Jazz Masters
Three things you should stop doing right now if you want to become an accomplished jazz player
The metronome is okay for young kids trying to practice beginner shit like five-finger little piano pieces or first attempts at trying to play scales, but for a jazz player, it’s very counterproductive.
My new project with Richie Beirach
Since my interview with Richie Beirach for the Jazz Master Summit more than a year ago, we’ve collaborated on a great many writing projects for books and articles.
Bobby Shew on proper breathing for brass players
Bobby Shew is a well-known trumpet great. What people may not know is that he is also a world-class teacher. I had an opportunity to sit down with Bobby and ask him questions for close to three hours. We covered a lot of topics, but the nearest and dearest to his heart was on his method for breathing called the Wedge Method.
Steve Swallow and Dave Liebman on finding one’s musical personality
I had the thrill of interviewing bassist Steve Swallow last week for the next Jazz Master Summit. As I expected, Steve was a wealth of information about everything from bass pickups to zen.
Ron Carter on how he’s practicing right now
I interviewed Ron Carter yesterday for the next Jazz Master Summit. He was gracious and full of insight. We spoke on a variety of topics, not the least of which was that second Miles quintet and how they did what they did on stage as well as their preparation for recordings.
Michael Lake
Jazz/latin trombone, author, multimedia artist, marketer
The skill of simplicity
I’ve received a couple of emails this past week making basically the same point about Pocket Jazz that I thought was worth sharing and exploring.
Does popularity define an artist?
A comment was recently written in one of the Pocket Jazz lessons. It was a lengthy comment but it ended with these questions: When is
It’s all about your time
A LOT of you have taken advantage of my offer to sign up for Pocket Jazz for free. Some have come back asking when they
