James Brown

In honour of the great singer, here is a clip from a performance earlier in 2006.

Christian McBride Bass Solo

Below is a clip of one of today's premier jazz bassists, Christian McBride, performing a solo.

Modern Bass Lessons from Jaco Pastorius

Youtube.com has several videos of Jaco Pastorius giving bass lessons from his instructional video.

Part 1: Melodies, reading, finger positions - Jaco discusses the importance of learning melodies for Bass Players, learning to read music




Part 2: Intonation, Scales, Arpeggios, Double Stops - Intonation on a fretless bass, finger positioning for scales and exercises, playing arpeggios on the bass, double stops




Part 3: Left hand techniques, Jamming, Right hand techniques - Jaco continues his lessons on left hand positioning, does some jamming, right hand positioning for plucking notes, double stops




Part 4: Patterns, Rhythm, False Harmonics - Playing different patterns for arpeggios and scales, playing solid rhythm, false harmonics




Part 5: False Harmonics, - Continues in false harmonicsw




Part 6: Split screen jamming, Continuum - Jaco does some old-school split screen jamming with himself, plays his classic Continuum. There is not much instruction here, just tons of great Jaco!




Part 7: Jaco's Musical Influences, Advice for new players - Jaco talks about the mainstream music that influenced him, provides his advice for new players (to keep an open mind and keep listening).




Part 8: Jam, part 1 - The beginning of a jam with Jaco, guitarist John Scofield, and drummer Kenwood Dennard, jamming on a blues progression




Part 9: Jam, part 2 - Second installment of the jam from the instructional video, performing The Chicken




Part 10: Jam, part 3 - Last installment of the jam, and end of the instructional video

Happy Holidays From The Diplomats

The Diplomats would like to wish Happy Holidays for everyone out there, and want you to have a safe New Year.

We'd especially like to thank all of the wonderful newlyweds and companies that had us perform for them this year. All the best for 2007!

Corporate Jazz Bands

The Diplomats have performed at many, many weddings since our inception, and it continues to be our "bread and butter" today. However, we also perform for numerous Corporate events in Toronto, the Kitchener-area, and other parts of Southern Ontario.

The big difference for us is the nature of the affair. While a Wedding is a day filled with love and romance, rarely do Corporate events share these types of emotions (it would be pretty interesting if they did!). Generally , we find Corporate events have an air of relaxation (a party for the employees), and sometimes a hit of seriousness (when it is an event to "schmooze" with clients).

So when we play Corporate Events instead of Weddings, we must gear our songs towards this change. Some of the music we play is so universal, it can be played at any event. However, some of the more romantic tunes (eg. "The Way You Look Tonight", "Unforgettable") we play at weddings are better replaced by songs by artists like Miles Davis or Charlie Parker - music that is not necessarily associated at weddings, but is definitely crowd-pleasing jazz music.

Lastly, for Corporate Events, I try to keep an eye out for the person who hired us for any changes/requests she may have along the way. While at a wedding, the happy couple will usually listen to us and hire us and know what they want, at a Corporate event, the job of hiring a band is usually delegated somewhere beneath the Boss. That employee wants to make sure the boss is happy, so in turn, we have to make his/her boss happy with our selection. So I will ask for feedback after our first set, in case the boss wanted to hear more of a different style of jazz (say more Standards than Modern jazz), and we will adjust ourselves accordingly. They are paying the bill afterwards, so we do our best to please!

Corporate Events are always a blast for The Diplomats. In fact, we're doing one tonight for a client we've worked for before (multiple times). Keep us in mind if you have a Corporate Event coming up, we always aim please.

Holiday Party Bookings

With the holiday season upon us now, we're getting starting to play Corporate and Private party events. Some of the events are recurring bookings for us, and others are new, so its good to have a bit of both - the norm and the unexpected.

Playing at the corporate events is a bit different than the weddings we often do, as the material can be a bit different. Depending on the event, you may be asked to do more "modern" jazz, rather than the old standards. Of course, we try to tailor it to the event.

On top of my duties with The Diplomats, I have some gigs going on with other acts I play with. Its good to be busy this time of year - now I just have to get my Xmas shopping started!