Thursday, March 14, 2013
FEELINGS
I read this article in The New Yorker and really wanted to hear Jason Moran.
When the article was done, I was feeling teary. So unusual. What is going on here?
I had to "look him up on YouTube>
When he was fourteen and had taken a lot of lessons in classical, he heard Monk and it changed his musical life. Well, maybe his life.
I used to play piano. Improvisation. I took lessons several times.
I was good enough at it to know that I wasn't good enough.
I have never been able to explain that one to people. So I will not try hear.
For the most part Jazz bores me now. I abhor the efforts of some to enshrine or embalm it.
Moran is the first fresh talent to come along in a long while. And here he is finding new spaces in Monk.
Who of course had lots of new spaces himself. But no one had been able to unravel them like this.
Want some more? Jason Moran working out Body and Soul Live at The Tribes.
This time solo. Man. The piano. Intentional? I think so. Talk about taking it out for a walk.
He takes that little phrase and just works it over and over. And over and over again. The invention is scrupulous. A hard combination to get. Carefully handled chaos and order.
He uses the full piano. Top and bottom. There are 88 possibilities. There is great space in between. Time for the listener to listen and get onto it with him.
I read that Moran typically does not take down the entire piece but parts of it and deconstructs so we can really hear it. Here he shows that in process.
Man!!!
If I could play like that I would take it up again.
Labels: Jason Moran, music
