Jazz band, Rock music for your dance, wedding, party, from Salt Lake City, Utah - Kevin Flynn - Blog

Bossa Nova is Boss

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:59:26 -0700

Just learned a bossa nova to add to the band reportiore - TRISTE by Jobim. I realized that I didn't have any bossa novas memorized, so I looked through the Real Book and Realized that there's a bunch of 'em in there and they're all great jazz tunes. I love Brazilian music so I've got some woodshedding to do to learn them all: Girl From Impanema, Wave, Desafinado, Corcovado, One note Samba, How Insensitive, Meditation,........ ...the list goes on and on...

Peaks Jazz Festival was Fantastic

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:44:43 -0800

I went to the Peaks Jazz Festival down by Lehi, attending some of the clinics put on by the guest artists, and also the Saturday night concert. The improv clinic by Ed Calle was pretty good, his emphasis was on learning the chord scales inside and out at lightning speeds. He talked about the importance of the melodic minor scale, and how its modes provide a scale for just about any chord. For me, learning scales never helped me to improvise - you've got to learn a vocabulary of licks and patterns, which are based on the scales. Practicing licks, repetition, repetition, repetition....thats the only way I've learned to improvise. Its just like learning a foreign language - constant repetition of word, phases, sentences. I also went to the Jody Espina clinic on mouthpieces, and it was very informative, almost convinced me to try a Jody Jazz mouthpiece. Someday I might try something else out, but I love my Ernie Northway hard rubber mp. The concert was incredible, each of the bands in Caleb Chapmans program performed, so you got some funk/soul, some ska, some big band swing, some ethereal jazz combo, all joined by the guest artists. The energy and tightness just blew me away. Hard to believe that they were all Jr. High and High School age kids.

Valentines eve gig

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:47:48 -0800

Played up in Park City at the Park Meadows country club for V.D. evening and had a great time playing mostly jazz with the full band. During the dinner hour we were asked a couple of times to turn the volume down, so we were playing at a whisper when a third request came in. Dan the joker, pulled the plug going from his keyboard to his amp, and then kept on playing - at least thats what I thought he was doing because we couldn't hear a thing! His fingers were moving but no sound. He gave them the "silent treatment" until they finished dinner and started dancing. There's never a dull moment with Dan in the band.

Terence Blanchard concert

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:43:32 -0800

Went to the Terence Blanchard concert last Wed. night at the Capitol theater and he had some incredible musicians with him but every song was of the "free jazz" avant-garde genre that doesn't float my boat at all. I tried to find a rhythm to tap my foot to, a melody, a harmonic structure for a reference point, but they were all playing "outside". Like Bill Evans said, without a reference point like a melody or harmonic structure to call home, playing outside the changes doesn't mean much, because if its all outside, then none of it is, its just a chaotic cacophony.

Making progress

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:50:51 -0800

Had a good practice today, and tested out a new pad design on my soprano sax to achieve portamento (sliding from one note to the other like a trombone or violin can do). I'm hoping too convert all my pads but the small ones will be a challenge.