Tag: why jazz matters
Why Jazz Matters: Track 15
by Norman Provizer Back in 1926, Chicago hosted a six-day long International Jazz Congress that had Paul Whiteman as its honorary chairman. The event is widely viewed as a key precursor of the phenomenon we know as jazz festivals, three of which take place in Colorado in August. It’s also an event that reminds us […]
Why Jazz Matters: Track 14
by Norman Provizer On June 8, the band Big Head Todd and the Monsters returns to Red Rocks Amphitheater for the seventeenth time. Over its long run, Big Head Todd went from a local group begging for gigs to one with a very high national profile playing major venues. In this sense, along with bands […]
Why Jazz Matters: Track 13
by Norman Provizer Back in 2002, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History began promoting April as Jazz Appreciation Month. The idea, with the appropriate acronym JAM, caught on and there now exists a wide-range of activities connected to the month-long celebration. Of course, jazz, America’s great contribution to global culture, should be appreciated more […]
Why Jazz Matters: Track 12
by Norman Provizer If you are not a jazz fan, the odds are that you have never heard of Bob Belden. In fact, even if you are a jazz fan, there’s a good chance that the name of this Grammy Award-winning saxophonist and arranger, who was born near Chicago in 1956, might not ring a […]
Why Jazz Matters- Track 11
by Norman Provizer From its very beginnings, jazz has always had, in the words of Jelly Roll Morton, a “Spanish tinge” to it. After all, New Orleans has been, in many ways, strongly connected to the Caribbean – and it was the city of New Orleans that played such a special role in the emergence […]
Why Jazz Matters: Track 10
by Norman Provizer In 1969, a clarinet player by the name of Bill Frisell graduated from Denver’s East High School. Though born in Baltimore, Frisell came to Denver at a very young age; and in high school, he found himself in the musical company of some very talented, fellow students like Philip Bailey, Larry Dunn […]
Why Jazz Matters: Track 9
by Norm Provizer A few months ago in this column, I made mention of the tribute Snoop Dog paid to Herbie Hancock when the Kennedy Center honored the great jazz pianist in 2013. At the event, Snoop referred to Hancock as the person who “invented hip hop.” While that testimonial might be a bit overly […]
Why Jazz Matters: Track 8
by Norman Provizer If you were to draw up a very short list of the most significant bass players in the history of rock, one slot would definitely be reserved for Jack Bruce who died just a week before this past Halloween at the age of 71. Before he turned 20, this Scottish-born musician was […]
Why Jazz Matters: Track 6
by Norman Provizer Sankofa is a term from the Akan people of southern Ghana and the neighboring West African states of Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Togo. Essentially, the term means that you need to reclaim your past before you can move ahead. It’s an idea frequently symbolized by a bird that is looking backward […]
Why Jazz Matters- Track 5
by Norm Provizer This month, drummer Ginger Baker celebrates his 75th birthday. From the perspective of the 1960s, when Baker propelled Cream (the first rock super group with Baker, Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce) and Blind Faith (with Steve Winwood and Clapton), the very idea that the drummer, who had a lot of habits, would […]
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