Crash Course: Post-jazz Jazz
Jazz finds a great deal of its past in the present, but contemporary jazz takes us much further than viewers of Ken Burns famed documentary on the genre would suggest. Jazz is a music that’s played by men and women; instrumentalists and singers; leaders and sidemen; soloists, small groups, and big bands. In this session, explore the sounds of a music that has continued to evolve and, in the process, become a global phenomena.
About Your Host
Lara Pellegrinelli received her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Harvard in 2005. Her dissertation, The Song is Who? Locating Singers on the Jazz Scene, is the first ethnography of jazz singing. Having held a visiting position as an assistant professor of music at the University of Richmond from 2005-07, she embarked on an around-the-world voyage with the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea program in the Fall of 2007. Her writing has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The Village Voice, Jazz Times, NewMusicBox, and the National African American Biography. She currently contributes to NPR and WNYC.
Recommended Listening
Louis Armstrong: “Potato Head Blues” from The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings (Sony)
Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Made in New Orleans: The Hurricane Sessions (Preservation Hall)
Benny Goodman: “King Porter Stomp” from Stompin’ at the Savoy (Jazz Hour)
Lionel Hampton: “Rhythm, Rhythm (I Got Rhythm)” from Flyin’ Home (Lrc Ltd)
Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra: “Live in Swing City” (Sbme Special Mkts.)
Charlie Parker: “I Got Rhythm”
Charlie Parker: Best Complete Live Performances on Savoy (Savoy Jazz)
The Heath Brothers: As We Were Saying (Concord Records)
Jimmy Heath: Little Man, Big Band (Polygram Records)
Wynton Marsalis: Think of One (Wounded Bird Records)
Wynton Marsalis: Trumpet Concertos (Sony)
Wynton Marsalis: Live at the Village Vanguard (Sony)
Cassandra Wilson: Jumpworld (Polygram Records)
Cassandra Wilson: Blue Light Til Dawn (Blue Note Records)
Cassandra Wilson: New Moon Daughter (Blue Note Records)
Bad Plus: Suspicious Activity? (Sony)
Bad Plus: These Are the Vistas (Sony)
Maria Schneider: “Cerulean Skies” from Sky Blue (ArtistShare)
Cecil Taylor: Unit Structures (Blue Note Records)
Cecil Taylor: Willisau Concert (Intakt Records)
John Zorn: “A Shot in the Dark” from Naked City (Nonesuch)
John Zorn: Kristalnacht (Tzadik)
John Zorn: Voices In The Wilderness (Tzadik)
David Brubeck: The Real Ambassadors (Sony)
Max Roach: Freedom Now Suite (Candid Records)
Lionel Loueke: Karibu (Blue Note Records)
Further Reading:
Do the Math, the Bad Plus blog and webzine.
Giddins, Gary. Visions of Jazz: The First Century. Oxford University Press, 2000.
Mandel, Howard. Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz. Routledge, 2007.
Mandel, Howard. Future Jazz. Oxford University Press, 2000.