DJ Hairy Larry Presents Jazz Writers Big Band Playing “Elegy”
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-08-25

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a Big Band play a composition written by an Arkansas jazz educator.

I went to school at ASU with Joseph Curtis. After he graduated he was band director at Hoxie and Trumann. He’s now in Law School in Little Rock.

I think the first time I recorded Joseph was when he was playing in an ASU small group called “Jazztette”. Ron Horton wanted me to take some video of him teaching jazz improvisation and I also recorded their concert. I interviewed Dr. Horton and four of the students and produced a documentary, “Jazztette – Teaching Jazz Improvisation”. They played an original jazz composition by Joseph Curtis called “Baile de Trece”.

I also recorded his band, Bluebeck, at KASU Jazz Thursday and Bebopalooza. I got to sit in with Bluebeck on guitar at the Jazz Thursday show. Gary Gazaway was the headliner at the Bebopalooza show and he invited Joseph Curtis and Ron Horton up to play on their closing songs.

Joseph was in NJHB and he played at our first session on December 29, 2012 as well as on many NJHB shows and albums in 2013 including my senior recital.

Joseph has played with my band Bebop Beatniks frequently and he is featured on the album “Church”. He would livestream with Bebop Beatniks from the Twitch Porch.

He participated in the KASU New Jazz In Jonesboro concerts at the public library. I got to play bass once with his band. He also played at New Jazz In Jonesboro with Ken Carroll and NJHB.

He contributed many of his songs to the Jazz Writers Big Band. I recorded most of their shows and the “Jazz Writers Big Band” album.

His brother Clinton Curtis plays amazing alto sax and I have also recorded him many times but that will have to be for another podcast.

Visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com for links.

There is one chord progression so important to jazz that if you master this chord progression, you've essentially unlocked hundreds of jazz standards because it is by far the most common chord progression in all of jazz music, and that is the 2-5-1 chord progression.

So, let's talk everything 2-5-1 chord progressions, exactly what they are, how to use them, and how they work.

Jazz scales are something everyone talks about. Chances are, you’ve been told that you need to know dozens of scales to play jazz and that these structures hold the keys to unlocking jazz improvisation.

But what you might not realize is that you don’t need to know a million jazz scales to construct a solid jazz solo and that some are more important than others.

So today, we’re going to get into everything you need to know about jazz scales…

My phone rang and I snapped. I had just got the class’s attention! I finally got them to look up from their screens, ready to explain how many kids had died to get the cobalt for their damned precious phones.

This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Bob James, Scott McLemore, and Steve Kahn. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.

There's a statue of a woman up on the high cliff. Her eyes fixate on the horizon, her face as still as the rock on which she stands. Moss licks at her feet, grass threatening to mount her legs and pull her down. She burns in the summer and freezes in the winter. Rain lashes her, soaking into her cracks. Her gaze is resolute, motionless, icy. She holds a spear in her hands, long and sharp as the day it was carved. Down below, waves crash at the base of cliff. She stands there, isolated and proud.

She has stood there for centuries or more, watching as the water caresses earth and carries it away so slowly. Bit by bit, the cliff shrinks, the edge drawing ever closer to her heavy feet. Someday, she'll have to choose between taking a single step back or falling. I can almost see her shattering into a million pieces at the base of the cliff, the air snapping up her dust. It'll take centuries before erosion reaches her, but I have every faith she'll still be there. She's waiting for something inevitable. I wish I knew what.

My cat woke up, did a big stretch, and yawned. Then she hiccoughed, turned into a small dragon, and coughed up a fireball.

"!!!" I said.

This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Hypotenuza, Snowflake and ccMixter, UK Jazz Explorers, and Steve Lawson. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.

Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.

Hypotenuza-Meanwhile in The North Pole
www.jamendo.com/album/501503/meanwhile-in-the-north-pole

Back To Earth – UK Jazz Voyagers
www.jamendo.com/album/174238/back-to-earth

Snowflake & ccMixter-Peace of Winter
www.jamendo.com/album/55877/peace-of-winter

FingerPainting by Steve Lawson and Daniel Berkman
music.stevelawson.net/album/fingerpainting

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Hairy Larry Playing Bunnies
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-08-04

Thanks Marty. Today we’re going to hear a jazz song played to a rock beat.

During the pandemic I couldn’t play out but I still had to perform so I started livestreaming on twitch. To avoid copyright issues livestreaming I played only originals. After a few months of livestreaming 2 or 3 times a week I had settled in on 16 of my own compositions that I called my streaming repertoire.

I called my stream Hairy Larry Practicing Piano. It turns out that if you practice the same 16 songs week after week for two years you get pretty good at them. I had a routine. I’d record the stream. Then I’d listen back writing the song titles in order and I put a star next to the good takes. Then I’d make a video of the starred songs.

At first I would get two or three songs with stars but later on sometimes they would all be starred. And then I realized I had an album.

“STOP!  Don’t feed that to the cat.   I have to weigh it first.”

“Did you put your CAT on a DIET?  That’s mean.”

“No, I’m doing an experiment to prove that cat zoomies are thermodynamically impossible based on their food input.