Summer reading ideas
Summer, for many, is a time to slow down and recharge the batteries. Everyone has a different means of recharging – travel and vacations chief among them – but regardless, I find that reading has the power to provide me with a fresh perspective and make me a little smarter about the world. Let me […]
A reaction I hadn’t expected to my recent audiobook
After announcing the audiobook version of the softcover book Richie Beirach and I recently published called A Framework for Jazz Mastery, I received a terrific response from a customer.
Is the alto trombone a transposing instrument?
I am often asked this question and I’m not sure I’ve ever given a satisfactory answer, at least one that satisfies aspiring alto trombone players. So let me take another whack at it.
Audiobook excerpt from A Framework for Jazz Mastery
Last year, Richie Beirach and I published the book, A Framework for Jazz Mastery. I knew once we released it, I would want to create an audiobook version of it.
Audiobooks and the new one by Dave Liebman called The Art of Skill
As an experiment about two months ago, I recorded my reading of the book Richie Beirach and I produced called the Lineage of Modern Jazz Piano. I then made it into an audiobook.
Great artistic success with great material gain
Rarely does great artistic success lead to great material gain. Much more often, these two are at great odds against each other. Richie Beirach and I thought it would be interesting to write something about this important topic.
The Creative Genius of Billy Strayhorn free eBook by Richie Beirach
This is a short eBook highlighting the life and music of Billy Strayhorn. These are the thoughts of Richie Beirach as someone admittedly influenced by Billy and considers him to be one of the iconic composers in jazz.
The Lineage of Modern Jazz Piano free eBook by Richie Beirach
Richie and I created an eBook that highlights the ten most essential modern jazz piano players from Art Tatum to Cecil Taylor.
Celebrating One Hundred Years of Bird free ebook
I recorded a conversation yesterday with Richie Beirach and published the result into an eBook paying tribute to Charlie Parker. After all, Bird’s 100th birthday was very recent
What made Miles Davis a great band leader?
Dave Liebman and I are finishing a book called The Art of Skill. The book contains Dave’s advice on becoming a better jazz player, biographical reflections, and thoughts on how one goes about finding their own unique musical voice.
New thinking about books
Richie Beirach and I published our first soft cover book last week titled A Framework for Jazz Mastery. In that first week we sold far more than we anticipated. Thank you! We used some new technologies to communicate about the book using marketing platforms and techniques unique to promoting books about jazz.
Getting the most out of Trombone Improvisation Savvy
I got an email recently from an owner of Improvisation Savvy who wrote that he isn’t getting what he had hoped he would from the book. He was looking for chord/scale instruction to teach him jazz improvisation and felt that the book was, therefore, for more advanced players. For anyone publishing materials for skill development, […]
