A random rant

As is generally the case on weekends, I went to Starbucks this afternoon to sip on a moccacino (decaf, of course) and read the paper. As is also generally the case, I had my MP3 player with me to save me from the, er, music that usually bleats from the speakers.

I like to think my music collection is fairly eclectic, albeit predominated by jazz: today's sampling included Steps Ahead, Miles Davis (early and late), Lyle Lovett, Alain Caron (good to get some CanCon in there), Charlie Parker, Fourplay (a much better band than their crap name might lead one to believe), Crash Test Dummies, Jaco Pastorius, NOJO (more CanCon!) and Keith Jarrett, among others. Good accompaniment for the 'cino and Sunday Star.

Now, I quite like Keith Jarrett. My Song, with Jan Garbarek on saxophones, is a good album. Jan sounds great. Keith's solos are terrific, too... but he has a well-documented and very bad habit of vocalizing during his solos. It's distracting and just plain annoying.

I've heard a few jazzers over the years who sing along with themselves as they play. George Benson has made something of a career out of it (cf. "On Broadway" or "This Masquerade" from Breezin'), and it was an integral part of Slam Stewart's trademark sound. Oscar Peterson is another vocalizer, although he does it almost contrapuntally; he'll often play a lick in a call-and-response style, and then vocalize/hum/sing the response before getting back into it. My old friend, the late Frank Mantooth, was another vocalizer, although he didn't really sing so much as he articulated rhythms to himself (with a soft "t-t-k-t-t-k-t" as he played. It was if he was tonguing the notes like a horn player, as he churned them out on the piano.

Jarrett's squeaking has no redeeming qualities. God bless him, but every time I hear him play I want to teleport myself back in space and time to slap a big ol' patch of gaffer's tape over his yap. Ahhhh... even thinking about doing that makes me feel better. Just breathe through your nose, Keith, you'll be fine.