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Results for "What is Jazz?"
How Teachers can Swing in the Classroom
by Douglas Groothuis
I am a jazz aficionado as well as a philosophy professor. Being in front of a classroom teaching is my favorite place on earth, second to a good jazz club with hip friends. In the midst of a philosophy class, I may wax enthusiastic about the transcendent qualities of a John Coltrane saxophone solo or the ...
Co-Improvisation: Explaining the Magic
by Victor L. Schermer
When we listen to great jazz performances, we pay most attention to the soloists, some of whom become our musical heroes. In that respect, jazz is an affirmation of the individual, the uniqueness and liberation of either the “free and joyful spirit," of whom there was none greater than Louis Armstrong, or the arduous struggle of ...
Jazz and Moral Theory: Swinging the Right Way
by Douglas Groothuis
Morality matters to all of us. We protest when we are robbed or defrauded. We praise heroes and heroines. We condemn moral monsters. We laud a Mother Teresa and condemn a Ted Bundy. We recognize good and bad habits. We rebuke those who do evil; we praise those who do good. We attempt to honor our ...
Deconstructing Money Jungle
by Graham E Peterson
Duke Ellington was born at the turn of the century. Because his career stretched from the roaring twenties to just after the Nixon scandal, and because of the large breathe of his work he has been a household name for decades. Most individuals know Ellington for his work pioneering big band music, as a bandleader, composer, ...
Hashtag Jazz
by Margret Grebowicz
In his 1994 study Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation, Paul Berliner describes American jazz as a community cutting across “boundaries defined by age, class, vocation, and ethnicity" and concludes that “it is their abiding love for the music that binds this diverse population together." (Berliner, 1994, p. 36) Twenty years later, jazz community ...
The Existential Intimacies of Jazz: Pat Martino Live
by Douglas Groothuis
Jazz, at its best, inducts its own into aesthetic alliances, some long-lasting, others fleeting, but all meaningful. Meaning is a matter of mortals finding something of value, something worthwhile. When two or more agree on meaning--especially in matters of music--the fellow-feeling may run deep and true. Pat Martino, jazz guitarist extraordinaire, along with a good friend ...
Jazz and Politics
by Douglas Groothuis
My title is ambiguous since relating jazz to politics with only a conjunction ("and") might indicate several things. It could mean the politics of jazz--how jazz forms a culture, negotiates power relations, grants status to performers, and more. Or, it could mean the jazz of politics--how politicians learn the standards of political theory, improvise, and develop ...
A Sublime Question: What Does Jazz Want?
by Douglas Groothuis
Does does jazz want something from us? Strange as this may seem, the answer is yes! As is true in every other area of life, something is desired of those with whom the art form interacts. It wants our engagement. It wants to elicit a response. It may ask much of us. Consider a few examples ...
Martin Luther King, Jr. Speaks on Jazz
by K. Shackelford
Thank you to reader Howard Bankhead for mentioning this speech. It is a short address to the audience of the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival by civil rights leader and Nobel peace prize winner, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The speech is entitled “Humanity and The Importance of Jazz." Humanity and The Importance of ...
Sir Hildred Humphries. It's all about the music.
by Matt Lavelle
Ahh Hump. My man. Hildred was my first mentor. Unlike most of the young guys today, at 44 I have spent extensive time learning from authentic masters of the Art. In 1986 legendary music educator Bert Hughes spent the summer helping me to get my chops back after 3 years of not playing so that I ...
