From: mjs@fc.hp.com (Marc Sabatella)
Newsgroups: rec.music.bluenote
Subject: Re: Suggestions for Magazine Subscriptions???
Date: 22 Jan 1993 18:13:20 GMT
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Larry Lewicki (ldl@berlioz.nsc.com) wrote:
: Regarding the "Keyboard"
: subscription - I play piano and primarily enjoy the articles
: that relate to topics like harmonization, synthetic scale
: generation, voice leading etc. (like how to articles on    
: creating tone rows).

How do you find them amid all the interviews with non-keyboard-playing rap
artists?  Seriously, if music theory is what you are looking for, you must have
a tremendous tolerance for low signal/noise ratios.  Dave Stewart is about the
only writer they have that has anything much to say, and he is so full of
himself it can be tiresome to read even when you interested in the subject
matter.

: I have a pretty good
: understanding of chord construction and playing changes but 
: would really like to learn how to play more freely sort of
: like the expanded harmonizations that Herbie Hancock used 
: while playing with Miles and on the V.S.O.P. albums

I have never seen anyone succeed at analyzing that sort of playing.  It's
incredible; it's beautiful; but relating Herbie's comping on the VSOP version
of, say, "Delores" to the "official" changes is kind of a zen thing.  Not that
I do a good job of it myself, but have you checked out my "Jazz Improvisation
Primer", available via anonymous ftp from ftp.njit.edu in /pub/jazz-primer?
I do dedicate a few mostly non-technical paragraphs to the subject (section
5.5, "Non-tonal Improvisation").  I wish I could be more specific, but I'm
pretty sure a technical analysis is not the way to understand what Herbie is
doing - from what I hear, and from what Herbie has said, he tends not to think
that way anyhow.  In any case, the primer may fill a few holes in your
knowledge of traditional jazz harmony.

: The only "jazz" magazine that I am aware of is "Downbeat".
: I'm just wondering if there are others.

Plenty, although none that I am aware of that are oriented toward performing
musicians.  Most are collections of interviews and reviews - in that respect,
similar in concept to Downbeat, but without the occassional transcribed solo.
The differences are mainly in the type of music emphasized - "Jazziz" and
"Jazz Times" more into the populist Kenny G / Grover Washington direction,
"Cadence" more into the esoteric Evan Parker / Anthony Braxton direction.
Downbeat is situated pretty much in the middle - leaning more toward the Kenny
side than the Evan side.

--
Marc Sabatella
marc@hpmonk.fc.hp.com
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Newsgroups: rec.music.bluenote