[Dixielandjazz] Passing Out/phrasing

[Cees van den Heuvel]

The absolute master of phrasing was Louis Armstrong, singing and playing.
Test: try to sing along with a Louis record and you'll find it almost 
impossible.
(Spot on, I mean)
I.m.o. that's where all the "imitators" fail. Sinatra is not bad either :)
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that phrasing...
May be phrasing and swing are the same thing.

Cees van den Heuvel
http://www.revivaljassband.nl

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 9:58 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Passing Out/phrasing


>
> I didn't see how this thread began, but it degenerated fairly quickly into
> suggestions of boozing, etc.
>
> No one has mentioned the fact that phrasing can be so very important to
> one's solo, and wind instruments need wind!  Those that honk with their
> fingers only can set up their phrasing any way they please.  However, a
> person playing a wind instrument is limited to the air he has stored away 
> at
> any given moment.  (*)
>
> I have, for the sake of not wanting to break the phrase I am playing by
> taking a breath, actually ended up seeing all black & a bunch of little
> stars in front of my eyes.  I have never actually fallen over, but it 
> could
> have been close!
>
> (*)  Some people have mastered breathing in the nose while shoving the air
> out of the mouth area by squeezing the cheeks in.  You can usually notice
> when someone is doing that, as the sound is not actually the same, and it
> takes so much concentration that the solo structure usually suffers.  A
> trick, used mainly by reed players who have too much time on their hands 
> for
> practicing, in my opinion!
>
> Phrasing is a subject I don't believe has hit the lines of DJML yet, but 
> yet
> it is so important to all of our playing/singing.  I gasp at some of the
> phrasing used by some of the pop singers.  If they were speaking, they 
> would
> never, ever take a breath at the point that they often do in their vocals.
> Frank Sinatra, of course, was the King of Phrasing for vocalists!
>
> Our best known jazz saxophonist in Spain (Pedro Itturalde) was playing one
> of his Flamenco/Jazz compositions once (I was in the big band with him).
> When he reached the top of what would normally be the musical phrase (like
> at the summit of a mountain), he held the note over, bending it, and then
> dropped down the other side of the phrase, without taking a breath.  Hard 
> to
> explain in words.  It was one of the best expressions (in my mind) of
> beautiful phrasing I have ever heard. I told him so afterwards.  It had 
> been
> natural for him, and he wasn't even aware of it.  (Some people have it
> naturally!)
>
> Jim
>
>
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