CyberGene
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Posts posted by CyberGene
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I’ve never watched any of the greats in a small club… But once I was at a very small club in Paris with no more than 10 other people in the audience listening to Stefano Bollani Quintet. Not sure how big name he is for you over there, not even sure if he’s known to many European jazz fans but that was the best jazz performance I’ve ever seen or watched, live or recorded. I couldn’t believe someone can be that good, so for me he’s one of the greatest.
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Modal jazz is accessible to people who are not used to jazz because it is intuitive and a lot of the earliest music, along with ethnic/folk music is based on modes rather than harmonic progressions. There are pseudo-chords that you can make of the mode notes but that’s not functional harmony. But I wouldn’t call that “smooth” jazz even though it’s more accessible for the untrained ear. Smooth is IMO mostly defined by being melodic, upbeat and avoiding dissonance while still keeping functional jazz harmony with cadences and the ubiquitous ii-V-I resolutions.
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You should seek the roots among the early elevator manufacturers.
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I've always listened to everything. There's basically no genre of music I don't like besides a pretty silly local pop-folk thing that is very annoying. So, no sharp turns at all for me. But if we speak about what I like most, I turned from classical music to jazz and then back to classical music after 20 years. But I can still listen to anything you throw at me and appreciate it. That doesn't mean I don't consider classical music as the best music in the world, and by a large margin at that 😀
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Matt Johnson Signature Model
Base: $8799.00
Variable Voice Control: $1,299.00
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I purchased a Gator GKB-88 Slim with my CP88 because it was inexpensive for €89 at Thomann and the dimensions seemed to match the CP88. When they both arrived, it seems like a very good case and is an absolutely perfect fit for the CP88, even the internal straps go above the empty space of the piano panels (no buttons, knobs, sticks, etc. to be pressed by the straps). I haven't tested it and I didn't know anything about that brand before ordering it
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I call a good jazz musician one who can improvise over So What and can do so for a few minutes without boring you 😀 Being well-versed over Giant Steps in fast tempo and playing always the proper scale, lick, pattern, modal interchange, inside-outisde, upper structires and all these very advanced and slick-sounding devices that instill fear and respect in other musicians, is something that can be learnt. It's pretty damn hard and I realized I would never be even remotely capable of doing so but it's reachable. However that doesn't translate into being able to make a meaningful and convincing playing over two dorian modes a semitone apart. I've seen enough biggish names embarrassing themselves over So What.
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37 minutes ago, funkyhammond said:
A strange statement to make considering how few young people today seek out classical music. Classical and jazz both have this problem.
Yes, true, but classical music exists in itself. It's not lost after the composer dies because classical music is the actual score. Performed or not (score stored in a library), it's the very essence of classical music: the score. While jazz is a performance skill: the skill to improvise in the jazz idiom. It doesn't exist independently of the performer. You can notate and transcribe jazz performance and of course all the great jazz records remain but that's not the point of jazz. Once there are no jazz musicians jazz is dead.
With that in mind, and to go to the root of this thread: the jazz chops as a requirement for being a good musicians. And also the rather nasty sidelining of jazz musicians looking from above at other musicians... Well, that's the huge gap between classical music and jazz, despite both being the most obscure music for the youth nowadays 😀 Yes, classical music brings that elitism with old people in concert halls expecting complete silence and protocols and even dress-code and whatnot but that is superficial and comes from the audience and the listeners, not from the composers and musicians, it's just a nasty side-effect.
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Settings -> Configuration->Background audio
P.S. Sorry, I thought about the Moog own app… Have you checked the iPhone settings for the app? Is there anything?
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4 hours ago, funkyhammond said:
So what about playing with experience, emotion, deep expressivity? Regardless of whether we're talking jazz, classical or any genre, is that just a skill that you master? And what about the creativity of the interpretation?
What's important to note here is jazz musicians are performers because the most important element of jazz is improvisation and that's a performance technique. As such it's a skill that needs to be learned and trained, it benefits from a lot of practice. When speaking about classical music I mean the composers, not the performers. I comment not as a musician, but as a listener. When I listen to classical music I mostly listen to the composer (of course the interpretation is very important but unless it's pretty bad, I hear the composer). And jazz is about the particular performer improvising over some structure (sometimes more complex compositions but still).
With that in mind, I don't believe the great composers learnt how to become great composers. They certainly went through some evolution and some of them learned music but ultimately they were born geniuses. Nobody could learn how to be a Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, etc. Those guys were all excellent improvisers though. In Bach's time it was common for the basso continuo part (keyboard basically) to be written in figured bass notation, which is basically what a lead sheet to a jazz musician is. So, composing and improvising are interleaved but I still think things got a bit more distanced with the time. Nowadays classical pianists are predominantly just performers of scores. And jazz musicians are predominantly improvisers over some well-established structures and forms (of course, a lot of exceptions and a lot of great jazz composers/improvisers).
4 hours ago, funkyhammond said:Anyway, I do like it when jazz artists do pieces with more composed elements or when they blend concepts from jazz and classical (sometimes called third stream). I always really liked Miles' album Sketches of Spain for that reason. I sometimes listen to AccuRadio (formerly AccuJazz) so that I can pick particular subgenres of jazz to explore. The Third Stream channel is definitely one I come back to whenever I get a bit tired of more typical jazz.
Yes, nowadays I still (rarely though) listen to jazz and when I do, I prefer those that remind me of classical music form and composition. Oregon are among my favorites, also Lyle Mays, Pat Metheny Group, Chick Corea, some of Miles, Billy Childs... I'm not very fond of the third stream though.
P.S. Regarding hobbyists vs professional musicians. Let me clarify I comment entirely as a listener in this thread. I think I understand jazz, I used to love it, I totally appreciate the skill needed, the work and lifetime needed to achieve that level and such. But if some music requires understanding and is targeted towards other musicians, then it's apparent it is a self-limiting art, in terms of reach of course. I'm not sure jazz musicians seek huge audience, they are aware of that. It's only that from time to time some jazz musicians on TV or interviews, etc. seem to express bitter disappointment with people's tastes, their lack of appreciation for jazz, etc. and I don't like that. I mean, if one chose an art that requires from others to be musicians to appreciate it, then they shouldn't accuse the common man of anything. Maybe try to encourage people to become musicians, so that they can appreciate jazz, rather than accusing. It's a trap many people fall for, not just in jazz, not just in music, it's a common phenomenon in arts.
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29 minutes ago, funkyhammond said:
And to be fair, classical music has been analyzed to the umpteenth degree for centuries (not just decades).
Yes, but the difference between a pre-composed music (sometimes for years, think some great symphonies) and improvised music makes that analysis and the school of learning it vastly different. Playing jazz is mostly a skill. You can learn it. Of course it requires talent and not everybody would become Miles, Chick or Herbie but more or less it's just something that you master.
If I have to invent a metaphor here. Classical music is like an architect designing anything from a small cabin to an opera house, king's palace or a skyscraper and builders realizing it. Jazz is like painters improvising at painting the building on the outside. Different painters would paint it differently but it's always that you can change only the color (and ornaments) of its facade.
29 minutes ago, funkyhammond said:Serious question: have you ever tried using some recommendation algorithms from streaming services like Pandora, Spotify, etc.? If there are certain jazz artists/albums that you still very much enjoy, I wonder if you might stumble on other artists you might like. The technology is there to help you walk around the mounds of post-bop bands littering the corners and obnoxiously blowing their horns in your face.
I am myself a software engineer by trade, so I've used all these services since the very beginning. I think it was Pandora that made me discover so many new post-bop artists and at the same time open my eyes about how same and dull everything was 🤣 This goes as a side-line to the thread but the easy access to music and streaming is both a blessing and a curse IMO.
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I think as little difference as it may seem, four zones (where you can put every instrument in each zone) vs three (where you have only pianos in the first and electric pianos in the second) make for a different usage pattern. When I was mentally preparing for the Numa to arrive, I thought why I would need four zones. Because, I always play with a bass player, so I won't do bass splits. I often do Rhodes on the left, lead on the right but that's just two zones. And I think I imagined using the single four zone on the Numa performance like a control room, switching off and on, although I haven't exactly decided what but yeah, that's probably the idea 😀 With the CP it's rather limited. Well, there's the advanced mode on the CP where you can set any instrument type to any zone but it kind of defeats the purpose of the direct interface.
So, in other words, the Numa is slightly closer to a workstation type of instrument with traditional multi-zone setups. Whereas the CP/YC are more like very specialized keyboards with dedicated piano, Rhodes, Organ sections and spice it up with a pad or something but the main focus is the ultra direct and easy access to the three main sections (which I guess they copied over from Nord).
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3 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:
Seamless transition when switching between those 3 or 4 sounds that are part of the current sound set? Yamaha no, Numa yes. (It would be nice if Yamaha did this too, you can upvote the request on ideascale at https://yamahasynth.ideascale.com/c/idea/271403 )
Yes, I noticed that and didn't like it! Numa is better in that regard. I'm not sure I'm a guy who would need to turn on/off parts within a performance more though. I'm more of a guy who would switch between performances. I kind of consider a performance like a single sound, well, a performance, maybe that's why it's called this way 😀 I mean, I won't use a performance to mute/unmute instruments within that performance, I'd rather switch to another one... I don't know, I will have to resume my band duties to know more about that. But I upvoted your idea and I think both instruments should support both scenarios.
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So, yes, when you change the performance (a new group of four zones with different instruments) while holding stuff from the first one, that is what I mean by seamless transition and is what works on a Yamaha without interruptions. Well, the Yamaha has only three zones, so it's slightly less demanding towards resources. I also believe Yamaha somehow over-dedicate DSP and effect resources just for being able to provide that functionality. I mean, they probably can provide twice more insert/send effects but keep those resources to provide for the seamless transition. More knowledgeable people such as @AnotherScott might be able to provide more details.
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1 hour ago, GovernorSilver said:
Taking the liberty of posting some Gene Harris. A jazz pianist who never forgot about groove or jazz's close relationship to the blues
As a CyberGene I really appreciate that performance of Gene Harris who was not known to me, thank you! 👍🏻 Indeed, it immediately made me tap with my foot! 🕺🏻
To clarify regarding some of my previous statements. I had been a HUGE jazz for something like 20+ years. I used to listen all day long almost 95% to jazz and swallow everything I got my ears on, starting from early jazz and blues through bebop, post-bop, fusion, funk, acid-jazz but mostly gravitating towards modern post-bop on one hand, and worldy/new-agey jazz on other, with Oregon (the band) getting a lot of play on my Walkman as well as most of the European jazz and ECM stuff. Heck, I was devastated and cried so much when Esbjörn Svensson died in that scuba diving accident, he was my favorite pianist 😢 Along with Chick and Herbie of course. And some Dave Grusin.
So, blame it on this total overdo with jazz music, and most importantly the newest plethora of excellent post-bop pianists and bands that seemed like growing from every corner that made jazz for me a boring and even obnoxious music. As silly as it may sound, I was finally able to understand all these friends of mine who used to mock jazz, kind of got what they disliked so much about jazz, despite fiercely arguing with them and defending jazz 😲
I understand my point of view is extreme... Apologies if some people take it as insulting. I tend to overemphasize my written emotions (also probably due to the fact I"m not a native English speaker and can't precisely see the actual weight of the words I use...)
I'm now mostly dedicated to classical music, with Scriabin being my big love. But what is funny is I "rediscover" stuff like The Doors. Stuff like Break On Through, Riders on the Storm and Light My Fire would bring me much more enjoyment than most of jazz. Apparently it's rather raw, primitive and unpolished when compared to jazz, yet it has such powerful emotion! Go figure 🧐
P.S. There are three jazz records that I will never stop loving: Kind of Blue and In a Silent Way. And (probably surprising...) Premonition by Paul McCandless (with Lyle Mays on the piano)!
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Just to clarify, you play something, you hold the keys down and in the meantime change the performance or the sound assigned to a zone, right? Because that’s what is assumed by seamless transition.
It could be that something with my unit was not right but it was on the latest firmware and it would be strange if it was a firmware problem only with my unit.
P.S. Also try with an effect turned up, e.g. reverb and delay and then switch to another performance where those are not the same. Or even with some of the insertion effects and switching to a performance with different insert effects.
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Also, the pops might have been when switching from a sampled sound to modeled electric piano and vice versa.
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Unfortunately I don’t have the Numa with me anymore but I’m sure I encountered a lot of “non-smooth” transitions although I can’t remember if it was on switching performances or on switching the sound for a zone within a performance.
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1 minute ago, Jonathan Hughes said:
That's complete nonsense. You need to listen to better music.
Sure, please recommend me some.
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It’s the mass craftization of jazz (just came up with that word) that gradually made me almost a jazz hater. That’s a strong word to make my point, I can still appreciate fine jazz from the greats but the fact is jazz has been dissected to death (pun intended) and anyone more inclined in learning the craft from now countless offline/online/institutional sources will become at least a convincingly sounding jazzman. And a very boring one. In most modern and well-crafted jazz music it’s all about a cerebral satisfaction rather than emotional appeal. It’s been exhausted completely into a homogenous mass that is still a very smart and intellectually prepared music that has its audience but it’s also very rarely creative nowadays. This is just my very biased and certainly outrageous opinion 🙂
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Scroll to 1:14 😀But it’s all golden!
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From my short experience with the Numa X, the seamless transition was not always working and there were even abrupt pops and clicks (I believe due to the effect changes). The CP88 is absolutely flawless in that regard.
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Jazz players tend to overemphasize harmony, chords and voicing and it gets overbearing for anyone not interested in jazz which is basically everybody 😀 I needed 20 years to realize that. Non-jazz players lack these sophisticated chord-scale abilities but as with anything in life compensate by specializing in rhythmic and melodic playing. Similar to how a classical pianist would make a classical piece “sing” just because he needs to translate the fixed notes into an emotion instead of having to come up with the notes in the first place.
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The modern analog polysynths like the Take 5 are too perfect and in-tune and as a result they sound digital 😀 The fact they need a knob to make them more analog through intentional detuning and internal LFO-s and the likes is just silly. Why not take a Hydrasynth then and dial the "analog feel" up, it's the same thing. I really don't see the use-case except for saying "but that's true analog!". You either use a vintage VCO design (not DCO) preferably discrete based (think Moog and OB-X), or just use VST-s or modern digital synths and VA-s. Everything in between is an odd animal. But that's just my opinion.
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The WHAT!? Yamaha DX1, $134,538.80
in The Keyboard Corner
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I'm wondering if all that craze is actually a money laundering scheme after all. Similar to money laundering in fine arts.