Jazz Music Is Ecstatic Language
Leonardo DaVinci once said, “Do you know that our souls are composed of music?" Music and religion are intimately linked, and music is one of the most powerful tools to convey religious meaning. As human beings, we have been given the gift of musical language which can help transform us from our humdrum, everyday existence, into ...
The Story of Jazz Trumpet
The trumpet was the lead instrument in early jazz: it is the loudest solo instrument, the natural leader of a group of individuals, if you will. So, early trumpet pioneer Buddy Bolden (there is a photograph of him with a jazz band in 1894!) is most likely the first known jazzman simply because he was a ...
The Story Of Jazz Saxophone
For some, the saxophone is the sound of jazz. The unique fusion of brass and woodwind that is the sax found an electrifying vibrato in the hands of jazzmen that truly changed the world. The pale “pure" tone of the instrument, as first used in classical compositions, vanished in a musical blast of slurs ( Coleman ...
The Story of Jazz Guitar
While in its early days, jazz guitar was considered a rhythm instrument alongside the banjo of Dixieland. In 1940, Charlie Christian and his Gibson ES-150 changed that and elevated guitar to lead instrument status alongside the saxophone and trumpet--instruments that could acoustically cut through the sound of a piano-bass-drums rhythm section. Here, we encapsulate some of ...
True Essence of Jazz
The core of jazz is improvisation. This is also what sets apart jazz music from many other forms of music. A friend of mine, who is a keen composer, once asked me, “Don't you jazz musicians get bored playing the same standards all the time over and over again," and I replied, “Well, the thing is, ...
