Jazz trombonists using microtones in their solos?

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mgladdish
Posts: 155
Joined: Oct 10, 2021

by mgladdish »

Hi folks,

I'm starting to get in to microtones and trying to adapt them into my solo lines. My theory is it should open up a bunch more possibilities for moving between chord tones, also meaning there's more room for manoeuvre before running out of range.

Does anyone know who else is doing this? It would be great to check out other trombonists who already have this down.

I'm particularly interested in players who are using microtones over "regular" changes, rather than going full-out microtonal. For instance https://www.rarenoiserecords.com/releases/mikrojazz/ is really fab, but is too full-on for what I'm currently looking for. But using 3 steps instead of 2 to get between whole tones in a melody would be right up my (current) street.
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AndrewMeronek
Posts: 1487
Joined: Mar 30, 2018

by AndrewMeronek »

A lot of trombonists get microtones trained out of them by modern pedagogy and the dominance of equal temperament, unfortunately. The most obvious players who use them would be older - Sam Nanton (of Duke Ellington's Orchestra) comes immediately to mind. Players who use actual blue notes.
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Burgerbob
Posts: 6327
Joined: Apr 23, 2018

by Burgerbob »

A friend of mine, Zekkereya, has some stuff you may be interested in.

https://www.facebook.com/zacimag/videos_by
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mgladdish
Posts: 155
Joined: Oct 10, 2021

by mgladdish »

[quote="Burgerbob"]A friend of mine, Zekkereya, has some stuff you may be interested in.

https://www.facebook.com/zacimag/videos_by[/quote]

Thanks, checking him out now.

Is there one vid you’d point to in particular?
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Burgerbob
Posts: 6327
Joined: Apr 23, 2018

by Burgerbob »

[quote="mgladdish"]<QUOTE author="Burgerbob" post_id="159673" time="1633876073" user_id="3131">
A friend of mine, Zekkereya, has some stuff you may be interested in.

https://www.facebook.com/zacimag/videos_by[/quote]

Thanks, checking him out now.

Is there one vid you’d point to in particular?
</QUOTE>

Lots of good stuff in there, but here's one:

<FACEBOOK id="3858144597558708" type="v" user="zacimag"><LINK_TEXT text="https://www.facebook.com/zacimag/videos ... 4597558708">https://www.facebook.com/zacimag/videos/3858144597558708</LINK_TEXT></FACEBOOK>
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mbarbier
Posts: 367
Joined: May 17, 2018

by mbarbier »

Zekkeraya is awesome and is integrating some awesome stuff (though I'm their former teacher so not particularly impartial <EMOJI seq="1f602" tseq="1f602">😂</EMOJI>).

Steve Lehman's octet is killer (he's a sax player). He studied with a pretty famous spectral composer and there's a lot of that in his vocabulary. His album Mise en Abime is amazing and the brass playing is great. I wish there was more microtonality in the actual solos, but it's an amazing space for it (and just a killer band).
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mbarbier
Posts: 367
Joined: May 17, 2018

by mbarbier »

I can't remember the name of the group, but I know the sackbut player Adam Woolf is part of a kinda early music and jazz cross over group. If memory serves they're playing in meantone.

It wasn't my jam, but probably really well done from a pitch side.
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Fidbone
Posts: 383
Joined: Apr 24, 2018

by Fidbone »

Nils Wogram.
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mgladdish
Posts: 155
Joined: Oct 10, 2021

by mgladdish »

[quote="Burgerbob"]<QUOTE author="mgladdish" post_id="159675" time="1633877268" user_id="13350">

Thanks, checking him out now.

Is there one vid you’d point to in particular?[/quote]

Lots of good stuff in there, but here's one:

<FACEBOOK id="3858144597558708" type="v" user="zacimag"><LINK_TEXT text="https://www.facebook.com/zacimag/videos ... 4597558708">https://www.facebook.com/zacimag/videos/3858144597558708</LINK_TEXT></FACEBOOK>
</QUOTE>

Ah, that's not coming up for me. He must have set it to Friends-only or something like that.
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LeTromboniste
Posts: 1634
Joined: Apr 11, 2018

by LeTromboniste »

[quote="mbarbier"]I can't remember the name of the group, but I know the sackbut player Adam Woolf is part of a kinda early music and jazz cross over group. If memory serves they're playing in meantone.

It wasn't my jam, but probably really well done from a pitch side.[/quote]

I think that was the Let the Music Speak project. Not sure it's still going, but it was a pretty cool concept.
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jacobgarchik
Posts: 358
Joined: Oct 27, 2018

by jacobgarchik »

Used to hang out a lot with Joe Maneri, although I was not one of his students. Performed some of his composed music at places like Tonic including a duo for trombone and voice in 72 note equal temperament.

I use microtones in my own improvising in a less formal way. Like, say, around 4:20 or so

<SOUNDCLOUD id="acobarchik/brn" track_id="779774017">https://soundcloud.com/acobarchik/brn</SOUNDCLOUD>