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Deconstructing Free Jazz
by Robert J. Lewis
In the continuously evolving history of artistic expression, certain movements emerge that challenge the very foundations of our aesthetic sensibilities. In the early and mid-20th century, Expressionism and free jazz were two audacious musics that not only broke all the rules but broke the spirit of many well-intentioned listeners. If the terms are not ...
Improvisation Versus Composition
by Robert J. Lewis
What is it that attracts music lovers to jazz (improvised music)? Is it the loose structure, or the beat or the notes and melodies we have never heard before and will never hear again, unless the performance has been recorded? Or is it the musician's uncanny ability to spontaneously translate feelings that inform the notes into ...
Listening To Music On Its Own Terms Fallacy
by Robert J. Lewis
It is an all-too common complaint. The under-appreciated or ignored composer/songwriter accuses the listener of not engaging with the work 'on its own terms.' It sounds straightforward, but the accusation is packed with all sorts of tangled ideas about what a listener's job is, and whether art has some kind of fixed value.
Jazz Riffs Amidst the Rubble: How Ukraine's Artists Keep Jazz Alive in Wartime
by Cheptoo Kositany
In bomb shelters, makeshift clubs, and even occasionally on the front lines, Ukrainian jazz artists are keeping the flame of the music alive. The story of jazz in Ukraine is long and winding, stretching back to the Soviet era. In the 1920s and '30s, jazz seeped into the Soviet Union, brought by records, radio ...
The Cinderella So Few Got to Hear: Late Artie Shaw is the Best Artie Shaw
by Richard J Salvucci
Artie Shaw will always be a bit of a puzzle to his fans--"morons, “ as he once characterized some of us. The best band he ever fronted, and said so more than once, was his 1949-50 “bop" band. Benny Goodman had a similar outfit around the same time, which, like Shaw's, featured excellent young musicians who ...
Mark Rapp Group At The Jazz Corner
by Gloria Krolak
Mark Rapp Group The Jazz Corner Hilton Head Island, SC January 31, 2025 It was not a Tuesday and it was a full month before Ash Wednesday, the start of the Christian observance of Lent, but it felt like Mardi Gras at The Jazz Corner on Hilton Head Island. Colorful ...
Eight Sinatra Surprises
by David Bittinger
Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald were mutual fans who joined up for superb duets and had similar repertoires. Is it possible to call one of them primarily a “jazz singer" and one not? Yeah, it's possible. Listen to Ella scat on How High The Moon and you hear a genius singer who came from ...
Can You Judge an Album By Its Label?
by Dave Hughes
This article was first published at All About Jazz in March 1999. For almost as long as there have been record labels, many labels have sought to build a reputation or a brand identity for themselves in terms of the genre of music presented on their labels or the technical quality of their product. ...
When is a Jazz Festival (Not) a Jazz Festival?
by John Kelman
This article was first published at All About Jazz on May 20, 2011. It's becoming almost pandemic for jazz festivals around the world to be challenged for deciding to broaden their programming into areas either peripherally related to jazz... or, in some cases, away from jazz entirely. Festivals like the near-iconic Montreux Jazz Festival, ...
I Want You di Marvin Gaye: una rigogliosa foresta di simboli jazzistici.
by Maurizio Zerbo
L' approccio multidisciplinare della scuola storiografica Les Annales offre interessanti spunti di riflessione anche per lo studio della popular music, attraverso un'analisi incrociata di fonti musicali, etnologiche, iconografiche, letterarie, fotografiche e cinematografiche. Grazie al visionario quadro The Sugar Shack del pittore statunitense Ernie Barnes, la copertina di I Want You è una rigogliosa foresta ...
