Author: Tyler Samuel Cooke

I’m not sure what concert this video is from, but it has Anat Cohen and her two brothers Avishai and Yuval playing horns.  I liked the organic nature of the piece, how it evolved from a simple piano solo to a small piano, bass, and drums trio, to finally the whole ensemble.  I also noticed, especially during the trumpet solo, how the rhythm section was paying attention and very much a part of his solo. There was a section when he held out a note several times, and the rhythm section picked up on that and filled in the ‘gaps’ with more active, accented comping. After he went back to a more active line, the rhythm section dropped back to a more supportive role.  I also liked how during the tenor solo, she anticipated the other horns’ descending backup line, and instead of playing over it, she played through it so that their line complemented her solo and vice versa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwoE4peasr0

This is a video of Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.  This video was interesting first and foremost because in all of the camera shots, the performers look like they’re having fun.  It’s almost seems like their primary goal is to have fun and the music and entertainment aspect just happens to how they’re having fun.  The vocal style that Armstrong and Teagarden use in “Rockin’ Chair” was also really interesting.  It was sort of a cross between singing and speaking, and so “Sprechstimme” was the first word that I thought of to describe the vocals.  This isn’t an operatic context, so that description may not be totally accurate, but I was struck by how I could hear phrasing and musicality in the lyrics, even though their voices sounded like they were just talking to each other.

It’s Randy!