Manhattan Transfer Performing Birdland by Weather Report

Pat Metheny Trio Performing Lonely Woman by Horace Silver

This video shows the Pat Metheny Trio performing the Horace Silver tune Lonely Woman in a concert from 1999.

The Fly Trio Performing a Tune Called Child’s Play

Watch this video with the Fly Trio. This trio counts with Jeff Ballard on drums, Mark Turner on tenor saxophone and Chris Lightcap on accoustic bass. The song is a composition by drummer Jeff Ballard, however, some people think it is kind of a remake of Billie’s Bounce, the famous song by the legendary alto saxophone giant Charlie Parker.
The composition might be influenced by Charlie Parker’s original melody, but the drummer’s introduction is very original: Jeff Ballard playing the drumset with his bare hands. Later he plays with one bare hand and one stick and finally plays the conventional two drum stick style.
This kind of trios require excellent musicians, there are only three instruments in charge of the interpretation. In this case it is especially heavy work for the bass and tenor saxophone players since the band does not include an instrument like the piano or the guitar which can play simultaneously sounding chords. Here the bass player has to perform bass lines that fill the space.

Avishai Cohen Trio Performing Emotional Storm Live on Stage

In this video you can see and listen to the Avishai Cohen Trio featuring Avishai Cohen on the accoustic bass, Mark Giuliana on drums and Shai Maestro on the piano. Avishai Cohen is a recognized jazz bass player who has performed with such great jazz legends as Chick Corea and many others. In this video the band plays a mainly quiet piece which nevertheless is full of energy. Notice the perfect synchronization between the musicians. It is always rewarding to see how the musicians communicate on their field of expertise and what beautiful results they can achieve. Words won’t be enough to fully describe the beauty of the music, or maybe they would do just that: describe the music, but never sound like the music itself. Once again we find out that music is a communication channel of its own, independent from the spoken languages.

The Arne Jansen Trio Performing On the Shore

In this video clip you can see and listen to the Arne Jansen Trio performing the tune On the Shore live on stage. Arne Jansen plays the electric guitar, Eva Kruse is playing the double bass and Eric Schaefer is performing on drums. The song is in a quiet mood with an melancholic feel. Just as the title says, it could be a day on the shore, have the ocean in front of you, get calm with the huge amount of water and the endless rolling waves, maybe some birds flying in the air, a boat or two passing by, just a day On the Shore.
It is remarkable how these great musicians can play such a quiet piece, most listeners won’t appreciate their skills, everybody is expecting them to show what they can do.
However, musicality or musical talent certainly doesn’t have much to do with virtuousity, virtuousity sometimes even kills musicality just because the musician has to perform extra fast runs on his instruments, play them smoothly and don’t make any ‘mistakes’, don’t leave out notes, play wrong notes or anything that could be interpreted as evidence of his lack of talent. Many times, these fast parts don’t sound like music and the performers seem to be like secretaries who can type real fast, regardless of the content they are writing.

The Sun Ra Arkestra Performing Shadow World in a Concert in West Berlin

This video presents one of the most important free jazz groups ever: the Sun Ra Arkestra. They are playin a concert in West Berlin and performing the song Shadow World. It is not clear when this concert was recorded but the black and white pictures suggest it was in the late 1960s when german television still recorded and transmitted in black and white.
Sun Ra was always regarded as an excentric musician and many people have no access to this kind of music, they even say it is no music at all or that all musicians are fake, that they can’t play their instruments. However, this is not true. All musicians in the Sun Ra Arkestra were excellent on their instrument but just had no wish to play in the well known mainstream, repeating standard tunes and performing what everybody could accept. It is a fact that such great jazz musicians as John Coltrane took a couple of saxophone playing lessons from the sax player who appears in this video, John Gilmore might be his name, leave a comment if you know better.
The band was really avantgarde, watch that at the end they even come up with some rap – in the late sixties !

Philly Joe Jones Performing a Drum Solo

In this video you can see and listen to a drum solo performed by one of the early jazz drummers named Philly Joe Jones. The occasion this solo was played was on a concert of the Miles Davis Group. Philly Joe Jones has also played with the Sun Ra Orchestra.

Dizzy Gillespie Tony Williams Ron Carter and More Jazz Giants on Stage Together

Watch this video clip with some of the greatest jazz musicians together on stage. Ron Carter plays the accoustic bass, Tony Williams is on the drums, Freddie Hubbard blows his horn together with the great trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, while McCoy Tyner plays the piano. In this concert appear only the best musicians, an all stars group, all of them have a solid musical background and a career as soloists.
McCoy Tyner has played with the John Coltrane Quartet, Tony Williams has his own band, the Tony Williams Lifetime, Ron Carter has played the bass with almost every important jazz musician and it is not necessary to mention any group Dizzy Gillespie has played with, he is probably the best jazz trumpet player ever.
Some people even think that Tony Williams was one of the first pioneers of the Blast Beat, a technique used in Extreme Metal today.

Walk Spirit Talk Spirit Performed by McCoy Tyner Trio Plus Sax

This video clip features bandleader McCoy Tyner on piano, Eric Kamau Gravatt on drums, Gerald Cannon on the accoustic bass and guest saxophone player Gary Bartz on the alto saxophone.
McCoy Tyner is one of the most impressive jazz piano players with a musical background that includes playing with the legendary tenor saxophone master John Coltrane. The John Coltrane Quartet with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums has recorded some of the best known jazz standard tunes of music history, among them My Favourite Things.
In this video, McCoy Tyner is an old guy who plays with maturity and taste while providing an interesting harmonic base for the imporvisations of Gary Bartz on the alto saxophone. The double bass solo by Gerald Cannon is also very interesting. Funny, it reminds me the classic hard rock song Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple in some parts.
This video only shows the first nine and a half minutes of the song, you can go to youtube and look for the second part which lasts about another four and a half minutes and includes a drum solo by Eric Kamau Gravatt.

Straight No Chaser Jazz Guitar Lesson Fingerstyle Solo

This video features a jazz guitar lesson where people can learn how to play chords and melody of the Thelonious Monk tune Straight, No Chaser in what is called fingerstyle. The guitar plays chords and melody simultaneously. According to the author of this video clip, this piece is pretty easy to learn. However, easy is a relative term and of course it is not thought for a beginning guitar player. I think it requires intermediate guitar playing skills.
Thelonious Monk is one of the most important jazz piano players and composers and has contributed to the repertoire of standard jazz tunes with several compositions like Epistrophy, Blue Monk, Well You Needn’t and others. His style is very particular and sure includes rhythmic and harmonic challenges for the average jazz musician.