DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Ackerman, Bob. "Saxophone Masterclass." Bob Ackerman Masterclass. Sligo Middle School, Silver Spring, MD. July 2010. Lecture.    

Bob Ackerman, one of the east coast's best instrument salesmen, repairmen, and customizers gave a masterclass at a summer jazz camp I attended. He spoke mostly about instrument maintenance, giving helpful advice on how to care for and prolong the life of one's equipment. He also gave advice on what equipment is the best in terms of mouthpieces, reeds, ligatures, and saxophones. He allowed me to try a custom mouthpiece made by Ted Klum. I was amazed by the sound and response of the mouthpiece, and am now seriously considering purchasing a Klum mouthpiece. Ackerman also suggested that saxophone players store their reeds in a sealed plastic bag to retain moisture. I have been doing this ever since the masterclass, and I have notice a considerable elongation of the life of my reeds.

 

Adderley, Julian "Cannonball". Beginnings. Robin McBride, 1976. Vinyl recording.

This is one of the records that my mentor gave me to transcribe solos from. The songs are mostly written to standard chord changes, and Adderley's solos are concise. Mr. Carr believes that transcribing solos such as these is the most effective method of transcribing solos because I can get an incredible amount of information from a half to minute-and-a-half solo, rather than struggleing to learn a five minute solo that may have the same amount of information.

 

Adderley, Julian "Cannonball". In the Land of Hi-Fi. Trip Records, 1956. Vinyl recording.

Mr. Carr recommended this album even above the Beginnings record. These solos are extremely concise and informational. Mr. Carr recommended that I learn every one of Adderley's solos on this record. Doing so could become an undertaking of a few months, but it could help my playing mature considerably.  Adderley is one of history's finest alto saxophonists. Learning his approach to improvisation would certainly improve mine.

 

Adderley, Cannonball, Nat Adderley, Louis Hayes, Sam Jones, Yusef Lateef, and Joe Zawinul. In New York. Cannonball Adderley Sextet. Rec. 1962. Riverside Records, 2008. CD.

One of my favorite recordings of all time, this is considered one of Cannonball’s best live albums. It features a sextet meaning that there can be more interesting arrangements of the music, including horn backgrounds for solos. It is often said that one does not truly know another’s music until he has heard it live. This CD is probably one of the closest representations of Adderley’s live playing. In this CD, he takes his well organized ideas of, for example, In the Land of Hi-Fi and applies them to a more free-form, extended structure.

 

Adderley, Julian, Bill Evans, Percy Heath, and Conny Kay, perfs. Know What I Mean? Cannonball Adderley Quintet. Riverside, 1985. CD.

This album, featuring pianist Bill Evans, includes very organized playing by Adderley, as heard in his solo on Evans’ “Waltz for Debby”. Adderley begins with a motif from the melody, playing it staccato and adding extra notes. He develops this idea seamlessly. What is most impressive is how his solo sound like an extension of the song, something that requires intense discipline to do (especially when you did not write the song, as in Adderley’s case).

 

Alkyer, Frank. DownBeat--the Great Jazz Interviews: a 75th Anniversary Anthology. New York: Hal Leonard, 2009. Print

This book is a compilation of all the interviews from the largest jazz magazine, Downbeat, over its seventy-five year existence. These interviews are of the most contemporary and well-known jazz musicians of their times. The questions are either asked by a Downbeat journalist or another jazz musician. These interviews concern the direction the musicians thought jazz was going at the time, musical approaches, the social significance of the music, or how a certin musician rose to prominence. This resource is full of advice and history.

 

Bechet, Sidney. Treat It Gentle. New York: Da Capo, 1975. Print.

This autobiography of the first great reedsman to come out of New Orleans, Sidney Bechet, is one of the most valuable documents of jazz history. Bechet delves into the cultural aspects of the music, using his ancestry and life as a metaphor for the larger meaning of Jazz. Bechet places an emphasis on the music’s beginnings, when different musical cultures of America began to blend. Bechet believed that people had forgotten about some of the core elements from which the music materialized: the blues, spirituals, social struggle, and an unquenchable desire to create the muse.

 

Berliner, Paul. Thinking in Jazz: the Infinite Art of Improvisation. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1994. Print.

This book is a holistic psychoanalysis of the jazz musician. The book focuses on the developmental process of the jazz musician, giving research, personal evidence, and insight as to why such a developmental process yielded success for the musician later in his career. The book also explains how improvisation works mentally and why others perceive jazz as something it is not. This will prove to be helpful with oral presentations and my own development.

 

Carr, Paul. Straight Ahead Soul. (Get Official Citation)

For the performance at the Strathmore Mansion, Mr. Carr had me learn the song "Light and Lovely" by Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. This song is on his most recent CD, which is part of the reason why he wanted me to play it with him when I sat in with his band. "Light and Lovely" is a medium-tempo blues in C with an attractive melody. Learning the song by ear was the best method to learn it because I had to rely on my ear when I performed it (there was no sheet music).

 

Cook, Richard, and Brian Morton. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.

This book serves as an excellent reference for recordings of jazz musicians. The book is arranged alphabetically by the last names of the musicians, with a complete list of their released recordings, making this book very practical for researching various musicians. The fact that Penguin Jazz was published two years ago and it typically focuses on past artists makes it a better reference for finding historic recordings rather than recent ones.

 

Davis, Miles, and Quincy Troupe. Miles. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2005. Print.

Arguably the most famous jazz biography/autobiography, Miles Davis' autobiography tells all about his life, especially the music of which he was a master. Miles explains his experiences working with some of jazz’s heroes, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Tony Williams. Davis, known to seldom explain his craft openly explains his music. Such narration gives the reader an inside glimpse into the jazz of the past. Davis' life, which includes fifty years in the jazz scene, lived an important part of the history for the reader to experience. Having lived and created the history, Davis can tell the truth about it much more accurately and personally than any historian or biographer could.

 

The Eb Real Book. Sixth ed. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2007. Print.

This book is one of the most useful resources for any jazz musician. Several years ago, Hal Leonard bought the publishing rights to hundreds of standard jazz songs, allowing them to print one comprehensive book that contains countless songs. This book is printed in the keys of all instruments, making reading even easier. I use this book most for the chord changes it has written with each song. Seeing the chords is another way to help me learn them.

 

Gillespie, Dizzy. To Be, or Not ... to BOP: Memoirs. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979. Print.

This book is the autobiography of Dizzy Gillespie, one of jazz's greatest trumpeters and educators. Gillespie goes into depth about the great musicians whom he played with and/or mentored, the style's of jazz he initiated (bebop and "latin" jazz), and his general philosophy and approach to music. A very worthwhile read, this book acquaints the reader with a musician that was instrumental in the creation of modern American music.

 

Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense. Dir. Peter J. Vogt and Michael Rivoira. Adapt. Lars Larson. Perf. Terence Blanchard, Ravi Coltrane, Bill Frisell. Paradigm Studio, 2010. DVD.

This documentary, recently released, is the first of its kind. It was produced as a result of Ken Burn's series entitled Jazz and other such sentiments that placed more focus on the music's past, deemphasizing the musicians who are progressing and keeping the music alive today. This documentary has no third person narrator, but rather some of today's best musicians speaking about what they believe to be pertinent issues about the music. This documentary exposes what is happening in jazz today to the audience. Icons Among Us raises awareness of jazz musicians today, where Penguin Jazz and Jazz fall short.

 

Jazz. Dir. Ken Burns. By Ken Burns. Perf. Wynton Marsalis, Stanley Crouch, Nat Hantoff, Et All. PBS, 2001. Videocassette.

This documentary series is the most well-known publication about jazz. It describes the history of jazz, focusing on its earliest years in New Orleans, Chicago, and then the Ballrooms of New York when Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Count Basie were the forerunners of the music. The documentary pays homage to Sidney Bechet, the genius saxophonist whose pioneering of jazz was overshadowed by Louis Armstrong. This rich gem of historic information is told by established musicians, historians, scholars, and others who have lived or studied the history.

 

Kelley, Robin D. G. Thelonious Monk: the Life and times of an American Original. New York: Free, 2009. Print.

Robin Kelly, one of the best contemporary jazz and cultural writers, writes the best depiction of jazz piano master Thelonious Monk's life to date. Kelly had countless private tapes of Monk practicing and spending time with his family and had the rare opportunity to interview Monk's wife and children about Monk. These sources provided Kelley with inside information on the real Thelonious Monk, often lost in the obsession with his mysterious personage and unusual stage presence. Kelley reveals that Monk had to use an incredible amount of personal inspiration and imagination to create the body of compositions, harmonic theory, and playing style that set him apart. In today's jazz world, many musicians could use that knowledge to stop aiming to imitate greats and rather take what the greats have produced and add their own contribution to it, just as Monk did.

 

Marsalis, Wynton, Wessell Anderson, Eric Lewis, Kengo Nakamura, Orlando Q. Rodriguez, Joe Farnsworth, and Robert Rucker, perfs. Live at the House of Tribes. Blue Note, 2005. CD.    

This has become one of my favorite modern jazz albums. The album features alto saxophonist Wess "Warmdaddy" Anderson, who plays very much in the tradition of Cannonball Adderley. Anderson incorporates Adderley's blues-oriented approach with his own modern conception of manipulating ideas. Anderson also is very adept at using a scale to create his own spontaneous melody. The combination of these two factors means that Anderson can play compelling, unique, and extended solos. Just as done with the Cannonball Adderley records, however, learning from Anderson does not necessarily mean transcribing his solos note-for-note. Just as much can be learned from learning the ideas he begins with and then analyzing how he morphs them throughout his solo.

 

Marsalis, Wynton, and Geoffrey C. Ward. Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life. New York: Random House, 2009. Print.

Wynton Marsalis the most well-known figure in current jazz, has written this book largely for the non-musician interested in making jazz a part of his life. However, this book also serves as a reference for the fundamental elements that comprise jazz, such as the blues, rhythm, integrity, studiousness, etc. Marsalis articulates these elements very well. This book could be considered a how-to book on playing/listening to jazz, but at the same time a work written by a master in the field.

 

"Miguel Zenon: Genius at Play." Downbeat May 2010. Print.

This article, from one of jazz’s most respected magazines, is about Miguel Zenon, the incredible alto saxophonist who recently won the Guggenheim Genius Grant and MacArthur Fellowship Award. The article not only focuses on Zenon’s achievements, but his music and his band as well. In the article, Zenon describes how he still avidly transcribes solos from recordings of the great jazz musicians, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker. He also explained the importance of having extreme technical facility on the saxophone. There are many technically fluent saxophone players on the jazz scene today, which means that having musicality is not enough.

 

Nelson, Oliver. Patterns for Improvisation. Los Angeles, CA: Oliver Nelson, 1966. Print.

Oliver Nelson, accomplished alto saxophonist, wrote a book in the sixties that included parts of jazz language that he thought every musician should know. Nelson had a philosphy of playing similar to my mentor's, Mr. Carr. That is, one plays a device in all keys until it has become muscle memory. This frees the musician because he has certain things to play that do not require figuring out how to play them on the spot. This book is a great resource for practicing.

 

"Paul Carr: Jazz Musician, Educator, Presenter, and Mentor." Personal interview. 21 Aug. 2010.

Carr addresses the issue of jazz education, and how jazz mentorship outside of the classroom is vital because of a lack of jazz education in the schools. He explains that the college level is much better with jazz education, which can make crossing over from a high school to a college program difficult. Carr thinks, however, that more jazz education should be focused on young children, whose musical preferences are still fertile. He also describes what young, aspiring jazz musicians should be doing to improve their jazz aptitude: listening to the music, practicing, and experiencing the music live.

 

Ponomarev, Valery. On the Flip Side of Sound. Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2009. Print.

This book is the autobiography of my mentor at the Litchfield Jazz Camp and one of the best jazz trumpeters of his generation, Valery Ponomarev. He tells the story of how he came up in Moscow, having to learn jazz on his own. He then describes his times with legendary drummer Art Blakey. Ponomarev relays many important lessons about jazz through his story. For example, when he came to America, Blakey was impressed with him more than other trumpet players because Ponomarev had very diligently transcribed many solos. This added a maturity and tradition to Ponomarev's playing that det him apart. He also describes lessons he learned directly from Blakey, including learning the words to ballads. Even if there is no vocalist, understanding the verbal meaning of the song enhances the ability to play it.

 

Ratliff, Ben. Coltrane: the Story of a Sound. New York: Picador, 2008. Print.

Ben Ratliff, the top jazz critic for the New York Times, has written a masterpiece book about legendary tenor saxophonist John Coltrane. This book is not a biography of Coltrane's life, but rather his sound/approach to the music. By reading about the stages Coltrane went through to reach his musical prowess and then how his style changed at the end of his life gives the reader insight into the process of developing one's own voice on the instrument. Coltrane, whose legacy has been mystified, is often equated with someone of god-like abilities, but Ratliff shows Coltrane was not a god, but rather just dedicated.

 

Ratliff, Ben. The Jazz Ear: Conversations over Music. New York: Times, 2008. Print.

This book is a compilation of interviews conducted by Ratliff with some of the greatest and most well-known jazz musicians. These interviews are one-of-a-kind because Ratliff promotes conversation by having a listening sessions with the musician's favorite recordings to promote conversation. The musicians pick apart their favorite songs, explaining why they are so special and telling the reader what they find to be vital to the music. Branford Marsalis explains the importance of personality in music, Wayne Shorter delves into building musical intensity, and Sonny Rollins explains how great improvised solos are structured like thought-out musical compositions. 

 

Sacks, Oliver W. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. New York: Vintage, 2008. Print.

This book is written by a doctor who is fascinated with music and the effects it has on his patients. Whether music is the ailment or aid to a patients problems, Sacks describes why his patients is experiencing what they experience. Sacks discusses music's relation to humanity, and how music is a portal to not only our subconscious but what makes us human. Sacks describes rhythm as a central quality to music, and how rhythm creates commune, a goal of jazz. According to anthropologists, Sacks says human society experienced a stage, the mimetic stage, in which language had not been created. Humans used other forms of expression, such as music, to communicate. Sacks believes language was developed as a supplement to these forms of communication, but that forms of communication used in the mimetic stage can more accurately convey the human condition. By understanding why people feel compelled to play music certain ways, there is a better understanding of why music should be played.

 

Tain Watts Quarter at Blues Alley. Dir. Jeff "Tain" Watts. Blues Alley, Washington D.C. Nov. 2010. Performance.

This was a live performance I saw in November with some of New York's finest jazz musicians playing at Blues Alley in Washington D.C. The musicality of these musicians wa striking. One aspect of the music I particularly noticed was the way that the musicians built their solos. One musician make take a rhythmic motif and let it develop. Oftentimes, Steve Wilson would end a solo with a similar phrase with which he started it, similar to the closing statements of a good argument or moral of a story. I also admired the depth with which Tain Watts listened to the other musicians of the group. He listened to the other musicians so closely, that he could take their mistakes (the few that there were) and use them to contribute to the music. This concert was more than an enjoyable experience for me; it was a learning experience as well.

 

Taylor, Art. Notes and Tones: Musician-to-musician Interviews. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1982. Print.

Famous drummer Art Taylor interviews many of the greatest jazz musicians in his book. Being friends and fellow musicians, those who he interviewed speak very openly about issues pertinent to jazz: the role of the audience, who was progressing the music and how/why, the music industry, the meaning of a certain idiom within jazz, how the interviewees continue to develop their playing. It is rare to find such direct statements about the music coming from its musicians. Musicians can oftentimes speak in riddle during interviews, using the chance more as a publicity stunt rather than a transference of knowledge. Taylor boosted this because he knew the right questions to ask, being a jazz musician himself.

 

Teachout, Terry. Pops: a Life of Louis Armstrong. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. Print.

This book tells the tale of Louis Armstrong from from a fairly objective point of view, rather than one of awe found in most of his biographies. The author analyzes Armstrong as a performer and how he attained such success as a performer through jazz, which is oftentimes equated with less of a focus on the entertainment. Armstrong reached the level he did as an entertainer firstly because of his abilities with music. He could create classic music while performing comic antics onstage. Second, his status as the world's greatest entertainer was a manifestation of the circumstances of life into which he lived, and how he attempted to turn those unfortunate circumstances into the most beautiful thing he could. Armstrong was born during a time in America when African Americans were mocked through minstrelsy. Armstrong took the status of the black man as an entertainer and inflicted it with the sincerity and beauty of his personality and music to make others think twice about the stereotype. This serves as an excellent example for all involved in the performing arts.

 

Warfield, Tim. "Tim Warfield Masterclass." JAM Camp. Sligo Middle School, Silver Spring, MD. 6 July 2010. Lecture.

Tim Warfield, one of the greatest tenor saxophonists of his generation, gave a masterclass at a jazz camp I attended this summer. In this masterclass, he explained his approach to improvisation. Warfield stated that the foundation for jazz traces back to the foundation of all music: rhythmic collaboration. He explains that jazz expounds on this through its polyrhythmic structures, opportunity for improvisation, and how the groove is dynamic. In improvisation, the musicians must first and foremost work together to create a rhythmic groove from which tone, pitch, and texture modify the rhythmic canvas.  This approach put jazz improvisation in another perspective.

 

Weiskopf, Walt. Around the Horn. New Albany: Jamey Abersold Jazz, 2000. Print.

This book delves into the different modes of scales, providing hundreds of ways to approach a certain key. They devices in the book serve as technical excercises, ways to open one's ears, and a wealth of new devices to play in solos. This book has been used in accordance with study with Mr. Carr.

  

Wycliffe Gordon in Concert. Dir. Gordon Wycliffe. Wilde Lake High School, Columbia, MD. 22 Jan. 2011. Performance.

I was only able to attend this performance for a short amount of time; however, I was able to garner some valuable information form it. Wycliffe Gordon, of of the world's finest trombone players displayed excellent musicality. He used his ideas very efficiently, getting the most out of each one. I could tell that he was comfortable enough in the jazz idiom and with improvising that he felt little pressure to play everything he knew. He rather told a story with his instrument. He also knew several ways to add inflection to his musical voice, sliding notes, growling, adding vibrato, using dynamics, that made his performance more compelling for the listener. I should try and do the same with my playing.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.