Shaye cohn biography books
Finally - proof that Shaye likes to keep the cornet in good condition with freely-moving valves - there is the tube of valve oil lying on its side. If I'm not mistaken, it's Al Cass 'Fast' oil from Massachusetts, which is held in high regard by brass players.
Tubaskinny shaye cohn erika singer Twice through the sixteen bars apparently both beginning with the chord sequence IV - IV - I - I gives us a merry 32 bars. What a composition! See more reviews. Posted by Pops Coffee atYou can see Shaye using it to lubricate a sticky third-valve piston (at 1 min. 50 secs.) by clicking here.
The band in which she mainly plays is called Tuba Skinny.
Shaye is not a showy player.
Not from her will you hear those screaming, raucous, high-note bar solo choruses to which so many traditional jazz trumpeters resort.
But she is a very energetic player of the cornet. She produces a unique tone that perfectly encapsulates the blues feeling that is at the heart of so much of our music. Listen closely to her busy fluent phrases, often muted and in the background, interwoven brilliantly into the polyphony of her band's wonderful music. Her contributions to ensembles remind me of the viola parts in Mozart's string quartets. (She is also great at what Punch Miller used to call 'fast fingering'.) Her intuitive improvising and her interplay with clarinet players recall the brilliant playing of trumpeter Charlie Shavers in his work with Johnny Dodds in the s.
Shaye has said: 'One thing really important to The Loose Marbles was ensemble playing.
When I first started with them, I was playing second trumpet. So I had to work to find a voice where I could fit in.
Shaye cohn japan: What a great man Joe 'King' Oliver was, in his own playing, in producing such seminal recordings with his bands and also in his composing! Information quality Music quality Book content Knowledge of music Interest. They perform as The Lovesick Duo. Customers find the book interesting with detailed descriptions of jazz bands and history.
It taught me to play very simply, and to listen'.
Shaye has an instinctive understanding of rhythmic possibilities, subtle and surprising harmonies and progressions, even when improvising at high speed. She can 'bend' notes to great effect and in exactly the right places.
She always works hard to encourage great teamwork from the band, not just to display her own skills. Her playing takes account of (and usually directs) all that is going on around her.
In fact, she seems to be the arranger of the music for Tuba Skinny - discovering long-forgotten gems from recordings made by jazz bands and string bands and jug-blower bands 80 - 90 years ago, and making them sound completely fresh and exciting, with all the armoury of breaks, stop chords, long-held notes, offbeat rhythms, clever introductions and codas, key changes and so on.
Shaye holds all this in her head for an astonishingly wide repertoire of tunes.
Shaye also takes great care in setting tempos before a tune is started. And when a fast tempo is required, she and the band ensure it is maintained with excitement and no dragging later in the tune.
On top of all this, Shaye is a fine composer of tunes for traditional jazz bands.
On YouTube you can witness performances by Tuba Skinny of Blue Chime Stomp, Nigel's Dream, Owl Call Blues, Pyramid Strut, Salamanca Blues, Deep Bayou Moan, Elysian Fields and Tangled Blues - all of them fine pieces of music composed by Shaye for the band.
And that is not all.
Shaye is also one of the best traditional jazz pianists! You can enjoy evidence of this by clicking on
THIS VIDEO.
You can also find her contributing lustily on piano in a 'country' music group, playing some cowboy-style music by clicking here.
And Shaye's talents do not end there: she may also be heard and seen on You Tube playing the violin and the accordion (and even the spoons!) very well indeed.
In , she even took up playing the trombone - and formed an all-female band that she called The Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band:
Their singer is Erika Lewis:
CLICK HERE
It is often said that Shaye inherited her talents from her father and grandfather - both of them famous in jazz history for their own contributions. There may be some truth in this, though I am sure Shaye has worked extremely hard to develop her own skills and versatility and to play the music in her own way.
I also believe greater credit should be given to her mother - a very fine jazz pianist and singer who, in my opinion, may have had an even deeper influence on Shaye.
The Cornet Tone of Shaye Cohn
So let me say first that most cornet players aim to produce a beautifully clean, clear, open, round, full tone.
Think of the best English brass bands. (By the way, brass bands in England - the type who participate in national contests and who perform in park bandstands during the summer - are quite different from the jazz 'brass bands' that you find in New Orleans.) The cornet players of such bands as Black Dyke, Brighouse and Rastrick, Foden's and Cory are examples of players who achieve this angelic purity of tone.
But traditional jazz cornet (and trumpet) players need a tone that is a little bit rougher and that allows for jazzy effects - bending notes, being bluesy and occasionally even rasping a little.
Very few of them have much use for that sublime purity of tone common among the top English-style brass band players.
And Shaye Cohn - possibly the best and certainly the most interesting traditional jazz cornet player to be heard today - has succeeded in developing a tone that is perfect for her s style of music.
It is distinctive and unique.
Shaye cohn fan club It's a sign that she is at the height of her powers and full of confidence. A final run-through by the full ensemble is neatly rounded off with a 2-bar coda. One person found this helpful. The musicians Tuba Skinny are playing a tune called Crumpled Papers.I can't think of any other cornet player who sounds or has sounded like her. At best, as I have said, she recalls for me the Charlie Shavers who worked with Johnny Dodds. I can say her tone is a sort of mixture of those produced by George Mitchell ( - ) , Thomas 'Papa Mutt' Carey ( - ) and Natty Dominique ( - ).
She used to pick up that very old Yamaha cornet and off she went - always producing an amazing tone that is immediately recognizable and that is such an essential ingredient in the success of her band - Tuba Skinny.
The remarkable tone is always striking, no matter how fast, or athletic, or creative the musical phrases she produces. Now she is doing the same with the King Master cornet that she acquired at the end of
How does she achieve it? I doubt whether even Shaye knows. It must have something to do with the physiology of her mouth and the way she uses her lips.
Shaye cohn biography books Shaye Cohn is considered by many to be the best traditional jazz band leader, the best traditional jazz cornet player and one of the best traditional jazz piano players and violin players in the world today. Lots of 'breaks' are built in and there are witty moments - such as the Coda. What a great man Joe 'King' Oliver was, in his own playing, in producing such seminal recordings with his bands and also in his composing! Labels: 'Doctor Jazz' , bar structures , Early jazz tunes , King Oliver , managing a band , rapport with audience , relationships with the audience.I guess it is instinctive rather than cultivated.
But these alone do not account for her special tone.
Observe her even when she is playing without a mute: the sound is still distinctively her own.
If you are a cornet player and think you can produce a sound exactly like Shaye Cohn's, well - just try! I doubt whether you will get anywhere near it.
This tone, combined with the creativity, energy and subtlety she puts into all her playing, makes Shaye the outstanding traditional jazz musician of her generation (not to mention that - as I have said - she also pays brilliantly on several other instruments - notably the piano and violin!).
If by any chance you are still discovering Shaye, I can tell you there are plenty more videos in which you can witness her wonderful playing for yourself.
For example, you could start by
clicking on here
or
or here.
Following a classical music training, she arrived in New Orleans as a player of the piano, accordion and violin.===============
FOOTNOTES
(1) CLICK HERE to watch a video of Shaye playing accordion with the phenomenal Mucca Pazza Band in the days when she was about 24 years old and before she moved to New Orleans.
(2) Here's an email typical of dozens I have received from my blog readers:
How I wish I could play at all!
One of the things I find so thrilling about Shaye is her attack. She raises her cornet to her lips and bang, she hits her first note sweetly and cleanly without any straining or apparent effort and beautiful tone. Marvellous. I can think of no other player to compare in the current jazz world and she has such empathy with the New Orleans tradition.