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Ab Baars Trio with Ken Vandermark ... Live shot

The return of Take Five Friday

TakeFiveFriday logoClearly, I've been having trouble keeping up my end of the bargain, but I'd like to continue this series of posts as I'm always coming across jazz-related links that I'd like to share. Here are five more... so Take Five.

  • Baseball and nonsequitur king Yogi Berra knew all about jazz. I recently ran across him explaining jazz in an interview. Here's a taste:
    I can't, but I will. Ninety percent of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong.
    Read the rest on AllAboutJazz.com.
  • I don't know about you, but I spent a lot of time in my early youth (and later when my sister was growing up) watching this guy in a cardigan go to the "Land of Make Believe" and sing songs while talking to puppets. Holly Yarbrough's Mister Rogers Swings! has recast all your favorite songs from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood's as swinging, jazzy, uptempo covers. You can get a taste at Boing Boing where I got the tip (well in a podcast linked to from there).
  • Geoffrey Keezer, pianist and recent collaborator with Joe Locke (last time I saw him was here at Water Street in support of their great album The Joe Locke / Geoffrey Keezer Group - Live In Seattle) has really taken to blogging and other things social media. I've enjoyed reading his posts at Streaming News from Keezer's Brain. He's also on Twitter.
  • One of the great things about Wikipedia is it has such a wide diversity of information that when you hear something you can look it up. Recently I overheard some musicians talking about the "head" in music. I didn't know (I only play a musician on the Internet); now I do. Or do I? All you musicians who read this blog take a look and and let me know in the comments if the Wikipedia article is full of hooey. Better yet, sign in and edit the article yourself!
  • And we finish off with some scat ... by none other than swashbuckling spinach consumer, Popeye. It even has lyrics, so you can follow along!

So take five and explore. Let me know what you think in the comments ....There will be five more next week ... I swear!

This post was originally published on JazzRochester.

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