¶ … Spike Wilner Trio at Smalls
This is a review of the Spike Wilner Trio's performance at Smalls on December 1st, 2015. Smalls is located in Greenwich Village and is well-known as being a good jazz club. It is small as the name of the club suggests and in the basement but it is a good place to go to hear music. Spike plays the piano, while the other two members of the trio play accompany: Tyler Mitchell plucking beats on the bass and Anthony Pinciotti helping Tyler to beat out the rhythm on the drums.
There was a lot of syncopation I noticed immediately coming from their music as it would start and stop and pick up in an unexpected direction. Spike is very good at playing ragtime on the piano, but of course he is good at playing anything and the tones and textures that come from the trio are rich and full of complexity. I recognize the piano thumping style of the ragtime music and there was even a sample of the Maple Leaf Rag, which is a classic and I instantly recognized this, as it is something that appears in a lot of silent movies. The trio ripped off a few ragtime melodies like this but they also did them in a new way that made them seem unique and somewhat improvised at times and it would seem like the rhythm would pick up and launch into more of a jazz proper sound before returning after a few minutes of improvisation back to the initial rag. This made it even more exciting and interesting to hear.
I recognized the call-and-response element of jazz as well as syncopation. The drummer would get going, tapping out a furious beat and then relent and allow the piano to pick it up and carry it for a minute and meanwhile the bass would be flowing so there was free conversation back and forth between the three instruments. The polyrhythmic sound was also discernible as there were moments when the bass would be playing at a slower more methodical rhythm while the piano would be hyperactive and the drums would be even more relentless attempting to outdo all of them combined. Syncopation was definitely an aspect that I noted instantly, the...
A good example of this can be seen with the songs that were performed by: Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday. As they would often take: the actual events and incorporate them into the lyrics of their songs. This would serve as way of slowly changing the status quo, by inspiring future artists to become more brazen in how they discuss racial equality. At which point, the different lyrics were
Jazz "Blues After Dark," Feat. Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Sonny Stitt (tenor sax), Lou Levy (piano), Ray Brown (bass), Gus Johnson (drums). In Belgium, 1958 Starting with the dueling instruments, it almost sounds like two muted trumpets, because the harmonics are intense. For a few notes, it remains that way until I see that it is not two trumpets but rather, a trumpet and a saxophone. They are playing together brilliantly. A smooth stand
Jazz "Blues After Dark," Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Sonny Stitt (tenor sax), Lou Levy (piano), Ray Brown (bass), Gus Johnson (drums). In Belgium, 1958 Style = BeBop Role of Piano = Stride and Comping Role of the Bass = Walking Role of the Drums = Brushing and Riding Role of the Trumpet and Saxophone = Lead and Melody "Blues After Dark" starts off with Dizzy Gillespie and Sonny Stitt, for a few measures only the trumpet and saxophone
This is not really a typical swing rhythm, however. Jazz musicians almost always play eighth notes straighter than that, except perhaps in the style known as the shuffle. A correct ratio for swing cannot be given precisely. Different musicians tend to interpret swing in different ways. Earlier jazz musicians tended to play with a more exaggerated swing. Some styles of jazz - especially hybrids of jazz with other forms
The tone of Dizzie Gillespie and Sonny Sit's solos is notably more optimistic and cheerful. Dizzie Gillespie once again introduces some elements of Bebop into the context of his solos to enrich the more set harmony of the rest of the song. The end of the song actually features Dizzie Gillespie and OSnny Sitt singing along, really capturing the duet style of the song that was first introduced by
The roots of such music can be traced back still further to the gospel hymns, work songs, and field calls that developed amongst slave populations in the south during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Scholastic 2011). The Southern and decidedly African-American sounds of blues and early jazz were brought along with the Great migration, where New Orleans styles like Dixieland met with the calmer strains of the Mississippi blues
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