(The study used a very simple definition of improvisation: "Subjects improvised in quarter notes only, selecting all notes from within one octave and from the C major scale notes alone . . . . For jazz's improvisation condition, subjects improvised…
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A study published in the open source science journal PLoS One investigates the neural processes of jazz improvisation. Johns Hopkins neuroscientists put piano players in a fMRI scanner with a special keyboard and asked them to perform different five-finger exercises: play a scale, play a melody, and improvise on either the scale or the melody.
Yesterday's episode of Sunday Morning on CBS included a segment with Herbie Hancock, whose River: The Joni Letters won two big prizes at the 50th annual Grammy Awards: Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Jazz Album.
I'm sort of sorry to say that, for some time, my idea of Herbie Hancock had been inextricably tied to terrifying images of masturbating mannequins, some turntable scratching, and a goofy-sounding Moog.
I was five years old. To this day, the word "rockit" sends me to a very weird place, makes me feel kind of icky, totally creeps me out. After seeing the…
From left to right: Selfdivider, AlexO, Jules Coleman, JackCrank, and Jeff Wong. Friday, February 29, 2008, at In Living Stereo.
It was a simple suggestion, innocent and kind and simple. Forum member Selfdivider had expressed an interest in vinyl, so Jeff Wong proposed a night out. A few of us would get together to visit some of the city's hi-fi dealers, listen to a couple of turntables, who knows, maybe even have a few beers. Not only would it be informative and useful for a beginner audiophile like Selfdivider, it would be a great opportunity for some of the forum members to…
Christian wrote:
Stephen, thanks for a much earlier post that drew my attention to the folks at ALO. I picked up one of their docking stations. It looks great—the wood almost matches the trim on my amp.
My pleasure, Christian, but I didn't even know that ALO made wood docking stations! To find out more, I sent an e-mail to ALO's Ken Ball.
The Fidelity iPod docking stations have been available since just before Christmas, and they are beautiful. A solid block of wood is CNC-machined and finished with a hard enamel coating. ALO offers six different…
I happen to think Tom Russell ranks among the greatest living American songwriters. Don't know him? You probably do, but know performances of songs by other people—typically his co-songwriters.
So why do I cite Russell and not Dave Alvin, Ian Tyson, or any of his other collaborators? Because Russell is the only thing all of those songs have in common, other than an inordianately high level of craft.
This is a pretty good protest song until the last two verses, which kick it up a notch:
We've got fundamentalist Muslims,
We've got fundamentalist Jews,
We'…
Of course, the minute I posted the Tom Russell song, that little voice in the back of my head, said What about "We Can't Make It Here Anymore?" Well, I'm glad I asked me that. A little Google magic and I found the performance above. Is there a cooler radio station in the world than KFOG?
If there is, somebody please tell me about it. Otherwise, pick up a couple of KFOG's Live From the Archive compilations. They're fabtastic.
Strong language advisory—also may cause thinking.
Photo credit: Gordon Polatnick/Big Apple Jazz
Tonight, and every Friday night throughout March, you're invited to a party at EZ's Woodshed. The warm and intimate jazz venue has been around for just over two years, singing Harlem's history and promoting the city's jazz musicians.
In the front room, you'll find all sorts of merchandise and memorabilia, including indie releases from the city's young artists as well as out of print LPs of classic live events—all recorded in New York's historic jazz clubs. If you're hungry, you might try the red snapper and a side of…
Bad news. Last June 15, in my
first entry of the “Jazz Messengers” blog, I broke the news that three months hence, Sonny Rollins, the world’s greatest living tenor saxophone player, would be playing a rare trio concert at Carnegie Hall—with Roy Haynes (one of the two greatest living drummers) and Christian McBride (an outstanding young bassist)—and that his own record label, Doxy, would release the results on CD along with a similar, recently unearthed, never-before-heard trio session that Rollins played at Carnegie 50 years earlier.
The concert with Haynes and McBride, last Sept. 18,…
Here's an interesting article about Princeton University composer Dmitri Tymoczko, who has string theory mathematics to represent the relationship of musical chords to one another in a graphic form.
His paper has been published in Science, the first music theory article ever published in that journal. We've known about the close relationship of music to math for centuries, what makes Tymoczko's theory significant?
"Composers have been exploring the geometrical structure of these maps since the beginning of Western music without really knowing what they were doing," Said Tymoczko…