[Alex Nyman]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fh3z7u6jbqx9k7r/ - Jamey Aebersold Play-A-Long - Crescent(1).m4a?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rc426yjcdjg7t33/Photo 30-06-20, 10 17 22 AM.jpg?dl=0 Bb

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q2uzpcn2pon2scp/Photo 30-06-20, 10 17 33 AM.jpg?dl=0 Eb

So here is my choice for this month. John Coltrane's Crescent.

This is open to many ways of interpretation. The original version by Trane is a good place to start if you're not familiar with it. Lots of other versions on YouTube I can recommend this one

And this one

Or maybe even this one

Whatever way you choose to do it I'm looking forward to what you do.

I'll be uploading a personal take later today.

Wishing you all a very safe and pleasant month ahead.

Kind regards as always, Alex

 

[J-Moen]

Great choice Alex! I am going to have to work hard at this one for sure.

 

[Alex Nyman]

Great choice Alex! I am going to have to work hard at this one for sure.

Fabulous Jared. Looking forward to your take. Best, Alex

 

[Alex Nyman]

I feel it incumbent upon me to offer the first take and here it is https://soundcloud.com/alex-nyman-759436259%2Fcrescent-coltrane for better or worse there it is. It's actually a good opportunity to give a horn that arrived today a bit of a work out. It's the Trevor James Custom Raw that was sent down to me from Auckland for a trial and it seems that everyone and their favourite pet is endorsing them now. I really like the horn although the action is a little heavy for me as it is and I'm still working with the tuning as you'll no doubt hear and although I would normally not let bad tuning through onto a upload I felt that this was just as raw as it could get so it's there warts and all. At least now I know where I'll need to focus later today when I'm back in the studio. I've put a Ted Klum Amber Versitone Acoustimax mouthpiece on and it seems to be a friendly match. For now. Anyway here's to many more takes from you guys over the next month. I hope you have a good time with it. I may do another version with the woodwinds later on. Thanks for listening if you have time. Best, Alex

 

[mrpeebee]

Thanks Alex for preparing and hosting this month TOTM.

I've added this thread to the main TOTM index:
https://forum.saxontheweb.net/showt...e-November-2009-onwards&p=4045310#post4045310

Looking forward to another busy TOTM.

 

[mrpeebee]

I feel it incumbent upon me to offer the first take and here it is https://soundcloud.com/alex-nyman-759436259%2Fcrescent-coltrane for better or worse there it is. It's actually a good opportunity to give a horn that arrived today a bit of a work out. It's the Trevor James Custom Raw that was sent down to me from Auckland for a trial and it seems that everyone and their favourite pet is endorsing them now. I really like the horn although the action is a little heavy for me as it is and I'm still working with the tuning as you'll no doubt hear and although I would normally not let bad tuning through onto a upload I felt that this was just as raw as it could get so it's there warts and all. At least now I know where I'll need to focus later today when I'm back in the studio. I've put a Ted Klum Amber Versitone Acoustimax mouthpiece on and it seems to be a friendly match. For now. Anyway here's to many more takes from you guys over the next month. I hope you have a good time with it. I may do another version with the woodwinds later on. Thanks for listening if you have time. Best, Alex

Alex, that's an excellent start of the thread!

You really got a good Coltrane vibe and that new alto sounds powerful and deep. I can hear some minor intonation issues, but I'm used to my own stuff (having a factor 100 more intonation issues), so who cares! You had a really nice build-up of the solo too, very well done and by far not so easy to achieve with this (in my ears) incoherent backing track (they sound for me like three Islands, not like one rhythm section).

 

[Alex Nyman]

Thank you Peter. Really appreciate your thoughts. I’ll check for some other backing tracks for this one.......... (some time later)......... I've checked online and I can't find another track other than one where the changes played are incorrect. So unless someone else can supply one this is the best I've got but having said that Ron Carter Harold Mabern and Adam Nussbaum are not exactly the worst rhythm section in the world but I do get the stereo split can make it sound a bit disparate at times.

 

[Brendan]

I feel it incumbent upon me to offer the first take and here it is https://soundcloud.com/alex-nyman-759436259%2Fcrescent-coltrane

Fantastic take Alex (as usual :bluewink: ) ! I'm not familiar with this tune so I'll have to listen more than a few times to get it in my head.
I know it's Coltrane, but I'm getting a Wayne Shorter vibe ... but what do I know ! :mrgreen:
Seems like a lot of sus, b9's and #5's etc .. going to have to find something to fit .. whole tone ? alt ?? :scratch:

 

[Alex Nyman]

Fantastic take Alex (as usual :bluewink: ) ! I'm not familiar with this tune so I'll have to listen more than a few times to get it in my head.
I know it's Coltrane, but I'm getting a Wayne Shorter vibe ... but what do I know ! :mrgreen:
Seems like a lot of sus, b9's and #5's etc .. going to have to find something to fit .. whole tone ? alt ?? :scratch:

Thanks Brendan.....take a listen to this version by Coltrane in 1966

incredibly lyrical and man how his sound had changed.....so beautiful, the singing vibrato almost, still his unmistakable sound of course...but certainly a few ideas for scale choice if you need some...maybe ...... and then there's Sanders solo....another idea maybe? Mind you listening to him now....

shows how many go through periods of change.....and here he sounds more like Trane than ever....still an incredibly beautiful sound and soloing....

 

[Taragot]

Whoa - supergreat, Alex! I wasn't familiar with the tune, too but I like Coltranes music for shure. I played a bit with the Aebersold backing and didn't find in the head (where are those faint bassdrum ? accents) and in the solo (is there a kind of interlude before it gets in this 12bar form? Are these more or less the chords from the real book?).
I like to impro some time strictly by ear but after a while playing without going somewhere is a bit pointless
Can you help me (and others?), Alex?
Thank you!

 

[Brendan]

There is a 16 bar C minor "interlude" between the head and the solo section .. it all made sense after I looked up the Aebersold notation !

 

[Alex Nyman]

Whoa - supergreat, Alex! I wasn't familiar with the tune, too but I like Coltranes music for shure. I played a bit with the Aebersold backing and didn't find in the head (where are those faint bassdrum ? accents) and in the solo (is there a kind of interlude before it gets in this 12bar form? Are these more or less the chords from the real book?).
I like to impro some time strictly by ear but after a while playing without going somewhere is a bit pointless
Can you help me (and others?), Alex?
Thank you!

Hi Taragot....Yes exactly what Brendan said above. There is a Cm (concert) vamp before it goes to the Fm for the 12 bar solo format and at the end goes to the last 4 bars of the slow tempo melody as per my track above. there is the rubato section at the beginning of course before it goes into the slow ballad tempo. I hope that my initial recording makes that clear enough.....and if not then check this out the original track

hope that gives you a better idea....cool. Best, Alex

 

[Taragot]

Thank you Brendan and Alex!
now the soloform is clear for me - but how do I know when to play the pickup bar for the head? There are some "timing signals" at the end of the open intro, but I'm always too late with my entry...

 

[Alex Nyman]

You have to either listen to it enough times and feel where it is or if you have a DAW with the wave form showing you can see where the entry is...remember Coltrane would have nodded that in so doing it with a backing track is a bit tricky until you're familiar with it enough to feel it. Of course you don't HAVE to play the pick up into the melody line you can enter straight in on bar 1....this is about your interpretation of it with whatever you have at your disposal....

 

[SimonJazzSax]

I feel it incumbent upon me to offer the first take and here it is https://soundcloud.com/alex-nyman-759436259%2Fcrescent-coltrane for better or worse there it is. It's actually a good opportunity to give a horn that arrived today a bit of a work out. It's the Trevor James Custom Raw that was sent down to me from Auckland for a trial and it seems that everyone and their favourite pet is endorsing them now. I really like the horn although the action is a little heavy for me as it is and I'm still working with the tuning as you'll no doubt hear and although I would normally not let bad tuning through onto a upload I felt that this was just as raw as it could get so it's there warts and all. At least now I know where I'll need to focus later today when I'm back in the studio. I've put a Ted Klum Amber Versitone Acoustimax mouthpiece on and it seems to be a friendly match. For now. Anyway here's to many more takes from you guys over the next month. I hope you have a good time with it. I may do another version with the woodwinds later on. Thanks for listening if you have time. Best, Alex

Sounds great Alex! Such a cool pick. I'm excited for this one. Will be spending some time with this before my post, but will be sure to make one

Sent from my HD1925 using Tapatalk

 

[Michael_A]

I feel it incumbent upon me to offer the first take and here it is https://soundcloud.com/alex-nyman-759436259%2Fcrescent-coltrane for better or worse there it is.

Alex, such an interesting development. Love it from A to Z. Super!

 

[Alex Nyman]

Sounds great Alex! Such a cool pick. I'm excited for this one. Will be spending some time with this before my post, but will be sure to make one

Sent from my HD1925 using Tapatalk

That's great to hear Simon and I'm looking forward to it. Best, Alex

 

[Alex Nyman]

Alex, such an interesting development. Love it from A to Z. Super!

Most kind Michael. Thank you. Looking forward to your version. Best, Alex

 

[HeavyWeather77]

It can be daunting to attempt an iconic tune by an iconic master like this, but it was a really cool pick for the TOTM and I've really enjoyed working on it. My answer to the above conundrum is usually to do a take on it that's a big departure from the original, and since I really enjoy producing ambient electronic beats and tracks, I made one for the solo changes of "Crescent," starting with the C minor vamp and then cycling through the form.

Another of my all-time heroes, John McLaughlin, has been incorporating beautiful ambient electronic sounds into his music for decades, and I always really love his work. I definitely took some inspiration from him for this treatment. Cheers, thanks for the cool prompt!

 

[Alex Nyman]

Yeh Brian. That’s a super cool treatment of the original piece. Beautiful playing as always from you. Great chord voicing too. John has always been one of my favourite players (of any instrument) when I was based in Monte Carlo for a few years as the resident saxophonist at the Casino the guitarist in the band went down to the Rocabella apartments where John lived and simply rang his door bell told him who he was and John invited him up for the afternoon. No pretension just sat and played with him for a while. What a cool guy. Thank you so much for sharing your fantastic musicianship here with us. Much appreciated. Best, Alex