The other day Nelson Harrison and I were talking about the state of Jazz music generally. We agreed on many things including the fact that jazz listening and buying is on a decline and has been for many years. Here are some of the reasons that I believe this is so; the neighborhoods that housed the…
WHAT IS FREE JAZZ?, ORNETTE COLEMAN, ALBERT AYLER, CECIL TAYLOR, SUN RA ARKESTRABy JRank Classic jazz, swing, Dixieland, bebop, cool jazz, and hard bop, despite their differences, have chordal improvisation in common, meaning that the soloists base their choice of notes on the chord structure of…
Bill Milkowski's extended conversation from the October issue Branford…
Sunday, September 16, 2012Amanda Palmer: Musician, Nude Model, Scientologist, D#*$hebagAmanda "No Respect For Musicians" PalmerI…
Either we do not know or have temporarily forgotten that American Jazz was the first indigenous art form to be designated as a National Treasure by the U.S. Congress via HR57 in 1987. The only other art form to receive such an esteemed validation is American Tap Dance which received the…
im afraid my comment will be rather negative. i consider myself a purist...its be-bop for me. all the new hybrids they call jazz...are jive...strictly jive. i could enumerate dozens of musicians...and here are just a couple. Horace Silver, Coltrane, Mobley, ray brown, basie, peterson, tatum,…
What they're playin today, in great measure, just aint jazz. Players are "schooled"...technically sound...but yuh cant teach :heart". Lessen the emphasis on who can play the most notes. Get back to playin THE SONG! Interpret? Yes...but dont stray too far. Scales and runs, all over the place, "til…
Being a musician, I am, of course, biased but the good news is that I do believe jazz can be saved. The bad news is, I doubt that it will. The art of melodic improvisation flourished when it was part of the popular music of the '20's through the big band era. Kids who were buying records could…