Acid Jazz, Anyone?

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

After the thread on funk, I was wondering if any of you guys liked acid jazz? I personally am a bit ambivalent about it, ie I like it in small doses. But there's no denying that it's a challenging style to play.

 

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm referring to bands such as The James Taylor Quartet (no, not the "Fire and Rain" guy), Jamiroquai and all them.

 

There's some fairly good articles on Wikipedia

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_jazz

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Taylor_Quartet

 

but as Steve Martin once said, "Talking about music is like dancing about sculpture". Or something like that. Well, I think it was Steve Martin

 

Seriously... was it ever a biggish movement in America? Did you guys like it much?

[Bluesape]

I can enjoy small doses of it.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Bluesape:

I can enjoy small doses of it.

A lot of it sounds like 1970s cop show music to me. James Taylor even did a cover of the Starsky & Hutch Theme.

 

It's amazing how good the music on some of those old TV shows used to be. Not my cup of tea, really, but a huge improvement over the current shows where, often enough, they'll just play a bunch of singles rather than compose anything.

 

I guess they think composing from scratch is too risky?

[Bluesape]

Miami Vice used to play popular covers, and they usually were very appropriate for each scene.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Bluesape:

Miami Vice used to play popular covers, and they usually were very appropriate for each scene.

Yeah, that was a bit of an 80s fashion. I believe a show called "Hunter" used to do the same. But they had actual people playing, IIRC.

 

I think these days they simply use the actual recordings.

[spiral light]

Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

 

but as Steve Martin once said, "Talking about music is like dancing about sculpture".

I think it was Elvis Costello who said that (I think...).

 

As for Acid Jazz, I was just thinking about the genre recently. I have a version of Motorhead done in that style (by Corduroy), works really well. that's about as far as I got into Acid Jazz though, it was bigger in the UK during the earlier part of the 90's.

 

EDIT: I just realised that I had pulled the cassete tape with the Acid Jazzed up Motorhead out to listen to on route to work this morning, synchonicity working.....

[Guitar55]

No, it was Frank Zappa: "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.".

[Dr. Ellwood]

Yes Frank did say that, but it sure doesn't mean he was right! In fact I think he was very wrong. It all depends on who the people are that are doing the talking!

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by ellwood:

Yes Frank did say that, but it sure doesn't mean he was right! In fact I think he was very wrong. It all depends on who the people are that are doing the talking!

Well, ok. Try this then. Next time you're in the mall or in a bookshop (ok or a library), pick up a rock encyclopaedia and have a leaf through it.

 

I'd bet that a good 50% (or more) of the band entries will describe a given band's sound in terms with which you would disagree. (My "unpretentious, explosively creative" is probably your "talentless noisy punks")

 

And I'd bet further that if you've never heard of the band described, you will not understand their sound any better by reading the writeup.

 

Words are not meant to describe music, they really aren't.

 

On the other hand, one quote I really like is by Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke, and he said "Architecture is frozen music".

[Dr. Ellwood]

Vince your point well taken! I was looking at it from a musician to musician's point of view. I think our dialogue between ourselves is much more informed and focused than the general population or media for that matter. I think we are more capable of having more meaningful discussions because of our training, no?

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by ellwood:

I think we are more capable of having more meaningful discussions because of our training, no?

Well, yes... if worst comes to worst we can simply tab what we mean. Still, when it comes to trying to explain what the tabbed riff does for you or why you like it... well, that gets a bit more difficult, I guess!

[skipclone 1]

Yes we can articulate musical ideas better but I believe it`s a mistake to overintellectualize music or any other creative endeavor, for that matter. Someone recently used the term `psuedointellectual` to describe lyrics they thought were pretentious and/or trite but I`ve always thought that many people confuse artists and intellectuals. They`re not the same, though some rare individuals can move in both worlds.

I generally prefer doing it to talking about it, let someone else do the categorizing and the explicating. I think I couldn`t do talk radio or T.V. for that reason. What the hell am I doing sitting here talking about what you have for breakfast?

[skipclone 1]

Oh-the topic. I did see Massive Attack live a couple years ago, great show. Interesting and different, amazing lighting. But it`s not guitar music for the most part, have to be open minded about it.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by skipclone 1:

Oh-the topic. I did see Massive Attack live a couple years ago, great show. Interesting and different, amazing lighting. But it`s not guitar music for the most part, have to be open minded about it.

I had this weird thing with Massive Attack. I liked the "Mezzanine" CD a lot but was a bit iffy about the white guy's voice.

 

In the end I decided he was just singing like that to be funny and bought another three CDs off amazon.

 

And eff me, no. He WASN'T trying to be funny!

 

He really did sing in this strangled, yawrping sort of voice. Kind of like choking an angry otter or something.

 

So the CDs practically went from the stereo to eBay in a matter of about two hours.

 

Pity, I really wanted to like 'em.

[Funk Jazz]

if you want the essential sound of souljazz/funkjazz/acidjazz whatever, pick up a copy of john scofields A-Go-Go. it's a freaking masterpiece of songwriting and improvisation in that style.

 

i am a fan of whatever you want to call jazz improvisation with a funk backbeat. some folks do it really well, like MM&W, tortoise, soulive, karl denson, wayne krantz, etc.

 

but it all comes down to songs. a lot of funk jazz groups try to hang deep improvisation on bad or boring tunes, thinking that their genius for improv will redeem the faulty structures. that's when i have a hard time listening to it, even though i have been guilty of it myself

 

like all genres in music, there is good and bad with acidjazz. the real gems are worth wading through the crap for though, IMHO.

[skipclone 1]

Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

Originally posted by skipclone 1:

Oh-the topic. I did see Massive Attack live a couple years ago, great show. Interesting and different, amazing lighting. But it`s not guitar music for the most part, have to be open minded about it.

I had this weird thing with Massive Attack. I liked the "Mezzanine" CD a lot but was a bit iffy about the white guy's voice.

 

In the end I decided he was just singing like that to be funny and bought another three CDs off amazon.

 

And eff me, no. He WASN'T trying to be funny!

 

He really did sing in this strangled, yawrping sort of voice. Kind of like choking an angry otter or something.

 

So the CDs practically went from the stereo to eBay in a matter of about two hours.

 

Pity, I really wanted to like 'em.

Y`know, I was thinking about bringing that up! he reminds me of that guy `Tricky` who was so self-conscious about his singing he didn`t ever want spotlights on himself and bless his heart, I had to agree, the guy can`t sing a note. I suppose if you consider it a vocal effect more than singing, like that Les Claypool guy with Primus, it`s palatable.

Choking an angry otter-what an inmage

[GtrWiz]

There's very little acid jazz that I've heard done the way I would like to hear it. Though there's a great jam here in LA where the house band will play standards, like Footprints, in a funk style. I wish I could desribe it better, but I'm to busy dancing....

 

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cartoon/508.gif

[Funk Jazz]

after thinking about this a little more, i remembered a discussion i had with some guys i was in a band with, and we were doing what would probably be called acid jazz.

 

we decided that most of the time, it's more interesting to play than listen to acid jazz.

 

.02

[Newbie Brad]

My partner and I have some tracks like that, I'm thinking of "Not Now Please", the eighth track on my cd "Preoccupation".

[skipclone 1]

I`ve been formulating a track which I suppose could fit in that genre-haven`t laid it down yet.

There`s a couple groups who have done things I really like-one is Sneaker Pimps (what a name), another is Portishead. I think they would be considered in that category also. I think most acid jazz requires the presence of a DJ, never have played in a band with one. It would be an interesting experience.

[skipclone 1]

I`ve been formulating a track which I suppose could fit in that genre-haven`t laid it down yet.

There`s a couple groups who have done things I really like-one is Sneaker Pimps (what a name), another is Portishead. I think they would be considered in that category also. I think most acid jazz requires the presence of a DJ, never have played in a band with one. It would be an interesting experience.