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Jazz is a musical style that originally came from ragtime, with swing being its first iteration, popularized by artists like Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. While it originally proliferated in the south among African American communities, it truly gained popularity in New York City on 52nd street, particularly between 5th and 7th avenues, where numerous jazz nightclubs were producing the music of America. It is true, jazz is probably the most notable and truly American music in history. It has spread worldwide, taken on many forms, and has been fused to produce even more genres, such as bossa nova. While there are many, many popular musicians in the jazz genre, none have been more notable or legendary than Miles Davis, who lived through generations of jazz music and evolved along with them. But first, let's take a brief journey through jazz and its beginnings. Dixieland jazz Dixieland, or "hot" jazz, originated in New Orleans and, along with swing, is one of the earliest forms of jazz. It combined brass band, ragtime, blues, and French Quadrilles with polyphonic improvisation. The definitive sound begins with one instrument, typically a trumpet, creating the melody and the "front line" instruments improve upon that melody. This creates the polyphonic sound, something that is missing in regimented big band jazz or the unifying sound of the later bebop. Louis Armstrong's All-Stars popularized this sound, although his presence can be found in swing and jazz in general. This sound died for the most part with the popularity of swing, but is still played today. Examples: Preservation Hall Jazz Band - St. James' Infirmary Soul Rebels Brass Band Dirty Dozen Brass Band - Ain't Nothin' But a Party Swing (big band jazz) Big band jazz focused on a collective sound, but innovated on the original idea of swing music by allowing individual musicians to take on solos and improvs, a fundamental idea of what would come to define jazz. These groups blended whites and blacks, culminating in gradual desegregation in the popular music scene of America. One of the primary functions of big band jazz was to keep the dancing feeling going, a prominent feature of swing. However, the popularity of swing jazz was short, only lasting until the mid-to-late 1930s. A newer, more radical form of jazz was just on the horizon. Examples: Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington - It Don't Mean a Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing Duke Ellington - Sophisticated Lady Count Basie - Swingin' the Blues Bebop Bebop started in the early 1940s with artists such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, musicians who had worked with Duke Ellington in his orchestra. Bebop was the beginning of jazz moving away from being music you can dance to to being music you have to sit and understand. Compared to swing, bebop feels fast and disjointed, relying heavily on dissonance and different phrasing. Alongside that, you can hear the ever-popular ride pattern from snare drums as percussion began to complement rather than be an overpowering focus in the music. This style created the idea of "improv" in jazz, which would come to define the heart and soul of jazz itself. Musicians would play off of each other, creating rich harmonies and melodies that would differ every single time they played the same song. In many ways, bebop challenged a lot of contemporary theories about musical structure, and would come to shape the future of jazz forever. Examples: Charlie Parker - Embraceable You Charlie Parker - I've Got Rhythm Dizzy Gillespie - Bebop John Coltrane - Moment's Notice Cool jazz The excitement and tension of bebop began to cool off towards the end of the 1940s, and while bebop remained popular, cool jazz was where things really began to take off. Cool jazz emphasizes longer, more emphasized notes, and its starting point can be traced back to Miles Davis' first major record, Birth of the Cool, and this style would dominate jazz for at least ten years. Examples: Modern Jazz Quartet - Vendome Dave Brubeck - Take Five Miles Davis - Boplicity Stan Getz - Misty Duke Ellington & John Coltrane - In a Sentimental Mood Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Midnight Walker Dave Brubeck - Strange Meadowlark Hard bop However, not every artist was content to chill out their bebop desires. Towards the end of cool jazz's popularity, hard bop emerged in direct response to prolonged notes and instead created an even harder, more tense form of jazz that could come off as relentless. It is a jazz style that refuses to let you go the longer you listen to it, but is also incredibly complex and beautiful. This style of jazz would later evolve into free jazz, some of the most complex jazz one can listen to. Examples: Miles Davis - Walkin' John Coltrane - Giant Steps Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin' Horace Silver - Camouflage Modal jazz Once again, ever since the birth of cool jazz, Miles Davis was on the forefront of yet another jazz trend, modal jazz. Modal jazz takes the mode, or basic musical structure, and uses it as the foundation for complete improvisation. With it, one creates a melody that uses few modes, moving away from the harmony of a jazz group to a succinct and readable melody; chords can last for many measures, and while bebop and hard bop used them to provide the background for solos, modal jazz used them solely for improv. The premiere album of this genre was Kind of Blue, by Miles Davis, which is both the most classic jazz album of all time and also the most popular, selling millions of copies to date. Examples: Miles Davis - So What Miles Davis - Freddie Freeloader Bill Evans - Blue in Green John Coltrane - My Favorite Things Free jazz Also called avant-garde jazz, free jazz focuses on complete atonality, eschewing the meters, beats, and regulated structure of all the genres of jazz before it. Free jazz is also called "world jazz", because its spread worldwide allowed it to blend with many different kinds of music from many different cultures. The free harmony and tempo of free jazz made it immediately controversial, and it is undoubtedly the most difficult genre of jazz to get into. However, among the perceived chaos, there is a method, and it is fascinating. Unlike bebop or hard bop (and perhaps modal jazz), free jazz (along with cool jazz) continues to be popular to this day and many artists enjoy its inherent freedom. Examples: Sun Ra - Door of the Cosmos Ornette Coleman - Voice Poetry Charles Mingus - Better Git It In Your Soul John Zorn - Gevurah John Zorn - Khebar Pharaoh Sanders - Thembi Post bop and soul jazz Both of these movements in jazz were small, and not easily identifiable in the grand history of jazz. Post bop is a sort of melting pot of hard bop, modal jazz, and free jazz, and is popularized by many of the same musicians of those genres. Soul jazz, however, took hard bop and infused blues and gospel music into it, creating repetitive hooks and less complex improvisation. Examples: Wayne Shorter - Fee Fi Fo Fum Miles Davis - Footprints Horace Silver - Song for my Father Jimmy McGriff - The Worm Freddie Hubbard - Black Maybe Jazz fusion While bebop and cool jazz dominated the 40s and early 50s, hard bop and modal jazz the late 50s and early 60s, and free jazz/soul jazz/post bop the late 60s, the 70s brought along jazz fusion. Jazz fusion took on many forms, the most popular being rock. Jazz artists looked to the rising popularity of Jimi Hendrix and wanted to blend jazz with it, which showed the world the versatility of jazz itself. The mixed meters and odd time signatures along with syncopation created a new and unique tone to jazz. Though many resisted the idea of blending these two genres of music, it proved fruitful to the musicians who capitalized on it. Examples: Weather Report - Birdland Mahavishnu Orchestra - You Know You Know Miles Davis - Bitches' Brew Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit Jazz funk Jazz funk is characterized by having a strong groove, along with heavy use of synthesized beats. It is the result of blending funk, soul, and R&B into jazz. Oddly enough, jazz funk brought back a lot of the "swing" feeling that had been missing from jazz since the early '40s. Examples: Miles Davis - Tutu Herbie Hancock - Heartbeat Gypsy jazz Also known as "hot club jazz", or "manouche jazz", this form of jazz started in France in the 1930s and was at the height of its popularity in the 1950s, but remains popular today. Started by Jean "Django" Reinhardt, this form of jazz combines a chromatic Gypsy flavor with a swing jazz kick. It is also the only form of jazz where guitar is a main element, replacing the typical horn in the ensemble. It, along with the renewed swing jazz movement, keep the original archetype for jazz alive today. Examples: Django Reinhardt - Minor Swing Pearl Django - Gypsy-attle Biréli Lagrène - Stella by Starlight Today's jazz Jazz of today has become blended with so many genres it may not be even distinguishable anymore. I'll first give some examples of the continuation of certain forms of jazz, like cool jazz, but also give mention to the rise of smooth jazz, a form most associated with "elevator music" due to its easy-listening characteristic, and pop jazz, which has helped commercialize jazz into something more casual. Along with that, nu-jazz, acid jazz (jazz with more soul and funk, perhaps hiphop), and jazz hop have each earned interesting places within the jazz pantheon. Examples: Ruben Miller Band - Love L.A. Esperanza Spalding - I Know You Know Gretchen Parlato - Better Than Taylor Eigsti - Speaking Song Swing revival Big Phat Band - The Jazz Police Brian Setzer Orchestra - Stray Cat Strut Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Save My Soul Acid jazz Jamiroquai - Alright Us3 - Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) Brooklyn Funk Essentials - Take the L Train (To Brooklyn) Thievery Corporation - The Mirror Conspiracy Nu-jazz/jazz hop Jazzanova - L.O.V.E. (And You, And I) Blazo - Distant Graphite DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like Pt. 1 (Blue Sky Revisit) Nujabes - Music is Mine Dela - We Will B Free Jazz Liberatorz - Blue Avenue Flying Lotus - Arkestry Flying Lotus - German Haircut Modern jazz improv BADBADNOTGOOD - J Dilla Medley BADBADNOTGOOD - Bastard/Lemonade BADBADNOTGOOD - Flashing Lights James Farm - Chronos Neil Cowley Trio - Fable Miles Davis once said jazz is dead. However, it has continued to evolve and adapt, like it always does. It may not share the dominant musical zeitgeist that pop music does today, but it will continue to inspire for many, many generations. For anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the beauty of jazz history, there are two must-have compilations to get, that are super cheap, off of Amazon: The Perfect Jazz Collection Volume 1 The Perfect Jazz Collection Volume 2 50 classic jazz albums, so awesome. This thread encourages all discussion of all types of jazz, including ones I haven't talked about here. Azure_Horizon fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Oct 5, 2013 |
# ¿ Nov 2, 2011 09:03 |
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 14:36 |
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Chocobosayskweh posted:Great OP! I could probably suggest song additions to each of your headings, but there is more than enough already. I am a saxophonist of thirteen years - primarily alto and tenor, and a little soprano on the side. I have studied jazz for about eight years, and though I am not an amazing improviser, I can hold my own. It is still a lot of fun! I prefer modern pop jazz, acid jazz, jazz hop, and modal jazz (and on occasion big band jazz). Bebop always has a special place in my heart, though. Could never really get into the others. I was named after Miles Davis (first name Miles) and my parents made sure I grew up listening to both jazz and classic rock. That definitely influenced my musical tastes 22 years later. Azure_Horizon fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Nov 3, 2011 |
# ¿ Nov 3, 2011 18:37 |
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BeigeJacket posted:Nice OP! Was toying with doing something similar for a while, but was intimidated by the vast amount of ground that needed to be covered. I don't mind. That's exactly what we need to keep the discussion going. Kind of sad that there aren't a lot of jazz fans around here, though.
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# ¿ Nov 6, 2011 02:06 |
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stratdax posted:I love how you included a link to a Miles song in almost every one of those sections. I suppose this was a case of me misreading your post, it came off as being a bit incisive but I guess it was harmless. Apologies. Just heard this sweet acid jazz track: Thievery Corporation - The Mirror Conspiracy. I'm diggin' it. Azure_Horizon fucked around with this message at 09:30 on Nov 6, 2011 |
# ¿ Nov 6, 2011 07:22 |
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CNN Sports Ticker posted:The only jazz album I actually have and have listened to is Bitches Brew. I think I'll have to start exploring some other Miles Davis. As x0nix said, anything by Bill Evans. I'd also suggest Lennie Tristano.
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# ¿ Nov 6, 2011 19:49 |
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Speaking of Coltrane and Ellington, In a Sentimental Mood is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. It's gorgeous from beginning to end.
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# ¿ Nov 6, 2011 23:57 |
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Chocobosayskweh posted:Really? That's awesome! I love bebop too, though I struggle to play it well. I share the last name of a certain alto player with Bird-like tendencies too... Charlie Parker is the man. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTORd2Y_X6U So good.
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# ¿ Nov 9, 2011 10:32 |
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Lord of Laughton posted:Can anyone help me identify the type of Jazz found in this song? Or recommend some similar sounding stuff? I love the muted trumpet and the piano together and the whole dark night club vibe the song gives off. Yeah I'd have to say that's cool jazz as well. Check out that section and the samples I provided. Though, cool jazz is still pretty popular today. Gretchen Parlato does a lot of cool jazz, but her voice might as well be an instrument of its own league.
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# ¿ Nov 12, 2011 10:26 |
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Walter Sobchak posted:In the ways of modern jazz what is everybody listening to? Personally I've been listening to a lot of Sao Paulo Underground Whoever plays with Gretchen Parlato Her voice is my favorite female jazz voice since Billie Holiday/Ella Fitzgerald, and Taylor Eigsti is by far my favorite modern pianist.
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# ¿ Nov 17, 2011 10:09 |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmCytJPqQis&feature=player_embedded Jazz renditions of MF Doom songs. Ye gods I love jazz hop.
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# ¿ Nov 23, 2011 05:09 |
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BeigeJacket posted:Live thread, live! Electro jazz is basically nu-jazz, and I have a lot to recommend for you (it's my favorite genre of jazz). De Phazz - Cut the Jazz United Future Organization - Loud Minority (ridiculous trumpet + piano solos in this song; try to ignore the Engrish) Jazzanova - Morning Scapes Jazzanova - LOVE and You and I Fragmentorchestra - De Muse One of the things that nu-jazz seeks to do is not only blend jazz with electronica, but also to fuse it with world music stylings as well. You'll get, perhaps, more prominent and off-beat drum samples or uncommon instrumentation; however, above all, nu-jazz retains the smooth sound that cool jazz and modal jazz created long ago. It's also a genre that is primarily popular outside of the US, for some reason. It took off in Japan and Western Europe like wildfire. I'd also suggest the recent album Spiritual State by Nujabes, a posthumous album that just came out a few days ago: Azure_Horizon fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Dec 7, 2011 |
# ¿ Dec 7, 2011 11:25 |
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28 Gun Bad Boy posted:Yeah I don't think I really hear the term Electro Jazz being used very much. Nu-Jazz however is something I love. Basically approaching Jazz from a House, Techno, Soul & Funk angle of attack. More dancefloor based, club based, more singles based. Actually I don't really class it as Jazz half the time really(in the classical sense anyway). Firmly putting it in the dance music pile. No idea what the traditional jazz purists think of it. They probably hate it. And yes, it is/was very, very big in Japan(who absolutely loved it, don't ask me about spending crazy money on imported Japanese 12 inches), Germany and France. Actually fairly big here in the UK as well, though I don't think it quite made as many in-roads here as on the continent. Maybe because we had that big Acid Jazz explosion and later Broken Beat came along to satisfy peoples jazz noodlings to a 4/4 beat. Yeah I think it depends on which artist you seek out in nu-jazz. Jazzanova focuses a lot more on the jazzy side of nu-jazz, and a lot of their tracks would be best suited to a lounge rather than a dancefloor. But the house and funk influences are definitely widespread and help adapt jazz to the dancefloor, which I think is a good thing considering how popular dance music is nowadays.
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# ¿ Dec 7, 2011 21:19 |
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Found some great jazz hop by a group called Balance and the Traveling Sounds: Hey Lady Something About Us (Daft Punk cover) I'm Comin' Back
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# ¿ Dec 12, 2011 09:17 |
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Anyone in here checked out Colin Stetson's New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges? It's hard to even describe it as jazz, it's pretty out there. I like parts of it but not all of it, however I can respect that the dude is simply incredible on a bass saxophone. The way he recorded it is interesting, too: He set up mics all over the room he was in to capture the echoes of his playing, then spliced them together to get what we have in the album.
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# ¿ Dec 15, 2011 02:15 |
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Just started checking out the Mushroom Jazz electro jazz compilations. This Beat, by the Jazzual Suspects is pretty drat good.
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# ¿ Dec 23, 2011 01:31 |
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"Les Etoiles Mutantes" from the Kilmanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble is a great track. Mellows me out something fierce.
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# ¿ Dec 24, 2011 05:02 |
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DeathSandwich posted:From the Stairwell is a great chill out album in general. All is One is one of my 10 favorite songs currently. Dark jazz is an interesting subgenre as a whole. It's so loosely jazz but it can give off the same feeling, it's impressive.
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# ¿ Jan 11, 2012 03:21 |
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On Terra Firma posted:Ah yeah big fan of Jarrett's as well, but his stuff always seems really campy when compared to the stuff Mehldau has done. I know his style is pretty rare and a one off, I just can't really get into a lot of piano that sounds overly.. Jazzy if you know what I mean. I am the complete opposite. Jazzy piano makes me want to get up and dance.
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# ¿ Jan 12, 2012 09:23 |
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Most definitely. I consider "The Lost and Found" to be the jazz album of last year. It's also perfect when it's cold out. Check out her cover of Herbie Hancock's "Butterfly". It's beautiful, but so is Taylor Eigsti's piano work.
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# ¿ Jan 18, 2012 21:02 |
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x0nix posted:The album version with the 'sparse' acoustic guitar backing isn't that great, the rhythm sounds a bit awkward and clunky to me. The live version you mention with Taylor Eigsti accompanying on piano is so much better. Unfortunately that's kind of typical of the arrangements on her first album 'In a Dream'. Yeah, oops, I meant the live performance with Eigsti on piano, yeah.
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# ¿ Jan 19, 2012 03:42 |
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Ghost of Reagan Past posted:That's a great performance. The live version is clearly superior; Eigsti is a great pianist and I'm continually impressed with him. You should check out his albums if you haven't. His recent, Daylight at Midnight, is perhaps his best; the songs are a little on the cheesy side but the piano work is just stellar.
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# ¿ Jan 23, 2012 04:58 |
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Just heard some Jazz Liberatorz for the first time today and got chills down my spine. That flute work is just RIDICULOUS.
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# ¿ Jan 25, 2012 09:02 |
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Jack Trades posted:Accidentally stumbled upon this thread. Thank you OP, I love modern jazz but it's very hard to find new bands, it's not a very popular genre. It may not be very popular, but god drat if there isn't more innovation in the jazz of today than most other genres I can think of.
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# ¿ Jan 26, 2012 23:45 |
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Relayer posted:That's a good track but it's post-Stuart Zender who is an amazing bassist. They were just a much better band when he was on bass imo: Rock Dust Light Star is a solid album, surprisingly. I'd post links but it's way more funk than jazz.
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# ¿ Jan 29, 2012 23:23 |
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Anyone else excited for Esperanza Spalding's next album, Radio Music Society? Chamber Music Society was interesting, but I want to see that blended with her initial pop jazz style.
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# ¿ Feb 4, 2012 03:23 |
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treiz01 posted:I just watched Midnight in Paris and fell in love with this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs_DD_7C8_A I can't stop playing it. Already looking for a discography or something, can anyone else recommend similar styles? It's very much closer to ragtime and swing than most other forms of jazz, so anything from the '20s and '30s should suit you well.
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# ¿ Feb 4, 2012 20:47 |
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If you're recommending Amon Tobin I'd also put DJ Shadow's first album in the mix, as a good number of the tracks on it are jazzy.
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# ¿ Feb 12, 2012 08:19 |
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ThCawdor posted:Quick question: This might help you out.
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# ¿ Feb 16, 2012 02:34 |
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woodenchicken posted:I'm currently watching http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(TV_series), and it's brilliant. A detailed look at the origins and spread of the genre, with countless anecdotes from the lives of the greats and the firsts. Tons of music, photographs and clips from early documentaries, accounts from old people and various jazz musicians. Wynton Marsalis does a lot of the talking, describing different players' styles with such infectuous enthusiasm and providing examples with his trumpet. The guy basically owns. I don't really like Wynton Marsalis. He's a good player, but he comes off as superbly cocky about his knowledge of jazz history and its players, and I don't particularly share his views on jazz fusion (he HATES the idea).
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# ¿ Feb 21, 2012 04:31 |
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Ghost of Reagan Past posted:And that's a pretty good summary of it. Frankly, Wynton Marsalis' traditionalism is what drives it, and it's by no means a balanced or thorough picture of jazz. Being so thoroughly committed to a picture of jazz as a piece of history, something that hasn't really progressed since the 1950s, contributes to relegating jazz to the past. In many people's minds, jazz is history or Kenny G. Marsalis doesn't really try to change that, and almost seems to encourage it. Which I think goes against the original idea of jazz, improv. It's more than just a characteristic of the music, but a metaphor for the genre. It's always changing, always finding new ways to adapt to the world around it; jazz is an incredibly dynamic and fluid genre, moreso than many others. Traditionalism is so very contradictory to the idea of jazz itself. On a random note, jazz and a modern hiphop beat always relaxes me. For anyone interested in modern jazz improvisation, I recommend BADBADNOTGOOD. They take popular songs, particularly from hiphop, and jazzify them. The result is pretty awesome. They also give away all their music for free online. Azure_Horizon fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Feb 21, 2012 |
# ¿ Feb 21, 2012 08:04 |
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Thanks for catching that... I tried to catch all the little things I mislinked but I may have missed some.
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# ¿ Feb 26, 2012 09:43 |
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DeathSandwich posted:I need a launching point for some more good chilling out music. I have both Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz ensemble's Under the Stairwell and love them both dearly but I would like to have some more albums to expand my collection. I did pick up Esperanza Spalding's Chamber Music Society and I feel like it's pretty good, but I never did get into it near as much as the previous two, and some of the songs (I'm looking at you, Knowledge of Good and Evil) I felt were downright distracting when she holds those high piched notes for several seconds. If you haven't gotten Gretchen Parlato's The Lost and Found, you're definitely missing out. I also recommend Kuniyuki Takahashi's we are together, but that's more house than jazz, I suppose. The Guitar Song is probably one of the most chillaxing songs in the universe. I also recommend Blazo's Colors of Jazz.
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# ¿ Mar 2, 2012 06:11 |
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Another new female jazz singer to be on the lookout for, Lianne La Havas: No Room for Doubt is simply dreamy. Make sure to listen to the version she did in Paris, too. Azure_Horizon fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Mar 9, 2012 |
# ¿ Mar 9, 2012 22:30 |
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Frosted Flake posted:I'm getting really into be-bop and hard bop, are there any obscure artists that are worth a look? Check out Bobby Watson's Live and Learn album. He's playing some contemporary bebop.
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# ¿ Mar 14, 2012 00:50 |
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Frosted Flake posted:Thanks! I'll definitely check it out. I'd subscribe to All About Jazz; either their RSS feed, Twitter, Facebook, what-have-you. They tend to cover all modern jazz artists, both up-and-coming and established. Anywho, for any jazz hop fans in the thread, Soul by Suhnraw (get it), is absolutely fantastic. Great spring break anthem album.
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# ¿ Mar 14, 2012 03:38 |
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I took a jazz history class from the '40s onward and that learned me all the jazz knowledge I'd ever need. That class pretty much helped me write the OP.
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# ¿ Mar 21, 2012 04:24 |
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Radio Music Society by Esperanza Spalding was released last week, so ya'll should check it out. It hasn't been getting the best reviews, but it IS Esperanza Spalding so it's gotta be worth something.
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# ¿ Mar 30, 2012 03:49 |
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Chick Corea is amazing. He helped Miles Davis bring in the electric jazz movement in the '60s. Bitches' Brew is even more amazing because he's in it.
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# ¿ Apr 2, 2012 08:48 |
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Frosted Flake posted:The OP is okay in my books. He understands Bop. I mentioned bossa nova, and it's basically an offspring of jazz fusion that occurred in the late '50s and early '60s. European jazz would deserves its own topic entirely, which is why I neglected to go into it. Most of it, however, is a splinter off of free jazz. And nowadays, it's primarily nu-jazz.
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# ¿ Apr 4, 2012 09:42 |
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 14:36 |
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Bill O'Riley is GENIUS posted:This album actually rules, by the way. I've been listening to it nearly nonstop since it came out. Really? Well I'm gonna check it out right now!
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# ¿ Apr 6, 2012 21:15 |