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Results for "What is Jazz?"
Ghosts In The Machine, Part 2: Jazz Musicians And Popular Music
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 Part II: The Machinery Jazz musicians have played an important role in the development of popular music from the 1960s until today (we should also remember that jazz actually was popular music from the 1920s-1940s). For those who know the ...
Ghosts In The Machine, Part 1: Jazz Musicians And Popular Music
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 Part I: The MachinesJazz and classical musicians have long had a troubled relationship with pop music. (By “pop music," I mean all styles outside of classical and jazz--country, rock, hip-hop, rap, etc.--any style that enjoys a double-digit market share is ...
Jazz and the Dream of Martin Luther King, Jr.
by Douglas Groothuis
Without jazz, there may have been no “I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr. Delivered at the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, this historic oratory is most known for improvisation--a skill without which there is no jazz--that was not found in his original written text. Moreover, the very ...
The Touch of Your Lips, Part 3: The Essential Touch in Jazz Piano
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 It would be nice and tidy if the development of tone color as a primary in jazz piano matched its development in the other instruments, but that is not the case. From early on in jazz's history, composers and bandleaders like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab ...
The Touch of Your Lips, Part 2: Touch and Tone Color in Jazz Piano
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 As mentioned in Part 1, tone color took on a prominent role in classical music in the 19C. The Romantic composers like Wagner, Strauss, Berlioz, Chopin and many others were, I think it is fair to say, somewhat obsessed with it. The composers before them were ...
The Touch of Your Lips: The Colors of Jazz Piano
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The idea that pianists are able to create different tone colors and different timbres, was once a topic of heated debate, but is now no longer questioned. For some performers, the sound can be a musical identifier on par with a fingerprint, which is a strong ...
Thana Alexa, Sirintip and Owen Broder: Beaming Live Jazz From Their Living Rooms To Yours
by Michael Ricci
All About Jazz was in a unique position to help promote and broadcast the Live From Our Living Rooms Festival & Fundraiser to our readers from April 1-7, 2020 as we presented select performances over the seven days. Similar to the NEA Jazz Masters concert we broadcasted last April, I felt a personal connection to the ...
From Medieval to Live Evil: We're All Minimalists Now
by Kurt Ellenberger
A Brief History of the Minimalist Aesthetic Minimalism is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity." Musically speaking, this translates to a few characteristics common to most pieces: Slow-moving or static harmony;Small number of repetitive and simple rhythmic figures; ...
Cold Fusion: The Search for the Jazz/Rock Unicorn, Part 3
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Part 3: U.K.'s First Album U.K.PrologueIn the second part of this series, I laid out my criteria for what would constitute a fusion of jazz and rock that remained true to both styles, which, in my definition, means that the resultant music would have to appeal ...
2020 Winter JazzFest Marathons: A Survival Guide
by Ludovico Granvassu
Believe it or not, it is that time of the year again! The holidaze are barely over and a new edition of Winter JazzFest is upon us. Knowing a jazz marathon is the perfect antidote to the holiday shopping and social marathons, producer Brice Rosenbloom and his cohorts have put together a program of gargantuan proportions. ...
