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Composer Category: Jazz

Jazz music is a genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s a rich and diverse form of music that often emphasizes improvisation, syncopated rhythms, and a unique blend of spontaneity and control. Jazz is characterized by its swing feel, blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms, and improvisation.

The music has its roots in blues and ragtime, as well as European harmonic structure and African rhythmic rituals. Jazz musicians play solos that they create on the spot, which requires considerable skill and a deep understanding of the music’s structure and themes. It’s known for its polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, often deliberate deviations of pitch, and the use of original timbres.

Jazz has been, from its very beginnings, a constantly evolving, expanding, and changing music, passing through several distinctive phases of development. It’s not entirely composed or predetermined, nor is it an entirely extemporized one. Jazz employs both creative approaches in varying degrees and endless permutations. It’s a music genre that’s instantly recognized and distinguished as something separate from all other forms of musical expression. If you have to ask what jazz is, Louis Armstrong famously replied, “If you have to ask, you’ll never know.” This speaks to the inherent feeling and experience that jazz aims to evoke in the listener.

  • Holloway, Laurie

    Holloway, Laurie

  • Wilson, Jeffery

    Wilson, Jeffery

    Jeffery Wilson is one of the country’s foremost composers and educators in music, especially in the field of jazz. He studied composition at the Royal College of music with John Lambert and Herbert Howells, later with Aladar Majorossy, Gordon Jacob and Olivier Messiaen.

    From 1986 until recently he was visiting lecturer in composition, improvisation and saxophone at the Utrecht Conservatorium. He is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s Junior School, supervisor on the music faculty of Cambridge University and advisor on matters Jazz and Saxophone for Trinity Guildhall exams.

    He has been commissioned by dozens of top artists in both classical and jazz fields, and a growing number of his works are available on CD.

  • Booker, Adam

    Adam Booker is the current Associate Professor of Double Bass at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, USA. He was awarded a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Jazz Double Bass Performance from the University of Texas, Austin and also holds a MM in Composition and a BM in Jazz Studies from Texas State University, San Marcos. In addition to Adam’s academic instruction, he also studied with François Rabbath, Eric Revis, and the legendary Milt Hinton, as well as members of the San Antonio Symphony, Austin Symphony and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.

    Adam Booker has presented his research in Early Jazz Double Bass Performance Techniques, and performed at the Jazz Education Network Conference in Dallas, TX, International Society of Bassists bi-annual conference in Ft. Collins, CO, and at the 2016 European Double Bass Congress in Prague, Czech Republic and the 2018 conference in Lucca, Italy.

    Aside from being a sideman on numerous recordings, his first album as a leader, Unraveled Rival, was released in October of 2015 under the Shifting Paradigm Records label. His follow up record in 2018, Seven Last Worlds, is a collaboration between himself and David Heyes, juxtaposing Adam’s jazz performance and compositions with David’s masterpiece for unaccompanied double bass, Seven Last Words from the Cross. His third album, Live in Lucca, released in 2019, is a memento from a UK and Italy teaching and performing tour that occurred prior to the COVID Pandemic

     

    www.adambookeronbass.com
The Music Realm
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