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Jazz Interpretations of the French Impressionist Musical Revolutionaries Erik Satie and Claude Debussy
by Larry Slater
Jazz has had its fair share of musical revolutionaries. Charlie Parker in the 1940s. Ornette Coleman in the late '50s and John Coltrane in the '60s.Erik Satie and Claude Debussy were revolutionaries in the classical music world of 19th century France, and both have been a powerful influence on generations of jazz artists.
With Words, Without Words: The Art of Vocalese
by Larry Slater
Some of the best loved songs in jazz began life as jazz instrumentals with lyricists later transforming them into vocal showcases. Writing lyrics is an art, and the 20th century featured some truly great lyricists in and out of the jazz world. There is a form of vocal writing and singing that is unique ...
Remembrance 2025, part II: Gordon Goodwin, Al Foster, Jack DeJohnette, Hal Galper & Ray Drummond
by Larry Slater
This is the second installment of a tribute to jazz masters who left us in 2025.The composer, arranger, pianist and bandleader Gordon Goodwin lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in December of 2025, just shy of his 71st birthday. Goodwin's Big Phat Band, an 18-member ensemble consisting of some of L.A.'s finest jazz musicians, ...
Remembrance 2025: Jim McNeely, Chuck Mangione, Andy Bey, Eddie Palmieri and Hermeto Pascoal
by Larry Slater
Every year the jazz world loses some major artists and 2025 was no exception.In this hour, we remember the composer and arranger Jim McNeely, one of the most distinguished large ensemble jazz composers of his generation.Hermeto Pascoal was a Brazilian artist who defied classification. He became a favorite of audiences around the ...
Improvising the Classics: Chopin Jazz
by Larry Slater
The pianist Ted Rosenthal once commented, “Many jazz pianists began their musical education studying classical piano. Why let those years go to waste? The classical repertoire contains a goldmine of material for the jazz pianist."Frederic Chopin wrote almost exclusively for the piano, and his flexible sense of time appeals to jazz musicians. Art Tatum ...
Improvising the Classics: Interpreting Mozart
by Larry Slater
Mozart is one of those true musical geniuses revered as one the classical gods. Why are jazz musicians drawn to his music? The combination of his deceptively simple melodies and logical harmonic progressions allows jazz artists to mold these classic pieces into music that is recognizably jazz, yet still recognizably Mozart. Whether ...
Improvising the Classics: Roll Over Beethoven
by Larry Slater
Beethoven was a musical revolutionary. He transformed every musical form he used to create his body of music.The pianist and composer Jon Batiste said “Beethoven's work taps into a universal connective, magnetic truth in music." Beethoven was a master of motivic development, taking small musical ideas and expanding them into long and varied ideas, ...
Improvising the Classics: Jazz Goes Baroque
by Larry Slater
I love classical music almost as much as jazz. Like jazz, classical music is a big tent, spanning the entire musical spectrum from medieval chant to twelve tone atonality. Jazz musicians today get most of their music education in universities and colleges, and often in conservatories. A great many of today's jazz artists have ...
Celebrating A Century Of Charlie Parker, Part 1
by Larry Slater
The jazz world celebrated the centennial of Charlie Parker's birth in 2020. Parker is one of the select few musicians who justify the term '"genius." He was unquestionably one the greatest improvisers who ever played the music,. A critic for Downbeat wrote, “to say Charlie Parker was one of the greatest jazz musicians who ever lived ...
Guy Klucevsek And The Accordion Renaissance
by Larry Slater
Guy Klucevsek, one of my musical heroes, died in May 2025 at age 77.He was one of the world's most versatile and highly respected accordionists, and a major contributor to the accordion renaissance of the last 25 years.When you listen to his music, you need to forget everything you thought you knew ...
