Thread | Brutkey

And finally, virtuosity.

Jazz players are players. (Singers are included here.)

They long to astonish, and they have the skills to do so.

Two incredibly cool aspects of live jazz performances: 1) when two or more players of the same instrument play "the dozens" with each other, competing to see who is the best (in the moment), and 2) when a player raises their game so high so fast that their fellow players gape in astonished appreciation.

GeePawHill
@GeePawHill@mastodon.social

Here's a one-take. I think it's my favorite live jazz video.

"I Remember Clifford", live, on a Belgium stage, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, featuring Lee Morgan.

(Clifford Brown was a great player who died young. Blakey ran a kind of finishing school for talented young players. Benny Golson, the sax player here, wrote the song.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVvRZWhFF4w

GeePawHill
@GeePawHill@mastodon.social

The dozens? Here's Maynard Ferguson, Clark Terry, and Clifford Brown, all vying for the attention of the great Dinah Washington.

"I've Got You Under My Skin".

Hear them stylin' against each other. You may not quite understand it, but these guys are major players, and they're laughing and *shit-talking* to each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC7n6SREFew

GeePawHill
@GeePawHill@mastodon.social

Simple virtuosity? Louis Armstrong recorded the song that is generally regarded as the defining take of jazz. (He didn['t invent anything except himself, and all of the elements of what he did have precursors. What he did was put them together in a magnificent package. This is the first virtuoso of what we call jazz.)

"West End Blues".

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

The opening cadenza is non-transcribable. Closest I've heard was from Nicholas Payton. But it's not quite the same.

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