As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, we can also take a moment to remember and thank the musical mentors who have shaped us and helped us grow to love this music so much.
In this Jazz Academy session, drummer Sammy Miller sits with master percussionist Jeff Hamilton to talk about the mentors who inspired Hamilton and helped him along his way.
Erica von Kleist (Photo by Kevin Porto)
Saxophonist, flautist, and educator Erica von Kleist reflected on business advice she wished she had known earlier in her career. She assembled all the thoughts into a wonderful blog post, which you can check out here.
In it, she lays out advice for building products, finding sustainable gigs, keeping work and relationships, and continuing to develop as an artist. It’s a fantastic set of insights, and well worth checking out.
She’s also an amazing educator! Check …
Barry Harris (photo: Mirko Caserta)
Pianist, composer, music theorist, and educator Barry Harris is one of our last links to the extraordinary and rich BeBop tradition pioneered by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, and more.
What’s lucky for us, however, is that Barry Harris (sometimes nicknamed “Coach”), has worked tirelessly to impart his knowledge to other musicians for decades, holding court in a weekly lesson series. For those in the NYC area, this is an essential event to check out.
AllAboutJazz.com recently …
Michael Carvin (Photo courtesy of the artist)
Master drummer Michael Carvin teaches the rudiments, and he’s got 26 of them. These rudiments, he notes, are as essential to the modern drummer as the 26 letters of the alphabet are to a journalist.
You may have heard of many (or even of all) of these rudiments, but in case you aren’t familiar (or need to brush up), check out the full playlist covering all rudiments.
Archie Shepp in 2008 (Photo: Henryk Kotowski)
Last week, the NEA announced the 2016 Jazz Masters as Pharoah Sanders, Gary Burton, Wendy Oxenhorn, and Archie Shepp. It’s a wonderfully deserving set of artists and advocates.
For those unfamiliar with Oxenhorn’s work, she has tirelessly worked as an advocate supporting artists in need through her efforts with the Jazz Foundation of America. Taking the role of executive director in 2000, Oxenhorn has achieved extraordinary success with the organization, raising millions in support of …
We’ve said on numerous occasions that to truly get the authentic rhythm guitar sound in a big band, one has to play on an acoustic archtop guitar (if you missed why, check out this lesson)
However, acoustic archtops can be very expensive, and if you’re director of a high school band, your guitarist may only have an electric guitar for the job. How do you handle that, and how to you approximate the correct rhythm guitar sound?
James Chirillo, who plays guitar …
(Jazz at Lincoln Center’s curator Phil Schaap)
We point to New Orleans as the birthplace of Jazz, but what made this city so unique to create the style?
What was so different about New Orleans that enabled this music to develop? For that, we look to Jazz at Lincoln Center’s curator, Phil Schaap, to talk about the unique characteristics of this city, and the remarkable people who lived there.
Want to learn more? Watch the full Origins of Jazz playlist here:
Louis Armstrong (Photo Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
Lawrence Talmadge “Larry” Queen, a remarkable journalist, Jazz scholar, teacher, and activist based in North Carolina conducted a variety of remarkable interviews with Jazz luminaries–including Louis Armstrong and Dave Brubeck–which he and his family have generously licensed to Jazz at Lincoln Center to share with the public.
We invite you to listen through these amazing historical documents, and experience these artists with a new level of insight into their lives and personalities. Through …
(Percussionist Bobby Sanabria, Photo Courtesy of the Artist)
The legendary Jelly Roll Morton was noted for saying that Jazz had to contain “The Spanish Tinge,” indicated that Afro-Latin elements have been in Jazz from the music’s inception.
As the century progressed, however, we started to see a more overt fusion of Jazz with Afro-Cuban musical traditions, especially with BeBop innovators like Dizzy Gillespie. By today, we have a distinct style of music, called Latin Jazz, that we consider a crucial and influential …
(Damien Sneed, Photo: Frank Stewart)
The ties between Gospel music and the Jazz tradition run deep. From Louis Armstrong performing spirituals, to the sacred music of Duke Ellington or of Mary Lou Williams, many Jazz artists have worked very closely in Gospel music, and their performances styles often draw heavily from the inspiration.
But what is the Gospel tradition, and how is it performed? The wonderful artist Damien Sneed, joined by Bishop Iona Locke, joined us at the Jazz Academy to discuss …
