jazz

Sonny Rollins

by Rachel Cantrell on July 20, 2009

I was first introduced to Sonny Rollins through the Community Arts Program (CAP) at CalArts (which I’m so incredibly lucky to have nearby). I was just learning my blues scales then; with a group of about 5 or 6 musicians, we learned the Rollins tune, “Tenor Madness.” It’s a pretty catchy piece in the Bb [...]

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Reincarnation?

by Rachel Cantrell on July 17, 2009

I was flipping through Downbeat today (the 75th anniversary collector’s edition; seriously, I’m going to keep this thing forever) and I read this short blurb about Toshiko Akiyoshi, a female jazz pianist from Japan (Toshiko: Japan’s First Gift to U.S. Jazz). In a nutshell, Akiyoshi’s pretty amazing – in 1952, Oscar Peterson discovered her playing [...]

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Monk!

by Rachel Cantrell on July 15, 2009

If I were stranded on a desert island and I could only take one jazz pianist with me, it’d be Thelonious Monk. Why? It’s all in his sound. When you hear him on the radio, you know it’s him. Unlike Leonard Bernstein or Emanuel Ax, Monk had unusually small hands for a pianist (a problem [...]

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Goose, geese. Moose…meese?

by Rachel Cantrell on July 8, 2009

Who is Charlie Parker? Charlie Parker is bebop. Charlie Parker is saxophone. Charlie Parker is notes everywhere; scales up and down, arpeggios right and left. And Charlie Parker is never, ever ending. Ever. The notes just don’t stop. But you don’t want them to, either. Charlie’s standards: 1…Billie’s Bounce. 2…Anthropology. 3…Ornithology. 4…Confirmation. Ever heard the [...]

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Listen to This: Some blues for your blues.

by Rachel Cantrell on July 7, 2009

Oh College Board, I love it when you send letters. Especially test score letters. Whether the numbers are good or bad I get a heart attack anyways. It’s something about that clean, white, ominous envelope… So I’m going to go on an exciting hunt through my iPod touch and the internet to find myself (and [...]

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Where Do You Start?

by Rachel Cantrell on July 6, 2009

With the internet nowadays, you don’t really have to leave home to listen to jazz. When I look for some new tunes to listen to, here’s where I go: Pandora: This radio is pretty interesting: you type in a song you love, and instead of playing that song, it starts playing songs you might grow [...]

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