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Come on out to Tyrone Hill's Memorial Service this Saturday:

Another member of the Sun Ra Arkestra reaches his alter-destiny: Longtime trombonist Tyrone Hill passed away on Sunday, March 11.

He was 58.

A native Philadelphian, hailing from the north side of town near the Arkestra group house in Germantown, Hill began playing trombone at Gillespie Junior High.

He joined the Arkestra in 1979 and proved a consistent and valuable member until his death. Hill’s jubilant, prominent style became one of the signature sounds on many Arkestra recordings of the ’80s and ’90s—Ra would often rely on Hill to initiate compositions, especially “Discipline 27-II.â€

Hill can be heard on over 40 albums with the Sun Ra Arkestra, but he also recorded two albums under his own name (1997’s Out of the Box and 1999’s Soul-Etude, both on CIMP). He also performed and recorded with Elliott Levin, Jemeel Moondoc and roots-rock band NRBQ and its pianist Terry Adams, among many others.

Arkestra trumpeter Fred Adams commented, “I was shoulder to shoulder with Tyrone in the brass section for my entire Arkestra career. His sound always boosted mine and the sum of my trumpet and his trombone always ended up greater than the total of those two instruments.â€

Outside of the jazz world, Hill was known as the bandleader on former Black Panther Bobby Seale’s barbecue cooking television show, as well as an avid Philadelphia Eagles fan—he frequently attended home games and played the team’s fight song with his trombone.

A memorial service will be held in Philadelphia at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 14, at the Church of the Advocate, located at 1801 West Diamond St. More information can be found by calling (215) 236-6773.

The Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of Marshall Allen, will pay tribute to Hill by participating in the memorial.

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Argh, I haven't seen (nor played for that matter) good live jazz for so long! I can't wait for the montreal jazz fest. Last time I had a pass most shows, it was insane!!!

i just caught the tail end of a montreal jazz fest showcase on tv...I NEED TO BE THERE

but i can't get away this year :(

it will have to be next year then

oh god why

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the turnout was great. many philly jazz luminaries were there. great to hear stories about the neighborhood that tyrone hill lived in----the village of the 2400 block of north18th street. that 3 block radius produced many jazz greats, including odean pope.

one of the more stirring arkestra performances to be sure.

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i just caught the tail end of a montreal jazz fest showcase on tv...I NEED TO BE THERE

but i can't get away this year :(

it will have to be next year then

oh god why

Roy Haynes this year! I'm extremely happy. Some other good stuff too, of course. Let me know if you make it next year :)

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I'm way into music in general, and have around 85 gigs worth, a large chunk of it being jazz. Jazz just seems to have a lot more musical depth and complexity than a lot of other music. All the aforementioned individuals (Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Duke Elington, John Cotrane, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Dave Bruebeck, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Thelonious Monk, etc.) just seem to have way more talent at what they do, compared to even my favorite rock bands. Think about how much material Miles Davis, Bruebeck, or Coltrane have, and all of it's good. They all have stacks of albums and for the most part they're all decent. Not to mention in many instances you can have 5 versions of the same song, all musically unique, with different solos and variations. When I think of rock bands that have comparable amounts of really good material only a handful come to mind. Maybe Led Zeplin, U2, Red Hot Chile Peppers, Jimi Hendrix. (All the aforementioned have great live recordings where they simply play music.) Jazz performers aren't concerned whether their song is going to be to long for radio, they just play and express their vision. Not to mention, in what other genre do the very best talents constantly collaborate with each other? The closest thing I can think of is hip hop to a very limited extent. (Producer collaborations/Blackstar (mos def/Talib Qweli)

I must admit I know little about current jazz and am taking notes from the forum. If anyone else knows current jazz well, please post some recommendations.

P.S. Just started collecting jazz on vinyl! It's amazing, and actually rather afordable if you buy it in bulk via ebay. At the moment I have a good chunk of the Miles Davis discography, dito for Bruebeck, and an album here and there from other guys I found at thrift stores. When I get some more spending money I'm going to try and get some Coltrane, Monk, and Dexter Gordon.

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jazz on vinyl in bulk on ebay? hook me up :)

what do you mean by "current jazz"?

i'm not entirely familiar with the jazz world today either--most of my collection is that of a typical jazz listener, plus a few explorations.

if you're talking about good players still around today, i love the stuff that joshua redman, kenny garrett and brad mehldau are putting out. also--hiromi is a superwoman on the keyboard not to be missed. her live shows are spectacular!

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

any of the new yorkers have heard of greg glassman? horn player, he just came to town and played from wednesday to saturday. caught him on the first night, intelligent sort of player just a bit too bustling for me. backed by a very hard and percussive rhythm section, so it was a good match-up.

also just found some players to jam with, should be fun. question: you guys reckon it's a better idea to work on hard tunes that we're unfamiliar with, or easier tunes that we should aim to do well and in our own (sweet) way?

ie. given a choice between working on Giant Steps vs Freddie Freeloader or something like that.

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I love listening to vocal jazz stuff, mostly female. Showtunes type stuff, I was seeing a girl who was big in that and would sing a lot of that stuff everywhere we went.

Doris Day is great.

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TiP, I reckon you should do a bit of both. Pick a few easy tunes that you all like, that way you can get a good framework going for experimenting with ideas. That is, because you don't have to worry about how hard the tune is to play, your mind will be more free to think about how you want to play it/what you want to do with it.

But maybe pick one or two hard tunes as works in progress. You could try doing Giant Steps at half speed (and change the feel to a bossa or something), so that the chord changes are actually comprehendable. Or something like that...

Enjoy the jamming!

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sounds good, cg, i've asked the others for tunes they would like to do and stuff like so what, four, for all we know has popped up, alongside fall, giant steps, confirmation...reckon that goes along the lines of what you've said.

didn't metheny do giant steps in a latin beat, in half time? i remember finding it very interesting.

BodiesOfLight--one of my favourite "The Complete..." albums is the complete ella and louis. she's my kind of female vocalist. so much warmth and humour to her voice.

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yeah...in the long run the volume of play is usually the most important, but since we're just starting out and i'm not familiar with everyone else's (and my own, more importantly..) level of competency, it needs some slight method to the experimentation to be more effective i guess? :confused:

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