The Cat in the Hat

A little jazz piece of mine.

With a live recording at Thomas Jillings on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

Comments are welcome.

The Cat in the Hat.pdf

This is a very cool piece. It's a really tight band and a solid sax solo too.

Good work!

Interesting...

It sounds to me like you have two tunes going on at once.

The vamp is solid. The melody/changes could be solid... BUT, they don't work together.

:dunno:

The blowing is decent, but you need to pace yourself a bit better. You seem anchored to the mode and come out guns blazing. Try some more rhythmic development in your solos, think melodically and have clear direction and contour - also getting away from the straight-up Lydian-on-major-chords way of thinking will help open up your blowing.

Hmm, well, there is certainly a contrast between the head and the solos, if that's what you mean. Or are you talking about the polytonal effect in the head itself? Because the head doesn't really have chord changes (though the changes in the solos are based on the melody). If it's the latter, we'll just have to disagree, because I quite the the polytonality, and the melody/changes would be quite boring without it. Maybe the recording quality has something to do with it. (Maybe not.)

As for the solo, I'm quite sure I'm not playing lydian most of the time. If anything, I tend to stick to ionian most of the time, except on the IVmaj chord. But I can agree on your comment that I stay inside too much. And of course, that I play too many notes. But hey, us sax players have a reputation to uphold...

Thanks a lot for taking the time to comment, both of you.

Hmm, well, there is certainly a contrast between the head and the solos, if that's what you mean. Or are you talking about the polytonal effect in the head itself? Because the head doesn't really have chord changes (though the changes in the solos are based on the melody). If it's the latter, we'll just have to disagree, because I quite the the polytonality, and the melody/changes would be quite boring without it. Maybe the recording quality has something to do with it. (Maybe not.)

I just meant the head. The changes are fine.

And fair enough. Though, to me it sounds less like a polytonal approach than it does a cool vamp with an incompatible melody. :whistling:

As for the solo, I'm quite sure I'm not playing lydian most of the time. If anything, I tend to stick to ionian most of the time, except on the IVmaj chord. But I can agree on your comment that I stay inside too much. And of course, that I play too many notes. But hey, us sax players have a reputation to uphold...

Ionian?! Even worse. ;)

There's two ways to think modally and have it still be effective.

1) Stick to the mode and make it highly melodic. I.e. Miles on "So What".

2) Contrast the mode with other textures. Incorporate side-stepping, and other ways of getting away from the mode - create some tension, and resolve it. I.e. Coltrane on "Impressions".

Either way, the goal is to create an upward/forward momentum of energy, as opposed to flat and aimless rambling.

For the solos, I'm not saying it was bad - but that it could have even more impact if you gave it a bit more shape.

I just meant the head. The changes are fine.

And fair enough. Though, to me it sounds less like a polytonal approach than it does a cool vamp with an incompatible melody. :whistling:

I'm sorry you feel that way.

Ionian?! Even worse. ;)

No, it really isn't :) (and "if anything" were key words in that sentence)

There's two ways to think modally and have it still be effective.

1) Stick to the mode and make it highly melodic. I.e. Miles on "So What".

2) Contrast the mode with other textures. Incorporate side-stepping, and other ways of getting away from the mode - create some tension, and resolve it. I.e. Coltrane on "Impressions".

Either way, the goal is to create an upward/forward momentum of energy, as opposed to flat and aimless rambling.

For the solos, I'm not saying it was bad - but that it could have even more impact if you gave it a bit more shape.

I understand completely. And I've agreed with it already, so I guess I'll agree with it again (thanks for rubbing it in) ;)

I'm familiar with both approaches to modal jazz. I think maybe I tend to overlook them in this piece. There's a constant sort of uplifting effect going from Gmaj7 to Emaj7 which I quite like, and this maybe makes me concentrate less on making the rest of the solo interesting. When playing pieces that stay in the same mode all the way through, I don't think I have that problem as much. It's weird though, because a piece like impressions doesn't stay in the same mode for much longer. Just my perception, apparently. Maybe the IVmaj7 chord has something to do with it, because it sounds so tonal. Thank you for pointing this out to me.