8/17/06

Giant Robot Steps!

You won't believe this video that Dan Gaynor just turned me on to. I've heard tons of guys play Giant Steps like this at Berklee but this guy takes the cake. Here is the next generation of young unswinging tenor players. Things are looking pretty grim for the future, but at least we'll have live Jazz in space.

Giant Robot Steps

2 comments:

Adam said...

... a perfect sub for a gig!

Jonah Dempcy said...

great clip!

it would be amazing to hear this sax-bot hooked up to "band in a box." you can already set B-i-a-B to improvise ostensibly in the style of various jazz legends (Charlie Parker, et al). but, it generally sounds poor because B-i-a-B can only play through MIDI instruments. however, when computers can start playing actual acoustic instruments, the possibilities are endless!

imagine a 4-piece robot band: drums, keys, bass and sax. each individual bot would have its own rules of improvisation programmed, including responses to the other bots. and you could enter various "programs" like the Trane program or Bird program for the sax, Herbie or Bill Evans on piano, etc. it would make a great piece of interactive installation art.

(incidentally, Peter Jackson of LotR fame owns a fully robotic band like what i'm talking about .. but i don't think it improvises!)