Isle have the last laugh.

Not often do i out a-loud to myself say "What an idiot", but after being pointed to links from TBP's blog recently i watched what can only be described as a collection of the most embarrassing videos I've seen in a long time, if not my life. Expert Village is a website show casing musicians who give either written or video tutorial segments in how to play genres of music, mostly there's a lot of jazz as I've seen before on various sessions roaming the web. With good reason i usually stay clear of these as it's hard enough trying to teach yourself than it is trying to teach yourself watching someone else thinking they know a lot about a particular topic or whatever.
However looking at these videos is not only embarrassing to myself to watch, but from the many comments left by confused and angry viewers about the pianist Austin McBride and his so called quality of playing. If that guy has been playing jazz piano for more than ten years then he needs to be shot I'm sorry, I'm an even better pianist than him and I'm self taught for about 3 years now! His playing style is silly, his terminology in describing jazz is frankly appalling and of piano music in general (and only seems comfortable playing Beatles songs), and worst of all he can't count, for all the key changes in Giant Steps! Notably there are two videos I've linked, the 5/4 time (where he goes to back to playing 4/4), "Experimental" jazz, and Latin jazz tutorials. The rest can be viewed here. I'll let you be the judge but somehow i don't think this is satire or faked in any way, so evidently someone at Expert Village must have a screw loose somewhere.

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More well worth watching programmes Rocket Science and Genius (strange format so far but I'll see how it goes) from the BBC (catch up on iplayer, currently Rocket Science has all the series available so watch them whilst you still can in the UK).

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Other than that today i got another cool trilby, just right for the spring weather that hopefully continues. When I'm in a trilby mood i reach back for the old records. Mainly a bit of Miles Davis to which i wondered half way through a piano solo on a recording of "All Of You" i thought i bet it's Herbie Hancock playing. I knew that he played a lot with Miles before his career started to rocket in solo work but i hadn't really listened carefully enough to those ones which included John Coltrane rippin' up a few spots here and there.

I decided to then download both Herbie's Empyrean Isles (even though I've listened to it loads of times i hadn't bothered downloading the whole album, i know sue me) and Takin' Off, both great records especially Empyrean which thinking about it completely revolutionised jazz we see today. Particularly great ones are Cantaloupe Island (who doesn't love it?) and The Egg with its very experimental structure (take that McBride!) that really flows over the 14 minute period, showing off greater sides of Herbie's distinctive playing style as well as the versatility of the other three legends that are Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Ron Carter bass, and Tony Williams on drums, making it an unforgettable line up.

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Rounding off this fragrant bunch of Herbs here's a vid of Herbie fairly recently on a show hosted by Elvis Costello, my look-a-like, playing blues classic Watermelon Man.

Myself (left), Elvis Costello (right).

What really surprised me is the subtle change from the original upbeat arrangement to the funk grooves pinned down on the Headhunters album which is fantastic. Both me and Tom have decided this is the theme tune for our friend Jenny who is obsessed with her melons. After showing her this she approved and said "Actually it's quite nice, i could see myself walking down the street to that.".. and then also spontaneously breaking into dance moves after the first few metres.