Work, AI, Music, and the World: The Latest Scoop on Life, Tech, Tunes, and Headlines!

Bienvenue! There's a lot of new things happening in technology, music, work, and politics. Let's get into it. 

First, I'm no longer working as a cashier at the supermarket. This was a big loss for me as I had been working there for about ten years and grew up there. Now, I'm switching from a social public life to a much more personal private life. It has not been easy and I don't think it will be easy to maintain. However, I'm finding that there have been benefits like better care of my body and health. The main drawback though is the fact that I'm not earning a weekly check. Losing my job due to being laid off was one of my biggest regrets. But life must go on. 

Moving forward, the development of AI is the best story of our time. Why? Because its the only exciting story that isn't mostly focusing on the negative. I initially started using LLM's [large language models, chatbots] back in 2022 to do AI art images for fun and relaxation. Now, I'm finding that I can also do AI videos too. And then there's the chatbots usage in and of themselves, for augmenting knowledge based on subjects I already know about. Another fun method I use using AI: I'll use the chatbot to create and edit prompts for images and create the images from those prompts/edited ideas, and then use the images created and turn that into video. There's even AI music and it's a lot better than you would think. 

That being said, I think AI is the only truly positive story. AI gets a bad reputation because workers think they're coming for their jobs, but the reality is that AI just isn't there quite yet. You can create AI movies and images and books and music but its not really quite there yet. Rather, you can use AI to augment your ideas and creations for movies, images, books, and music, but the AI in and of itself cannot create great art, media, business model, or music. Like anything else, AI is just a tool for the artist, creator, businessman in order to enhance their craft and production. I would say, think of AI less as a new emerging technology and more of a tool that will be used in all facets of society mostly for entertainment purposes for the layman but also as a tool for artists, creators, and businessmen to sell and advertise art and/or products. It's an advertiser's paradise.

Next, the news stories have been mostly negative. Gas prices are up. Inflation is at an all time high. Avian bird flu and measles might become an issue down the road. Donald Trump is the President yet again. What else is new? It feels a lot like Weimar Germany Republic right before Hitler's rise to power. You can be jewish in Weimar Germany Republic but you have to be very careful. That's the kind of precarity we live in right now within this moment. It's not to be taken lightly and we, as young people, shouldn't squander all our free time partying and ignoring politics. A lot of young people here in California have drunk the Kool-Aid and given up on keeping up with politics and/or reading/watching the news, and rather, they have given into a lot of bad habits like getting bad information from social media or their goofball buddies. 

However, how long can a democracy really last? America was fighting for independence from the Brits back in 1776, so it has been quite a while. I sometimes like to joke that America is like a poor man's Rome, and in many ways the current moment in this time is a sort of Rise and Decline of the Western Civilization [Edward Gibbon]. You see that despite the fact that we, as Americans, have more technology, more education, a better richer nutritional economy, and more money than most other people in all other countries, this has not been to our benefit. Rather, you could even argue that it's been to our detriment. With this said theory, you could say that in the long run AI could be a bad thing for American society. But the technocrats would say, "it's all about how you use it." 

Lastly, the best news. I've been keeping up with a lot of music practice. I play piano decently now and I'm still plucking on the guitar too. I taught myself sight reading [reading music notation] from studying Mozart scores and writing it out by hand. I do a lot of ear training listening to music. I use classical scores to practice rhythms on piano. Also, I've discovered that there's been a new jazz age but its hidden online on YouTube. There are tons of old jazz records, some that may have only had limited printings and never saw the light of day in record stores [1958-early 1960s recordings], and they're all now appearing all over on YouTube all of a sudden. As a musician, I decided to go more in the jazz direction because jazz offers more variety in music playing and listening and performance, so it's amazing to see that the artform can somehow still keep its heartbeat alive, even if its a small niche audience on YouTube. I play jazz but I  use classical, rock, and blues as a template to build upon improvisation. It's been a journey, as I first started playing and performing on guitar when I was a teenager. 

Heraclitus: A man cannot fall into the same river twice, for there are ever new waves splashing upon him. 

New Year, New Me, [Not Really]

Hello Universe, 

How is it going out there in the free world? It's a new year, happy 2024! It's time for all those happy go lucky social media posts where people make their new years resolutions, like to get a better body and become more healthy and sexy and find their dream spouse, and get a lotta money, amiright? I'd like to jot down some thoughts on what's been happening with me, my personal activities, working in retail, and more. 

First, I moved into a new house recently. It was a hard move that was strenuous but now that it's done I can finally relax. At the end of the month I took time off from work just to get settled into the new place and unbox everything. The new house is in a better location to get around on foot or on the bus if needed. I've been waking up earlier, going out to lunches at nearby establishments, going to the library, and more. I'm still working at the grocery store and it's going well. Since the holidays are over, things have slowed down there, for now. Covid still lingers there from time to time, so I've still been wearing my facemask.  

I kept up playing piano and drums. Now, I'm finally making good progress on piano, at least trying to move from beginner to something like intermediate, although it will take a while. My dad decided to keep our late step-mom Maureen's Yamaha grand piano, so I've been playing that piano. Today, I recorded an eight minute grand piano solo, [which you can hear piano solo no. 1] With the piano, I'm trying to focus on playing jazz chords and improvising. I practice everyday, and actually have preferred practicing piano as of late, because my guitars and amp are all backed away and it's easier to just play the grand piano for now. 

Likewise, I've been keeping up with drums. I go to guitar center and just play the drums there. You can hear my most recent drum playing here.

Second, I'm still reading a lot and doing a lot of AI art. You can check out my Instagram page here. The picture featured at the top of this page is an AI art creation. At the end of last year I read a lot of science fiction novels by Iain M. Banks, who died early in his 50s. Terrific writer, but he writes terribly long science fiction space opera, albeit it's amazing writing and great space opera, but the some seven books I read of his were definitely time consuming and not easy reads. Space opera for the literati. Right now all my books are packed away so I just bought for a dollar, a paperbacks editions of Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. I'm keeping up with the western canon, now I've read about 300 works. But I feel like I've barely scraped the surface in terms of what can be learned within knowledge, within the realm of imagination, and the curiosity of man himself. 

At the end of last year, I kind of went into deep hibernation bear mode. The bear knows when to sleep but the bobcat knows when its time to hunt. I find getting up earlier and going out more has been better for me, being productive keeps me energetic, and I'm liking the atmosphere of the new house better and more easily able to adapt to this. Sometimes on Mondays I go to this open blues jam at the bar, and I sit in and play guitar. I go out to dinners with family on my days off work. 

Lastly, I've found that life is made up of thoughts, actions, and plans for the future. There's a lot to do. Work is still time consuming, but with a schedule for the day, the week, the month, the next three months, the next six months, the next year, things are much more manageable within a smaller timeline and with hard goals split and separated into smaller and more manageable goals.

I want to get better at piano and be able to play jazz standards on it, keep reading, write more short stories and perhaps a novel [I actually have written a novel, but nobody's seen it], keep blogging about everything, and keep up with my guitar and drums too. Work has been good, the hard work keeps me awake. 

That's it for now, see you later, space cats. 

In sylvan realms where twilight's whispers creep, The bear, a sagacious entity, seeks a somber keep. As autumnal regalia, the leaves cascade, He intuits the impending winter's serenade.

With fur of resplendent aureate hue, He embarks on a quest for a snug haven's view. A sanctuary, where crystalline brooks freeze, In dreams of honeyed combs and berries with ease.

Yet by the babbling stream, where moonbeams wink, The bobcat prowls, a phantom feline in sync. His eyes, aglint with nocturnal savoir-faire, In stealth, he traverses the tapestry of air.

For as the bear in dormant repose lies, The bobcat, vigilant, neath the celestial ties, Stalks in the silent hours of night's embrace, A sovereign of shadows, embodying grace.

In nature's ballet, a harmonious ballet, The bear succumbs to rest, the bobcat to ballet. One cradles dreams of vernal rebirth, The other, a custodian, prowls the moonlit earth. [AI generated]

2022's Grand Exit, Happiness

Hello Readers, 

It's the end of the year. Wow! What a year it has been. Let's go over things I did and worked on this year, changes in the work place that occurred, and some thoughts on happiness and wellbeing. 

First, things I did. I worked a lot. I was promoted to full time cashier, got increased pay plus hours, so that's been a big change for me. For years I was only part time which meant I had a lot of discretionary free time to do whatever I wanted. Not so much these days. I work forty+ hours each week. Not only that, but the job has become more demanding in some respects because what with covid not going away, it has been nonstop busy even when the holidays aren't around. 

Second, I worked on a lot of language learning. I've been learning a lot of languages ever since 2020 but I've become fairly proficient in Spanish, but I also know a lot of French, Italian, German, and a little Portuguese. These are the languages of the Hanseatic League, merchant guilds from central and northern Europe, going back to the 1400s. I'm the best at Spanish and French as my mother spoke some French and Creole around the house when I was a boy, and co-workers speak Spanish nonstop all day at work, so those two are fairly easy for me to pickup as I have heard it often. 

My accents became better when I combined learning words from reading in the languages on Kindle, then practicing with audiobooks in those languages. It was a combination of both. I would say its easy to start learning but difficult to keep up your motivation and go beyond basic phrases. At this point, I can understand Spanish well, and the rest decently, although I can probably read all of them better than I can speak them. It's been an engaging endeavor and I look forward to learning more in the future. It's an ongoing enterprise. 

Third, I've learned drums and piano. I started learning drums in August and I've become good. I can play rock and jazz styles primarily. On piano, I focus more on a jazz style, with lots of chromatic chord changes, a la McCoy Tyner. I even learned how to play a bamboo flute. There's always new things with music but sometimes I get in these lulls where I'm not playing live very often and not doing jam sessions at the house, so I stay engaged by learning new instruments. That being said, I've spent too many months at different instruments and will focus this year on guitar. At heart, I'm a guitar player. 

Alongside music and writing, my other creative pursuit has been AI art. You can see my best works here https://www.instagram.com/jazzerrocker779/. I've had a lot of friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and more give me a lot of crap for using AI to create art. But the fact of the matter is that real artists are already using it, selling art with it, and making money.

The best AI art generator is called the DALL E 2, which uses openai.com's source code. You can buy from openai.com a low resolution image of your own creation for 8 cents, a better one for 16 cents, and an even better one for 18 cents. For that low cost even I could buy images if I knew I could make a return in my investments by selling them to others. Some artists are doing just that. 

The openai team that created DALL E 2 just released openchatGPT, which is a huge gamechanger in the world of AI. I'll be using it in this blog.  

I've been using a free AI art generator made by two guys who are using the Stable Diffusion AI art generator source code, it's called mage, you can find the art generator at www.mage.space. It's been so satisfying that I nearly quit playing video games to focus on reading books, music, and using mage to create art. My favorite thing about mage is that I don't have to actually have any art skills, I only need ideas. It works by having the user type in any words or numbers and it generates images based off that. Although I can't draw, I know the western canon, art history, and the Italian Art Renaissance period. So I can still can get great results. Take a look on my Instagram. 

Fourth, a lot of things happened this year. In particular a lot changed in the world of retail grocery, my job. 

"The retail grocery industry saw significant changes and disruptions in 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the major developments in the industry include the following:

1. Shift to online grocery shopping: The pandemic led to a significant increase in online grocery shopping as people tried to reduce their exposure to the virus by avoiding physical stores. Many grocery stores and retailers introduced or expanded their online ordering and delivery services to meet this demand.

2. Changes in shopping patterns: The pandemic also led to changes in shopping patterns, with people stockpiling certain items and shifting towards buying more pantry staples and frozen foods. This led to disruptions in supply chains and product availability.

3. Increase in demand for home delivery: The pandemic also led to an increase in demand for home delivery of groceries as people tried to minimize their in-store shopping trips. This led to an increase in the use of delivery services such as Instacart and Shipt, as well as the expansion of home delivery services by grocery chains.

4. Changes in store operations: In response to the pandemic, many grocery stores implemented changes to their store operations, including increased cleaning and sanitation measures, limits on the number of customers allowed in stores at a given time, and the use of face masks and other personal protective equipment by employees.

5. Impact on small and local businesses: The pandemic also had a significant impact on small and local grocery stores, which faced challenges in adapting to the changing market conditions and competing with larger chains that had more resources to invest in online and delivery services. Many small and local stores had to rely on community support to stay in business." [openchatGPT]

Lastly, although I've spent a lot of time logged in at work, I've also spent a lot of time thinking, learning, pontificating on the future. I've learned that I'm still happy despite losing friends, work getting tougher, people being more rude, and pay only barely improving. Of course, it helps to be the child who has his own. And not only that, but sometimes I'm the child who plays the Shakespearean Old Fool. And not only that but I also play the Voltaire Satirist Philosopher at Check Stand 9. All the worlds' stage. Life in its rich tapestry. 

What will happiness be like in the future?

"It is difficult to predict what happiness will be like in the future, as it is influenced by many complex and dynamic factors, including societal and cultural changes, technological advances, economic conditions, and personal experiences and circumstances.

Happiness is a subjective and personal experience, and what brings happiness to one person may not necessarily bring happiness to another. Some people find happiness in material possessions, while others find it in relationships, personal achievements, or meaningful experiences.

In the future, it is possible that advances in technology and medicine could lead to improvements in physical and mental health, which may contribute to greater overall happiness and well-being. However, these advancements could also bring about new challenges and concerns that may impact happiness in different ways.

Ultimately, happiness is a complex and multifaceted experience that is influenced by a wide range of factors, and it is difficult to predict how it will evolve in the future."

"Happiness is a state of mind, with joy that we find." [openchatGPT]

image ai generated

Christmas 2022

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, 

Merry Christmas! This year has been busy on the job but I've surprisingly been able to make time for a lot of reading, practicing different instruments, as well as writing.

Christmas is that special time of year. Why? 

"Christmas is a holiday that is celebrated by many people around the world, and it holds great significance for many people. Here are a few reasons why Christmas is so important:

1. Christmas is a time of love and generosity: Christmas is a time when people come together to celebrate the love and generosity that exists in the world. It is a time to give gifts to loved ones, to spend time with family and friends, and to show appreciation for the people in our lives.

2. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus: For many people, Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who is considered by Christians to be the son of God. The birth of Jesus is seen as a miraculous event, and the holiday is a way to remember and honor his life and teachings.

3. Christmas brings people together: Christmas is a time when people from all walks of life come together to celebrate. It is a time when people put aside their differences and focus on the things that bring them joy and happiness.

4. Christmas is a time of tradition: Many people have long-standing traditions that they participate in during the holiday season. These traditions help to create a sense of community and bring people together.

Overall, Christmas is a special time of year that is important for many people around the world. It is a time to celebrate love, generosity, and the birth of Jesus, and it is a time to come together and create lasting memories with loved ones." [openchatGPT]

I've been somehow able to have a great time this year despite working nonstop with no vacation. You see, it all starts with the individual. I'm happy despite working all the time because I have the capacity for happiness. I've created time outside of work to create a persona, the persona of an artist, that is what I've done.

I've started doing a lot of AI art, ever since the AI art generators came out two months ago. I've even started using openchatGPT here in this blog post, practicing drums, piano, guitar, singing, writing blogs here and there, as well as reading a lot, the latest edition being historian Will Durant's Volume 2 of his Story of Civilization Series, The Life of Greece. So I seem to be awash in activity, but the activities give me a sense of who I am, and help with my capacity for happiness.

It seems that the older I get the more I realize you can't escape from pain in this world. But you can learn to be resilient and improve your capacity for happiness to live through it. Work seems more vital than ever, especially in California, where every man seems to have to prove his worth by having to earn more and more money, but I've also realized that work is essential to the intellectual artist outsider life as well.

"Work is important for many reasons. It provides individuals with a sense of purpose and meaning, as well as a sense of accomplishment. Work also allows people to contribute to society and make a positive impact on the world. In addition, work provides people with financial stability and the ability to provide for themselves and their families. Finally, work can also be a source of personal growth and development, as it allows individuals to learn new skills, gain experience, and expand their knowledge and understanding of the world." [openchatGPT]

On Christmas Eve I was joking around with a customer and he liked my sense of mirth on the holiday and he tipped me $100, not too shabby! This year the family and I ate lobster at a wonderful Chinese restaurant. If you need me, I'll be practicing drums and piano or reading more of the Will Durant series.

image ai generated

verändert sich durch Sein und Zeit

Gute Abend, 

Things are changing so much and so rapidly it's almost as if time itself is a blur. In the blink of an eye, we are born, we grow, we live, and we die. 

Mortality and fate are intertwined, although the moderns have never been able to quite explain or understand it no matter how far they get in doing so. The Ancients had an easier way of trying to understand it, but they too failed in this fundamentally human question. 

I've lived in Los Angeles for ten years, have had a great life, made some friends, partied and chilled with a lot of people, became a better musician, and even became a part of these rock and roll after hours parties by playing Hendrix for drunkards and druggies. 

Life is good. But fundamentally I realize I'm right back where I started when I first got here. Trying to make it in Los Angeles through music, my own wits, and whatever talents I may have in any other areas. It's rough. It's rough for anybody out here. 

The pandemic made life for a lot of people much worse. Their children have become stay-at-home malcontents that can't handle working, or worse, they just do drugs and alcohol and have no hope of ever succeeding in life, let alone holding onto a job without switching every 2-4 years. 

There are new strains of corona out there and there's more of the threat of respiratory diseases for infants and young children. Politics have become embroiled and republicans are content to make fun of Pelosi's husband pretty much getting murdered. 

To be alive in the bitter sea. 

What's a guy to do?

Run the changes again. 

Play the same old song but in a different way. In order to live in this decline of western civilization, you must learn to find a new way to live. 

For everyone, this will mean something different. For me, I had to learn to stay away from problem people and their problems, and stay focused on my job, music, reading, eating better and losing weight, and maintaining, making, and improving relationships. None of it is easy. In fact, it' grueling and mind-numbing. 

For years and years I used to be content to sit in my room and play video games, not caring about anything going on outside my window. Then the pandemic kicked in and somehow I became more serious. I realized how fickle life can be. 

I started taking music more seriously, deeply trying to understand everything I read, rather than just reading for pleasure. I started learning languages like Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. I learned how to play jazz guitar so I could get out of my rock guitar virtuoso lizard brain. I started playing piano and drums and even singing. I even did a lot of open mics where I was playing electric guitar plugged into a PA, and singing along to my guitar. Scary! 

Today, I took the bus to guitar center and bought a pair of drum brushes, brushes, used to play more mellow soulful jazz patterns and ballads, even swing.

So there you go. Find your way to live. The meaning of life is that it is meant to be lived. 

You got this. 

[photo is ai generated, created with stable diffusion, android playing jazz saxophone] 

Holiday Season Covid Edition pt.2

 

It was the best of times it was the worst of times. That's this time right now. November 17, 2020, during covid-19, quarantine, Biden's triumphiant victory, and 244,000 dead Americans. The shit done hit the fan. We have a president who lost the election but won't concede even though its been two weeks since he lost. The Republicans don't want to relinquish Trump and disavow him as a muy malo demagogue that has hurt the party and the country. It can't get much worse. 

However, one of the things one learns in Zen is that you don't need zen when things are going well. You need zen when things are going bad. What does that mean? It means that you train in the art of zen [relaxing, breathing, meditation, thinking clearly, not acting and overreacting to every little disturbance in your day, showing care and love, seeing the love in the universe around you] you must realize that you are doing it because you'll need it for the rainy days. The hard days where you feel like picking a fight with your friend or spouse, where you yell at your coworkers or berate them for various reasons, or more in my case, when a customer at your job is estupido! 

This is the time where you should learn about things like zen. Do you have faith? Do you believe in being and nothingness? Sein und Zeit [being and time]. That's okay to be an existentialist or an athiest, but realize that the people who go for Occam's Razor are very happy. So whatever it is you do or believe in, do it well. 

Thing are going surprisingly well for me at this late stage in the pandemic:

I started playing the piano. I started learning Spanish. I started learning words and phrases in other languages like French, Italian, German, Chinese, and Japanese. I've lost a little more weight. I've found the correct amounts of food intake I need each day, don't overeat anymore, and have found good success in losing weight as a result. My friendships are stronger than ever. My coworkers like me. My family bonds are strong. Other than the fact that I'm working retail during the world's biggest pandemic, my life, beau rêve [a beautiful dream]. 

I have my bad days like anyone else but 99% of my days are so good that there's not much I regret, stress about, or am deeply angered about. Although this is one of the worst times in American history, la vita è fottutamente bella [life is fucking good]. 

I'm still working on myself as a person, trying to better myself through educating myself via books, music, language, work, and relationship improvement ability, and what I've been doing is very pleasing, especially the guitar and piano playing. I even started singing songs. And I've been playing a lot more songs straight the whole way through rather than taking meandering guitar solos. If the bars ever open up again for open mics, I'll be a musician, a guitar player, singer, that's improved 100% from my previous live rock and jazz music performance skills. I can play and sing any song.

I'm also still working on my writing, hence this blog tonight. If there's any one last bit of energía positiva y buena voluntad [positive energy and goodwill], I would say now is the time to learn, relax, work on all the things you've ever wanted to work on, and totally zen out.

aprovecha todo tu potencial 

Feliz día de acción de gracias

Holiday Season Covid Edition

The holidays are upon us! Welcome to the holiday season covid edition.

Here's a little what's up on what's been going on in my life. 

I'm still working but very few hours per week. Due to covid my job has given out the least amount of hours within my tenure at the company. I'm still working and getting a steady paycheck but it ain't what it used to be, especially during the early holidays every other year. Consequently, I've tightened my belt and my wallet. All the extra free time from work has left me open to a lot of other activities.  

I started playing the piano hardcore. I've been practicing for two weeks straight and I've only taken off two days of practice so far. Dedication! 

In addition, I started learning Espanol [Spanish], yo hablo Espanol paquito mas todos los dias. The internet said I wouldn't be able to understand Spanish fluently for 8 months, but after two weeks straight I've already been able to understand the basics between coworkers at work. 

This holiday season will be like no other. There will be no large gatherings, no grand parties, no big meals with the family and extended family. This is a holiday season where we must bundle up inside our homes, quarantine, wear masks wherever we go outside, and stay respectful of others by practicing social distancing, especially for the elderly and susceptible. 

In short, this is a holiday season where we have to put our consumer spending habits in the backline, and put humanity, love, life, and the pursuit of happiness in the forefront. 

My job has become a ghost town. The market has never been so empty in my entire retail career. Tonight I spent most of the night reading a Spanish grammar book and toying around with Google Translate, because there was no customers, [hardly any], and there wasn't much to do. It was nice, but I'm seeing that because of covid, people have less money to spend on groceries, causing them to shop less at the market. Some of them are so broke that they can't even go to the market and buy food, and instead, they go to free food banks. Let that sink in. 

I get to live the happiest life of a bachelor. I get to read great books like Ovid's Metamorphosis and look at the artwork of Howard Pyle in his Arthurian Legends book. But for many hard-working, working class Americans, the struggle has never been harder during this pandemic and this quarantine. 

Instead of buying your kid a Playstation 5 this holiday season [or if you have the money to spare, go ahead and do it anyways], think of the working class people that are struggling right now. Donate to a food bank. Donate clothes to Goodwill or a shelter. When you order take out, tip well. When you take a Lyft ride, tip well. When you go to the market, be kind and courteous to the employees and the cashier. Tip your bagger if they help you out to your car. When you talk to your acquaintances, family, friends, and coworkers, don't quibble about everything, instead, just relax and see the good in everything around you. Relax your mind and let it float upstream.

Let peace and love flow through you and all your loved ones this holiday season. 

Peace and Love

Ruminate on that

Keyboard performance

 Hello, 

Today, for the first time ever, I livestreamed and performed on the keyboard in a jam session with my friend, alto saxophone player Jason Thomas. Orlando Figueroa on keyboard and noise. We played a minor blues, Blue Monk, Autumn Leaves, and improvised after the tunes. 

Enjoy, thanks for listening. Don't forget to like and subscribe to my YouTube Channel. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LWcw8ouc3o

The Piano And The Guitar

Hello Music Enthusiasts, 

Today, I'd like to discuss the differences and similarities between the guitar and the piano. I just started playing the piano seriously over the weekend and I've made a momentous leap in my playing. I've learned songs and tons and tons of chords, jazz chords, inversions, and some major scales. It's been a blast! Playing the piano and practicing it is as much fun as playing guitar. It's definitely more relaxing. You get to sit down. Maybe it's even better. First the similarities. 

Chords

The piano and the guitar are both primarily chordal instruments of the chordophones family. Meaning that the piano and the guitar both can play multiple notes [or chords] on it at the same time. Unlike a saxophone which can only produce one tone at a time [or if they use free jazz over-blowing technique, they can get overtones, giving them a chord-like sound, but this is rare in most jazz, classical, and pop]. 

Accompaniment

As well as both instruments being able to produce and play chords, both instruments are used primarily for accompaniment, or as we say in the jazz world, for comping [comping is short for accompaniment]. Think about great rock songs that feature piano like With a Little Help From My Friends by the Beatles. The piano is holding the song together by comping chords throughout the song. In addition, think of how the piano in a jazz song becomes a focal point of introductions for songs into comping for the horn lines of the tune. 

Easily Accessible to Everyone

The piano and guitar are both great standard starter instruments for virtually anyone and everyone. Most parents get their young kids to play the piano or guitar at a very young age and let them develop an interest in the instrument. Once they get serious they become good musicians and may later form bands and possibly have a career in music. I would say the piano is more accessible to everyone than guitar because actually playing the piano chords doesn't involve as much finger dexterity, strength finger bending, and finger arching, although the piano's touch and feeling really has to do with what type of piano or keyboard that you are playing. A weighted grand piano will be much harder to play physically than a cheap plastic keyboard. 

Differences

Chord and Scale Fingerings

The main difference I've found between the piano and guitar is a hardcore difference of philosophy in terms of chord and scale fingerings. On the guitar, once you learn a chord voicing fingering or scale pattern, you actually know the chord voicing or scale in every key. Why? Because the guitar is built on patterns. You play a G major barre chord and then you move it up a 5th and you're now playing a D major chord. You can use the exact same kind of chord voicing and all of a sudden you know that chord in literally every key. The guitar is based on a concept, in a sense. You don't have to know that there are 2 sharps in the key of D.

Piano, however, is less based on concepts like the guitar, and more based on the literal notes in front of you that you need to play. Most chords all have different fingerings. Most chord inversions have different fingers. Most scales all have different fingerings. This is where you can see that the piano is a much more serious instrument that requires and demands more attention to what are the actual notes in the chord [the names of the notes], the notes in the scales, the sharps or flats in the key signatures, and you have to know all of this. That's the biggest difference in my humble opinion. 

Of course there are more differences but to keep this short I'll keep things simple with this. I'll stay in the loop and keep you all updated on my piano progress. I can already play simple jazz standards like Autumn Leaves and All The Things You Are. In terms of rock I've tackled Lennon's Imagine and Pilot's It's Magic. I recommend everyone reading this to try out the piano. You might like it. You might even learn to love it. 

Chris Madsen/Adam Larson Quintet

So tonight I ended up going to a great jazz concert for only 12 bucks! Beat that LA. Chicago is a great town for live music, there's always somebody playing somewhere. The Constellation is a great, intimate venue. Its basically a warehouse converted into a studio space, looking like a basement but with amazing acoustics and natural reverb. Last year I saw my former UW-Parkside jazz teacher perform with a quartet, a trumpet player by the name of Russ Johnson (look him up on YouTube). 

Tonight I saw a double tenor saxophone quintet perform, the Chris Madsen/Adam Larson Quintet. They play modern straight ahead jazz. These guys aim to please, they never hit a bad note nor an ugly note. They play pretty. At their best I would say that they're a modern evolution of the post-Coltrane, post-Brecker sound. That is, a deep, throaty, emotive, and expressive tone. 

Adam Larson is a young tenor player from Normal, Illinois. At the concert, the music was split 50/50 Larson and Madsen tunes. Of the two I would say that Larson's music was more exciting. His melodies are very angular, which is my way of saying that its modern, and has that Giant Steps 'sheets of sound' aesthetic. At the end of the concert they played one of Larson's tunes, and it was so memorable that I was able to recall the melody on the bus trip home. His playing was great, in fact I believe that he could become one of the front runners in his generation (same as mine) for really great tenor sax players. 

Chris Madsen's (from and based in Chicago) tunes were more spiritual and expressive. He writes better ballads (if I can say they were ballads, they probably weren't considered such by the composer) than Larson, which is understandable because I believe Madsen is older and more accomplished, being apart of acadamia. He teaches jazz music at University of Chicago Illinois and lives here, whereas Larson is a Manhattan School of Music New York jazz musician. Madsen's onstage persona was more expressive and solemn as well, just like his music. 

On piano was Rob Clearfield, on bass was an older gentlemen (oldest guy in the band, probably the unoffical leader) named Curt Bley (who said it was great that I came from California to hear that), and Greg Artry the drummer and only black guy in the band. 

Clearfield's piano playing was one of accompaniment. He had one solo that stood out as virtuosic but not as expressive as the tenor playing. The comping was quite good though. He was pretty much comping most of the time the whole concert, laying out occasionly for extended sax solos. 

Arty's drumming stood out for me. Not only was he a drum and cymbals virtuoso but he played with emotive style and grace. Sometimes he would go into double and even quadruple time on the kit, stunning artistry. I would say he plays the modern Brian Blade style of drumming. Brian Blade has been the drummer for Wayne Shorter's band for a long time now and he's been a big influence on modern jazz percussion, and for good reason, he's one of the younger leaders of the style. There were many moments when I had to tap my foot to the swinging beats, and I would move back and forth in my seat to the sound. It was infectious. Him being the only black guy in the band gave the band more jazz credentials, after all jazz is a black American art form. The guy had chops to burn and the tenor players, presumably the leaders here, let him play with wanton abandon. He owned the rythmn, alongside the bassist, Curt Bley. 

Bley was obviously the oldest member of the band, tall, balding, with plastic rimmed glasses. He played as any great bass player would play, he filled the space with low notes, and mostly stuck to the chordal structures of the tune. He only had one solo per say, which was just an introduction to a tune. It was very short and he spent most of the concert comping. His bass tone was so natural and loud, using only a very small amplifier, which probably broadened the natural acoustic tone of his instrument, a acoustic double-bass. 

It was an eventful day and night. I spent the entire day talking with my music mentor Frank Abbinanti, a new music composer based in Chicago. You can check out his album Labor Studies on YouTube, also check out a tune he wrote for me that I recorded back in March called Poachers, which you can find under my YouTube channel name Megafigueroa007. 

Anyways, it was a great concert, memorable for my Chicago trip. I plan on checking out more music from Madsen and Larson when I get back home. Apparently Larson has an album from 2017 that got four stars in Downbeat and favorable reviews in Jazziz, two magazines that I read often. Its good to see that jazz music is alive and well in the windy city.

Jazz in Chicago! 

My Name is Albert Ayler

My Name is Albert Ayler is a fantastic record, sounds of the new thing (I first heard that term from Amiri Baraka's book Black Music), as it appeared early in 1963. This is saxophonist Ayler's debut record, recorded in Copenhagen and first released on the Dutch Debut label. 

Personnel

• Albert Ayler - tenor saxophone (tracks 3-6), soprano saxophone (track 2), voice (track 1)
• Niels Brosted - piano (tracks 2-5)
• Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen - bass (tracks 2-6)
• Ronnie Gardiner - drums (tracks 2-6

The album has only three stars on Allmusic but what does Allmusic know? The fact of the matter is that although the band of Europeans (the two Niels) and the one American (Ronnie) is quite the typical straight ahead band, what Ayler does over the usual jazz construct, is create his own sound, playing himself, and creating a wondrous lyrical blues, a shout, a cry, a whisper if you will. This seems to be a response to Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, similar to Archie Shepp and Pharaoh Sanders, other great sax players of that revolutionary musical era. Its great that he went to Europe to play free jazz because his fame wouldn't have gone as far if he stayed in America.

What makes the record especially engaging for me is that well, I love jazz standards. I've heard most of the standards way more than a few times so when he plays all these tunes there's a certain legendary aura to them. I know all the melodies, all the chord changes, and when he plays what is unexpected I get quite a kick out of it, he's playing the standards we all (jazz fans) know but ultimately doing something different with them. That's the genius of this record. 

The Tunes
Bye Bye Blackbird
Billie's Bounce
Summertime 
On Green Dolphin Street 
C.T. (Ayler composition) 

On quite a few of these tunes a typical jazz fan who knows all these standards might say, "Well, this is a good band but the saxophonist isn't really playing the melody." In fact, what Ayler does on a lot of these tunes is use the basic harmonic framework (chords) for the tunes for improvisation of his own melodies, playing himself. His harmonies speak for themselves, sometimes shrill, a cry, this is what Baraka means when he says that free jazz is only spectacular when it stays close to its blues roots and doesn't get all intellectual. Of course I disagree because a lot of my free jazz heroes (The Art Ensemble of Chicago and other AACM musicians) are quite intellectual, even to the point of studying modern classical composers, serialism, etc. 

In a way you can only see the genius of this record is you're a free jazz acolyte. My favorite tune here is Billie's Bounce, a Charlie Parker tour de force. Even I know the head (main theme) to this tune on guitar. Here Ayler gets more straight ahead, and you can see the John Coltrane influence in his sheets of sound, long winded riffs played very fast. Its quite stunning.

As much as I like Bille's Bounce here the number one tune here would have to be Summertime, the Gershwin classic. The opening is such a blues, a wail.  I can assure you you've never heard Summertime like this before. Its a haunting, shrill cry of a saxophone sound. It sticks with you once you hear it. This is the blues. 

Another tune I dug very much was On Green Dolphin Street. I've heard this tune a million times and it always delivers with its driving melody. Here Ayler goes to Mars, almost like Coltrane's latest period stuff, he mixes 50s, early 60s style bebop phrasing with the new thing. Its my cup of tea. This particular tracks reminds me of Eric Dolphy a lot. Some of Ayler's phrasing doesn't even sound human, it sounds like an animal, like a bird, with the rhythms of frogs jumping in and out of pond.  

The Ayler original is pure free jazz at its best. No melody, no theme, mostly just call and response from the musicians. Given that this was his first original tune on a record, I would say its quite a great introduction to his music. This is where some people would scratch their heads and say,"What?"  In a way you either get it or you don't. For most jazz fans there is a fine line between straight ahead jazz and free jazz. In 1963 that line was very much quite apparent.

The rhythm section on the record is quite good. They play in a typical 1963 jazz fashion. It wasn't until later when Ayler teamed up with American musicians like Sonny Murray, Milford Graves, and Gary Peacock, that he started to develop more of the free jazz thing with a rhythm section that was more hip to his personal sound. But what can I say? These Europeans did a great job playing with an innovator. The drummer keeps time throughout the album. 

I recommend this album to anyone interested in the so-called new thing or free jazz. Or if you like Albert Ayler and never heard this particular record. Its on YouTube, and its quite good.

John Zorn's Simualcrum

Simulacrum is an album with music written and directed by composer, saxophonist John Zorn that features John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin, and Wood fame), Matt Hollenberg and Kenny Grohowski which was released on the Tzadik label in March 2015. John Zorn is a magpie of sorts. Sure he's respected in the improvised music industry but there's always been one problem about his music. Its all over the place. Sometimes he plays straight ahead jazz, sometimes free-jazz, sometimes rock and roll, sometimes pop, and here we have ourselves an instrumental heavy metal album, running at forty three minutes by an organist, guitarist, and drummer. I ain't complaining though. I dig this album very much. But why, you might ask? 

Sure this album treads no new ground and doesn't do anything groundbreaking. But I find a certain amount of fun to the way these guys play on this record. The tunes sound heavily improvised to the untrained ear, but I bet a lot of it was written out by Zorn, after all he's a 'composer', right? 

I first heard the album a year or so ago on YouTube, and about three days ago I bought the actual CD. I like it so much that I threw down thirteen bucks for it. The reason I like it is that the musicians here bring a sense of heightened adventure to progressive rock infused heavy metal jazz. Say what?

The music here encompasses mostly a jamming instrumental sensibility. Oftentimes the guitar takes the lead with distorted metal tropes. And then the organ takes over, leading the charge. The drummer stays away from stereotypical metal blast beat marathons, opting instead for jazzy fills on the snare, toms, and cymbals. The result is oddball jazz and blues sound, oddly enough. Not real blues or jazz, but a kind of white blues, jazz, more about experimental science than emotive sensibility. What the album succeeds at is creating a live open jam sort of environment. Like you're at the studio, watching them record it. 

But this is a heavy metal kid's record. This isn't a jazz aficionado's album. If you're into Miles and Trane, this isn't your bag. However if you're into Slayer or Opeth then this is right up your alley. The guitar playing is very heavy, played with a good but oftentimes stereotypical metal guitar tone. There's not many single note solos from the guitarist, instead he performs as chordal accompaniment to the organ and drums. The organ takes up most of the single note melodies, and does a beautiful job doing so. The drums holds it all together with compelling rhythms, technically brilliant but not showing off and taking over the show entirely. 

The album cover is one that reminds me of King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King, their first album from 1969. With song titles like Alterities, Snakes and Ladders, Paradigm Shift, and the Divine Comedy, there's a sense of intellectual curiosity and stimulation. The name simulacrum reminds me of Phillip K Dick, who had a novel called the Simulacra, check that out if you're into science fiction. 

Its a musical curiosity really. And the music portrays this in its style and grace. There's so many musical changes, everything from time signature changes, to many different riffs, to what seems like spontaneous free improvisation. Its quite exciting to hear. 

You can listen to the album on YouTube if you're curious enough to take the plunge into jazz influenced heavy metal.

Bird the Saxophone Playing Robot

Hello, what's up everybody? This is a new idea I'm trying out, instead of writing so much about certain subject matters I'm going to start writing short stories and eventually write an entire novel if I can get something interesting enough to keep writing for long periods of time (lol). Anyways, this is the first short story and its called Bird the Saxophone Playing Robot. Its a light-hearted yet serious story about a robot who gets backlash by humans because people can only see robots as creatures of labor, much to the robot's chagrin. I'm going to work on it in installments. Thank you. 

Bird was at the end of a set at the Jazz Estate, a top notch jazz club in New York. His 1960's Selmer saxophone glistening in the shadows of the dim performance hall. His solo was quite something. Sheets of sound, as they called Coltrane's sound in the early 60's, but with melodic, fast, and improvisational lines more akin to Charlie Bird Parker. This was Bird, a robot designed by US Robotics Corporation in the year 2077. Bird was of course named after Charlie Parker, however no matter how hard Bird swings, he can't get any slack. He ended his solo, played the head to All The Things You Are and ended the tune over a major sixth chord. 

He walked to the backstage room and sat down, thinking about the music, how certain parts sounded great, others were just okay, and other similar thoughts. He heard someone tapping at the door and speaking to get his attention. 

"Hey, whats up Bird! May I come in?" 
"Come on in. I'm just chilling", Birdbot's voice a low melodic whisper. 
They talked about the performance. Bird's friend was a human named Varian who was a close and longtime friend, music collaborator, and quasi promoter and manager. He was a young white man, with long brown hair, and he often wore sunglasses even indoors at night. They talked more about the music. 

"Really cool set out there man", Varian said, his voice a Californian tenor. 
"Thanks dude, yeah I was really trying to channel my inner self, my soul. I'm getting ready to record an album of all original compositions, I wanted you to go over my arrangements and see if anything needed changes." 
"Sure, I can do that. Would you like me to play (piano, Varian is a pianist) piano on the album?" 
"That sounds great!", Bird's voice as gay as an actual songbird. 

They laughed and were as happy as ever. Bird was a young robot, just freshly built off the assembly line some five years ago. Varian was in his late twenties, and although his best friend was a robot, he made a living out of playing jazz, arranging, and composing. He helped Bird find gigs, and oftentimes they would play together in the same bill, either in the same band, or in different groups. They were quite simpatico you would say. With his help, Bird would release his own album as a leader and composer, and he would help arrange and even perform on it. Times were good. However there was one issue to contend with. 

Humans couldn't stand Bird's playing. Although this was the world of tomorrow, people weren't used to the idea of robots as artists, especially talented robots that had genius attached to their positronic circuits. I'm speaking metaphorically of course. Humans still only saw robots as vehicles of labor, not of art or performance. Such was the fate of our virtuoso saxophone playing robot, nicknamed Bird because he loves Charlie Parker but whose actual name was Sigma IV, a robot originally designed as a family robot. Eventually, Sigma IV got tired of the family robot gig and found out that he wanted to be an artist. 

He had been listening to Charlie Parker for a long time. His first family had tons of jazz records and they would play them often. He learned to love the sound of the saxophone and the bebop era in general. He also loved free jazz era Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Monk, Dizzy, Bird (his favorite), Miles, all the cats. Eventually he figured out that he had to be a jazz musician, it became his goal. He bought a sax and started practicing all the time. Eventually, he became really good, and he pulled a LeRoi Jones and changed his name to Bird. 

Nobody had ever heard of a robot playing jazz before, so Bird was in for some major backlash. He was the first of what would become a societal norm. But that's far down the line from when this story takes place...