1.
Jazz
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Jazz is a music genre that originated amongst African Americans in New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in Blues and Ragtime. Since the 1920s jazz age, jazz has become recognized as a form of musical expression. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms, Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the Black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience, intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as one of Americas original art forms. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging musicians music which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments. In the early 1980s, a form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such as Latin, the question of the origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm, a term dating back to 1860 meaning pep. The use of the word in a context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Its first documented use in a context in New Orleans was in a November 14,1916 Times-Picayune article about jas bands. In an interview with NPR, musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the slang connotations of the term, saying, When Broadway picked it up. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century. Jazz has proved to be difficult to define, since it encompasses such a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, in the opinion of Robert Christgau, most of us would say that inventing meaning while letting loose is the essence and promise of jazz. As Duke Ellington, one of jazzs most famous figures, said, although jazz is considered highly difficult to define, at least in part because it contains so many varied subgenres, improvisation is consistently regarded as being one of its key elements
2.
Fly (band)
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Fly is the cooperative jazz trio of saxophonist Mark Turner, drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier. The group first surfaced as the Jeff Ballard Trio in 2000 on one track of the anthology Originations, curated by Chick Corea and became Fly with the release of their first album, on Savoy, association between the players however goes back much further. Grenadier and Ballard played music together as teenagers in California in the early 1980s and they both migrated to the US’s East coast in 1990 where they met Turner, and the three musicians have played in diverse permutations and contexts since then. In Fly, Turner, Grenadier and Ballard all write material, Mark Turner, “Sometimes it’s the saxophone carrying the melody. Other times it’s the bass or drums and we spread out the frontline duties among us. Jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano said about their interplay on the Year of the Snake-album, Fly is a beautiful trio, and Mark plays with a brilliant execution on his horn. He plays with a range on his instrument. That trio has an approach in the way the music is written. Theyre improvising but their dialogue is more classical in nature, the way it feels, thats expression, the waves, the life forms, the wind. Fly sounds lovely and beautiful and their music has a real presence, Fly, Savoy Jazz Sky & Country, ECM Records Year of the Snake, ECM Records Biography Official FLY Home Page
3.
Les Claypool
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Leslie Edward Les Claypool is an American musician, singer, songwriter, composer, author and actor best known as the bassist and lead vocalist of the band Primus. Claypools playing style on the electric bass mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends, Claypool has also self-produced and engineered his solo releases from his own studio, Rancho Relaxo. 2006 saw the release of a feature film Electric Apricot written. Claypool was born September 29,1963, in Richmond, California, Claypool decided to become a bass player, pursuing the instrument from the age of fourteen. Claypool has cited Larry Graham, Chris Squire, Tony Levin, Roger Waters, Geddy Lee, Paul McCartney, Geezer Butler, Bootsy Collins, Stanley Clarke and he went to school with and was a friend of guitarist Kirk Hammett, later of Metallica. For several years before forming Primus, Claypool worked as a carpenter, in 1986, after the death of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton, Hammett encouraged Claypool to audition for Metallica as Burtons successor. Metallica frontman James Hetfield remarked that Claypool was not offered the job because he was too good, Claypool said later that he was unaware of Metallicas success and influence and auditioned mainly out of friendship with Hammett, and further stated he would not have fit in with the band. Claypool replaced them with guitarist Larry LaLonde and drummer Tim Alexander, Claypool is considered to be the leader of the band, as well as the driving force behind its blending of funk with other genres. Claypool frequently utilizes the technique, prominent in funk music. I guess people just have to categorize you, in 1991, the band was featured in the cult classic movie Bill and Teds Bogus Journey, performing Tommy the Cat live. Claypool and Tom Waits first recorded on each others records in 1991 and have continued to do so since, in 1997, Primus was asked to play and record the theme song for the animated television show South Park. In 1999, he allowed Activisions use of the song Jerry Was a Race Car Driver in the video game Tony Hawks Pro Skater. Primus went on hiatus in 2000, in mid-2003, Claypool reunited with former Primus drummer Tim Alexander and guitarist Larry LaLonde to record a DVD/EP called Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People. Primus continued touring into 2004, performing their 1990 release Frizzle Fry as their set, as documented on the DVD Hallucino-Genetics. The band toured in 2006 on their Primus, The Beat a Dead Horse Tour 2006, and played at a small number of festivals in 2008. In 2010, Alexander, who had left the band for the time due to lack of interest, was replaced by Jay Lane. The band subsequently resumed touring after the free June 2010 Rehearsal was released later that year, in 2013, Lane left Primus for the second time to focus on his other band RatDog, who were coming off hiatus at the time, and was replaced again by Alexander. In 1996, Claypool produced, engineered and released an album, Les Claypool
4.
Stanford University
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Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, adjacent to Palo Alto and between San Jose and San Francisco. Its 8, 180-acre campus is one of the largest in the United States, Stanford also has land and facilities elsewhere. The university was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Stanford was a former Governor of California and U. S. Senator, he made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students 125 years ago on October 1,1891, Stanford University struggled financially after Leland Stanfords death in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley. The university is one of the top fundraising institutions in the country. There are three schools that have both undergraduate and graduate students and another four professional schools. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. Stanford faculty and alumni have founded a number of companies that produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue. It is the alma mater of 30 living billionaires,17 astronauts and it is also one of the leading producers of members of the United States Congress. Sixty Nobel laureates and seven Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford, dedicated to Leland Stanford Jr, their only child. The institution opened in 1891 on Stanfords previous Palo Alto farm, despite being impacted by earthquakes in both 1906 and 1989, the campus was rebuilt each time. In 1919, The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace was started by Herbert Hoover to preserve artifacts related to World War I, the Stanford Medical Center, completed in 1959, is a teaching hospital with over 800 beds. The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which was established in 1962, in 2008, 60% of this land remained undeveloped. Besides the central campus described below, the university also operates at more remote locations, some elsewhere on the main campus. Stanfords main campus includes a place within unincorporated Santa Clara County. The campus also includes land in unincorporated San Mateo County, as well as in the city limits of Menlo Park, Woodside. The academic central campus is adjacent to Palo Alto, bounded by El Camino Real, Stanford Avenue, Junipero Serra Boulevard, the United States Postal Service has assigned it two ZIP codes,94305 for campus mail and 94309 for P. O. box mail
5.
Pat Metheny
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Patrick Bruce Pat Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is involved in duets, solo works. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, Latin jazz, Metheny has three gold albums and 20 Grammy Awards and is the only person to win Grammys in ten different categories. He is the brother of jazz flugelhornist and journalist Mike Metheny, Metheny was born and raised in Lees Summit, Missouri, a suburb southeast of Kansas City. At age 15, he won a Down Beat scholarship to a jazz camp and was mentored by guitarist Attila Zoller. Zoller invited the young Metheny to New York City to see guitarist Jim Hall, following his graduation from Lees Summit High School, Metheny briefly attended the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida in 1972, where he was offered a teaching position. He then moved to Boston to take a teaching assistantship at the Berklee College of Music with jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton and he established a reputation as a prodigy when he was with Burton. In 1974 he made his debut on an album unofficially titled Jaco with pianist Paul Bley, bassist Jaco Pastorius. Metheny entered the jazz scene in 1975 when he joined Gary Burtons band. Metheny and Goodrick were interviewed together by Guitar Player magazine in 1975, Metheny released his official debut album, Bright Size Life with Jaco Pastorius on bass and Bob Moses on drums. His next album, Watercolors, was the first time he recorded with pianist Lyle Mays, the album also featured Danny Gottlieb, who became the drummer for the first version of the Pat Metheny Group. With Metheny, Mays, and Gottlieb, the member was bassist Mark Egan when the album Pat Metheny Group was released. When Pat Metheny Group album was released, the Group was a quartet comprising, besides Metheny, Danny Gottlieb on drums, Mark Egan on bass, and Lyle Mays on piano, autoharp, and synthesizer. All but Egan had played on Methenys album Watercolors, recorded a year before the first Group album, the second Group album, American Garage, reached number 1 on the Billboard Jazz chart and crossed over onto the pop charts. The song reached number 14 in the British Top 40 in 1985, both Rodby and Wertico were members of the Simon and Bard Group at the time and had played in Simon-Bard in Chicago before joining Metheny. First Circle was Methenys last album with ECM, he had been a key artist for the label but left following disagreements with the labels founder, still Life featured new Group members trumpeter Mark Ledford, vocalist David Blamires, and percussionist Armando Marçal. Aznar returned for vocals and guitar on Letter from Home, the group integrated new instrumentation and technologies into its work, notably Mays use of synthesizers. Metheny and Mays themselves refer to the next three Pat Metheny Group releases as a triptych, We Live Here, Quartet, and Imaginary Day
6.
Joshua Redman
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Joshua Redman is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. In 1991, he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, Joshua Redman was born in Berkeley, California, to jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer and librarian Renee Shedroff. He was exposed to many kinds of music at the Center for World Music in Berkeley, some of his earliest lessons in music and improvisation were on recorder with gamelan player Jody Diamond. Redman graduated from Berkeley High School, class of 1986, after having been a part of the award-winning Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble for all four years of high school. After graduation, Joshua frequented the classroom jam sessions of Bay Area pianist and professor of music and it was there that he performed alongside his friend Robert Stewart. In 1991, he graduated cum laude with a degree in Social Studies from Harvard University. He had already accepted by Yale Law School, but deferred entrance for what he believed was only going to be one year. Some of his friends had recently relocated to Brooklyn, and they were looking for another housemate to help with the rent, Redman accepted their invitation to move in, and almost immediately he found himself immersed in the New York jazz scene. Redman won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991 and he was signed by Warner Bros. Records and issued his first self-titled album in the spring of 1993, which subsequently earned Redman his first Grammy nomination. He continued to work with various quartets, including one with pianist Brad Mehldau until forming a new trio, Elastic, with keyboardist Sam Yahel, the trio debuted under the moniker Yaya3, producing one album under this name. The same group of made up the core on Redmans Elastic album. Some of his works were featured on The Weather Channels Local on the 8s, Redman performed in a fictitious supergroup, The Louisiana Gator Boys, in the 1998 film Blues Brothers 2000, performing on How Blue Can You Get. and New Orleans. In 1999, Joshua Redman was immortalized in the childrens TV show Arthur on PBS. He appeared in the episode of the fourth season, where it was rumored by the characters that he would get in a fight with famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. In 2000, Redman was named Artistic Director for the Spring Season of the non-profit jazz-presenting organization SFJAZZ, Redman co-founded the SFJAZZ with Executive Director Randall Kline, as the SFJAZZ Collective, an ensemble distinguished by the creativity of its members and a primary emphasis on composition. In March 2007, Redman announced that he was taking a hiatus from both the SFJAZZ Artistic Directorship and the SFJAZZ Collective in order to focus on new projects. In 2004, Redman first sat in with Umphreys McGee at their performance in Boston, Massachusetts, Redman has collaborated with Umphreys McGee around 20 times since, including an all-improvised set in Madison, Wisconsin in January 2016. In April 2007, Nonesuch released Redmans first ever piano-less trio record, Back East and his January 2009 release, Compass, continued the trio tradition, and even included some tracks with a double-trio setup, featuring saxophone, two basses and two drummers
7.
Billy Hart
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William Billy Hart is an American jazz drummer and educator who has performed with some of the most notable jazz musicians in history. Hart was born in Washington, D. C, following Montgomery’s death in 1968, Hart moved to New York, where he recorded with McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, and Joe Zawinul, and played with Eddie Harris, Pharoah Sanders, and Marian McPartland. Hart was a member of Herbie Hancocks sextet, and played with McCoy Tyner, Stan Getz, at the age of 70, Billy Hart works steadily and teaches widely. Since the early 1990s he spends time at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He also conducts private lessons through the New School and New York University, Hart often contributes to the Stokes Forest Music Camp and the Dworp Summer Jazz Clinic in Belgium. He leads a group with Mark Turner, Ethan Iverson, Hart resides in Montclair, New Jersey. Y. With Stan Getz Jazz Jamboree 74, Vol. S. O. P
8.
Charles Lloyd (jazz musician)
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Charles Lloyd is an American jazz musician. Though he primarily plays tenor saxophone and flute, he has recorded on other reed instruments, including alto saxophone. Lloyds working band since 2007 features pianist Jason Moran, bassist Reuben Rogers, Charles Lloyd grew up in Memphis and was exposed to blues, gospel and jazz. He is of African, Cherokee, Mongolian, and Irish ancestry and he was given his first saxophone at the age of 9 and was riveted by 1940s radio broadcasts by Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington. His early teachers included pianist Phineas Newborn, Jr. and saxophonist Irvin Reason and his closest childhood friend was trumpeter Booker Little. As a teenager Lloyd played jazz with saxophonist George Coleman, Harold Mabern, and Frank Strozier, in 1956 Lloyd left Memphis for Los Angeles to earn a degree in music at the University of Southern California, where he studied with Halsey Stevens, whose speciality was Bartók. At night, he played in clubs with Ornette Coleman, Billy Higgins, Scott LaFaro, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, Eric Dolphy, Bobby Hutcherson. He also was a member of the Gerald Wilson big band, in 1960 Lloyd was invited to become music director of Chico Hamiltons group when Eric Dolphy left to join Charles Minguss band. The Hungarian guitarist Gábor Szabó and bassist Albert Sparky Stinson soon joined Lloyd in the band, passin Thru and Man from Two Worlds, featured music arranged and written almost entirely by Lloyd. He collaborated with Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji, with whom he when he wasnt on the road with Hamilton and he joined the Cannonball Adderley Sextet in 1964, and performed with Nat Adderley, Joe Zawinul, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes. For two years he remained with Cannonball Adderley, whom he credits in his own development as a leader, in 1964 Lloyd signed with CBS Records and began to record as a leader. Of Course, Of Course was reissued on Mosaic Records in 2006, Lloyd left Cannonball Adderley in 1965 to form his own quartet, an ensemble that included pianist Keith Jarrett, drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Cecil McBee. Their first release together was a recording, Dream Weaver, followed by Forest Flower. Forest Flower was one of the first jazz recordings to sell a million copies, Lloyds Quartet was the first jazz group to appear at the famed Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. It fused improvisation, avant-garde jazz, and free jazz with the rock of the 1960s. Lloyd was invited to play pop and rock acts such as the Doors, the Byrds, Aashish and Pranesh Khan. Miles Davis and other figures were influenced. The Quartet also shared billing with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Cream, the Grateful Dead, in 1967 Lloyd was voted Jazz Artist of the Year by Down Beat magazine, and the Quartet was invited to tour the world
9.
Bachelor's degree
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A bachelors degree or baccalaureate is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to seven years. In some institutions and educational systems, some bachelors degrees can only be taken as graduate or postgraduate degrees after a first degree has been completed. The term bachelor in the 12th century referred to a knight bachelor, by the end of the 13th century, it was also used by junior members of guilds or universities. By folk etymology or wordplay, the word came to be associated with bacca lauri in reference to laurels being awarded for academic success or honours. An honours degree generally requires an academic standard than a pass degree. In most African countries, the university systems follow the model of their former colonizing power, for example, the Nigerian university system is similar to the British system, while the Ivorian system is akin to the French. The degree is typically identical to the program of Frances universities, bachelors degree programs cover most of the fields in Algerian universities, except some fields, such as Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science. Bachelors degrees at the University of Botswana normally take four years, the system draws on both British and American models. Degrees are classified as First Class, Second Class Division One, Second Class Division Two and Third as in English degrees, but without being described as honours. The main degrees are named by British tradition, but in recent years there have been a numbers of degrees named after specific subjects, such as Bachelor of Library, in Morocco, a bachelors degree is referred to as al-ʾijāzah. The course of study takes three years, which are divided into two cycles. The first cycle comprises the first, or propaedeutic, year, after successfully completing their first two years, students can pursue either theoretical specialization or professional specialization. The second cycle is one long, after whose completion students receive the licence détudes fondamentales or the licence professionnelle. This academic degree system was introduced in September 2003, University admission is extremely competitive, with attendant advantages and disadvantages. Nonetheless, it takes four to five years to complete a bachelors degree, in cases of poor performance, the time limit is double the standard amount of time. For example, one may not study for more than 10 years for a five-year course, students are normally asked to leave if they must take longer. B. Arch. and other specialized undergraduate degrees, such as B. Eng, Science undergraduate degrees may require six months or a semester dedicated to SIWES but it is usually mandatory for all engineering degrees. A semester for project work/thesis is required, not excluding course work, the classifications of degrees, first-class, second-class, third-class and a pass
10.
Michael Brecker
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Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane and he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2004, and was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007. Brecker died from complications of leukemia in New York City and his funeral was held on January 15,2007 in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. Michael Brecker was born in Philadelphia and raised in Cheltenham Township and his father Bob was a lawyer who played jazz piano and his mother Sylvia was a portrait artist. Michael Brecker was exposed to jazz at an age by his father. He grew up as part of the generation of musicians who saw rock music not as the enemy. Brecker began studying clarinet at age 6, then moved to alto saxophone in eighth grade, Dreams was short-lived, lasting only from 1969 through 1972, but Miles Davis was seen at some gigs prior to his recording Jack Johnson. Most of Breckers early work is marked by an approach informed as much by rock guitar as by R&B saxophone, after Dreams, he worked with Horace Silver and then Billy Cobham before once again teaming up with his brother Randy to form the Brecker Brothers. The band followed jazz-rock trends of the time, but with attention to structured arrangements, a heavier backbeat. The band stayed together from 1975 to 1982, with consistent success, Brecker was in great demand as a soloist and sideman. He performed with bands whose styles ranged from jazz to mainstream rock. Altogether, he appeared on over 700 albums, either as a member or a guest soloist. He put his stamp on pop and rock recordings as a soloist. His featured guest solos with James Taylor and Paul Simon are excellent examples of that strand of his work, for example, on Taylors 1972 album, One Man Dog, Breckers solo on the track Dont Let Me Be Lonely Tonight complements the other acoustic instruments and sparse vocal. On Simons 1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years, Breckers solo on the track is used to a similar effect. His solos are often placed in the bridge, or appended as a rideout coda, such a combination of musical structure and instrumentation typifies this jazz-rock fusion style. Brecker played tenor saxophone on two Billy Joel albums, in 1983, Brecker played on three tracks on the album An Innocent Man. In 1986, he played on Big Man on Mulberry Street on the album The Bridge, during the early 1980s, he was also a member of NBCs Saturday Night Live Band
11.
Mark Turner (musician)
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Mark Turner is an American jazz saxophonist. He is considered one of the most influential tenor saxophonists of his generation, born in Fairborn, Ohio, and raised in the small Southern California town of Palos Verdes Estates, Turner originally intended to become a commercial artist. In elementary school he played the clarinet, followed by the alto and he attended California State University, Long Beach in the 1980s and then transferred to and graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1990 before moving to New York. Turner worked at Tower Records in New York City for a period before working full-time as a jazz musician. In early November 2008 Turner injured two fingers on one of his hands with a saw, but as of late February 2009 he was performing again with the Edward Simon Quartet at the Village Vanguard. He is married to the psychiatrist and anthropologist, Dr. Helena Hansen, turners sound is reminiscent of that of Warne Marsh, he also has elements of John Coltrane in his playing. Turner has mentioned both Marsh and Coltrane as influences, and has used elements of both styles in his music. Turners range extends into the high altissimo register and his improvised lines tend to span several octaves and contain great harmonic and rhythmic complexity. His compositions often use of repeated patterns, odd-metered time signatures, intervallic leaps. The bandleader claims that his music is unfolding like a narrative, consequently, his 2014 album Lathe of Heaven is named after Ursula K. Le Guins novel of the title which is based on the idea of a world where the nature of reality keeps shifting. In September 2014, Turner released his first album as a leader since 2001 on ECM Records, it features trumpeter Avishai Cohen, bassist Joe Martin, Turner is a member of the trio Fly, which includes himself, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Jeff Ballard. He also appears in guitarist Gilad Hekselmans Quartet, and drummer Billy Harts Quartet, Turner has recorded extensively with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, saxophonist David Binney, and pianist Aaron Goldberg, among others. Mark Turner discography at Jazzdiscography. com Turner-Marsh-Tristano Thesis download links at Emerzianmusic. com Interview with Mark Turner, by Fred Jung Grove Dictionary of Music entry by Gary Kennedy
