Émile Durkheim

If you are a jazz guitar artist, or just enjoy jazz and play to some degree, you can create your own business teaching jazz guitar! There are many things you can do, from teaching guitar lessons to creating a guitar video, to writing jazz lyrics, to creating a book or CD or DVD teaching other people how to play jazz (or as some people refer to it, modern jazz). Let's say you already play or sing in a jazz guitar band or group of some kind. Start by handing out a few business cards at your…

Miles Dewey Davis III was born on May 26, 1926 in Alton Illinois. Miles Davis was the son of a music teacher and a dental surgeon. He grew up in a middle-class household. At the age of 13 his dad introduced the trumpet to him. Elwood Buchanan wanted to help develop Davis’s style, he was a friend of Davis’s father. Davis played professionally during high school. Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker liked Davis’s work and invited him onstage to perform when a band member was is and wasn’t able to…

Duke Ellington’s Past: Duke Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 into a middle-class family that lived in Washington D.C. Growing up Duke was a very talented boy. He began learning the piano at the age of 7 age and he was also interested in art. Because of his gentlemanly ways he was nicknamed “Duke”. When he was 15 he wrote his first composition which was called “Soda Fountain Rag”. At the age of 17 Duke was awarded an art scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in New York but he denied…

Jessika Grindstaff October 3, 2014 History of Jazz The Evolution of Free Jazz Free Jazz is a form of jazz that involves collective improvisation without a set chord or rhythm structure. This type of jazz was born during the social, political and civil movements’ era, the sixties. There are many reasons that free jazz was formed, the main one being the limitations in other forms such as bebop, big band and swing. Free jazz was influenced by the works of Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman and John…

Sonny Sharrock Sonny recorded with Miles on the sound track of the film named A Tribute to Jack Johnson and on the album Yesternow. Interestingly enough, his participation in the sound track of A Tribute to Jack Johnson was not credited. The soundtrack also includes John McLaughlin as guitar player. His tenure with Miles was from 1970 to 1972 approximately. One of his greatest contribution to Miles's group can be seen in this quote from "The Sharrock way of knowledge" by Robert Palmer (1991),…

Canadian jazz quartet Peripheral Vision is known for breaking off into modern sound-shapes and bringing influences from a variety of genres, with predominance of jazz and rock. Co-led by guitarist Don Scott and bassist Michael Herring, who often have art, literature, and standup comedy inspiring their compositions, the band is rounded out with saxophonist Trevor Hogg and drummer Nick Fraser. Their fourth outing, More Songs About Error and Shame, comprises seven well-worked compositions (Herring…

Duke Ellington was born on April 25, 1899 in Washington, D.C. Dukes parents were James Ellington and Daisey Ellington. They were both pianists. Duke Ellington’s inspiration was probably his parents because he was playing piano as a child and focused more on music than his education. Since his parents played piano he was playing piano. What made him famous was that he was pretty much the first one to conduct and make a big-band jazz group. He also led his band for more than a century. Every in…

Joan's Bones”, recorded in 1966, has a combination of Latin, Bop, and Free Styles. More Bebop oriented tunes are recorded on his 1968 classic, “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs”. Further, when Miles Davis embracing rock with jazz, he introduces a new direction for the development of jazz and Corea became a member of Miles Davis' band. He participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In 1971, Corea founded his own group, “Return to Forever,” one of the most influential groups of the…

The concert I decided to attend was on Thursday, March 31st, at 8pm in Kemp Recital Hall. The concert consisted of ISU Jazz Combos. Speficaly, there were two different combos, the Marko Combo and the Nolan Combo. Within the Marko Combo, the songs of Stablemates by Benny Golson, Desfinado by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Everybody wants to be a Cat by Robert and Richard Sherman, Ballade de Papillon by Jeff Arbisi, and One for Trane by Mickey Bass were played. The Marko Combo consisted of Kevin Buck and…

In a music hall of Vienna, the pianist Friedrich Gulda performed Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with his superb skills and receive lasting applause. After the concert, Gulda rushed to a nightclub and start to play the jazz, behaved like another person. Surprisingly, he played Beethoven’s masterpieces and intoxicated jazz music equally well. It made people wonder, how would that be by mixing jazz and classical music? In the article “Jazz, America’s Classical Music”, Dr. Billy Taylor introduces…