Jazz Trio Interplay

He’s performed with the Pat Metheny Group, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the Gil Evans Orchestra, the Al DiMeola Project and a hundred other giants of Jazz and contemporary music. He appears on over 300 CDs, including 4 Grammy winners. He’s also a longtime and cherished friend of TrueFire. So, when Danny Gottlieb called to ask whether we’d be interested in filming a jazz trio recording session featuring himself on drums and two of his best friends, Barry Greene on guitar and Dennis Marks on upright and electric bass, we jumped at the opportunity, no questions asked.

We were also very familiar with Barry Greene and Dennis Marks. Barry’s pedigree is best summed up by Pat Martino, "I've been enjoying the guitar as an instrument and its amazing artists all of my life. To me Barry Greene is just about one of the best; not only as a player, but also as a writer and a teacher. I agree with others who regard him as a world class musician."

Dennis Marks is likewise "one of the most in-demand bass players on the jazz scene” and has been playing with Arturo Sandoval for 14 years. Dennis’ pedigree is peppered with performances and recording session with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Liebman, Bob Mintzer, Maynard Ferguson and Pat Metheny. Dennis has appeared on six of Sandoval's recordings, including the Grammy-Award Winning Hot-House.

Just witnessing the sessions, while our camera crew captured every moment of the session, was a mind-blowing experience for us. The level of musicianship was indeed world class, but observing how well these three players communicated with each other musically as they fed each other improvisational framework and ideas, was an education in itself.

After the sessions, we filmed a three-way discussion, where Danny, Barry and Dennis spoke to their own improvisational approach for each of the tracks. Enlightening and inspirational, these overviews convey priceless key learnings from these three masters of jazz improvisation.

We’ve included all of the footage, all of the overviews, and all of the camera angles here in this Jazz Trio Interplay learning experience. You can choose between a composite view of all three players, or drill down and select individual camera angles for drums, guitar and bass.

We've also included as jam tracks the final mixed and mastered tunes for your listening pleasure: Jivin' and Kinivin’, No Worries, For Her, What Is This Thing In My Soup?, The Broken Path, Sunday Morning, Afternoon Getaway, It's On, Truncated Theme and Swamp. Plus, we’ve also included charts for each of the tunes along with tab and notation for select improvisational sections.

Whether or not you’re a student of jazz, this one-of-a-kind TrueFire project is one of those must-have, ear-opening educational references for your library. If you already are a student of jazz… prepare thy mind to be likewise blown.