Jazz, in fact, is not—and never has been—an entirely composed, predetermined music, nor is it an entirely extemporized one. For almost all of its history it has employed both creative approaches in varying degrees and endless permutations. And yet, despite these diverse terminological confusion...
Discover the definition of jazz music and learn where it began and how it developed in New Orleans. Explore the characteristics of jazz music and...
jazz-rock, popular musical form in which modern jazz improvisation is accompanied by the bass lines, drumming styles, and instrumentation of rock music, with a strong emphasis on electronic instruments and dance rhythms. Since the recordings of 1920s bands, notably Paul Whiteman’s, there have ...
guileless, vulnerable human voice. She was that rarest of musical miracles: a natural. (Her producer, Chris Biondo, once said, "A lot of people take lessons to learn music theory and how to do harmonies. Eva could just doit.")
Jazz and politics have always been entwined, but rarely in the music’s history have the links spelt out on record. The 1960s was a decade when that orthodoxy was reversed, with Charlie Haden’s debut album at the decade’s end being one of the most explicit endorsements of leftist sentim...
Dizzy Gillespie has secured his place in the jazz pantheon as one of the most expressive and virtuosic improvisers in the history of the music. But he was much more than that; he was one of the supreme rebels of jazz, and he made his greatest artistic contributions as a revolutionary. As...
It’s music history. Bobby Hutcherson’s very first date as a leader for Blue Note was “The Kicker” in 1963, though it was held back and went unreleased until 1999, possibly because Joe Henderson on saxophone steals a lot of the thunder from the date’s purported leader. From his ...
Ron Blake: Mistaken Identity (7ten33 Productions) BlankFor.Ms/Jason Moran/Marcus Gilmore: Refract (Red Hook) ** Samuel Blaser: Routes (Enja) ** Antonio Borghini: Banquet of Consequences (We Insist!) ** Itamar Borochov: Arba (Greenleaf Music) Geof Bradfield Quintet: Quaver (Calligram) Geof ...
The Yacht Rock Book: The Oral History of the Soft, Smooth Sounds of the 70s and 80s by Greg Prato In the late 1970s, there wasn't a name for the smooth, AM-friendly music made by the likes of Hall and Oates, Orleans, Kenny Loggins and the Doobie Brothers. But a series of viral...
33: Django Reinhardt – Minor Swing Released on a 78 rpm single in 1937, this song – co-written by guitar genius Reinhardt with French violinist Stephane Grappelli – epitomized the stomping gypsy jazz style that set Europe alight in the 1930s. The musical synergy generated by both musicians...