Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms For the love of Jazz

This is very funny! It gives me an idea of what jazz sounds like to ears that haven't been in the waters for 45 years, like me.
Not only the band is well met but also the parody of the announcer.
This is so 1980! Too bad that the comments on youtube are disabled.

Someone had to post it. :-)
I listen to a lot of jazz and fusion and I think the semi-chaotic nature of the music is a good reflection of the way my brain works in general.
I know my more ocd friends can't stand it to the point it upsets or annoys them.

Barry M,

Perhaps I have ocd condition too !
I listen through earphones so as not to invade the peaceful home atmosphere.
Extra dose of Tuba Skinny band leader Shaye Cohn performing: Listen/Watch here.

Oh how I miss live music played a few feet away from me by enthusiastic real humans.

Another great link.
Nick

Oh yes. By and large, staying at home is no problem at all for me, except for my twice-weekly visit to the pub for live music and a few beers with my mates.

Chords needed to play the complete Status Quo songbook
A. D. E

Chords needed to play the opening two bars of ‘Round Midnight by Thelonius Monk
Ebm. Ebm/D. Ebm/Db. Cm7b5
Abm Db7

Unapologetic Jazz Fan

I take your point, but that's not actually a brilliant example.

Leaving aside the fact that it's in a flat key which makes the chords seem more difficult It would on first glance appear to have the same basic A D E structure that you'd find in a blues song in A Maj, just with a flat 3 to give the minor key - but FRancis and Rick probably played power chords most of the time anyway so no real difference as there's no 3rd to worry about.

What's happening is a chromatic walk down the bass of the Ebm (the V chord), the Cm7b5 is a bit interesting as it's the diminished chord, for the key of D. The Abm is (apparently) the root and the Dd7 is a IV7, again familiar stuff. So its the same basic chords just half a step down and with that borrowed Diminished.

Tune a guitar down a half-step and then drop the low E down again to C# and Francis Rossi could knock this out out with no trouble.

What makes jazz so interesting to my ears is not the apparent complexity of the underlying chordal structure but that the choice of inversion is left to the player. So something like a Db7 could be played either straight with just the 7th, or with the addition of the 9th or even the 13th, and depending on the mood one wanted could be played in at least 4 positions on the neck. Listening to a top-notch jazzer noodle around some pretty superficially simple chord progressions is where the magic happens.

Now back to my 3-chord blues. Jazz is too hard to play. And they don't like distortion pedals

Does anyone ever think "what I need here is a Cm7b5" .... or do they noodle about and when they like the sound it eventually gets written down and someone reverse-engineers it into standard nomenclature ... I think that about some Beatles songs .


K

It's not how complicated it is, it's the feeling behind it. Remember, the blues relies on a few chords.