Jazz Masters
What is the jazz vocabulary and how you can learn it?
I recently listened to a podcast from Brent Vaartstra of LearnJazzStandards.com. Brent does a nice job with his podcasts, and his latest should give us all some food for thought. From his podcast, he shared the results of a survey he sent out that was responded to by over 1,000 jazz musicians. What caught my…
Read MoreRichie Beirach on how you can develop a good instinctive sense of time
Remember the scene in the movie What About Bob where Bob Wiley (Bill Murray), terrified of being on a boat, is tied to the mast as he proudly yells, “I sail! I’m sailing! I’m a sailor!”?That’s my inside joke with Richie Beirach when we talk about him reading comments from my blog.He might not like me sharing…
Read MoreA 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. Before I share with you what he wrote, let me share one objective for the books I’ve published over this past year with Richie, Dave Liebman,…
Read MoreThree things you should stop doing right now if you want to become an accomplished jazz player
I called Richie Beirach this morning and gave him the title of a post I wanted to write. After thanking me for the good laugh, he asked if I was serious. I told him I was, and asked him to write three things jazz players should stop doing immediately. Here’s what he sent me… 1.…
Read MoreMy 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. The loss to the poor students at the Mendlesohn School of Jazz in Leipzig is my gain. Richie’s retirement from the Mendlesohn School mandated by German law…
Read MoreSalsa with Caribbean Express
I recorded an interview last week with the great trombonist Conrad Herwig. If you don’t play trombone, and don’t know Conrad, he is one of the very few trombone players who has played with Miles, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Richie Beirack, Dave Liebman, the Brecker Brothers, Jack deJohnette, and a long list of other true…
Read MoreSome remembrances of Chick Corea by friends and colleagues
The world was shocked on February 9th, when we lost Chick Corea. I was on a couple of email threads the next day from reading some remembrances of Chick from people who knew him. With their permission, I will share a few. From Monika Herzig, author of the book Experiencing Chick Corea: A Listener’s Companion…
Read MoreJoin me in making this your best year yet
As we all bid good riddance to 2020, I look forward to 2021 and the success I can help you and others achieve – in playing or in something else. It’s been exactly one year since I left corporate life in order to pursue a career building an organization and community that will help musicians…
Read MoreSteve 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. Later in the conversation, I asked Steve a question that I frequently ask myself and others. In fact, Dave Liebman and I…
Read MoreRemembering Bill Evans on September 15
Richie Beirach called me today and after our friendly banter, told me that in Germany it was September 15th. “Do you know that 40 years ago today, Bill Evans passed?” “No”, I said with a small amount of shame. “Well, you should write something about it in your blog”, he told me. We discussed it…
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