Jazz whistle player

cboody · Post by **cboody** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:37 pm

If you can find them there are two albums by Billy Novick: Pennywhistles from Heaven and The New Pennywhistle. Both were LPs and have not been released on CD as far as I know. Some great jazz playing (Scrapple from the Apple for example).

MTGuru · Post by **MTGuru** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 10:11 pm

Brian Finnegan covered one of Billy Novick's tunes, "Skating While the Ice Melts" (Pennywhistles from Heaven) on his first album, When The Party's Over, Track 8. I asked Brian about it, and he confirmed that Novick is the source.

I've started it a few times in sessions, but no takers ever ...

Chino · Post by **Chino** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:12 am

Brigitte wrote:There is also this fabulous whistle player Fraser Fifield from Scotland who plays jazz on the whistles http://fraserfifield.com/videos/

Greetings
Brigitte

A great player indeed, and a very nice man: I'm lucky to have bought him the Kerry Pro Low F he played on his first 2 albums, and he's very kind.

http://www.youtube.com/v/d79_DJP5XEw

Flexismart · Post by **Flexismart** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:23 am

In the early 80's Billy Novick recorded an album called "Pennywhistles from Heaven" where he plays 'Scrapple from the Apple' on
one or two whistles - frankly it's hard to tell - and it was amazing. Unfortunately, there are no videos of him playing whistle
but the record is definitely worth a listen.

Oops - didn't see the cboody posting above. Repeat

Feadoggie · Post by **Feadoggie** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:23 am

If anyone is interested, the Novick LPs are still available occasionally.

Pennywhistles From Heaven

The New Pennywhistle

Does anyone know if Billy Novick once played horns with David Bromberg's big band? ....Oh, Sharon!

Feadoggie

Steve Bliven · Post by **Steve Bliven** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:53 am

You can find Billy Novick vinyl versions through Amazon also...

Best wishes.

Steve

Philip · Post by **Philip** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:06 pm

Billy is on David Bromberg's Midnight On the Water album (playing clarinet mostly, maybe a whistle in there once).

oleorezinator · Post by **oleorezinator** » Fri Jul 11, 2014 1:40 am

[Thread revival. - Mod]

Yeah yeah here I go again but with my usual stupidity
I overlooked a fine example right on this forum.
Jazz you say? Educci is yer man! Serious playing.
No noodling no bull$hit.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=98159
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXMtOYqn ... ata_player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVyRiGSM ... ata_player

R Small · Post by **R Small** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:03 pm

oleorezinator wrote:Yeah yeah here I go again but with my usual stupidity
I overlooked a fine example right on this forum.
Jazz you say? Educci is yer man! Serious playing.
No noodling no bull$hit.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=98159
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXMtOYqn ... ata_player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVyRiGSM ... ata_player

Cat can definitely cook.

Miragliuolo · Post by **Miragliuolo** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:47 pm

Cormac Breatnach is also very good with jazz on a whistle.

http://youtu.be/QMKNkW_-j1k

oleorezinator · Post by **oleorezinator** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:58 pm

Miragliuolo wrote:Cormac Breatnach is also very good with jazz on a whistle.

http://youtu.be/QMKNkW_-j1k

No jazz here. Celtoid noodling but no jazz.

Miragliuolo · Post by **Miragliuolo** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:09 pm

What is jazz really? There is structure involved, but at the heart of jazz is improvisation. You can't tell me that John Coltrane wasn't noodling on his live 25 minute version of "My Favorite Things". Yes Cormac was mixing different elements, Celtic, Jazz, etc. But to say "no jazz". Come on man that's just crazy.

oleorezinator · Post by **oleorezinator** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:17 pm

Miragliuolo wrote:What is jazz really? There is structure involved, but at the heart of jazz is improvisation. You can't tell me that John Coltrane wasn't noodling on his live 25 minute version of "My Favorite Things". Yes Cormac was mixing different elements, Celtic, Jazz, etc. But to say "no jazz". Come on man that's just crazy.

Subscribe to educciman's youtube channel if you want to hear
someone playing jazz on a whistle type instrument.
Mixing different elements?
A few extra notes added to an Irish tune?
Comparing Coltrane to Breathnach?
All of this and calling it jazz is truly crazy.

Marvelle · Post by **Marvelle** » Sat Aug 02, 2014 1:10 am

Flexismart wrote:In the early 80's Billy Novick recorded an album called "Pennywhistles from Heaven" where he plays 'Scrapple from the Apple' on
one or two whistles - frankly it's hard to tell - and it was amazing. Unfortunately, there are no videos of him playing whistle

Many years back when I lived in Boston I saw Billy Novick and a great guitarist, Guy Van Duser, in concert. Billy had played clarinet and then got out a whistle and said something like "Before they discovered wood they had to use these little metal clarinets." Ah, memories.

joepairman · Post by **joepairman** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 3:56 pm

[Thread revival. - Mod]

I'm a lapsed sax player (my work is too busy to maintain the embouchure), but I'm enjoying playing whistles and trying to wrestle them into working for proper jazz, or as proper as I can make it.

Apart from the resources already mentioned in this thread, there just aren't many recordings around of jazz whistle. There are a few Youtube clips of people experimenting with flattened 3rds and 5ths. I'd agree with the OP that whatever jazz is, noodling isn't really it.

Anyway, there is one really good jazz whistle tune from Howard Johnson available on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/track/2m84VSLw ... Td3fQsNALA

There's also a live version on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ficFWx6wAwc ), but I think the studio recording was smoother.

Someday I'll put some stuff of my own up on Youtube. I did an experimental recording – the standard "But Not For Me". I need way more practice and am not happy enough with it to put it public on Youtube, but if anyone here is interested, this unlisted link should work: https://youtu.be/TCL1OSUSDZA
(I was playing my MK F, not the Thunderbird A in the photo.)

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