raw musicianship / sophisticated musicianship

[Allen]

Joe, thanks for the pointer to Ms. Loveless. We all can learn from her.

I'm not a country music fan, and I was thinking that listening to an excellent musician performing in a genre that is not so familiar may be even more of an education/inspiration. One can simply listen to the music making without comparing the performance to other familiar performances.

Another performer (from another genre and another era) that always impressed me was Doris Day. Great musician, and yet another performer who probably hasn't been used as an example by a lot of conservatory teachers.

Cheers,
Allen

[Richard Murrow]

I wholeheartedly agree with Bloke’s point. It doesn’t matter what the instrument or the genre is. There is only good music and bad music and we have to start listening at a point where we are able to understand what the artist is trying to communicate. Here is a small sampling of some others that are/were great examples for phrasing, musicianship, pitch, sensitivity, etc.: They are all vocalists unless otherwise indicated.
Frank Sinatra
Mel Torme
Ella Fitzgerald
Sarah Vaughn
Carl Fontana, Trombone
Bill Watrous, Trombone
George Shearing, piano
Oscar Peterson, piano
Diana Krall, vocals or piano
Roberta Gambarini
Tierney Sutton
Esperanza Spalding, bass and vocals

These should all be required listening for any student of music.

Richard Murrow

[The Big Ben]

Ms. Lawless was featured on "Prairie Home Companion" today, 1-18-09. She was all Bloke said she would be. It may be possible to download it from PHC's website.

[Matt G]

I would add (flamesuit on) Maynard Ferguson to the list. When you listen to his tunes that are not on the "greatest hits" compilations, you can hear that is where his talent was: Carrying out a melodic phrase in a very difficult register of the trumpet. Chuck Mangione falls in the same category, IMO.

Also, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones recordings are quite good for a tuba player looking to figure out the way to play both simple and difficult bass voice parts extremely musically.

For salsa/merengue, you can use artists like Marc Anthony, Juan Luis Guerra, and Victor Manuelle to show the same idea of quality phrasing.

There are lots of good artists out there still performing that are lost in the noise that is commercial music. Every once in a while someone truly talented (nowadays) makes it through and gets a large commercial deal. Heck, Christopher Cross is a example of a semi-decent talent that wouldn't sell 2000 CD's now, if he weren't established. He's dopey-looking. Todd Rundgren is an interesting guy with some good music. Again, he probably couldn't sell much of anything today because his "look" is far from commercial.

Anyhow, there are lots of good examples in many idioms of how to shape a phrase. Good teachers have a plethora of examples. Sure, I have listened to Brain and Casals, but I would never do that to a kid in middle or high school. Even kids who "get it" still would prefer something a bit more modern.

[The Jackson]

After reading bloke's post, my interest was piqued and I found out that Ms. Lawless was on Conan O'Brien's just a few days ago. Below is a link to the entire program streamed from NBC.com. Even though it is an entire 42 min. episode, it loads suprisingly fast, so the dial-up crowd might want to check it out. (Salma Hayek's on it, too, so for those TubeNet guys...... )

http://www.nbc.com/Late_Night_with_Cona ... vid=937122" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

(Only available until Feb. 1, so download if you want it for later)


I love what Arnold Jacobs said in the "This is an art form" track from "Portrait of an Artist" where he says that what is said musically should be more dominant that the instrument used. I'm around the "high school band" group a lot, and this mindset that "I am a trumpet player" or "I play flute" is so ravaging that they all forget what music is. There is so much more music out there than "toobuh playrz" and I'm glad that I can "get something" from other musicians.

Some of my favorite artists to listen to are the blues guitarists. I love listen to guys like SRV and Buddy Guy. That Bruce Springsteen bluegrass stuff isn't so bad, either.

[deputysgttuba]

Add Doc Watson to the list of great musicians. It doesn't matter whether he is playing the guitar in multiple styles, banjo, mandolin, harmonica or voice. His sense of musicianship is honest and impeccable.

[rocksanddirt]

I would second the Maynard F.

in addition to the phrasing, and bringing a melodic line to something not neccessarily written that way, he also can play with tremendous power/bombast/personality. That 'larger than life' playing is another skill/artistic feel that a well rounded player needs.

[tubafatness]

Along the lines of this post topic, I've always held some musicians in very high regard, musically, regardless of style or musical background. I think that there is no reason to limit the idea of "musicality" to just those who play a certain genre or type of music, (or, to be more specific, to those who went to school to get a degree in 'music'.) As an example, I really enjoy the music of Tom Waits, even though much of what I do is far away from much of what he does in his own music. Still, here's an example of someone whose musical sensibilities have evolved and changed over several decades, with much of this development happening outside the parameters of traditional music-making. Really, just take a listen to an album like "Rain Dogs", or "Alice" to get an idea of the man's sense for music.

He also serves for me to be an example of what a musician can do with an instrument that isn't necessarily popular, (in my case, of course, it's the tuba-in his case, it's his very unique voice.) I know that the sound and presence of the tuba is far from those sounds that are traditionally accepted by the mass audience. But so is Mr. Waits' voice, and he still manages to have a successful career making music. So, it's not all doom-and-gloom for us non-popular instrument players!

Edit: for those unfamiliar with Waits, here's a good primer video on his music and personality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wfamPW3Eaw

Just my two cents on the matter,
Aaron

[k001k47]

As a student, I would like to say that I'd rather listen to a Bach Cello suite than Patty Loveless.
I've spent $money$ on iTunes to own a couple of recordings of said cello suites "legally".

I'll even listen to quite a few tuba solo albums.



Do I have a bad taste in music?

[MileMarkerZero]

Just about any of the jazz greats fall into this category - Dizz, Bird, Goodman, Mulligan, Brubeck, dozens of others. To that list I would certainly include Frank Rosolino. If you've never heard him, you should. Fantastic player, enormous tragedy. Another one was Bud Shank, a sax player from back in the 50s. Had impeccable taste in his phrasing.

What I find ironic about a lot of the old vocal crooners is that some of them didn't have the greatest timbre to their voice, but their ability to turn a phrase made them great.

[jeopardymaster]

I don't want to start a list of "things I like" or add onto anyone else's. I can say without hesitation, though, that I've learned more about musicianship in the last 2 years than I had for at least the 15 before, thanks to a tremendously talented and "big-eared" choral director.

Open advice for anyone - get thee to a mentor. If you're young and looking for guidance on musicianship, you'll probably know, deep down, whether you're getting it from your teacher/director or not. And if not, move on. But first give him/her your best, to get anything worthwhile back.

You've all probably heard cliches about how good practice makes good performance. Well, they're true. In fact, I'll go a step further. Never, EVER, sluff off the least bit of focus on musicality, whether you're warming up, sightreading, woodshedding, performing, whatever. Strive to make it performance level everytime. Expression, line, intonation, balance, clarity, articulation, the works - find all of it. There should be no room in your playing for anything else.

Life's too short to muddle through.

[jeopardymaster]

I wasn't taking whacks at you Bloke -- next chance I get I'll give her a listen. My own personal favorites in that vein have long been Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton - the latter as much as anything because her people were my dad's neighbors.