been playing the last few days: Sweet and Lovely, I've Never Been In Love Before, I Got It Bad, I Only Have Eyes For You, and In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning. I've been playing them slow and then playing them fast and then breaking them down to the harmonic landscape, trying to find the language implicit in the sounds of the chords. Well, implicit is a very subjective term. Implicit to me because I've been listening to so many of the best improvisors lately. On a daily basis because...


iPOD:

Yes! I FINALLY got one - got it Jan 6th. I had gotten one for Monika for Christmas and we got it set up on her PeeCee. My existing Mac OS was too old to support iTunes - that's a major reason why its taken my this long to get one (not to mention the price! ;-). So once we both saw how amazing it was, and once we had iTunes in the house, I lept.

I soon realized though, that with all the CD's I have, its gonna fill up her hard drive, so I procurred and installed first OS 9 (I was WAY behind the curve!) and then last week OS X. It is awesome. What an improvement! So I've been busy ripping my CD collection ever since. I've spent alot of bread over the years buying CD's - it just hit me today what an investment it really was. To be (an eternal) student of jazz and at the click of a mouse have Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Freddie Hubbard, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon, Clifford Brown, Wynton Kelly, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, etc etc etc, cued up and ready to play any number of tunes is incredible.

Work:

The Bateaux has been in drydock since Jan 1st but we have our first gig back this Friday and it picks up from there. Its been nice to have a little break but I'm looking forward to doing some playing.