Behind The Beat: About Music and Musicians: June 2008

It's been a long time since I last posted. This has been a really tough year in lots of ways. Still, I've kept up with my music as best as I can, and feel like I've learned a lot and improved.

I'd posted earlier about the jazz band workshop class I took in the winter. It was a ton of work, and very intense, but I persevered, and the performance at Cafe Du Nord went really well! I took the class to learn how to play with a band, and ended up learning a lot more. In hard times, having to focus on learning the music and concentrating on it was a lifeline.

I finally managed to edit the video from the show, and post it at YouTube. It's all at www.youtube.com/group/infinitude, or you can view them by the embedded videos below. It was quite a diverse set of tunes, ranging from standards/classics like "Do You Know What it Means" and "Just One Of Those Things," to bebop tunes (Monk, Charlie Parker) to bossa nova and more avant-garde stuff (Steve Coleman, McCoy Tyner).

I also had the opportunity to perform again with the Contra Costa Performing Arts Society's Jazz Piano workshop in February, and did "Tipitina" and "Georgia On My Mind." Tipitina, of course, is a New Orleans classic, by Professor Longhair, with all the syncopation and multi-cultural influences that made him great. Every New Orleans pianist has a version of it, and it reminds me of the place. And I've always loved the version of "Georgia" by Ray Charles.

Finally, it was Jennifer Clevinger (my piano teacher)'s recital in June, and I played and sang a tune I learned during the jazz band workshop, "Ruby My Dear," by Thelonius Monk (lyrics by Sally Swisher). It's a really hard tune to sing, with continual key changes every couple of measures, so I was glad I could work out the tune!

All the videos are below, or you can check them out at www.youtube.com/swamus.

Swami - Ruby My Dear (Thelonius Monk, lyrics: Sally Swisher)