http://johnguari.com/music/novemberclip-lab09.mp3

I decided to splice up this clip to give a taste of what my chart “November” sounds like on Lab 2009. Previously I only had the version from my Graduate Recital up. Buy the album if you please!

Actually that is me.

I’m trying to get back into the blog thing. Years ago, I used to keep a pretty ridiculous blog at this web address. That was 2003-2005 (about). I think I can be more articulate and focused now than I was back then.

The Internet exploded yesterday after the news of Michael Jackson’s death broke. Darcy James Argue wrote about how stunning Michael Jackson’s talent and work ethic were, even from a young age. At work today, The first thing I did was put on The Essential Michael Jackson. “Got To Be There,” the title track from his album of the same name came on. The studio track is impressive, but I found this earlier today on YouTube. Listen at 0:53.

Incredible.

In 1972, MJ was 13 and already years into his career as a professional musician. I believe when I was 13, I had just made the decision that wearing sweatpants to school everyday was not going to happen anymore. Whatever. I had my accomplishments and he had his.

Because of the sheer volume of pop music produced, statistically there are going to be a lot of good songs heard. Michael Jackson wasn’t great because he had a hit or two. He was great because he made great songs consistently for DECADES. Songs that I (and pretty much everyone else) can listen to over and over again. This is because his songs are valuable.

Especially with the addition of Quincy Jones to his musical world, Michael Jackson’s songs are astonishing. Sean “Philly” Jones and I had a pet project last summer of trying to recreate “Rock With You.” It took a really long time and by then end of summer we had a lot of stuff going on. Initially, Philly had laid down the drums (a direct transcription I believe) to a click track. I a placeholder bassline which Scott Mulvahill eventually replaced. Kelyn Crapp laid down guitars and Melissa McMillan did vocals. We then added the little details (horns, strings, synths) piece by piece. The summer ended before we completely realized this project, but it was an eye opening experience. There is SO MUCH going on in the original track, yet it sounds so well blended.

Here’s what we came up with. It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to it.

Here’s a live video of Tatiana Mayfield and The Two O’Clock Lab Band playing my arrangement of “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right.” It’ll be performed on my Grad Recital, which is this Thursday at 8:00PM in Kenton Hall on the UNT Campus. Quality recordings of that night will be available here when I receive and upload them.

This website redesign is awesome. Big props to Q, an old friend from high school who did this. This new look may be the catalyst that restarts me working on my web presence/blogging.

I’ve been thinking about who the most important people in my musical life have been.

I recently visited my home of Minnesota and spent some time with my high school trumpet teacher Brad Shermock. I began taking lessons with him during my junior year of high school. It was through him that I first learned about the UNT Jazz Program. He did his undergrad there in the late 80s and early 90s and played 2nd trumpet on the album The Translucent Two by the UNT Two O’Clock Lab band. He stressed trumpet fundamentals and we rarely (if ever) worked explicitly on playing in the jazz styles. Regardless, he made sure to warn me that UNT is an easy school to go to, but a hard school to stay at.

We hung out for about 4 hours, and I could’ve hung out for 4 more, but I was meeting some friends in St. Paul. Talking with him during my trips home usually encourages and re-energizes me about music. I’m ready for my sixth and final year at UNT, after which I’ll receive my Master’s in Jazz Composition.

So Brad is one mentor in my life, the second is Phil Holm. I think I’ll collect my thoughts and write about him soon.

So I haven’t really updated this very much, but that’s ok.

My summer has consisted of a good bit of practicing, and recently a fun project. My friend, drummer Sean Philly Jones called me to do some keyboard parts on a track he’s recording. The idea is to meticulously recreate “Rock With You,” from the Michael Jackson album Off The Wall. This project was started so Philly could learn to use his recording program, Digital Performer, better. At the beginning of the week, all Philly had down was a completely accurate drum part.

One day, I played the main rhodes part and a functional synth bass part. Over the next few days, we added synth string parts (which will later be replaced with real strings) and additional synth parts. Yesterday, Scott Mulvahill added the true bass part and Kelyn Crapp laid down the guitars. I also played most of the flugal and trumpet parts. The track has a ways to go (Quincy Jones as producer made the original track immensely and intricately layered), but it already sounds really good. I may post it when it’s finished.

Even though Philly is doing all the tracking and mixing, I’ve probably been the next most involved person and I’ve adopted it as my own project too. The most likely candidate for our next project is “Peg” from the Steely Dan album Aja. Philly, Brian Stark and I are going to see Steely Dan in August when they come to the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, TX.

Steely Dan is coming to the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie on August 21, and (assuming the ticket price isn’t outrageous), I will be going. I took a look at who the band is for this tour, and it’s (of course) filled with heavy, heavy players.

A name I immediately recognized was Keith Carlock’s, whose band Rudder I’ve seen a few times. He’s incredibly energetic and is pretty influential among the young drumming crowd, even though he is still young himself.

I also recognized the names of trombonist Jim Pugh and saxophonist Walt Weiskopf. Jim visited UNT last fall for some master classes and the inaugural performance of the U-Tubes. Steve Wiest and I listened to some of Walt’s nonet music during composition lessons this past spring.

Steely Dan is one of those groups that I start appreciating way too late. Only in the past couple years have I really gotten into them, and I still haven’t seriously listened to either of the Donald Fagen albums, the Walter Becker album, or Steely Dan past Gaucho. Almost everything on the Citizen Steely Dan Boxset I’m at least slightly familiar with (if not deeply love). I need to step up my listening and get those albums on rotation.

Today marks the first time I have listened to Prince’s eponymous album. I’m really enjoying it. I had heard Prince’s original version of “I Feel For You,” but hadn’t heard anything else from this record.

A brief Wikipedia expedition has revealed that Prince was recorded and released at nearly the same time as Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall. The bassline in “I Wanna Be Your Lover” by Prince reminded me of that of “Off The Wall” and I subsequently checked on those facts.

Prince played most of the instruments on this album. The production is very tight, subsequently. Every so often, there is a musical curveball, which I like. The early syncopation of the main riff of “Bambi” (1, &2, 3) caught me off guard. The track as a whole is more rock than the funk/disco inspired first half of the album, which is a good change of pace.

There is a strong presence of the IV-iii-ii progression, which I am fond of and have used sometimes in my own pop music.

I will certainly be giving this album repeated listens. Minnesota music is something that I have been increasingly interested in in recent years.