Now that winter break’s on its last legs, it’s time to look forward to a fresh new semester and a fresh new year. Here are some of my resolutions for 2010:

1. Read.

After setting down The Great Gatsby today, I realized that I haven’t picked up many jazz biographies since I started getting involved with jazz in my freshman year. Luckily, the same neighbor who’s been feeding me jazz albums every time I visit also let me borrow his copy of Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings — a biography written by Peter Pettinger chronicling the ups and downs of Bill Evans’ life and career.

I have to admit that I’m a tad bit reluctant to read it. Granted, learning more about Bill Evans won’t change how fantastic his music is — but I remember when I first watched Ray, a film detailing the life of jazz musician Ray Charles, I couldn’t listen to anything by Ray Charles for weeks. Yes, it’s a commonly accepted fact that movies like these often stretch the truth, but it didn’t really matter — my romanticized Ray Charles was gone forever. On the other hand, I don’t really have a romanticized Bill Evans — every time my neighbor hands me anything by Bill Evans it’s always accompanied by a somber expression and a “Man, this guy had a tough life.”

And of course, the book I’ve been itching to read: Cicily Janus’ The New Face of Jazz. I don’t know whether this excitement stems from the fact that Gordon Goodwin’s going to appear in it or the fact that I’ve been following Cicily Janus on Twitter since I first started The Jazz Post (there’s something strange about Twitter that makes jazz folks seem more accessible/three-dimensional, haha). It’s not going to be available until July 13th, but it’s available for pre-ordering here.

2. Listen.

I constantly tell myself that I don’t take advantage of the opportunities I have to listen to great jazz around here in Los Angeles — I do live right next to CalArts, which always hosts free/almost-free concerts. The only one of these I attended involved electric instruments and speakers pointed at each other to produce a painfully awesome “feedback” sound — needless to say, I was left deprived of my sense of hearing for several days. (Maybe this is why I haven’t gone back for a while.)

Anyhow, I did get a chance to listen to some life jazz a week or so ago while I was up in San Francisco at the Les Joulins Jazz Bistro. It was one of those great moments where I was looking around for a place to eat and I heard the lovely sounds of a jazz quartet emanating from this restaurant — it’s one of the nicest things to stumble upon.

That night we listened to the Charles Unger Quartet — their Latvian pianist (Eugene Pliner) even gave me some tips during their break.

3. Get Involved/Branch Out…Play!

Outside from the CAP program and my high school jazz band, I haven’t reached out to many other jazz programs. But I’ve already started to look for more — this coming January 17th I’ll be auditioning for the All-Southern California Jazz Band. Wish me luck!

Also, the composition class I took through the CAP program helped me out with the music theory aspect of jazz improvisation — although I can’t say for sure that improvisation makes complete sense to me yet, it’s definitely a lot less confusing. And I even got a bit of a piece done in the class. Here’s that piece — along with the CAP jazz class performance. As I’m sure you can tell, they’re both fantastic classes.

I’m also looking forward to telling you about our combo program at West Ranch High School very soon. :)

Have a fabulous new year!

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Galang (Trio Riot Version)/Vijay Iyer Trio/Historicity

So I was hanging out in the library the other day and I picked up a copy of Icons in Jazz: A History in Photographs 1900-2000, which pretty much sums up the big names in jazz — everyone from Cannonball Adderley to Lester Young. It’s a pretty great read if you want to get a quick glance at the jazz greats (I find myself guilty of knowing the name Charles Mingus but having absolutely no idea who he was. Maybe it’s because he plays bass. Hah.) but I was pretty disappointed to see that they left out some names.

Red Garland, for example. How could you leave out Red Garland?

And no Frank Sinatra. Nor was there Tony Bennett. It’s not like they were leaving out vocalists – Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald are both listed in the table of contents.

Yes to Pat Metheny. But no to Freddie Green?

So I’m going to give you a brief look at these four musicians since they were so rudely left out of the book.

RED GARLAND (William “Red” Garland). Hard bop pianist. Born in Dallas, Texas to a totally non-musical family but tried out clarinet and alto sax before he met his soulinstrument, the piano. Like he did with Bill Evans, Miles Davis made this man famous as well; Red was the pianist in the Miles Davis Quintet albums I showed you in my blurb about Miles Davis. When you hear Red, you’ll hear this in his comping: offbeats. Great thing about offbeats? As opposed to a downbeat (which has its importance as well), offbeats push the solo forward. And besides, the bass and the hi-hat of the drumset play the downbeat anyways. Oh, did you know he was also a semi-pro prizefighter? Woah. (UPDATE: the photo of Red Garland that was previously posted here is credited to Brian McMillen. Sorry about that, Brian!))

Before I swamp you with my verbiage, I’ve got one more question: Where’d he get the name “Red”? It obviously didn’t come from William.

…And after some frustrating research, I still haven’t found the answer. Does anyone know?

FRANK SINATRA. I first started listening to Sinatra when I heard someone tell me that they’d fallen in love with his voice. I didn’t believe it, but after hearing “Moon River,” I definitely fell into the same hypnosis. He’s probably got the classiest, richest voice — if you want to get a good listen at Frank Sinatra, check out the album Nothing But the Best. Also, check out the Rat Pack, a group of singers including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford. (There’s a popular imitation Rat Pack group that performs in Vegas that’s coming to the my area to perform at the College of the Canyons theater — I’m definitely going to be there.)

TONY BENNETT. 15 Grammy’s! 2 Emmy’s! This guy is absolutely amazing. The most important thing, before I begin, is that Bennett is still alive today. So if you’re into jazz vocals, get off your tush and go find a Tony Bennett concert — you might miss your chance. You can see where he is now by going to his website and clicking “TOUR” (which is usually the general format for any jazz musician’s website).

Like Frank Sinatra, Bennett’s got incredible vocal chords. You might know him pretty well from his signature “I Left My Heart in San Francisco;” Bennett sung for the first recording of this song and it’s stuck with him ever since. If you really want to get into Bennett, check out the album, Duets: An American Classic or The Ultimate Tony Bennett.

FREDDIE GREEN. As a pianist and a jazz listener, I’m pretty guilty of drawing blanks in the guitar department. Nevertheless, the first name I always think of when I think jazz guitar is Freddie Green — not because of his fame or influence or popularity, but simply because he had the most standout picture in Downbeat’s article about jazz guitar greats. First of all, he had this huge guitar on his lap, sans neck strap, with the strings almost facing towards the ceiling instead of out to this audience. And then he was all leaned back, all jazz-like, one leg crossed over the other, as if playing that hollow-body guitar was a piece of cake. Freddie just looked so absolutely mellow.

It’s not really a good reason to tie Freddie Green to jazz guitar, but hey, the guy left a pretty outstanding mark on jazz history. If you’re at all familiar with the Count Basie Orchestra (oh please, please watch them play behind Sarah Vaughan), Freddie Green played guitar as a part of their “All-American Rhythm Section” with Jo Jones, Walter Page, and Count Basie himself. He pretty much established himself as a musician here, in a way pioneering the way his guitar fit in with the orchestra, saying that “you should never hear the guitar by itself. It should be part of the drums so it sounds like the drummer is playing chords—like the snare is in A or the hi-hat in D minor.”

Check out Freddie Green in Twenty Minutes After Three and Mr. Rhythm.

Before I go, I want to make sure that you know about Pat Metheny performing at the Walt Disney Concert Hall this coming April. Be sure to check it out along with the Sonny Rollins concert.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Caravan/Jazz Piano Anthology: Swingers/Hank Jones