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Joys
Jelly Roll Morton - 'New Orleans Joys: The Earliest Recordings, 1923-1926' Out November 6th
Source:
Tompkins Square
New Orleans Joys : The Earliest Recordings, 1923-1926 chronicles the definitive early work of pianist, composer and raconteur Jelly Roll Morton, who created masterpieces born from the cultural melting pot of 1900s New Orleans; the primitive blues of prostitutes, hymns to God from its churches, joyous anthems of the city’s brass bands, the lessons from ragtime “professors” and the elegance of the opera. He was the first composer of the music that would be called jazz, and elements of his ...
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Dance Music and the Joys of the No BS! Brass Band
Source:
Inverted Garden by Eric Benson
"Jazz is dance music," Wynton Marsalis wrote in program notes earlier this year. “If it doesn't sound good, people won't want to dance to it. And if you can't dance to it, then it's not jazz." The statement, separating jazz and “not jazz," is the kind of shot-across-the-bow that Marsalis delights in lobbing at hostile parties, potential hostile parties, and imagined hostile parties. Defining “jazz" is Marsalis's great lexical quest, and he's long held central the idea that jazz must, ...
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Ensemble Joys: "Say 'Si Si'"!
Source:
Jazz Lives by Michael Steinman
The New Orleans musicians—even the ones who took expansive solos as the nature of jazz changed—knew how important inspired ensemble playing was. It would have been very bad form to cut short a romping group effort and simply dilute its force into a series of solos with the rhythm section. And this principle is perfectly demonstrated by a recent performance by Clint Baker and the Cafe Borrone All-Stars (captured on August 13, 2010, by the unwearying Rae Ann Berry) of ...
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