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Bridging the Asian Connection
Source:
The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins
One of the more fascinating aspects of ancient Chinese cultural history is the distinct African connection of the Shang Dynasty. Traversing the centuries to the 21st century, one musician who has consistently made that connection in the modern world, and who has engaged elements of ancient Chinese music culture in the way he views jazz music and the art of improvisation, is pianist-composer Jon Jang. Encountering Jon Jang is always stimulating; he's a deeply thoughtful man who also has an ...
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Jottings of a Jazzman
Source:
Jazz Lives by Michael Steinman
The best biographical or autobiographical writings make a person the reader has never encountered come to life on the page. JOTTINGS OF A JAZZMAN: SELECTED WRITINGS OF LEN BARNARD, edited by his niece Loretta Barnard, has just that magic. When I was a few pages into it, I felt as if I had met and heard Len, which says much — not only about the power of Len's personality and insights but also about Loretta's loving presentation. Len Barnard was ...
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The Jazz Lexicon of Expressive Grunts
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
By Steve Provizer So-Maybe our sexually permissive culture has cleared the way for greater freedom of The Gutteral Utterance. At least, women tennis players now feel free to let it rip. But jazz musicians have long had a lot to say that has nothing to do with lyrics or, for that matter, with any known language. Because it's hard to vocalize with a mouthpiece on your chops or a reed in your mouth, letting loose with vocal ejaculations has been ...
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Belabored Day.
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
“Because americans are concerned with market share and sales. conflict leads to sales. I met these guys from Finland...in their late 30's, like, in their 18th year of university or some shit like that—and getting paid to go. they played all day long, did some teaching, and that was set up for them...I remember they said something like “well, you know, you have to be well fed and live a decent life to make good music, and the Finnish government ...
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Coltrane and the Jazz Fracture
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
By Steve Provizer Tom, one of our commentors, speculates about Coltrane's contribution to the fracturing of the jazz audience and the concomitant loss of jazz audience in the early 1960's. This fracturing was certainly underway before the early 60's; chiefly through Ornette and somewhat via Cecil Taylor and Dolphy, but for several reasons-and for better or worse- Coltrane was most responsible for this process. I would lay a few shekels on the notion that this era gave birth to the ...
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Jazz Poetry - "Lester Young"
Source:
Riffs on Jazz by John Anderson
By Ted Joans Sometimes he was cool like an eternalblue flame burning in the old KansasCity nunnerySometimes he was happy 'til he'd thinkabout his birth place and its bloodstained clay hills and crow-filled treesMost times he was blowin' on the wonderfultenor sax of his, preachin' in very cooltones, shouting only to remind you ofa certain point in his blue messagesHe was our president as well as the ministerof soul stirring Jazz, he knew what heblew, and he did what a ...
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Jazz & Blues Florida September 2010 Online Edition Posted
Source:
Charles Boyer
The September online edition of JAZZ & BLUES FLORIDA has been posted. This month's features include: Larry Coryell- Winning Spin “Prime Picks" Bird Dog Bobby Blues Band Doug Carn John Yarling Randy Bernsen Saxophones Gone Wild: Mike MacArthur, Jarred Armstrong, Gene Cannon, Alan Darcy, Tim Eddy, Mike Gibilisco, Valerie Gillespie, Jerry Kenney, Jeremy Powell, Austin Vickrey, Dave Reinhardt; Jeremy Carter & The Saxophobia Sax Quartet South Florida Blues Society's Harmonica Blowoff Taj Mahal & The Phantom Blues Band Willie Brown ...
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Jazzwax List: The Sonny Band
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
During the 1940s and 1950s, many jazz musicians had nicknames. Some were bestowed on them by band members. Others were affixed by parents or friends while they were growing up. One of the most popular sobriquets during this period was “Sonny." It seems to have been given most often by parents in need of differentiating between children or between the child and the father or grandfather in the home. What if all of the best-known Sonnys in jazz were united ...
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