On February 26th I went to a “Business Chops For Musicians” seminar held at Jazz FM radio station. The seminar was fantastic. The information came directly from industry professionals like Jae Gold, Rock and Roll accountant and finance wiz, Ken Druker, General Manager at Motéma Music and Erin Kinghorn, director, Eek Productions. Though the info was invaluable, the highlight for me was a Robi Botos interview done by JAZZ.FM91’s Garvia Bailey.
Robi Boto and Garvia Bailey
The interview was focused on discussing Robi’s incredible career and how he was able to survive coming to Canada as an immigrant with a family and nothing else, hone his playing, make contacts and navigate the industry to become one of the most sought after pianists in jazz today.
It was one of the most refreshing, down to earth and hilarious interviews I’ve witnessed. Dude is funny. His experiences musically and outside the music is vast and colorful. I find him to be very real and very honest. The stuff that role models are made of.
Botos, was born in Hungary. He started playing drums but switched to piano at an early age. He immigrated to Canada in ’98 with his family and started playing where ever and when ever he had the chance. Before long he was playing with Toronto’s who’s who of jazz. He even met and was mentored by his childhood idol, Oscar Peterson. You can still hear traces of Oscar in Robi’s music and you probably will always hear it. He’s played with artists like Dave Young, Michael Brecker, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Robert Hurst, Pat Labarbera, Molly Johnson, Al Jarreau and many more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7urBrJUXwU
As time went by Robi’s own musical voice began to show. His music is entrenched in jazz but infused with his own cultural background and that of other world music influences. Winner of a Canadian Juno award (Canada’s version of the Grammy) for best jazz album for his 2016 album Moving Forward, there is no limit to where this very talented artists will take his music or where it will take him.
In my last article I mentioned I would followup with the results of the study by Kelly Jakubowski for the American Psychological Association on what the most popular musical earworms were. but before I do here are Jakubowski’s tips on how to get rid of an earworm:
Lady Gaga
• Engage with the song. Many people report that actually listening to the earworm song all the way through can help to eliminate having it stuck on a loop.
• Distract yourself by thinking of or listening to a different song.
• Try not to think about it and let it fade away naturally on its own.
Queen
Here, without further ado, were the most frequently named earworms in study:
1. “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga
2. “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” by Kylie Minogue
3. “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey
4. “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye
5. “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5
6. “California Gurls” by Katy Perry
7. “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen
8. “Alejandro” by Lady Gaga
9. “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga
What are your most hated or loved musical earworms? List them in the comment section below.
It can be a good thing or a bad thing. Depends on why you have them and how they make you feel.
Lets first determine what they are and if you really do have them.
‘Involuntary musical imagery (INMI or “earworms”)—the spontaneous recall and repeating of a tune in one’s mind—can be attributed to a wide range of triggers, including memory associations and recent musical exposure.’
Simply put, it’s that tune that keeps playing in your head, over and over and over again. Sometimes you enjoy it and it makes you feel good. It energizes you. It gives you that extra edge in doing whatever it is you are doing at the moment. But sometimes you can’t stand that damn sound in your head. You find yourself doing strange things to rid yourself of the annoying beat or melody. But it’s hard to make it stop. And so it continues…over and over and over…
There are studies that try to determine why this happens. And one such study was ‘Dissecting an Earworm: Melodic Features and Song Popularity Predict Involuntary Musical Imagery. Found Here
This study found that a song’s popularity and its repetitiveness is a huge cause for it’s susceptibility to wiggle itself into your ear canals. Also, those nasty earworms are of the faster tempo species.
I’m not sure if that last part is so true on a global stage. Many of my earworms (yes I do get them from time to time) are sometimes slow or mid tempo tunes.
WHAT’S YOUR MUSICAL EARWORM?
So scientific mumbo-jumbo aside. What are your favorite or dreaded earworm tunes? A recent query was done of 3000 people and from that came 9 of the most popular earworms. I’ll tell you what they are later in a follow-up post but first I’d like to know what yours is.
Drop me a line in the comment section below with the name and artist of your favorite or most annoying earworm.
…and try not to get it stuck in your head
Here are a couple of mine:
Miles Davis – So What
Pat Metheny – Have You Heard
Phrases from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
Many of my own tracks (cause I’ve only heard them a million times)
Not so good are anything from pop radio or TV show themes.
It was a Sunday morning at 11am. Not quite the time you would expect to see a jazz quartet in a bar. Be that as it may, in anticipating this event I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
I had never been to this bar before. It’s way out in the east end where I don’t usually frequent, being a west end and now downtown guy. But It’s not a bad spot. Small but quaint and comfortable. The stage is situated at the front of the bar, right at the entrance (literally at the entrance). When you walk in the door if you take three steps instead of two you become part of the entertainment.
Nuff said about the bar, lets get to the reason for my visit. I met Warren through a site called Fandalism. It’s a site for musicians of all genres from all over the world who’s skill levels can range from aspiring to astonishing. Through that site Warren and I collaborated on a song I wrote and produced called ‘Song for Warren’ (Ya I know, not too original but I was in awe of this man’s playing). The song is below. It was done a while back when our recording equipment wasn’t the best and it shows but you still get the feel of the track.
It was then that I realized we lived in the same country and the same city. So when I found out he was performing live there was no way I was going to miss that.
Originally the gig was to include just Warren, another guitarist and bass player but I was pleasantly surprised to find a quartet including a drummer (bonus). The group consisted of Warren, Steve Sherman (guitar), Harvey Pipher (drums) and Mauro Bellotto (electric bass). This was a group of players Warren had played with separately over the years but brought together for this gig.
So let me start off by saying this warren dude really shouldn’t be playing the guitar. He broke his left wrist and now has a implant replacement. He crushed his right elbow socket and had that reconstructed. And years ago he had an accident where he lost the tip of one of his fingers on the right hand and now has a special attachment to simulate the finger tip and nail for finger picking. That being said, the way Warren plays, its as if none of that ever happened. He is truly a wonderfully gifted guitar player. He’s a very smooth, very thoughtful and intuitive player.
The music consisted of jazz standards, bossas and a few jazzy blues tunes thrown in. I must say that Steve is quite a good player in his own right. His comping behind Warren was creative and thoughtful and his solos brought a well received bluesy feel. The rhythm section of Harvey and Mauro was very cohesive with some interesting touches from Harvey and inspired solos from Mauro. It’s as if these guys had been playing together for some time.
The two sets I saw were engaging and entertaining. These are well seasoned players who’s musical skill, creativity and soul were on full display. Glad I was there.
Where do I start? You say the word jazz and you get so many different reactions. Those reactions are based on whatever contact people have had with jazz or what they think is jazz. Common reactions are “oh I don’t like elevator music”, “that stuff is too damn complicating”, ” I don’t get it”, “I can’t follow that”, “it’s boring” OR “there’s too many notes”.
No matter what your musical taste, there is a jazz for you. I’m sure you have listened and liked some type of jazz in your life but didn’t know it was jazz. Or have stumbled on a music festival and found yourself bopping and grooving to the wonderful sounds not knowing you were totally immersed in a jazz journey.
Those who know me will tell you that I’m a jazz guy. Yes I listen to rock, blues, hip hop, metal, classical and all their sub genres but I’m a jazz dude through and through. There is no denying that. It’s my first love.
I thought at one point I would try to define jazz but that is just a futile task. So I will give you one little quote I found recently –
“Nothing about jazz comes easy. Whether its tracing its origins, writing about it, creating it, or improvising upon the classics, again and again and again. But it is probably this exact, surreal quality that allows it an unusual position in the world of music. A throne of sorts that can never be fought over or sat on by any other genre. It’s the perfectly un-hostile king that rules in peace and can never be overthrown. All this thanks to the sheer inability of anyone who doesn’t truly love it, to mimic it in any form. A rarity in any creative field. – MensXP”
I first started listing to jazz at age 12 when I found my father’s copy of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue in our family home’s crawl space. Bam. Hooked. And what a love affair it’s been.
Finding jazz by discovering a masterpiece or prominent artist is a rarity and a somewhat exhilarating experience. But most people need help. They need to know where to start. The genre is vast, encompassing textures from not only genres we are accustomed to (blues, rock, classical and R&B) but also ethnic flavors from all over the world.
Here I offer you a first step, a birth into the amazing world of jazz. Because everyone’s musical tates are so different and there are so many sub-genre of jazz I offer the lists in groups. This is not a best of jazz list. It’s a list of albums that give you the essense of jazz and it’s sub-genre. They are fully accessable to the non jazz mind. There is no doubt that you will find something that tickles your fancy. Once that happens watch out. You’ll fine it hard to stop the need and obsession for more (not that you would want to stop). I’ve also given you a few videos to get a sense of some of the artists listed.
Open your mind to the possibilities that is Jazz.
CLASSIC JAZZ
Louis Armstrong — The Complete Hot Five & Hot Seven Recordings, Vol. 1
Wes Montgomery — The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery
BIG BAND
Duke Ellington – Ellington At Newport
Count Basie – The Complete Atomic Basie
Benny Goodman- At Carnegie Hall Complete 1938
BEBOP
Dizzy Gillespie — Groovin’ High
Thelonious Monk — Brilliant Corners
Charlie Parker: Bird: The Savoy Recordings: Master Takes (Compilation, 1944 -’48)
Bud Powell: The Amazing Bud Powell (Compilation, 1949-’51)
Art Blakey Quintet: A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 (1954)
MAINSTREAM
Miles Davis — Kind of Blue
Bill Evans — The Complete Live at the Village Vanguard 1961
The Dave Brubeck Quartet — Time Out
John Coltrane – Blue Train (1958)
Cannonball Adderley – Somethin’ Else (1958)
Oscar Peterson – Night train
SINGERS
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong Ella and Louis Imagine
Billie Holiday – The Masters and Singles
Nina Simone – Sugar In The Bowl (the very best of Nina Simone)
The Nat King Cole Trio – The Best of the Nat King Cole Trio – The Vocal Classics
FUSION
The Mahavishnu Orchestra — The Inner Mounting Flame
Herbie Hancock – Maiden Voyage (1965)
Return To Forever – Romantic Warrior
Weather Report – Heavy Weather
Chick Corea Elektric Band – Beneath The Mask
WORLD
Richard Bona – Ten Shades of Blue
TODAY
Robert Glasper — Double Booked
Eperanza Spalding – Esperanza (2008)
Michael Brecker – Two blocks from the edge
Winton Marsalis – Standard Time
Pat Metheny – The Way Up
Joshua Redmond – Spirit of the Moment 9Live at the Village Vanguard)
Don Grolnick – The complete Blue note Recordings
Valentin Vasilev is a smooth jazz guitarist and a very good one. His knowledge of the genre is substantial. He plays with a passion and feel that is so reminiscent of the more famous well seasoned front-men of the best New York and LA jazz clubs and concert halls. But Valentin is from and plays his music in Bulgaria.
Valentin Vasilev
That’s a long way from New York. 4873 miles to be exact. Yet, this dude plays jazz as if he lives upstairs above the Village Vanguard. Ok, so why Jazz? I asked Val. “This is the style in which I can express my soul, thoughts and passions”, he said. Very simply put but that also really says a lot about why he chose smooth jazz. That sub genre is ripe for expression of moods, passion and all things love and sexy. A few listens of Valentin’s miusic and you’ll be poking your significant other in short time.
Varna, is a city of just over 300000 people on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. It has a vast history going as far back as 1000 BC and has preserved and protected it’s heritage with impecable detail. No wonder 61% of it’s economy is from trade and tourism. But You would be hard pressed to find a Jazz club or even hear the music anywhere in the city or country for that matter. Valentin says “My music style is not popular in Bulgaria. Therefore, there is no stage for my art. You have much to love and believe in what you’re doing and wait for a chance … but not here unfortunately”.
You’ll here jazz at Val’s house. He grew up listening to jazz first hand. His father is also a guitarist. George Vasilev ( also know as Patschoka) taught Val to play starting at 15 years old. This was not just any ordinary guitar teacher. He’s a well known and respected recording artist in Europe. He is a fantastic player and its easy to see the influence he has had on Valentin.
Valentin’s other influences include West Montgomery, George Benson ,Lee Ritenour and Gary Moore. No surprise there once you’ve heard Valentin play.
What’s next for Valentin? “I’m filled with the ideas and energy and hope to meet the right people with whom to realize all my dreams” says the very humble artist. He definitely deserves a shot at that.
Valetin’s style and sound is one that is easily recognizable because it (among all those other smooth guitarists in the genre) stands out. It has it’s own character. He has a very different picking style than you would see in guitarist these days and that contributes to his sound. But Valentin has soul. He can bring out the deepest feeling in a track. His phrasing technique is among the best I’ve heard. Valentin is truly a diamond in the rough.
