Sorry, I fell asleep at about the 10:00 mark.......................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

So, to paraphrase the video, what made it bad is not that it's one note, it's that, unlike other one-note solos, he's not making it say anything.

 

Can't stop laughing at it. ?

 

Can't stop laughing at it. ��

This is one of the all-time classics. I just knew before I opened the link, that this would be it.
Thank you for the early morning laugh. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

 

Oh good.
It's not me...

 

...this time.

 

Adam Neely has some great videos up. I would recommend him to anyone. I thought this was well-done and thought provoking.

 

But it seems odd that he doesn't seem to realise it's not a jazz solo, nor aspires to be. The Flintstones Movie was the worst French Nouvelle Vague film ever.

 

"Worst jazz solo of all time"?........dude's never been to one of MY gigs, obviously......

 

It's a bad solo, regardless of the genre.

 

Adam reminds me of my little brother. He is intelligent, analytical, sexy, talented, and I love him. I can only filter very small portions of my little brother and then I need to turn him off. I love you Adam.

 

Yep you got it.
Yes he is a super nerd. I listen to most of his stuff while I'm doing something else or at a sped up temper because it does get a little bit tedious. He is interesting though and very knowledgeable. His video on harmonizing/re-harmonizing the same melody is very interesting and tedious.?
Being a youngster I'm not sure he realizes what the scene was like back then ?A lot of people were drunk a lot of the time.? This guy may well have been and I did not see that mentioned as a possibility.
Those were the golden days when anybody with a little bit of talent could become a professional musician. It was a real job. You could stay active and still have some bad habits that would get you fired today.

 

So that he stops twisting our heads! A secret agent of Soviet intelligence sent to the United States, disguised as an ordinary musician, transmits to someone collected information in the form of Morse code through the saxophone, intentionally alternating it with random rhythms ; and the Americans, as always, are scatterbrain !

 

Well, first, it's a rock and roll sax solo, from the early days of rock and roll.

Secondly, the one-note thingy was commonly done in that style of rock and rolls.

Thirdly, spending 28 minutes to snarkily deconstruct something that was laid down in about 15 minutes in the studio to get teenagers up and dancing for the lowest possible total cost and time investment, seems like swatting a fly with a cannon.

It's not the greatest riff-style rock sax solo, for sure, but it's not all that bad for what it is.

In other shocking, unexpected news:

- Hank Williams was not familiar with soloing over the bridge to Cherokee!
- Little Richard had trouble with Bill Evans' harmonic concepts!
- Pete Townshend is unable to play Trane's solo on "Countdown"!
- Jimi Hendrix was unable to render a competent continuo from a written figured bass!

 

I get the sense that most people criticizing this video have not watched it.

Well, first, it's a rock and roll sax solo, from the early days of rock and roll.

Secondly, the one-note thingy was commonly done in that style of rock and rolls.

He addresses this at great length.

Thirdly, spending 28 minutes to snarkily deconstruct something that was laid down in about 15 minutes in the studio to get teenagers up and dancing for the lowest possible total cost and time investment, seems like swatting a fly with a cannon.

I didn't find it snarky at all, but incredibly sincere. In fact, he spends much of the video pushing back against snarky commenters who complain that it is repetitive or "only one note".

It's not the greatest riff-style rock sax solo, for sure, but it's not all that bad for what it is.

In other shocking, unexpected news:

- Hank Williams was not familiar with soloing over the bridge to Cherokee!
- Little Richard had trouble with Bill Evans' harmonic concepts!
- Pete Townshend is unable to play Trane's solo on "Countdown"!
- Jimi Hendrix was unable to render a competent continuo from a written figured bass!

Again, his criticism has nothing to do with the fact that the solo is "insufficiently complex" or anything like that, and he makes a sincere and commendable effort to place it in the proper musical context.

 

I did watch the first half of the video clear through then skipped through the second half of it. I did notice he didn't just play the damn song - at least not in the parts I watched continuously - so you don't even get to hear it in its context of a cheap and cheerful rock and roll 45. When I looked it up and actually listened to the record, it was clear what it is and how its quality matches all the rest of the recording. Yeah, the guy's articulations sounded kind of like too much whiskey had gone down the hatch - but go listen to Louie Louie by the Kingsmen.

 

It's a valid question as to why exactly the "Flying Home" solo is great, while this one is bad. Why is some improvised music good while some is bad? That's what he is trying to pin down. If you were teaching a student and she/he came in with this solo memorized, wouldn't you want to correct her/him? And what would you say to change?

 

As I'm still a "beginner"; I have to say that I don't feel so badly about my playing now. As a matter of fact; from what I just heard, I'd have to try really hard to play that badly! I'll think of this when I'm playing Yakety Sax, or Pick Up The Pieces, today!

 

Some of you guys are insufferable grumps. Jeesh... It's pretty clear who didn't watch the video and is just hating on the guy who made the video for no apparent reason.

This video was great to watch. I didn't think I'd be able to stick through a near 30 minute video analyzing a one-note solo but it was actually really interesting.

 

Some of you guys are insufferable grumps. Jeesh... It's pretty clear who didn't watch the video and is just hating on the guy who made the video for no apparent reason.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. I only saw two people who said anything at all that was not 100% positive, yes I was one of them and I watched the video twice - parts of it more than twice.

I disagreed with the producer of the video perpetuating the misleading title ("jazz solo") from the very obvious uninformed social media comments. I'm sure his intention may not to have mislead, however looking at some comments here maybe it did mislead and some people here are actually judging an out-take pop/R&B solo as a jazz solo.

Anyway I will be happy to outline a more detailed view of my thoughts - and with 100% honesty and integrity - but please do not insult people who have a different opinion from others. It's all a matter of tolerance and open mindedness.

EDIT: I have watched again and done a fairly extensive review in post 41 here

 

You come off as dismissive of the video and its producer over the most pedantic and trivial detail. It doesn't come off as a genuine criticism of somebody who would have actually watched the video with an open mind.

Nowhere in the video does he try to unfairly compare the solo to something like a Parker solo, and in fact he even rebukes people who try to compare it to Parker in the first five minutes of the video. He's entirely fair in comparing it to other similar R&B solos of the time and how it still comes up short as a solo. Anyone who genuinely thinks he's trying to judge the solo as a "jazz solo" didn't watch or didn't pay attention.

All I see is a someone getting mad that someone called something "jazz" that wasn't "jazz" even though that affects absolutely nothing about the content of the video.

 

Anyone who genuinely thinks he's trying to judge the solo as a "jazz solo" didn't watch or didn't pay attention.

That sounds fair.

All I see is a someone getting mad that someone called something "jazz" that wasn't "jazz" even though that affects absolutely nothing about the content of the video.

I'm sorry that is all you see.

I'm not mad at anyone, however I believe there is a lot wrong in the social media comments, e.g. "worst jazz solo", atonal, trying to sound like Charlie Parker, snarky comments: "Solo means I only need to play one note, right?" I believe it was wrong to rebut all of that and yet still entitle it analysis of the "worst jazz solo." OK if we want to be pedantic that was the original title of the social media, but there is a clear implication of the analysis that it is literally of "worst jazz solo" and continues to spread the misinformation. That's all.

 

Just gonna leave this here.

 

Oh man, now that was worse than worst! And it also wasn't a 'jazz solo' of course; just painful to listen to. If I was that keyboard player I would immediately have laid out; maybe the sax (out of tune and in the wrong key!) wouldn't have sounded quite so bad without clashing against the chords.

 

It sure generates views.

 

Adam has a lot of info in his videos and he can be a bit quirky at times. He's a well trained composer and musician. Maybe he didn't self edit as much because of Coronavirus but I still thought it was an excellent video.

 

Yeah, Pete, you go!

That's pretty much what I wanted to say but you did it a lot better.

 

Thank you for writing that, Pete; your assessment is very fair and insightful.

 

 

I don't do Facebook, Twitter, or any 'social media' aside from this site. So I'm not really up on all the bs that goes on there. But I pretty much agree with everything Pete said in his long post above.

Here's my short take on the title "The Worst Jazz Solo of All Time."

It's neither a jazz solo, nor is it the worst solo of all time regardless of genre. In this very thread so far we have two examples of far worse solos (go back and check them out). So the title is wrong on both points and obviously just meant to make a splash--"click bait."

 

Pete - you could have written something in your first two posts that hinted at what you just wrote, but instead your only input was "he called it jazz, it's not jazz, video bad." Go re-read your first two posts from the perspective of someone who has no idea what you were thinking when you wrote them. You might actually realize why you were called dismissive and a grump.

When I read your actual criticism the bulk of it seems to boils down to two points, the first being that you've created this narrative that "it wasn't really his idea and he just went along with it". The fact of the matter is neither of us have any way of knowing what he was thinking. For all we know the one note solo on the outtake was his idea and the guys wanted him to do something different. The main part of your critique, as far as I can tell, is "he wasn't there when it happened so he can't be an expert in the genre therefore any critique he has of the solo is wrong" which is what I suspected from the start - he's getting push back here only because of his age and because he's critical of something you personally enjoy. Have you considered the opposite argument - your closeness to the subject matter prevents you from being objective about it? I get the impression that you feel the video is somehow a critique of you personally and are on the defensive as a result.

I wasn't around back then, but I've heard a bunch of other songs from the 50's with sax solos in them that are pretty similar in style to the one on Jones Girl. In my opinion, even when compared to its contemporaries, the Jones Girl solos (both record version and the outtake version) don't sound good to me. Even the solo on In the Still of the Night kinda sounds bad to me. It has nothing to do with how I feel about the genre or the style of his playing, like I said, there are plenty of solos from that era that I really enjoy, just not these. I just think the playing sounds amateurish and not very well executed and honestly I think that's what the bulk of the newer audience that's being exposed to this solo for the first time is picking up on. I've heard a saying roughly along the lines of "you don't have to be a pilot to know it's bad when a plane crashes." Likewise, you don't have to be an expert in the musical genres of the 50's to know when a solo sounds bad.

 

I wasn't around back then, but I've heard a bunch of other songs from the 50's with sax solos in them that are pretty similar in style to the one on Jones Girl. In my opinion, even when compared to its contemporaries, the Jones Girl solos (both record version and the outtake version) don't sound good to me. Even the solo on In the Still of the Night kinda sounds bad to me. It has nothing to do with how I feel about the genre or the style of his playing, like I said, there are plenty of solos from that era that I really enjoy, just not these. I just think the playing sounds amateurish and not very well executed and honestly I think that's what the bulk of the newer audience that's being exposed to this solo for the first time is picking up on. I've heard a saying roughly along the lines of "you don't have to be a pilot to know it's bad when a plane crashes." Likewise, you don't have to be an expert in the musical genres of the 50's to know when a solo sounds bad.

I don't think it's a good solo either. But the fact is you can find tons of poor solos on YouTube, so why pick on this particular one and call it the worst solo of all time? As I said earlier, there are two solos posted on this thread that are much worse and you could find plenty more if you wanted to waste the time looking for them. There's plenty of really good music to listen to, so why waste time highlighting bad solos or labeling one of them the 'worst.'

 

Cool story about Vinny Mazzetta -

https://www.nhregister.com/news/art...e/RANDALL-BEACH-Vinny-played-sax-The-Five-Satins-11620034.php#item-85307-tbla-1

 

Cool story about Vinny Mazzetta

👏 👏 🎷

 

I saw Adam's video a couple of weeks ago and found it really interesting. I sort of understand why some people find him snarky; he's young, intelligent, and obviously knowledgeable, and that can certainly rub some people the wrong way. I didn't feel that he was disrespecting Vinny, except perhaps in the detailed analysis, but even then he was mindful of the context of the session. Context was the key word of the video, actually. I thought it was a good reminder of the usefulness of simplicity and the value of constraints. Regarding the 'jazz solo' thing: as others have mentioned, those weren't exactly his words, he's just using them as a starting point. It's obvious if you watch the whole thing that he knows that the solo in question is not a jazz solo.

 

I sort of understand why some people find him snarky; he's young, intelligent, and obviously knowledgeable, and that can certainly rub some people the wrong way.

It's kind of ironic in that some people might find this statement itself snarky, as it appears to be making unfounded assumptions about them. ie it appears to be insulting some people as opposed to constructively debating their argument. I know nobody who dislikes youth, intelligence or knowledge, and I've certainly seen no evidence of that trait in this thread.

It's obvious if you watch the whole thing that he knows that the solo in question is not a jazz solo.

Correct it is actually obvious from near the beginning that unlike the social media posters, he is aware of that. I don't think anyone thinks that Adam Neely actually thinks it's a jazz solo. (My fault of course, I stated a couple of times he seemed to think it was, due to the title).

It has already been explained, it is the use of that phrase in the title, perpetuating and legitimising the original social media rubbish, that is disingenuous.

EDIT: to be fair to Adam Neely, maybe we should not presume he had editorial control over the title, seeing as it is misleading and makes no sense in the context of the actual video.

 

Video title is click bait-ish. Neely is snarky-ish.

It gets views and he knows it. That's what being a "youtuber" is all about.