[JazzItUp]

Please take note these are my compositions on synth, I just want your opinions on my melodies and what I can do to improve in some areas.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=719321&content=music

I have two music set up there, just click play!

WARNING: Non Smooth Jazz lovers, beware!

 

[jrvinson45]

This sure beats the wedding gig!

Ethan, Ethan, Ethan,
I think you've been sandbagging us with your saxophone talk. For the genre you've picked, I'd almost say you're not really smooth jazz because you haven't learned to bore us with the drum machine yet... Really, I'd say you're about ready to set the New Age group on fire, because this is really right up their alley. You're right, the non smooth jazz crowd isn't going to show up here, but if you dig it, what the heck, you're right on track and there's nothing but green lights up ahead. Great effort.
Thanks,
JRV:thumbrig:

 

[JazzItUp]

Ethan, Ethan, Ethan,
I think you've been sandbagging us with your saxophone talk. For the genre you've picked, I'd almost say you're not really smooth jazz because you haven't learned to bore us with the drum machine yet... Really, I'd say you're about ready to set the New Age group on fire, because this is really right up their alley. You're right, the non smooth jazz crowd isn't going to show up here, but if you dig it, what the heck, you're right on track and there's nothing but green lights up ahead. Great effort.
Thanks,
JRV:thumbrig:

Hey jrvinson45, I don't think I've been sandbagging you guys here, you guys are like family to me. That would be a rather harsh thing to do! I'm kind of leaving that Smooth Jazz path because it is predictable, but it's hard to leave something you really like. I'll try funk , pop, r&b & gospel, but even though I like real hardcore jazz, truth is, I can't play it!

Thanks for the encouragement, and thanks for listening!

 

[jrvinson45]

Maybe predictable ain't all that bad...

Ethan,
Let me preface this mini-rant with it's just an opinion for which I reserve the right to be totally full of "it".

I can understand you wanting to move to something less predictable than "smooth jazz", but the genre remains a very popular one because it appeals to a lot of people. Maybe those people like it because it is predictable, but even more likely I'd say they like it because it does not affect their sensibilities. Think about this for a bit (and for the $.02 it's worth) when Paul Desmond wrote Take Five, it was recorded for posterity on Brubeck's "Time Out" album. For the next 45 years, that song sounded "right" to a lot of people only in its Time Out incarnation that is, the original is the one that just sounds best to the masses even though it has become one of the more oft recorded tunes of all times. When people went to hear Brubeck, they wanted to hear Desmond play Take Five the way it was on the album, and guess what? He pretty much stayed true that version because that's what people paid to hear. At some time in each tune's history, it was creative before it became worn. I think the "trick" to smooth jazz is being creative the first time on the recording, no matter how many takes it needs to get that way… In other words, if you like smooth jazz create some new and interesting smooth jazz that may just have enough of a hook to become iconified, and then if you are fortunate enough to get recognized for it exploit the heck out of it and play for the masses. If you make people happy to hear your music, they'll be much more likely to accept new things as long as they don't have to jump a chasm to get to it. You say you're not ready to jump into the full up world of improvised jazz, yet you are smart enough to know that it takes time, experience and training. Just remember that 90 percent of the listening audience doesn't know Phil Woods, yet most of them like the solo on "Just the Way You Are" by Billy Joel. Even that solo has become an icon in that no matter who plays the solo, everyone wants it to sound just the way Phil "created" it. If you were to play it, it would be Ethan playing "the Phil Woods solo." If you do something that has a spark of creativity, realize that maybe they don't come along terribly often for many people. I am just saying don't forsake something you do well for something new, because you can do both. Who knows, you may be the one that turns "smooth jazz" into the kind of jazz that a lot of the cats on this forum may grow to like? Could happen…?

 

[JazzItUp]

Hey thank you for that speech! I have thought about it twice, I'm thinking I stay in the Smooth Jazz world but I'm not going to be afraid to take any chances. I have a video up on youtube on one of my compositions and somebody said it really shows my style, but that's the thing, I don't have just one style. I like doing alot of things, so maybe that's what will happen.
Thanks again for the support, apparently you were the only one who took the time to listen! So I really appreciate it!

 

[FighterForJC]

Hey thank you for that speech! I have thought about it twice, I'm thinking I stay in the Smooth Jazz world but I'm not going to be afraid to take any chances...

Actually, unless you go out into the undeniably "hardcore jazz" world, you're probably going to be "stuck" under the "smooth jazz" label if you choose to play anything instrumental or mellow. It's just the way it is. At least based on a smooth jazz radio station here in so cal, "94.7 The Wave," smooth jazz can range anywhere from Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" song, to Lionel Ritchie's "Easy," to Vanessa Williams' "Save the Best For Last," to The Temptation's "Just My Imagination," to Kenny G's "Silhouette," to anything. You get the point.

 

[Jayn]

Hey, Great Job! You definitely have a style and a wonderful melodic sense going for you.
Have you checked out a site called indaba music? You can put your music up and find people to collaborate with--who knows, maybe you'd find a great virtual band to work with and fully realize your tunes.
http://www.indabamusic.com/
Keep up the great work!

 

[docformat]

Good stuff, Ethan.

 

[FighterForJC]

By the way I listened to your songs last night. I think one of them is on your myspace website? Anywayz, it sounds very nice, "Happy" is how I can describe it.

 

[JazzItUp]

By the way I listened to your songs last night. I think one of them is on your myspace website? Anywayz, it sounds very nice, "Happy" is how I can describe it.

Thanks JC. You probably heard "Her Smile". That one is mostly pop jazz... smooth and relaxed. Not that many soloing going on in that one... but my new project called Groove Again, that one has some more solos and is def. groove oriented. Here let me give you the link...

here it is

did you listen to this one before??

 

[JazzItUp]

Hey, Great Job! You definitely have a style and a wonderful melodic sense going for you.
Have you checked out a site called indaba music? You can put your music up and find people to collaborate with--who knows, maybe you'd find a great virtual band to work with and fully realize your tunes.
http://www.indabamusic.com/
Keep up the great work!

Dude thanks man! Love that website! I'm going to find some musicians to jam with!!!

 

[Jayn]

Great! Glad you're into--let us know if you get some tracks going over there!