Rant

So I went into HMV today ... and what did I find? Kenny G and Norah Jones in the Jazz section.

For those musicians that read this blog, please stop reading now, I am preaching to the choir.

For the rest of you:

Kenny G is not a jazz saxophonist. He is a pop saxophonist, playing adult contemporary music, and not very well. There is a long and important tradition to jazz and jazz saxophone. If you want to listen to jazz saxophone you might want to try these legends out: Lester Young, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Zoot Simms, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, "Cannonball" Adderley, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Harold Land, Hank Mobley, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, Dave Binney, Chris Speed, Chris Cheek ... Of course, I am missing many names, but these are a few. Listen to these! This is Jazz ... Kenny G is not, alas, he is in a class with Celine Dion, at the bottom of the trash can of music.

Norah Jones is not a jazz singer! She is a country/pop singer! If you want to listen to jazz vocals try: Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Johnny Hartman, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Tierney Sutton, Kurt Elling ... and so on.

Jazz is possibly the only musical art form that North America can be truly proud of ... it should be taken more seriously.

Blues Gig

Blues Gig last night.

It was a funny one too. We had to wait for the hockey game to finish, and so we started playing at 11, and finished at 2am.

Bars are a funny place ... a place of addiction, false love ... a place to fill in the spaces, to cover over the depth and emptiness we all avoid.

The band was okay. I've been playing with them a fair bit lately. They're sortof a loud-in-your-face-blues band:

http://www.myspace.com/thehardlinebluesband

It's a seven-piece band with two tenors and a bari.

It's good to be playing ... I look forward to doing more this summer