Several US presidents and other prominent politicians have also been musicians. Here are some highlights.
Harry Truman played classical piano. Continue reading “Musical politicians”
What makes jazz great?
Improvisation
Charlie Christian – “Waiting For Benny”
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Why do people watch music videos, especially tweens and teenagers?
I have a bunch of teenaged cousins, and they do the majority of their music listening on YouTube. They even DJ parties with it using playlists. Anytime they have a choice, they’ll always prefer music with some kind of video accompanying it, even if it’s just a still of the album cover.
Continue reading “Why do people watch music videos, especially tweens and teenagers?”
How did the word “groovy” come to acquire its current meaning?
The word “groovy” originates in jazz slang, referring to music that’s swinging, tight, funky, in the pocket. The analogy is to the groove in a vinyl record — the musicians are so together that it’s like they’re the needle guided by the groove.
The “groove” becomes generalized to any good rhythm, passage, or entire piece of music; “grooving” means making music well, and the adjective “groovy” follows.
From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
1937, Amer.Eng., in slang sense of “first-rate, excellent;” from jazz slang phrase in the groove (1932) “performing well (without grandstanding)”
The generalized sense of “groovy” meaning “cool” might be kind of dated, but among musicians the groove remains a term of art. For example, see my post on how to groove.
What are some ideas for making jazz more popular?
The trumpet player Nicholas Peyton wrote a blog post recently: On Why Jazz Isn’t Cool Anymore. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in the future of the art form. If jazz is ever going to be popular again, it needs to regain its cool.
Jazz was popular when it was intimately connected to popular culture. In the early-middle part of the twentieth century, jazz was popular culture. The last significant jazz work to really communicate with pop music was “Rockit” by Herbie Hancock.
“Rockit” was informed by hip-hop and electronica, but it also gave something back — a generation of hip-hop turntablists all point to it as a central inspiration. Jazz since then has mostly tried to ignore pop culture entirely, or comment on it condescendingly.
Continue reading “What are some ideas for making jazz more popular?”
Does free will exist?
The more I learn about biology, the less I believe in free will.
All of our behavior results from a bunch of molecules bouncing around according to the laws of quantum mechanics. Seen that way, we don’t have any more free will than pebbles being tumbled down a river. We think we have free will because we can’t predict the future, and because our immediate experience is full of so much ambiguity.
Who are some musicians whose work got better with age?
Ella Fitzgerald lost some of her range as she got older, but her soul and phrasing got deeper and deeper. The series of duet albums she did with Joe Pass late in her life are exquisite.
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Continue reading “Who are some musicians whose work got better with age?”
The Lick
There’s a certain jazz lick that’s so heavily used that it’s just known as The Lick. It’s the only jazz lick I know of that has its own Facebook page. Here’s a greatest hits compilation:
Update: now there’s a volume two!
How do you learn to remix/mashup songs?
The best remix/mashup tool that I’ve used is Ableton Live. For many years I used a combination of Recycle, Reason and Pro Tools, which was cumbersome and labor-intensive. Ableton handles the same tasks more easily and has a bunch of cool effects the other programs don’t.
Updated social flow
Every so often I like to document my ever-evolving internet presence. Here’s how things stand at the moment. Click the flowchart to see it bigger; explanation is below.
