Solid Potato Salad!

Not sure what this has to do with jazz, but you will like it.  First the abridged HD version...

Next the low def, but equally entertaining clip...

Virtuosity

Sometimes as I eat pistachios, I think about what it takes to make it as a musician.  If it's money you're after, then you need to get hooked up with the right management, look the part, and play what your management asks you to play.  I know what you are thinking...hey, could that be conceived as "selling out?"  Maybe, but it's nice to live in a house and eat, isn't it?!  Still, I keep thinking that it would be more satisfying if you could play what you want to play, and at a level where every idea in your head could make it's way onto your instrument.  I hope there is always a market for that, I guess we'll see.  Here is a guy who can throw it down like that...Loren Stillman is up with this thing:

Veritable Flabby Preludes (for a Dog)

Five Grins or Mona Lisa's Moustache

Sketches and Exasperations of A Big Boob Made of Wood

Menus for Childish Purposes

All are titles by the classical composer Eric Satie (1866-1925).  Is he a little eccentric?  Yes!  THIS ARTICLE makes a pretty good case for Satie as the first modern composer.  He's using modes, working the tritones, chord planing, he even has a cool nickname..."The Velvet Gentleman".  A lot of this stuff sounds modern even today, almost 100 years later.  If you haven't checked him out, he's a guy that influenced a lot of jazz musicians when he was semi rediscovered in the 60's by guys like Bill Evans and John Cage.  CLICK HERE for a summary of Satie, the man and his music, there are even some sound clip on there for you to hip yourself to.