RIBS TPTD: “Jazz 101″ - An Introduction To Jazz, Lesson #1…

April 12, 2009 by tgrundy
Filed under: Funk, Jazz 101, R&B, RIBS, Triple Play Thurs-Day, blues, jazz, podcasts/mixes 

Hey Good People!

Jazz 101

Intro to Jazz

Surprise! A rare weekend treat from the RIBS kitchen today. First, before we get to our classroom session, let me give you a little bit of background on what this is all about…

As I hope you are aware, April is Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) and all month long the great American art form known as jazz is being celebrated with a variety of events all over the country. Additionally, many online music enthusiasts are writing and talking about jazz a lot on their sites this month. One post that caught my eye was from my home girl, Vivrant Thang, over on her excellent site, Songs In The Key Of Life. In a post entitled, “All That Jazz: In Celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month”, she wrote:

I don’t talk about my love for jazz enough on this blog so I figure jazz appreciation month is the perfect time to do so. I have to admit that my knowledge is lacking. Mama Vivrant Thang was never really into jazz so it wasn’t played much around the house.
The number of jazz albums in my collection is unusually slim. Time for my collection to reflect it. Question is - where to start?
Jazz lovers, help me out. What do you consider the essential albums any jazz lover should have in their collection?

Now, when a person bares their soul like this and feels compelled to publicly share such an awful secret with the world well… how can you not reach out and help them? Hmmmm? {smile}

Seriously though, in addition to putting in my 2 cents as a comment on the site, Vivrant Thang’s post got me to thinking…

What artists and what songs WOULD a person choose to initially introduce someone to jazz???

I mean I know what I like and several songs came immediately to mind, but I continued to wonder what combinations other jazz fans would choose as an introduction to jazz. Well, since my curiosity had gotten the best of me, there was only one thing to do…

Twitter to the rescue.

Yep. I decided to post the question on Twitter and see what kind of responses “the crew” would come up with. To make a long story short we had a very interesting couple of days of conversation with a boatload of great suggestions for a playlist of songs that would be perfect for an “Introduction to Jazz” playlist. AAMOF, we started calling the tweets “Jazz 101″ and used the #jazz101 hashtag on most of the repsponses/replies so it would be easy to search for parts of the conversation you may have missed. (click the link to open a new window showing you the “Jazz 101″ conversation via Twitter Search)

And… that’s the backstory of today’s playlist.

Now, let’s talk about the “frontstory”, the music itself and some suggestions for “getting into jazz” and becoming a bonafide jazz aficionado.

When I was thinking about writing this “introduction to jazz” post I originally considered trying to answer the question” “What is jazz?” After a little research and careful consideration I quickly abandoned THAT idea. Ha! Even the folks who play and/or make their livelihood from this music have not definitively defined it yet after all these years, what made me think I could? {smile} However, researching the answer to the “What is jazz?” question IS fascinating in and of itself. The Wikipedia entry for Jazz is a good starting point, IMO.

Basically, the best way to get into jazz is to listen to it (no real earth shattering revelation there, eh? {smile}) The question is, of course, “where to start?” For my money, and the suggestion I always make, is to start with what many folks consider (even to this day, 50 years after it was first recorded) to be the finest jazz album ever made:

Miles Davis’ “Kind Of Blue” (and, fittingly, the first song on the playlist comes from this gem; more on that later)

AAMOF, it’s probably a very good idea to start one’s appreciation of jazz with the recordings produced during the 50s (Cool Jazz and Modal Jazz) and the early-to-mid 60s (Soul Jazz and Latin Jazz) as this is a period in which many of the finest and most listenable (IMHO) jazz recordings were made. From there you can go back to the Bebop jazz era (1940s) or the Swing jazz era (1930s) or push forward into the Fusion jazz era of the late 60s/70s or the Smooth jazz era of the 1980’s and beyond.

Also, let me repeat something I wrote in the post comment on Vivrant Thang’s website which some of you may find works well as a springboard into the genre. Begin your jazz education by starting on an instrument by instrument basis: pick an instrument and then pick the most prominent artist (opinions vary greatly here, of course) on that instrument and collect several of their works first. My own personal instrument/artist list suggestions:

  1. Trumpet - Miles Davis
  2. Saxophone - John Coltrane
  3. Guitar - Wes Montgomery
  4. Vibes - Lionel Hampton
  5. Big Band - Count Basie (I know that’s not an instrument, but the Count is essential!)
  6. Drums - Max Roach
  7. Keyboards - Duke Ellington or Herbie Hancock

Let me make one more point that I think is essential to appreciating jazz before we get into the playlist. In addition to the sound of the music, true fans of jazz also pay particular attention to the personnel that are involved in the performance/recording session of a jazz concert or album. It’s one of those little things that, while not exclusive to jazz, is something that has greater importance to fans of jazz as opposed to other musical genres. For example, not only is it important to know that Miles’ “Kind Of Blue” is perhaps the best jazz album of all time, but to fans of jazz it is equally important to note of the fact that this was Miles’ sextet ensemble with, in addition to Davis on trumpet, pianist Bill Evans, pianist Wynton Kelly (on track #2, Freddie Freeloader only), drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley.

Also, before I let you go, I wanted to say a few things about the songs that make up this first playlist. The first thing is… “Yes!” there will, at the very least, be a Lesson #2  “Jazz 101″ mix here on RIBS. Although when I came up with the idea for this ‘jazz intro’ playlist I was originally thinking of it in singular terms, there have so many great suggestions from the crew on Twitter and some other folks I’ve discussed this with that I just have to make more than one mix in order to do the subject justice.

As for this initial selection of songs the goal was to present a cross section of songs, instruments and styles that were some of the best (subjective, I know!) examples of the beauty and variety of that thing called jazz.

As I’ve already mentioned, for me it doesn’t get any better than Miles’ “Kind Of Blue”, and the first track from that album, So What, gets us started. That leads us quite smoothly into Stolen Moments (my second favorite jazz composition behind So What) by saxophonist, composer and arranger Oliver Nelson from his 1961 breakthrough album “The Blues And The Abstract Truth”. These two are fine examples of the softer, melodic sound of jazz that is so pleasing to ones ears.

Duke Ellington and Count Basie give us two familiar jazz standards, Take The ‘A’ Train and April In Paris respectively, that are prime examples of the Swing style of jazz popular in the late 1930s through the 1940s . You may also hear Swing jazz referred to as “Big Band” jazz so named as much for the size of the bands that played it (approximately 12 to 25 musicians) as for the big, uptempo sound it had. Swing was THE dance music back in its heyday and was broadcast nightly coast-to-coast across America for years.

Sometimes when you think about jazz music much of the thought process centers around instrumental music, however jazz is as much a medium for vocalists as it is for instrumentalists. In order to provide a taste of the lyrical side of jazz our playlist includes three of the best, Nina Simone with My Baby Just Cares For Me; Sarah “Sassy” Vaughan with the melancholy, bluesy Black Coffee and one of my all time favorite singers (ooooh, I just luv this woman’s voice!) Ms. Nancy Wilson and her version of In The Heat Of The Night.

If you are going to introduce someone to the jazz guitar and the jazz saxophone there are few better to start with than Wes Montgomery (guitar) who gives us Four On Six and John Coltrane (saxophone, often referred to as just “Trane” by jazz fans) with his classic rendition of My Favorite Things. Far from the first ones to play these instruments, each man is considered one of the most innovative artists in jazz and has been a major influence on all who have come after them.

To round out and finish up our first lesson we take you home with three more jazz standards (and personal favs)… Red Clay from trumpet extraordinaire Freddie Hubbard, Maiden Voyage from the versatile master of all things keyboards Herbie Hancock, and Take Five from pianist and jazz icon Dave Brubeck.

Whew! OK, I hope I haven’t worn you out with all that “talk”. Time for our “Jazz 101″ class to begin. Face forward, eyes up front and make sure to take extensive notes as we present to you…

“Jazz 101 - An Introduction to Jazz, Lesson #1″

RIBS TPTD: Jazz 101 - An Introduction To Jazz 1

Alternate (if you have a problem using the javascript pop-up): Click here.

Right-click here to download .MP3 file (111Mb, 1:19:04)

Download playlist .PDF file here (right-click)

Playlist: (song - artist - album [time])

  1. So What - Miles Davis - Kind of Blue [9:25]
  2. Stolen Moments - Oliver Nelson - The Blues and the Abstract Truth [8:47]
  3. Take The ‘A’ Train - Duke Ellington - Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band [2:52]
  4. April In Paris - Count Basie and His Orchestra - April in Paris [3:51]
  5. My Baby Just Cares For Me - Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue [3:38]
  6. Four On Six - Wes Montgomery - The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery [6:17]
  7. My Favorite Things - John Coltrane - The Last Giant: The John Coltrane Anthology [13:40]
  8. In The Heat Of The Night - Nancy Wilson - Welcome to My Love [2:34]
  9. Black Coffee - Sarah Vaughan - The Divine Sarah Vaughan: The Columbia Years 1949 - 1953) [3:18]
  10. Red Clay - Freddie Hubbard - Red Clay [12:11]
  11. Maiden Voyage - Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage [7:57]
  12. Take Five - Dave Brubeck - Time Out [5:26]

Have you missed any of the RIBS mixes we’ve posted? If you have there is now an easy way to catch up on what we’ve been up to. Just go check out the new RIBS Archives Page to see a very easy to read listing of every post (and music mix) we’ve uploaded to the site.

Enjoy!

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Comments

8 Comments on RIBS TPTD: “Jazz 101″ - An Introduction To Jazz, Lesson #1…

  1. tgrundy (tgrundy) on Sun, 12th Apr 2009 6:13 am

    2. Twitter Comment


    GM Tweeps! Class is now in session, “Jazz 101″ mix is ready: [link to post] Please retweet #jazz101

    - Posted using Chat Catcher

  2. trelly (trelly) on Sun, 12th Apr 2009 8:12 am

    3. Twitter Comment


    RT @tgrundy: GM Tweeps! Class is now in session, “Jazz 101″ mix is ready: [link to post] Please retweet #jazz101

    - Posted using Chat Catcher

  3. tgrundy (tgrundy) on Sun, 12th Apr 2009 12:04 pm

    4. Twitter Comment


    Hey Folks! In addition to @MrFresh’s podcast (http://is.gd/s33W), the #Jazz101 mix, “An Intro To Jazz” is ready too: [link to post]

    - Posted using Chat Catcher

  4. tgrundy (tgrundy) on Sun, 12th Apr 2009 1:48 pm

    5. Twitter Comment


    @vivrant_thang - well, well… now that you are awake from hanging out last night: #Jazz101 is ready: [link to post]

    - Posted using Chat Catcher

  5. Vivrant Thang on Sun, 12th Apr 2009 10:32 pm

    6. *hangs head in shame but then lifts it back up*

    Truly excellent post sir. I also found the Wiki entry for Jazz to be quite good, as is the Jazz Standards site. I’ll be spending a lot of time on there.

    I agree with your decision not to try to define what jazz is. Impossible. “Damn good music” will suffice! Very important point you made about how true jazz fans pay attention to the contributors on a piece. When I watch the video of the live performance of Naima, I am just as intrigued by who is playing with Trane as I am by the song itself (which is one of my personal faves).

    I’ve decided to start my journey with Trane and Miles (in terms of collecting). Your saxy music posts will help!

    I’m listening now as I write this comment and then my post. As you know So What is one of my favorite songs…from the few that I do know ;) And there are a few on here that keep coming up in discussions. So glad you put this together and I anticipate Part II!

    Vivrant Thang’s last blog post..Blog Checka

  6. El Slick on Mon, 13th Apr 2009 9:08 am

    7. Ever notice how everybody has a signature…..a few notes put together (in most every song) by the artist. A short few that is solely theirs.
    It’s like what Cos sez about “your walk”. It’s yours and nobody else can duplicate it. You see a dude in stride, in theft mode….. and you straighten him out…”that TGrundy’s walk man, you can’t walk like that….git yo own walk”.
    Well, you know who’s playing when you hear them…even if you haven’t seen the album cover. Signature man, that’s an artist’s business card!!!!

    BTW “T”. You got a good pimp walk going here!.

  7. Jazz 101: Become an True Aficionado « SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE on Mon, 13th Apr 2009 6:12 pm

    8. [...] T Grundy took the discussion to a broader audience on Twitter, where folks have been weighed in all last week with the music that has been integral to their journey as true jazz fans. He then went on to create the first of two Jazz 101 podcasts, which was the perfect writing soundtrack for this piece. [...]

  8. ThaConnoisseur on Tue, 14th Apr 2009 11:32 am

    9. This is a WONDERFUL post! I love jazz and do have a lot of albums, but will most definitely not say that I am a connoisseur on that front at all. :)

    This is a great beginners tool for the Jazz virgins out there and also a great collection of tracks in one place for Jazz collectors as well. Great post!

    ThaConnoisseur’s last blog post..It’s Monday…Okay it’s actually Tuesday…

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