How to Listen to Jazz
Listen, for example, to Johnny Hodges play “Come Sunday” on the recording of Duke Ellington’s debut Carnegie Hall concert on January 23, 1943.
Ted Gioia • How to Listen to Jazz
For a jazz quartet to produce great music, discipline is as important as improvisation and serendipity. It’s not magic, even if the result is often magical.
Stewart D. Friedman • Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life
Similar to the attitude expressed above, on a National Public Radio “Jazz Profiles” show highlighting his life, the late great saxophonist Johnny Griffin once defined the music commonly known as jazz as “having a good time in spite of.”
Leonard Brown • John Coltrane and Black America's Quest for Freedom: Spirituality and the Music
Pianist Dave Brubeck earned the medal as well. His song “Take Five” was chosen by NPR listeners as the quintessential jazz tune of all time. Brubeck’s mother tried to teach him piano, but he refused to follow instructions. He was born cross-eyed, and his childhood reluctance was related to his inability to see the musical notation. His mother gave
... See more(Journalist) David Epstein • Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
But the sources for the dreams of music he had were Fletcher Henderson’s “Soft Winds,” “Moonrise on the Lowlands,” or “Shanghai Shuffle,” or Duke Ellington’s “Dust in the Desert,” “Pyramid,” “Moon Mist,” “Perfume Suite,” or “Magenta Haze,”