Curb your enthusiasm with OHO Friday July 8th @ Bourbon Street on the Beach (116th Street and Coastal Highway, Oceanside in OC, MD. Beverage/food specials during Happy Hours (3-7), which happens to be exactly when OHO will be playing there. Hope to see you.
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
. . . for something . . . but not always being able to explain exactly what . . .
(from http://www.furious.com/perfect/ericdolphy2.html)
. . . "Eric was a very, very gifted musician and a very nice guy on top of it," McCoy Tyner told me in a recent interview. "He had a very personal approach to playing and enjoyed expanding the limits of imagination. Eric played so many instruments, his pockets were bulging with all these mouthpieces," McCoy said chuckling at the memory. "He was the first guy to come on as a guest with the band. At the time he came along he was doing his own thing and made a tremendous impression. We felt that the quartet was self-contained. Jimmy, Elvin and I felt that we had built something and were still on that journey. We didn't exactly understand where John was going in terms of adding Eric. We were like little kids in a sense like this is our band and we want to keep it that way. But then again it wasn't like we didn't want to share our experience. John was the leader and he was the one that made the final decisions. He decided that maybe if I do this, this will cause something else to happen. And it did! They played so differently. Eric added another dimension to the sound. John never rested on his laurels. He was like a scientist in the laboratory always searching for something new or different. By adding Eric he was expanding the music. John and Eric had a very different type of life experience. Eric had a very academic approach. He studied a lot. John coming from the South had that real gutsy approach. His father was a minister and his grandfather was a minister. He spent a lot of time in church and you could hear that in the music. At the same time there were points where the two met and could make something very interesting happen."
"Eric added a very interesting component to the music," McCoy continued. "John believed in what Eric was doing. He wanted to help him. At the same time he wanted to open the music up. It was a very good experience for Eric as well, being surrounded by the quartet. Ole was one of the highlights of Eric's presence. He had his own approach to the bass clarinet. He had personal things he would do on the instrument and got sounds out of it that you normally didn't hear on a bass clarinet. He was very animated and very enthusiastic.". . . (Note: Be patient. Eric's solo starts at about 4:07)
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)
My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
I've always had a penchant for humor in music. It doesn't always have to be in-your-face silly (not that I'm against THAT!), but for me, humor makes everything, especially music, more real, more fallible, more entertaining, more universal and maybe even more palatable. And instrumental music can contain just as much humor as lyrics.
Laughter always attracted me as a child, whether it be an adult with a wry grin that does magic tricks, Jerry Lewis mugging for a crowd in ape-fashion or the outrageous puns and sight gags on old television programs like 'Green Acres.' That was always my preference when it was up to me.
Musically, I always searched for the novelty songs (mostly by [Noel] Paul Stookey) when I purchased a new Peter, Paul and Mary LP. I discovered Spike Jones in old movies on television. Louis Prima could always swing, croon and entertain with a twinkle in his eye and laughter in the music. Later it was Frank Zappa (who also named Spike Jones as an influence), Jim Stafford (more subtle than Spike) and even Fishbone.
Then there is the humor that is unspoken but still ever present in the music of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Dexter Gordon (constantly quoting pop, children or seasonal songs in solos), Roland Kirk, Eric Dolphy laughed much in his leaping intervals and birdsong impersonations, Dave Frishberg (subtle, dry and sophisticated lyrics), Cannonball Adderley, Sun Ra and even David Murray. I love it ALL.
(Thinking of this song today was the seed for my reflection on humor. . .)
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)
My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
