Daily Jazz Notes

  Jazz’s Neo Gumbo: Rock, Funk, and Psychedelia This is our final stop on the jazz tour. Today, we are going to talk about jazz fusion, a subgenre that combines elements of jazz, rock, R&B, funk, psychedelia, and world music.     In other words, this subgenre is extremely experimental and rock-oriented as opposed to the traditional jazz and takes an open mind and open ear.   The instruments that are commonly used are electric guitars, electric bass guitar,   electric keyboards, and synthesizers. We cannot discuss jazz fusion without highlighting one of its most prominent pioneers,   jazz fusionist, trumpetist and jazz innovator, Miles Davis.   Davis or just “Miles” to his fans created a brand-new sound that would change the jazz world forever. In his pioneering 1969 release In a Silent Way ,   Davis combines elements of the sounds of that era, psychedelic   rock, R&B, soul, funk.   In fact, Miles even admitted to being inspir...

  Adding Salsa to the Gumbo: Latin Jazz Let’s take a trip down memory lane  t o honor Latin Jazz,   a subgenre of jazz that combines elements of traditional New Orleans   jazz with mambo, son, rumba, cumbia, and other Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Cuban elements. There are many contributors to this genre of jazz, including African-American composer, and New Orlean’s native Jelly Roll Mortin and trumpeter extraordinaire Dizzy Gillespie, but I am going to focus today on Afro-Latino contributors, especially two of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. On our tour, let’s start with one of originators,  Machito, with his hit song Tanga (1943).  Note how the Latin  and Afro-Caribbean beats infuse seamlessly with the New Orleans jazz creating a gumbo infused with salsa.  The New Orleans “wah-wah,” trumpet mutes go in and out of the percussive piano playing, giving the song both a bluesy and jazzy sound, and rhythmic percussion, including drums, congas, bongos, tim...

 Back to the Roots I’m taking jazz back to its New Orleans roots by introducing Troy Andrews, better known as “Trombone Shorty.”  Trombone Shorty,  a New Orleans native, is the real deal, a child prodigy, playing his first gig with the Bo Didley, the legendary rock & roll, blues and funk guitar player.  Trombone Shorty is a multi-genre, multi-instrumentalist, and has risen to fame as a trumpeter, vocalist, keyboardist, and trombonist.  He creates amazing combonations of traditional big band New Orleans jazz with a modern twist of rock, R&B, soul, funk, and hip-hop.   Trombone Shorty’s breakout album Backatown dropped in 2010.  To get your fandom started, I am providing a review and sample of some of tracks, but the entire album is 100% fire. The first track, Hurricane Season, comes in literally like a hurricane – strong and big.  It is an instrumental featuring  brass sounds, drums, a strong bass, and  heavy, funky guitar ri...

Meme About the Meme I created this meme using a picture of a disappointed and irritated man wearing a hoodie. The irritated  man in the hoodie represents the expression that I show when someone tells me that jazz is created for only senior citizens.  As I stated before, jazz is still important in today's world, and the genre does not have an age limit. Lastly, jazz will always be an amazing musical genre and artform that will live on. CC Licenses Picture of an angry man , by Craig Adderley ,  CC0 - Public Domain

  Photo Remix: Jazz Gumbo Jazz is like a bowl of gumbo.  Music with a hearty stew of flavor and groove. The photo remix symbolizes the different "flavors" of the jazz gumbo, better known as subgenres. It highlights the subgenres of Hard Bop,  Bebop, Jazz Fusion, Latin and New Orleans jazz, represented by a photo of Miles Davis (represented in three subgenres),  Timbales (latin jazz instrument), and traditonal New Orleans jazz band. PDF Link: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:90502a20-af9c-3912-8443-01da1ae9334b CC Licenses Gumbo Image by Glitch ,  CC0 - Public Domain Timbales Cropped Image by Andrewa,  CC BY-SA-3.0 Deed This image was modified into a circle Miles Davis at North Sea Festival  by Rob Bogaert, CC0-Public Domain New-Orleans-Jazz Fest 1993 by Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 4.0   This image was slightly transformed so It can fit the page

Intro - What is Jazz? Is it the smooth vocals of Ella Fitzgerald? Is it the powerful horn blowing of Miles Davis or Louis Armstrong?  Jazz is all these things and more.  It is an artform that is  uniquely American in origin, created over a 100 years ago in New Orleans primarily by African-American pioneers.   Jazz is a combination of the rhythm and multiculturism of the city.  The genre  was  highly influenced by the musical styles of  African-Americans, including spirituals, blues,  gospel and later ragtime.   Chorus & Verses - Why Jazz is Still Relevant? Some may assume that Jazz is an extinct genre - Wrong!  Jazz  is still relevant and is constantly evolving.  Jazz expresses musical creative freedom.  Freedom is always relevant.  Jazz and its musicians offers expression without any musical boundaries.   Jazz is the grandparent of today’s popular and innovative musical genres of hip-hop ...