The show with JD Souther was a big hit (despite what Stephen Holden might lead you to believe!). The band played great and JD was totally captivating. There’s a review of the show with a beautiful picture in the NY Times. Also exciting is that this week Falling Up has officially ‘charted’ – reaching number 36 on Jazzweek’s Top 50 Jazz Chart for January 17th. It’s the only album among the top 50 that is self-released! And for future excitement, I just confirmed that I’ll be playing with Cassandra Wilson when she performs with the Nashville Symphony as part of the jazz series on March 2nd. Time to practice! – evan
The Famous 27 Chorus Paul Gonsalves Solo
Few solos in the history of jazz have as much notoriety and hyperbole as the 27-chorus solo played by tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves with Duke Ellington’s band at the Newport Jazz Festival of 1956. The solo was an interlude between “Diminuendo in Blue” and “Crescendo in Blue,” two separate compositions penned by Ellington in 1937 but usually woven together in performance by a piano interlude and tenor solo. I’ve heard and read various contradictory accounts about the events leading up to the performance of “Dimiuendo and Crescendo in Blue” at Newport in 1956. The recent lack of success of Duke’s band; possible punishment for recent performance problems stemming from Paul’s alcohol and drug addictions; tensions among the ‘high-society’ patrons of Newport with the younger dancehall …
Things Falling Up at the End of 2011
A few quick hits while preparations for the unfurling of 2012 commence… Falling Up continues to receive a lot of great airplay. Crecent City Ditty just had its first spin on one of the world’s premier radio stations: WWOZ – the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Station! Incredibly, every one of the eight tracks on Falling Up has received airtime on terrestrial radio. JazzWeek – the definitive Jazz national radio airplay chart – has recently ranked the album 80th in the country for weekly airplay. Falling Up also received recognition in the Nashville Scene’s 2011 jazz and blues roundup, including being one of seven albums on the “Local recording scene honor roll.” Here’s to lots more excitement in 2012! – evan
Falling Up now available!
I’m very pleased to announce that Falling Up is now officially available worldwide. By my count five of the eight tracks have already received air time on terrestrial jazz radio across the country. I’ve compiled a list of stations that have been spinning tracks below – if you’re in the broadcast area don’t hesitate to call in and request a track! The first reviews of Falling Up have arrived as well. I’ll link them here but moving forward I’ll post all of that information on my press page. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the album, there are myriad ways to do so. Falling Up is available on itunes, amazon, CD Baby, emusic, and a number of other internet sources. If you’re …
Selflessness
As we work on developing our voice, one of the processes that occurs is that we grow our vocabulary. As a saxophonist, I am always working on new shapes to portray distinct sounds and colors on specific chords. The practice room is just the practice room however, and when I’m playing live I can only focus on playing with forward motion. Trying to “squeeze in” a lick or shape that I’ve been practicing never works – it usually sounds contrived and interrupts the natural flow of the solo. I’ve learned this the hard way over time, that you must separate the practice room from the performance. Teacher extraordinaire Greg Fishman calls the attempt of forcing licks into a solo the “Lobster Theory.” When you order …
Making the Changes
There’s a funny term musicians use to imply that a soloist is adequately navigating the harmonic form of a tune: “making the changes.” ‘The changes’ is quite obviously referring to the changing chords, but why is the word making the term of choice to describe the process of successfully improvising? A quick look at the Meriam Webster dictionary reveals that the verb make has tons of definitions. One can make the bed, make plans, or make dinner, to name a few. Making the bed is essentially neatening, making plans is formulating, making dinner is creating. One could also make their dog sit (force an action), make money (earn/acquire), or ‘make something of it’ (come to a conclusion). Suddenly to make seems rather ambiguous. Let’s think …
And off we go!
After a couple of rehearsals and warm up show at Sportman’s Grille this week, the quintet had its debut performance last night at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. I came home with a huge smile on my face still shaking my head my head thinking about how great the band played. Matt White, Bruce Dudley, Jonathan Wires, Josh Hunt and guest Jeff Coffin all blew me away tonight – they have made music out of my tunes and it really showed in the concert. This morning we head to the studio to lay it down for the album, and I’m ecstatic! There’s still one more day to pledge and preorder a CD on kickstarter – if anyone needs convincing I’ve posted a track from the set …
Voice
How can we recognize the difference between “good” art and “bad” art? The question is inherently unanswerable – ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are subjective terms, and the question implies an objective answer: choose good/bad like you would choose yes/no or black/white. Before we pass any judgements, we must realize that context HUGELY affects our feelings for a work of art. Imagine a picture of two solid-colored squares – on the wall of an elementary school hall, you might think “pretty easy” – on the wall of the MOMA, you might think “pretty brilliant.” But that’s an oversimplification – to understand the squares, you need to know the title and some information about the artist’s background. If you learn that the artist has also drawn highly detailed …
New Project
I’m very excited to announce that I’m just one month away from heading to the studio to record my first “solo” CD featuring a great band and original works of mine. The band will be performing the tunes on Sunday May 8th as the next installment of the Nashville Jazz Workshop’s Contemporary Jazz Series. Then the studio awaits the following days! If you’d like to find out more about the project, including how you can be involved, please check out my kickstarter page. Tunes from the Workshop – the Debut Album of Evan Cobb thanks! -evan
Sexy Sax Man – Not What You Think
So by now, you’re likely to have seen the latest viral video craze – the “Sexy Sax Man. ” If you’re lucky enough to have spared yourself, allow me to explain: the video features Sergio Flores playing the memorable saxophone riff from George Michael’s first single and 1984 megahit “Careless Whisper.” The video has gone viral because Flores delivers the song in the great tradition of Tom Green and Jackass: inappropriate and random settings, erotically dressed, complete with pelvic thrusts. When I first watched the video, I immediately recognized the saxophone riff, but couldn’t remember from where. That got me thinking about composition – some of the most effective and long-lasting music features riffs or tunes that get stuck in our head, no matter the …
Recent Comments