Jake Baynes Quarter Two Blog

46-157 Transcends (10) - To go beyond the limits of something. In this case, Coltrane is said to have transcended the limits of jazz during his time. Lester Young (13) - One of Coltrane's biggest early inspirations. Parker (13) - The nickname for Charlie Parker who was another large inspiration for Coltrane. Freelance (22) - Coltrane "Freelanced" in his early career. This meant that Coltrane was recording with and playing with many different bands. Obscurity (22) - Coltrane was sort of an obscurity in his early career as he followed many different paths in jazz. Stitt (32) - A very influential musician in Coltrane's life. Tenor (50) - A lower register saxophone which Coltrane occasionally played. Alto (50) - The register of saxophone that Coltrane spent most of his career playing. Soprano (51) - Coltrane began playing this instrument in the 60s when he recorded "My Favorite Things" earning him a lot of respect for it's new application in jazz. ...

1-46 John Coltrane After digesting 46 pages of legendary jazz musician, John Coltrane early life, I am struck by quite a few things. John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina and moved to High Point, NC when he as about a year old. Growing up in High Point, NC, gave Coltrane a huge grasp on blues and gospel music. This leads me to the essential question of how does the location of a musician through their early life effect the music that they play later on in their career? This essential question I am going to answer with this blog as well as the next analytical blog that I post. From what I know of John Coltrane, he is a modal jazz player who makes the blues sound far from what the blues should sound like. (I will put two examples below so you can see what I mean)  To define modal jazz, it is best to compare Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Coltrane. Every Stevie Ray tune is in one key specific to the tune. The key does not change. However, with modal jazz, the key of the song...

Here is a quick burst blog about the time that I got to sit in with a friend of Reese Wynans, the pianist that played with Stevie Ray Vaughan up until his death. Last year I got invited to play on stage with southern rock and country legend Lee Roy Parnell down in Athens, Georgia! Here is the video! It was really cool because I got to hear a bunch of stories about the times that Reese and Lee Roy were with Stevie!

Finished Stevie Ray Vaughan After finishing the Stevie Ray Vaughan biography, I now have a very deep understanding about Stevie's life. Before reading this book, I knew a few pieces of information about his life, none of which really tied into who he was as a person and what he stood for. One large theme of this book is how he battled with addiction to drugs and alcohol all throughout his career. Stevie was such a caring person throughout his life with the way that he cared for his friends and his band and most importantly his family which includes Jimmy Vaughan. In 1986 Stevie got clean so that he could love his friends, family and music. This event in Stevie's life, I feel, really defines his personality and who he was. The reason personality is even relevant when it comes to a musician is all down to the feeling and the music that they put out.  When listening to Stevie's music  throughout his entire career, you can ...

273- 336 finish Stevie Ray Vaughan Tone (254) - The sound of the musical instrument Treble (254) - The sound that can be described as piercing. Bass (255) - Low rumbles Middle (255) - What fills out the sound in-between bass and treble. Impedance (255) - the resistance of a speaker. Ohms (261) - The unit that describes the resistance. One Twelve (262)  - The dimensions of a lot of Stevies amplifiers. Scuttle Buttin' (264) - One of Stevie's most famous songs due to its speed and intensity. Hammond (266) - the type of organ that Reese Wynans, Stevie's piano player used. 12 gauge (273) - The heaviest gauge of strings that one can put on an electric guitar. Stevie did it! ES 335 (280) - The guitar that Stevie is holding on the cover of his album "Soul to Soul" Montreux Jazz Festival (291) - A festival that Stevie got booed at once. After playing the first song, the crowd changed their minds. Tex-Mex (294) - The mixture of Texas and Mexico Brisket Tacos ...

250-273 Up to this point in the book, I have followed Stevie's career up to his break down. Stevie since the beginning of his career got very involved with all sorts of different drugs and alcohol. One of his favorite drugs was cocaine as it allowed him to stay awake and gig with more intensity. It was unfortunate that Stevie decided to use drugs and not the method of simply sleeping as it wore his health down until he had a breakdown. In the middle of his European tour of 1987, Stevie had a mental breakdown where, "I woke up one day in very bad shape. Woke up crying, scared to death and didn't know why. Physically, I was a wreck. Mentally, spiritually and emotionally it was chaos." I had heard this quote a while ago when I was really deep into Stevie's music. After reading this section of the book, it makes so much sense now! In this section, Stevie stated that he had been using forms of cocaine since he was six years old. According to Stevie, through his abusi...

197-250 Come Hell Or High Water (183) - This is like a promise to get something done Univibe (185) - Type of pedal Stevie adopted in the 80s that allowed him to achieve a unique sound that he liked Vibrolux (188) - One of Stevie's favorite fender amps Super Reverb (188) - another one of stevies favorite amps that featured a 4 ten inch speaker configuration allowing for him to get a lot more volume than the Vibrolux. Steel String Singer (189) The amp that Stevie used on "Riviera Paradise" Axe (200) - Term used by guitarists when referring to their guitars Hamilton (200) a guitar that was built for stevie in 1984 Lenny (201) the name of a guitar that was bought for Stevie by his Ex wife. He then released a song titled Lenny for his wife at the time using that guitar. Leslie (213) - The name of the Speaker effect that Stevie used. Sounded similar to a univibe. Ray (230) Vaughan's middle name that he did not start using until 1979. Before this, he was Stevie Va...