Jazz Education

Don’t Tell Me You Can Groove…Show Me!!!

Ok, I know I am about to sound as if I am on a high horse, so this is my disclaimer up front: I don’t know everything, I don’t know squat, I do my best and I give thanks for the gifts I have been given. I love playing with musicians who raise me to new heights and am always seeking growth.

As an artist it is really best politically sometimes to stay out of talks like this and be aloof…on the other hand, I can’t stay quiet on this.

Now that we got that out of the way, I have a bone to pick. Last night I was paid an extremely high compliment at a gig that is a steady one for me, that someone really appreciated my guitar work because it grooved – and that I was in fact the favorite guitar player.

Thanks! 🙂

Apparently the fellows who played the night before me were good “intellectual, abstract” jazz musicians with great knowledge – except for one problem – the bar & restaurant staff and patrons hated it!!! 🙂

One of the more musically educated patrons then said (a bunch of us were chatting on a break) “Well these guys didn’t really groove or swing – they could if they wanted to, though. I guess they’re into something else”.

Ok, everyone – I am on the GROOVE ENFORCEMENT task force and I am now yelling “FREEZE!”.

There is a common misconception that burns me up and here it is: “Grooving musicians can’t play intellectual stuff, but intellectual guys can groove if they want – however, they choose not to because they are into something more advanced.”

Guess what – NO THEY CAN’T GROOVE EVEN IF THEY WANTED. It is not that they are choosing not to groove. They can’t. I am so sick of this. They think they can play in 4/4 and play with a drummer and be in the same place, that’s a groove. That’s like buying a bike vs being able to actually ride it!

Here is the rub – the entire basis of this is mental vs emotion. So, for musicians trapped in the mental realm, they themselves think they can groove. So, the tool they are measuring themselves with is self referential, and mental.

Show me someone ELSE in the audience tapping their foot, dancing, most of all – HAPPY. Don’t show me an audience deep in thought trying to follow what you do. Don’t show me an audience of egotists who want to show that they can appreciate “abstract jazz” i.e. the emporer’s new clothes. Show me that the people are reacting to the groove you think you are laying down.

There is an emotional intelligence to this kind of music. I myself LOVE connecting with people, love getting them grooving, and love creating an experience. I have worked hard, and continue to do so – to get people dancing, and have been fortunate enough to do this with a single guitar. Yes, dancing!!!

So, don’t tell me you can do this and you are choosing not to. If you can do it – let’s see!!

Show me that you – by yourself – no drums, no nothing, can groove. Then, if you choose to not “groove” because you have something better, you’ll get my respect. Until then, I’ll need proof.

The Importance of Art and The Excellence of Tommy Emmanuel

By Adam Rafferty 2 Comments

Friends, last night I went to go see Tommy Emanuel perform at NYC’s Highline Ballroom. I feel like I don’t even need to say it – it was awesome, one of the best shows I have ever seen. It had variety, virtuosity, groove, highs & lows in intensity.

He had guest performers, he had stories, and jokes. All bound together with the glue of his unbelievable guitar playing.

In short, he gives you an “experience” and does not just “play the guitar well”.
As you know by now, this man has changed my life – and I am one of many people whom he has affected. As you can see in my videos & hear on the mp3’s I plan on “doing something” with this inspiration.

What needs to be noted I think is this: great art and music shows us how EXCELLENT we are as humans, and points to how excellent we can be. Many things show us our excellence also – athletics, invention, science, writing – to name a few.

But to see someone “take it to the limit” shows us the unbelievable depth of the human mind and spirit is a treat, a joy – and much needed today in the age of ”
too much of digital everything.”

On the “meet & greet” line I was practically in tears. I thanked Tommy for his music. I had overheard him saying to the guy ahead of me how he wanted “people to walk out of the show spiritually uplifted”.

Well he spiritually uplifted my girlfriend so much I told her I’d get his number for her 🙂

Seriously though, this brings a Biblical story to mind. There was a story about how Jesus went nuts and overturned tables at a temple that had become a market place, saying something about what they had done to his “Fathers House”.

When I hear all the crapola music that’s out there it makes me want to overturn tables. But, the over promotion of musicians who have hardly practiced, who offer nothing spiritually in their music does serve a purpose. It is the perfect backdrop for when the “real thing” comes along.

Thank you Universe, God, Source for bringing us real artists and messengers who show us the “excellence” that lies buried deep in all human beings.

Music and Magic

By Adam Rafferty Leave a Comment

When I was a kid, boy did I love magic. I practiced sleight of hand card and coin moves for hours in front of a mirror. Many of the most stressful moments in my childhood were the dropping of quarters in the middle of english or social studies class when there’d be a hiccup in a sleight of hand move behind my desk! 🙂

I used to go down to this shop in the city “Lou Tannens” https://www.tannens.com/shop/featured.php and watch the older magicians demo their new tricks and ideas on each other. My mother kept telling me I couldn’t be a magician and it was horrible to hear. In retrospect magicians are much like musicians – they do gigs, sell information products (sometimes buying a routine in booklet form can cost $15) or sometimes a gizmo that is the trick itself (product).

In any case, as a jazz / blues improvising type guitar player, the greater “fabric” of the music is kind of an ongoing “weave” of musical groove and feel. If you are playing in a jazz band, (or any other type of jam situation) the “content” is the 32 bar (give or take) tune, and most of the music you then hear is the “process” of improvising. Many other types of music (classical, rock & roll Broadway, and yes – fingerstyle guitar) are more “set”. The content is completely rehearsed, polished and planned. It is more like “a bag of tricks”, if you will.

Both approaches to music are valid and limitless. Funny, on tour I saw that I have these arrangements – particularly the Stevie Wonder medley, and the improviser voice in my head would say “oh man, not this same old stuff again?”

I used the analogy of David Copperfield to understand why I am playing these set arrangements to explain to myself and other jazz musicians what I am doing. Sure, I am in the moment and present as I play the songs, but it’s like the last big David Copperfield trick of the night – where he vanishes, appears, dies, comes back to life, etc. Think of the rehearsal, the planning, staging, etc. that goes into that! It has to be set, not improvised – in order to work. In fact it is “orchestrated”!

Many fans have asked me for written out versions of my “musical magic tricks”, since posting Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” and “I Wish” on youtube. I have just finished the PDFs for all you guitar players to learn, and plan to post them within the week.

More tricks for your guitar bag are coming!

See you soon!

Is the picture out there, or in here?

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

Greetings. I am on the plane back from Germany, just having performed with the Bennie Wallace 10 piece band. We did 2 concerts, but last night’s concert was at “Semperoper” – an unbelievably prestigious, beautiful concert hall, very much like Carnegie Hall – only much older and historic! Pics on myspace.

Before I go on (and this is not lip service) it was an honor to play with these 9 very, very excellent musicians. Yes, every one has a spark of genius, and it was a wake up call to never stop in the quest for excellence and musical understanding, ability and humility. I am honored that these guys would have me play with them as a peer.

=-=-=-

I watch my mind during my tours and gigs, and not only try to play great music, but to grow mentally and spiritually. There are always tough moments for me when I travel. They are mostly internal, and they give me the chance for growth.

2 nights ago, I found myself listening to some talks by Alan Watts on my laptop – he’s a well known scholar of Buddhism and eastern philosophy, and he was a key figure in explaining eastern ideas to westerners. He’s got this dry English accent and wit that make him fun to listen to. A night later, I stumbled on a “teachings of the Buddha” alongside the Bible in my hotel night-stand droor. Yeah Germany – you’re getting hip! As always, teachings were appearing before me as I needed them.

The previous tour in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky brought up in me a lot of “aversion”, a feeling of “pushing away”. Please don’t get me wrong if you were there and enjoyed the music – playing the music was a blast. However, I experienced this feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was just wrong and dealt with dissatisfaction, fear and doubt more than usual. Bravo – it pushed me out of my comfort zone, and resistance to the present moment arose. Time to grow!

We all do this when we are on line waiting for a slow cashier. It’s a “no”, a push that we feel inside. So I felt “no, I deserve more money, better hotels, more recognition, more publicity, easier travel” and so on. I made myself unhappy for much of it. I was grasping for “something better”.

In contrast, last night I stayed at the Hilton in Dresden, played with stellar musicians, in the most prestigous place I have ever played, got payed well and ate like a king. My feeling was, “wow ,of course this is cool, but it simply is what it is. I am here. So this is what I have been grasping for? It’s still me and my guitar, my mind, my fingers and I have to do my best. This is just as much NOW as Kentucky was NOW. Different, but not really, because I am always here in the NOW!”

It’s very hard to describe, but I saw a MAJOR flaw and built in guaranteed misery for all of us humans in the whole grabby-grasping for the things we want, and the pushing away of the things we don’t want. And magically, a book on Buddhism appeared in front of me.

I want to be serene more than I want anything. I guess I still want the pleasure, but there is a wide-awake delectability when there is calm, peace and acceptance. It’s a joy that is quiet and still – and always there if the tornado of the mind chills out!!! It’s a greater pleasure than a vacation, money, or ego inflation. It is the backdrop of inner peace.

The little Buddhism book from the hotel says many perfect things, but here’s the one closest to what I felt when I looked at this push-pull in my own mind:

“People grasp at things for their own imagined convenience and comfort; They grasp at wealth and treasure and honors; they cling desperately to mortal life.

They make arbitrary distinctions between existence and non-existence, good and bad, right and wrong. For people, life is a succession of graspings and attachments, and then, because of this , they must assume the illusions of pain and suffering.”

Can YOU see that attachment to the “good things” leads to misery when they are not there? Can you see that grasping to re-create a past experience is the hell of grasping, and that the present offers all that you’d need? Can you see that getting a nice big fat ego boost and enjoying it makes you thirst and kill for the next ego boost, which vanishes like a mirage?

Thank you life, for being the greatest teacher of all. See you tomorrow.

Jazzheads, meet everyday folks who love music! Folks, meet the jazzheads!

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

It’s 7 am on 5/22/08 and I am packing to go to Germany to play some gigs with Bennie Wallace’s “Disorder at the Border” Coleman Hawkins tribute band. The band has some of the finest players in the jazz world today, so this is a real treat!

Everything has it’s price, and to prepare for this gig I had to set the acoustic down and really spend some time wrapping my head and hands around playing straight ahead jazz. Shifting gears so to speak!!!

Music is like anything – the more you listen, think about and play a certain “bag”, the more you attract similar ideas and thoughts. The thoughts and musical language gain momentum and creativity.

Electric jazz with a band and solo acoustic guitar are basically 2 different languages. Just think “english” and “chinese” and suspend judgement for a moment.

What’s interesting is that no matter which “world” you happen to be in at any given time, it seems like the world you’re in is ultimate reality, that nothing could be better, and that you look at the other side of the fence and go “blecchhh!”

This gives me a keen appreciation of what listeners go through when they are not accustomed to a certain genre of music. What I am asking you is this…don’t stay stuck. Whatever side of the fence you are on, give the other kinds of music a try – yet – trust your gut!!!

A fan of my acoustic playing just emailed me this, and I think it speaks on behalf of many people:

“I’m not hugely into jazz (I pretended to be in university 🙂 but now I have nothing to prove and have realized I am not musically sophisticated enough to appreciate any of it). I’m kinda thinking jazz is music for other musicians. Too complicated for us non musicians. Smack me awake if I’m wrong.”

Interesting! Part of the problem here is that A LOT OF JAZZ REALLY FRIGGIN SUCKS!!!! In fact most of it makes my skin crawl, and I love jazz – the right jazz!!!

The jazz world today has provided an environment in which some musicians can get away with intellectual crapola combined with good instrumental chops. I say this – if you want it to feel good, want to groove to it, tap your foot, and hear that yearning of the blues in the jazz – you simply need someone to tell you who some great artists are.

Another way of saying this is that a lot of today’s jazz is “up in the head” rhythmically, the notes being ear candy. Everyday folks – you want more, I know. Jazzheads take note, everyday folks don’t like that crapola!!!

So – I will recommend a few jazz artists to you who I think you’ll dig. Mind you, listen to a few CD’s because quite often jazz artists change styles and you may enjoy an earlier or later period of a certain artist.

Take Miles Davis for example – there were 4 or 5 stages (at least to me) in his playing. 1) Playing and mentoring with Charlie Parker 2) Venturing Solo 3) leading various bands, with Coltrane & Cannonball 4) Leading the 60’s band with Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock & Tony Williams 5) Electric madness, “Bitches Brew” and all that.

This is a HUGE overview, but the music varies so widely that if you picked up “Bitches Brew” you may hate it, but you may really love “Kind Of Blue”.

Anyhow here are a few soulful, bluesy places to start checking out jazz:

Miles Davis “Kind of Blue”
Oscar Peterson
George Benson Earlier Stuff
Dr. Lonnie Smith (organ)
Stanley Turrentine
Lou Donaldson

I must say, my generation of jazz musicians has been totally supportive of my acoustic direction, because many of us grew up on 60’s rock, 70’s rock & pop, hip hop and so on. However, for the “musically sophisticated????” it’s very easy to slip into a mindset where other types of music sound as if they are falling short. I am aware that some musicians think I have had a lobotomy in taking my acoustic direction.

Here’s the problem. A lot of non jazz (rock pop blues etc) is particularly strong in one area, but certain areas of the music are lacking to a musicians ears. Regular folks take note – classical and jazz listeners have perceived music that is like fine dining, and when you hand them an aural “cheesburger” they may be more in the mood for “sushi deluxe”.

For example:

James Brown’s music – well it does not get any funkier!!! But, there is not much melody….heavy on the groove and the blues element. People can FEEL it, but a musician won’t necessarily enjoy any kind of melody and harmony. Personally I love it.

Folk songwriters music – may sound repetitive to musically trained ears, yet there can be a very human message in the lyrics, behind the music.

“Earth Wind and Fire” – just soak it up for what it is, allowing it to not be jazz.

“The Eagles” – great Americana rock, perfectly executed, perfect tunes, memorable and enjoyable. No, it ain’t a “Love Supreme” but they are EXCELLENT!!!

When I describe my guitar hero du jour – Tommy Emmanuel – to my fellow jazz musicians, I tell them the following:

“When you hear Tommy you get a total listening treat and fun experience. Great tunes, ferociously and impeccably played, variety, and total entertainment for non-musicians!”.

It’s easy to poo-poo a guy like him from a jazz point of view. I say this – show me one jazz guitarist that can hold the attention of an audience by playing solo for 2 hours, and make people freak out because they loved it so much. I know of only one – George Benson. (And now that I have a solo act together, hopefully I will be the second :-))

A fellow guitarist said that TE sounded too “country / hillbilly”. My reply – the hillbilly tunes serve a purpose in the set, offer contrast to the ballads, aggressive fast & loud tunes, and so on. In the name of crafting an evening of entertainment – they have their place.

In conclusion –

Regular folks, rockers & folk lovers – try some new stuff and gravitate towards any jazz artist you might like. Slowly you’ll expand your appreciation for different rhythms and harmonies. You are learning a new language, so just savor it!

Jazzheads – expand and listen for the good in all types of music. Listen to James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire, Tommy Emmanuel, Hendrix, and Glenn Gould.

Allow it to be what it is and pay no mind to what it’s “not”. For years I heard what certain genrres were “not” rather than whet they “were”. Try to hear what others love about it, and take a look at what everyday folks like. Music is about communication, right?

Alright, gotta run to the airport!!!