Listen to Jazz!: Exploring a Musical Genre(Exploring Musical Genres)

Listen to Jazz!: Exploring a Musical Genre explores jazz as both an American musical genre and a global creative exchange, with a focus on 50 must-hear musicians, composers, bands, groups, albums, and songs. Rather than focusing on jazz as a solely American genre with a limited set of established jazz greats, Listen to Jazz! explores the diversity of jazz's sounds, compositions, recordings, and styles. A background chapter concisely surveys the genre's sounds, concepts, performance practices, and interactions with the sound recording industry and technological advances in recording. The A-to-Z Must-Hear Music entries include recent jazz musicians from around the world, jazz musicians and recordings that have been marginalized or overlooked, as well as musicians, songs, and albums that have been recognized already for contributing to the defining aspects of specific jazz styles. Chapters on the impact of jazz on popular culture and its legacy, as well as a bibliography, enhance the historical and analytical content found in many jazz resources. This book stands out for its inclusive and comparative listening-centered approach, often pairing or grouping musicians and recordings in its entries. Music concepts such as improvisation, syncopation, tone color, musical structure, harmonic and rhythmic patterns, and music production techniques are introduced and explained thoroughly, making the book accessible to high school and undergraduate students without any previous musical background while still being of interest to jazz aficionados and scholars.

Table of Contents:
Series Forward Preface Acknowledgments 1. Background 2. Must-Hear Music Louis Armstrong Lil Hardin Armstrong and Valaida Snow Sidney Bechet Ben Bernie, Maceo Pinkard, and Kenneth Casey: “Sweet Georgia Brown” and Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, and Marc Blitzstein: “Mack the Knife” Elmer Bernstein and Mack David: “Walk on the Wild Side” and Lou Reed: “Walk on the Wild Side” Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Snarky Puppy, and Nérija Billie Holiday and Julie London Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Moanin' and Hailu Mergia and the Walias Band: Tche Belew Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish: “Stardust” and Ann Ronell: “Willow Weep for Me” Terri Lyne Carrington: The Mosaic Project and Esperanza Spalding: Radio Music Society Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, and Dorothy Ashby John Coltrane: “Giant Steps” and Alice Coltrane: “Translinear Light” John Coltrane: My Favorite Things and Dexter Gordon: Go! The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out and Quasimode: Oneself Likeness Miles Davis and Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker Eric Dolphy: Out to Lunch! and Andrew Hill: Point of Departure Duke Ellington Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Carter, and Astrud Gilberto Ginger Baker: Why? Robert Glasper: Black Radio, Black Radio 2, Miles Ahead, and Black Radio III Stéphane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, and L. Subramaniam Vince Guaraldi: “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” Ben Tucker and Bob Dorough: “Comin' Home Baby,” and The Pacific Express: “Wind Song” Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers: “Harlem Nocturne” and Dizzy Gillespie: “A Night in Tunisia” Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Hiromi Uehara, and Connie Han Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Kamasi Washington Al Hirt and Kenny Ball Fred Katz and Chico Hamilton Stan Kenton, Esquivel, and Tito Puente King Crimson: “21st Century Schizoid Man,” Weather Report: “Unknown Soldier,” and Steely Dan: “Josie” Fela Kuti Lambert, Hendricks & Ross and Jack Sheldon Marian McPartland and George Shearing Bobby McFerrin, Leon Parker, and Aziza Mustafazadeh Miles Davis Quintet: Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet Charles Mingus: Mingus Ah Um and Tijuana Moods Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Emily Remler, and Lionel Loueke Gerry Mulligan: Night Lights Newport Jazz Festival and Related Studio Recordings Ken Nordine, Jayne Cortez, and John Sinclair Edgar Sampson: “Stompin' at the Savoy” and Louis Prima: “Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)” Wayne Shorter: Speak No Evil and Wayne Shorter Quartet: Emanon Stan Getz and João Gilberto: Getz/Gilberto and Charlie Byrd: Brazilian Byrd Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman The Swingle Singers, Pizzicato Five, and Take 6 Art Tatum, Mary Lou Williams, Thelonious Monk, and Abdullah Ibrahim Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band: Long Yellow Road, and Jon Jang: The Pledge of Black Asian Allegiance Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone, and Cécile McLorin Salvant Tom Waits and Rickie Lee Jones 3. Impact on Popular Culture 4. Legacy Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith is a musicologist, an Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts of Springfield College in Massachusetts, USA, as well as a Visiting Associate Professor/Lecturer in the Music Department and College of Graduate and Continuing Education at Westfield State University, also in Massachusetts, USA. She is the author of Listen to Classic Rock! (Bloomsbury, 2019) and co-author with Anthony J. Fonseca of Listen to Hip Hop! (Bloomsbury, 2021), both in the Exploring Musical Genres series.