71% of Musicians Miss THIS Secret to Dexter’s Sound
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- Опубліковано 16 лип 2023
- Dexter Gordon is one of the all-time great jazz musicians, but so many musicians don't realise what makes him so unique, and his style so identifiable. Let's break down how he uses his time feel, riffs, and phrasing to add some drama and spice to his solos
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The REAL Dexter give away, sound wise, is the slight but short vibrato at the end of last note of a phrase. One or two small shakes are all you get - and no one else does this
Excellent delving into Dexter's wonderful playing.
Thank you, Josh. This video is exactly at the limit of my current appreciation of jazz and saxophone, so perfect timing for me. Looking forward to a bit of a binge on your other ones. Cheers from France.
Omg I love your videos - I wish I had more time to up my production values like you!!!
Thanks Jamie! There's a reason I'm not able to get my videos out weekly 😂
Dexter could be remarkably on top of the time in his up tempo solos. His articulation plays a significant factor in his overall swing feel.
His articulation is iconic!
I think a crucial part is that he strategically catches up with the beat. His on-beat hits punctuate the rhythm, highlighting important moments.
Nice analysis, but I also think he had a magnificent, soulful tone!
Absolutely! His tone is gorgeous!
Great analysis Josh- thank you so much for sharing cheers
Thanks Brian, it's great to hear you enjoyed it!
I bought "Diggin' Dexter" yesterday and it's nothing short of phenomenal. Thanks, Josh. Can't wait to see your treatment of Lester Young. 🙏👏
Thanks, Will! That means so much!
In my opinion Dexter isn't actually behind, I think he's spot on in the pocket.
Yes. He is consistently right in the middle of time. Most players aren't, at least most horn players.
I find that really interesting, because everyone I've ever spoken to about this, including high-profile jazzers, have all said that Dexter is behind the beat. I agree it helps create a great sense of pocket, but I've always seen pocket and beat as two slightly different things (I could well be in the minority with that)
Great playing and analysis, thanks!!
Thanks Gary!
Great and thorough analysis. Been a huge Dexter fan for decades. Did several transcriptions in college that included a performance and analysis of the solo in class. First tune on my grad recital was "Fried Banana's". Where were you and your analysis then?!
Oh man I'm so glad you enjoyed the video! There's always so much to learn from Dexter!
Thank you. As a (very) amateur tenor sax player and old fan of LTD I appreciate your work. Subscribed.
Thank you so much, it's great to hear you enjoyed the video!
Nice im currently working on transcribing his solo on apple jump. Definitely noticing the phrasing
Oh man, that's such a playful solo!!
Dexterity just puts out these chunks of continual tone.
Of course Dexter’s thing was SO laid-back he was in another time zone! That “sense of swung quavers” later in the phrase was because of his “ghosting tonguing”. Even 1/8 + appropriate ghosting/accenting = swing like a mofo! Thanks for the excellent vid!
I am very interested in listening to Dexter videos. Thank you
Thanks Max!
Dexter Gordon is a favorite of mine. The right stuff in just the right place.
Charles Parker really grabbed my attention as did Bradford and yes Dexter.
Very easy to listen too and he's great
88% of studies say that 43% of studies that say 71% of musicians miss this secret to Dexter's sound are 62% incorrect.
😂
You're 67.8 percent right
So work your ass off, find your own sound, dex did it and it's quite acceptable... Good luck lady's and gentlemen... Xoxo
Nice video! Can I ask you how you'd managed to get around copyright while uploading Dexter's music? Is it because it's slowed down with Transcribe! ? I'd like to make a short educational video on tenor but I can't figure this out. Tks!
Thanks for checking out the video!
As for copyright, to be honest I don't get around it at all 😅 UA-cam has 3 different categories of copyright when it comes to videos being uploaded. 1) your video contains no copyright material so if your channel is monetised you will get some ad revenue. 2) your video contains copyright material that the copyright owner does not allow other people to use, so UA-cam will give you a copyright strike. If you reach 3 copyright strikes your channel is taken down (I think). 3) your video contains copyrighted material that the copyright owner allows other people to use on UA-cam, but that copyright owner gets all of the advertising revenue from the video.
This video, and pretty much all the videos on my channel fall into the 3rd category, so there aren't any serious repercussions from me using the music, except the record labels get all the advertising revenue from the video. I've experimented with the length of the audio examples I use, and using Transcribe! to adjust their speeds, but unless I make the clips so short that they become unusable from an educational perspective, UA-cam still flags them for copyright.
So for your own videos, as long as you're happy with the video never makinig your any advertising money you should be ok! I hope that helps
I love your Dexter videos!
Thanks Paul, I really appreciate that!
Thank you,Josh🌹🌹⭐🌹🌹New Subbie. Jazz who's learned a lot from Uncle Dex.
I always thought the “three note cell” in that solo was a paraphrase of Facinatin’ Rhythm. And the single note cell is straight from Pres.
Yeah you're right with both of those things. Perhaps I should have used a different 3-beat cell in the example to avoid any confusion 😅
....Pres is like.... Beautiful and quite uncomplicated.... and beautiful.... really....more people should be aware of The Pres....
Great video. Would love to see a similar analysis of Stanley Turrentine
Thanks, Will. I haven't checked out Stanley Turrentine properly for years! I'll add him back into my listening rotation and see what I can do!
@@joshwakeham I'd absolutely love that. I've been digging the Live album up at Minton's with grant green and his blue note stuff generally.
Swung “quaver”…
(my American brain: DAFUQ⁉️) 😂
Haha my bad! Whenever I'm writing a video I always think "make sure to say 8th note not quaver" but then as soon as I press record it immediately slips my mind! 😅
@@joshwakeham🤣🤣
these dexter videos 👌👌
Thanks, Abel!
Bro made the grimace shake
You’re on to something but you need to compare LIKE TEMPOS, to make a fair comparison.
It’s natural for all soloists (even soloist who generally “swing” their eighth notes) to “even out” their eighth notes as tempo increases.
Yeah you're right. I chose those two examples because the difference is so clear and obvious, but perhaps picking examples with more similar tempos would have been a better way of demonstrating the point!
How you calculated that exactly 71 percent?
Wow ok, so, i had to pause at 1:00 cus that is EXACTLY the same line as another solo of his i'm transcribing, and there he also plays the 8th notes straight, without the swung ending ( ua-cam.com/video/OsBkm9_vn60/v-deo.html ) I guess this is what you call a player's "vocabulary"? and how you can identify players from this sort of thing? Neat-o
Yeah it's a great example of a lick Dexter uses all over the place!
That's a cool looking sax bro, what is it?
I am trying to buy a new sax, this looks dope!
It's a Joe Lovano Borgani. Best horn I've ever played!
@@joshwakeham thanks! Love your videos by the way, learning a lot from them!
Dexter Gordon, as a Jazz tenor saxophonist, set an excellent example of how a tenor saxophone and phrasing should sound...a language!!!...not altissimo or gimmicks!!!
...BINGO...!!!!!
He did play dome altissimo later in his career when he incorporated Coltranisms. But always sounded like LTD!
And he had loads of gimmicks!!
Dexter plays it his way - it’s up to the rhythm section to listen too. . . .
Everyone knows you swing more when you swing less!
It’s just listening and actually enjoying hearing the sound you want. Anyone who actually spends time listening to Dexter will never have this issue because it becomes internalized. And if you’re able to play along and adjust your sound to match with his then within months you could walk into competitions and comfortably start winning awards and get told everywhere how “mature” your sound is.
Only issue with that is most people aren’t willing to change their reed and embouchure to get that buzzy bright tone Dex has. Loosen up, pull back on the mouthpiece, push your mouthpiece a bit too far forward so you can play pretty loose and lazy with your mouth and pick up the cleanliness with your fingers. But most players are too stiff on their mouthpiece, including the guy in this video. He sounds like he’s playing on an extremely small tip opening and chamber with a stiff reed and struggling to play without biting his mouthpiece. He kept trying to explain Dex’s sound but not for a single moment did he sound anything like him lol
He does have a little bit of inconsistency, although I get the feeling he's not trying too hard... Nice sound but indeed a full universe away from dex... But not bad....
@@patrickkelcey2435 bad is subjective, and my taste has me avoiding all advice this guy gives for tone lol
I'd rather just play transcriptions mimicking as best I can, and do long tones to get that buzz and clarity working up my ear to hear exactly where I want to be.
71%?!!!!
No more, no less. Definitely 100% proven by science. Definitely...
Not had swung quavers, just cheese & onion!🤪
😂
Is there anything about Dexter Gordon's style that you don't know? Just asking.
I don't know his favourite breakfast. Although, from what Jean Toussaint told me, it involved a surprising amount of whisky
@@joshwakeham I expect he dipped his toast in it.
Sorry you are not right here.He is playing swing (triplet) quavers.NEVER straight quavers.But he is however playing both quavers tenuto and both of them evenly and equally in terms of attack and volume.But they are not straight in terms of rhythm, despite being evenly tongued and accented .The Henderson example has accents on the off beats, so the effect of uneveness is more noticable.
I just went back and double-checked. The line definitely starts off with straight quavers, before switching to the more triplet feel. Even then though, the notes (disregarding accents etc) are more even in length than Joe Henderson's
@@joshwakeham Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But I think if you listen more closely, especially to the slowed down version, you may realise the merit of my argument.
And to emulate his quaver feel it is really important to avoid accenting the offbeats and ghosting the onbeats.Both notes of the quaver pairings have equal weight in terms of accents and volume.In fact if you accent the onbeat quavers you get closer. This is an aspect of Lester Young's influence on his phrasing.
71%? Where did you get that stat from? 😂
It’s a laid back 100% - that’s Jazz!
71? Not like, 68.5 or 72.3496? Anyway this stuff you have to hear and feel.
Definitely 71. There's no way at all it was even slightly made up to make people click the video...
100% of viewers should be subscribed to Josh's channel.
Thanks Francis, I'm not sure I'd be able to handle such an influx 😂
Where can one acquire such a drum loop as @3:48??? Thanks.
It's one of the loops on the app Drum Genius