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Life, Death, Resurrection and the Cornet
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
During a recent Nat Adderly listening session, I thought “Why play this style on cornet and not trumpet?" I was thinking of the cliched perception of the cornet, as personified by cornet greats Oliver, Bix, Bobby Hackett, Jimmy McPartland et al.The cornet sound is theoretically mellower and rounder than a trumpet's. The horns have the same length of tubing, but the cornet is squashed together a little more and most important, has more conical tubing than a trumpet, ...
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Spain and the Netherlands, Jazz, and the World Cup
Source:
Groove Notes
The World Cup is over, and I suppose the time has come for me to stop complaining. I was cheering for Holland from the beginning, and was crushed when the Netherlands lost to Spain in the final minutes of overtime in the final, in what in general was a pretty good game.
These two countries are soccer superpowers, but have also made some nice contributions as far as jazz musicians go.
The Dutch boasts a drummer who is a virtuoso ...
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The Infernal Vuvuzela, Scarcity and the Breath
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
The World Cup has resuscitated the vuvuzela, formerly known to us boomers as “can I have one of those big horns?"These horns (always red) stuck out the top of the 2-wheeled carts dragged along by guys working the crowds at parades and ballparks. They also had banners, mylar balloons and the industrious ones had cut deals with other vendors to sell popcorn. But the horns were the most expensive and highly-prized tchochkes. Browbeating a parent into buying one ...
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Sweet, Hot and Smooth©
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
Sometimes people don't know a good, no, a brilliant idea when it bites' em on the tweet. Alex W. Rodriguez @arodjazz was looking for advice on how to write a “smooth jazz" chapter for his jazz curriculum and I suggested he trace its roots back to the age-old dichotomy between “sweet" and “hot" jazz (Notice the copyright mark on the title-shows what a good idea it is). He didn't bite on it, but I am.It's a potentially juicy ...
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Road Worriers.
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
Now that the Jazz Biz elements are in remission and bloat stuff crashes and burns all around, it is time to address the disheveled condition of touring in America. If baby boomers were responsible for destructive aesthetic misconceptions about what would sell, the blame for the grotesque and pathetic lack of a working circuit belongs to a cohort of career ambitious Gen X curators squatting on nearly every significant larger budget non profit venue in the land.
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Pitchfork Creates Altered Zones Uniting Music Blogs
Source:
HypeBot
Next Wednesday July 7th, Pitchfork will launch Altered Zones, a new sister site uniting an international team of niche blogger focused on leftfield pop, experimental, and home-recorded sounds. Weekly Tape Deck and Gorilla vs. Bear are among the collectives most well known contributors.
Under the direction of co-editors Emilie Friedlander (Visitation Rites) and Sahil Varma and Jack Shankly (Transparent), contributors will highlight favorite tracks and new albums in a rotating schedule of daily posts. Features include interviews, artist-curated ...
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A Plank Slate for an Oral Surfing History
Source:
Michael Ricci
Hawaiian legend Duke Kahanamoku and other wave riders relax on the beach at San Onofre in the 1940s. Surfings roots are in Polynesia, but the lifestyle of modern surfing was born in Southern California.
The Surfing Heritage Foundation is undertaking an effort to collect the oral histories of wave riders from California and elsewhere. 'We're running out of the old-timers,' says a surfing writer. If you owned a surfboard 20, 40 or even 60 years ago, and used it often, ...
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A Cylindrical Paper Cup Filled with Booze
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
Way back in the Lost Hang post, I said I'd fill in the details about Little Stevie's trumpet lessons with John Coffey. Here goes.My first trumpet teacher came to the house. A big jolly man, he reached down to his butt and said to me, “Now, you can tell your jughead friends this, but don't tell your mother. When you play, you gotta press down like you're fartin'. See what I mean?"After this, my parents got ...
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