The Glory of Jazz

[Jazz]

Is this a jazz board or aintit? Lets do a roll-call. Post who you are and why you like jazz enough to come to a jazz board gosh darnit! Also, what kind of jazz do you like the most, and who are some of your very favorite players? I'll go first:

I am Jazz, and I am an aspiring jazz musician. Its my dream actually. I love straight ahead jazz the most, and I like most of its extensions (modal, bop, hard bop, cool/west coast...). I also like hot jazz quite a bit, I hope to be able to one day play in that style.

The reason I love jazz is the sophistication of musical development that exists in jazz. There are plenty of other reasons, but that is the first one that comes to mind. The idea of improvising something on the spot that should sound just as good as if it were composed over a period of weeks/months/years makes me happy and nervous at the same time. Another really strong reason is the interaction. I love seeing jazz musicians "talking" to eachother with their instruments. Its like seeing a musical conversation between all the players, and I've never seen another music come so close to being a real language.

My fav players as of right now are:

Gerry Mulligan; Joe Pass; Miles Davis; Carmen Mcrae; Chet Baker; MJQ; Art Blakey; Stan Getz; Thelonious Monk; Dizzy Gillespie; Charlie Parker; Charles Mingus; Louis Armstrong

Okay that's me! Feel free to post about whatever

DISCLAIMER - posts about deathmetal will be ignored by me and hopefully everybody else; there's plenty of threads to discuss BOTH death AND death-jazz

[Coypu]

I'm mostly a Fusion fan and I enjoy the works of Allan Holdsworth, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Shakti, Fredrik Thordendal, Tribal Tech, Cosmosquad, Ron Jarzombek, Jaco Pastorius, Weather Report, Cortland and similar.

What intrigues me is the improvisations and the freeform, I think that people like McLaughlin and Holdsworth really can express something with their instruments and Fusion seems to combine the best of jazz with the best of more structured music into a nice combo that appeals alot to me as both a musician and listener.

This was a jazz board, but now it is something much greater, a board where there are fewer limits and much more to learn and talk about.

[omar zamora]

Started out mostly listening to the Big Guys (Monk, Miles, Trane, Mingus, etc). Over the last few years, I've expanded my listening to what's (usually) known as avant garde jazz and free improvisation.

A lot of the improvised music I listen to now has few ties to what's generally defined as Jazz, except the improvisation. But I still loves me my Jazz! And I listen to a lot of it - from Bechet to Bird to Blakey to Braxton and Beyond!

My single favorite recorded music, though, is probably stuff by the AEC.

[bombastic]

Well, Trane is the artist that got me interested in jazz and the tenor saxophone. the guy was a true devotee of jazz and the power of music and an inspiration to deeper understanding through music and spirituality. a monumental influence on all music.

[markvi]

jazz musician and educator. sax player -with the markvi user name most sax players on the board probably figured that out. favorites-jane ira bloom, steve lacy, steve bernstein, jon gordon, phil woods, wayne shorter, greg osby, marcus strickland, and too many more to mention. straight ahead ,be bop , post bop, some fusion, new stuff which doesn't fit a particular category yet like nils petter molvaer, graham haynes, etc.

the solution to rock threads on the board-skip the thread. if you don't like death metal don't go there. i don't . but apparently others are interested. i don't like the metal sound-yes i've listened- and no one is going to convince me otherwise and the same is true going in the other direction. but after all, we can still get along. can't we. CAN'T WE! yes, that's better.

[jazzypaul]

For me, jazz is my life -- literally. It's my day job (radio) my night job (musician) and it's the music that I love. I'm a drummer and piano player. My favorites are Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Ornette, Herbie, Hank Mobley, Freddie Hubbard, Pops, Dexter, Jug, both of the Sonny's (Stitt and Rollins), and hell while we're at it, Sonny Clark too. As a drummer, I've always loved Billy Higgins, Philly Joe, A.T., Tony Williams, Elvin and Bill Stewart, but it was Ginger Baker that made me start playing in the first place.

One other thing to take care of while I'm here...

"This was a jazz board, but now it is something much greater, a board where there are fewer limits and much more to learn and talk about."

No, it's a jazz board. There are certain people who have no respect for the sanctity of this music, and they have done nothing but hurt this board with their talk about music that has nothing to do with jazz and has nothing to contribute to jazz.

[Giant Steps]

To me, jazz represents my future and the culmination of everything I've put my heart into in life. It makes me whole and gives me purpose.

I'm extremely into Coltrane (obviously), Parker, Miles, Cannonball, Rollins, Dizzy, Herbie, Bill Evans, McCoy, Jimmy Smith, Wes, Pass, Burrell, Pat Martino, Holdsworth, Weckl, McLaughlin, Larry Carlton, Vernon Reid... There's more that I'm forgetting.



Originally posted by Coypu
This was a jazz board, but now it is something much greater, a board where there are fewer limits and much more to learn and talk about.

Who the @%& do you think you are little man? That's not your decision to make.

-GS-

[Jazz]

Wow guys thanks for responding! Its really nice to know a little more about you all. I'm always complaining to my friend that its hard to find a real jazz community (we live in a jazz-less town), but its comforting to know that there are still people who love the music. I think this board is a great thing, and I'm glad this site saw fit to host it for us.

[clifton]

I'm a former tenor sax player, disabled by a neurological-spinal disorder, so I can't play anymore. However, I've listened to huge amounts of jazz and studied it extensively. I love this music. Maybe I'm even obsessive about it. I love all styles of jazz including fusion and avant-garde. However, I'm essentially a bebopper at heart. My favorite styles are bebop and hard bop and Charlie Parker is my favorite musician, followed closely by Ornette, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy, Coltrane, Duke, Dexter, and Mingus. Among younger players I'm listening to Dave Douglas, Chris Potter, James Carter, David S. Ware, Benny Green, and many others. It's the greatest music in the world, in all its idioms. Jazz will only reach its full potential when it fuses with the power of even more jazz.