For example, with the arrival of free jazz and other latter-day avant-garde manifestations, many senior musicians maintained that music that didn’t swing was not jazz. Most early classical composers (such as Aaron Copland, John Alden Carpenter—and even Igor Stravinsky, who became smitten with...
there often have been seemingly unbridgeable perceptual differences between the producers of jazz (performers, composers, and arrangers) and its audiences. For example, with the arrival of free jazz and other latter-day avant-gardemanifestations, many senior musicians maintained that music that didn’...
In the 1930s, female singers continued to defy the odds as musicians and performing artists. Ethel Waters was born in 1896. Known for her wide range and slow melodicvibrato, she recorded with jazz legends likeBenny Goodmanand Duke Ellington. Two musical pieces composed specifically for Waters we...
“Music washes away the dust of everyday life” –Art Blakey © Mosaic Images; photograph by Francis Wolff Jazz Music Jazz music is one of the most exciting types of music in the world. It attracts the most creative and spontaneous musicians and requires technical expertise in order to play...
This blog is about Jazz, experimental improvisation, and related topics. I am not a trained musician but I understand how music works and I have a sound knowledge of Jazz history. Above all, I have open ears and value innovative over the ordinary. My task is to tell the musicians stories...
He was proud of his achievements while at the same time being very appreciative and grateful that he was working with many of the greatest jazz musicians and their body of work. It’s very hard for me to convey my feelings about someone I worked closely with every day, had many lunches ...
and was crucial in defining the sound of a 20th-century-born musical style called jazz. Its status as one of the genre’s most important instruments is undisputed; even the most cursory glance at the list of musicians hailed as the best jazz saxophonists of all time is essentially a list ...
1910s:The word “jazz” (or similar spellings like “jass”) started appearing more frequently, indicating a growing recognition of this emerging style. New Orleans musicians began traveling, spreading the sounds of jazz to other parts of the country. ...
Influential Jazz Musicians Jazz has been home to some of the most influential and talented musicians of all time. Armstrong helped to popularize jazz in the 1920s and 1930s and remains a beloved figure in the genre to this day. Ellington led one of the most famous jazz bands of all time...
But what I offer here is a quintet of gifted magician-musicians so skilled in the art of aesthetic resurrection that they can take the most over-played songs in the repertoire and make them seem fresh. This band worked with the marvelous singer Dawn Lambeth (who’s got a new CD on the...