8 Comments
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Beth Clary's avatar

This cements my awe at your magical touch with everything, Kate! I will make seeing this show a priority as it sounds wonderful.

Kate Sullivan's avatar

So happy you enjoyed the trip through MusicLand. Those words, btw, are an amalgam of things jazz teachers have said to me. Did I understand? Did I incorporate those ideas into my playing? Not so much. Onward and upward!

Neural Foundry's avatar

The jazz lesson stream-of-consciousness is genius. Love how the Lydian/Dorian/Phrygian references casually drop into wondering if medieval musicians played jazz. The angular solo shapes and pentatonic layering over chord changes really captures that improvised quality where theory and instinct blur together. Been trying to wrap my head around tritone subs for ages, and seeing it woven into this narrative somehow makes it click better than anytextbook could.

Kate Sullivan's avatar

Glad you enjoyed the trip, Neural Foundry. I’ve been doing music for 75 years! everything from classical piano to guitar (folk, jazz, bossa nova) to songwriting to singing in the shower. When I was in 10th grade, I took ‘popular’ music, which opened up the world of jazz piano. I wrote about that a couple of years ago in Substack. https://open.substack.com/pub/sullyarts/p/music-lessons?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web. The stream-of-consciousness is an amalgam of things teachers have told me. I ain’t no expert on tri-tone substitutions! If I need help, I’ll call!

Beth Welch's avatar

Such a fabulous preview to what I know will be a remarkable show! Thanks as ever, Kate.

Kate Sullivan's avatar

Thank you, dear Beth. Yes, it will be fun to see everybody’s work! 💜