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Chris Smith: Jazz Grunge
by Jack Bowers
"Grunge," according to Webster's, denotes “one that [who] is grungy." As for “grungy," the word meets one of several definitions, none of them flattering: dirty, filthy, stained, nasty, muddy, smudged...you get the idea. “Grunge" also has a second meaning: “rock music incorporating elements of punk rock and heavy metal," which is the one that New York City-based drummer and educator Chris Smith has singled out for replay on his debut recording, Jazz Grunge. While that may seem ...
Continue ReadingThe Birdland Big Band: Storybook: The Music of Mark Miller
by Jack Bowers
Storybook, the third recording by the New York City-based Birdland Big Band, is subtitled “the music of Mark Miller" and is designed to showcase compositions and arrangements by that multi-talented artist who doubles (triples) as the band's lead trombonist. Miller wrote or co-wrote half of the album's 10 colorful and impressive numbers (11 if one counts Joaquin Rodrigo's brief “Concerto de Aranjuez," which serves as an introduction to Chick Corea's “Spain") and arranged all of them. Miller's ...
Continue ReadingChris Smith: At The Intersection Of Scholarship, Performance and Pedagogy
by David A. Orthmann
In the introduction to his book Jazz Matters (University Of California Press, 2010), David Ake writes about bringing “together the practical side of making jazz, the pedagogical side of teaching it, and the academic side of writing about it." (p. 12) “Nothing but good," Ake adds, “can come if we increase the numbers of scholars who can play, players who can cite the music's sociocultural history, and instructors who can do both." (p. 12) Ake's exhortation to ...
Continue ReadingThe View From The Back Of The Band: The Life And Music Of Mel Lewis
by David A. Orthmann
The View From The Back Of The Band: The Life And Music Of Mel Lewis Chris Smith 399 pages ISBN: #978-1-57441-574-2 University Of North Texas Press 2014 “Good drummers were a rarity and that's all there was to it. There's no ego problem involved, it's just there weren't many good drummers. There still aren't." --Mel Lewis (21) Chris Smith's The View From The Back Of The Band: The Life ...
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