Lady Gaga is a consummate performer and a smart composer. She’s a Julliard-trained pianist, after all. Gaga has pulled a neat compositional trick out of the bag for the video below, the title song from her new album, Perfect Illusion. It’s likely she learned about it at Julliard when she studied the work of JS Bach, Beethoven, and other…
Category: Master Musicians
Evidence of Play In Practice: Allen Vizzutti Mugs for the GoPro
Most mammals use play and playfulness in practice, including the musician in this amazing video, the great trumpeter, educator, and composer, Allen Vizzutti (discography/bibliography):
Superb Practice Advice from JLCO’s Ted Nash
Trumpeter George Recker used to say, “If you can’t sing it, you can’t play it.” It’s great advice. Here’s some similar great advice about singing and playing a horn, as well as several other great practice suggestions from Ted Nash, one of the great players (they’re all great) in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Evidence of Practice: Music for Brain and Booty
Snarky Puppy doing their amazing thing, on Jazz Night in America, hosted by Christian McBride. Great show. Check out all their episodes. Sarky Puppy’s discography.
Hang Up Your Hangups
How many thousands of hours of practice do you think are represented in the serious groove laid down by the master/monster musicians in this video?
International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert Osaka 2014
“Hang Up Your Hang Ups”
Herbie Hancock – piano
Roy Hargrove – trumpet
Kenny Garrett – saxophone
John Scofield – guitar
Sheila E – percussion
Terri Lyne Carrington – drums
Blues Inflection in Jazz
Saxophonist Todd Williams guides you through Blues inflections, and performs W.C. Handy’s classic St. Louis Blues to illustrate
Frank Zappa’s Black Napkins
Watch the video below this one of Zappa performing Black Napkins on the Mike Douglas talk show in 1976. Incredibly expressive playing and some serious chops. Check out this YouTube playlist for more gems. There is currently a very cool Kickstarter happening that involves access to ALL of the Zappa archive (video below the first video).
Drive By Preachers: Om Johari
Om used a brilliant strategy to help get her guitar chops together, make some money for her efforts, and pass the flame along, too.
Want to know what her guitar chops look/sound like? Here’s a full length video of Om in action, singing and playing on her song Drums, Bass & Guitar:
Create (and Understand) Polyrhythms
One way to understand polyrhythms is to mess around with the Polyrhythm Beat Generator. Or check out these amazing videos.
You Have Never Heard An Instrument Like This
Check out the instrument Javier Bustos invented and plays. Haunting sounds, that would be really great in a horror flick. What a cool idea.
637 GB of (free) Classic Jazz (1921-1991)
Want to hear what Billie Holiday sounded like when she just started out? Ooo, are you in for a treat. There’s a bit Ms. Holiday’s tough history before the music starts. Have a listen. There’s way more music and history in this archive, but this is a great place to start. You can download or stream any…
Losing Your Marbles: Wintergatan’s Wondrous Musical Machine
I don’t have the words to describe how wondrous I found this, but I’ll just show you the sequence of videos and see if you agree. This is a real device, made by the musician, who I believe to be Martin “MacGuyver” Molin, but am still checking on that one. The set of skills he has in the woodshop is amazing all by itself. See the “making of” videos below for more on that.
The Practice of Practice 