A Crash Course in Jazz Appreciation

Since April will be Jazz Appreciation Month and April 30th will be International Jazz Day, it seemed like a good time to share a couple of articles from The Art of Manliness. The first is called A Crash Course in Jazz Appreciation and  the second is Want to Get Into Jazz? Listen to These 10 Albums First.

Jazz.

It’s the music that many men say they like, but don’t actually know anything about.

Which is a shame for a whole host of reasons.

For starters, jazz has had a major influence on most popular music genres in the 20thcentury — rock, hip-hop, Latin…the list goes on and on. Having an understanding of jazz will give a music connoisseur a deeper appreciation of whatever their favorite genre happens to be.

Second, jazz music perfectly encapsulates the American ideal of collaboration mixed with individuality, and its history is really the history of the country. Born from the music of African-American slaves, it intertwines with so many different facets of modern American life – movies, dance, art, literature, and of course, race. Thus, an understanding of jazz will provide the student of history a fascinating window into 20th century America.

Third, I think it goes unnoticed by lots of folks, but there’s definitely a masculine ethos that underlies jazz. Its emphasis on the solo and improvisation requires a performer to embrace risk, and adds an element of palatable bravado to the music. What’s more, while jazz is certainly collaborative, it’s imbued with a competitive spirit as well. Jazz musicians of the past often tried to one-up each other in virtuosity and in moving the music in brand new directions. Piano players in 1920’s New York would often muster for rousing back-and-forth “battles,” each man trotting out his best stuff during late night cutting sessions. These kinds of competitions in musical mastery continue today, even taking the popular form of the piano bar that has become so trendy in the last few years.

Finally, jazz music is simply good music. There’s a genre of jazz for every man out there. At least, I think so.

If you’ve ever wanted to get into jazz, and don’t know where to start, below we’ve laid out a beginner’s introduction to the different genres of jazz, along with a few artists and songs for each that serve as good starting places for the neophyte to dip his toes.

Hopefully this post will serve as a springboard for getting deeper into this uniquely American music, so that the next time someone asks if you like jazz, you can do more than nod!

He then goes on to list several styles of jazz, when they were most popular, and important artists, songs and albums of that style:

• The Blues (late 19th century-present)
• Ragtime (1895—1918)
• New Orleans Jazz (1900-1920)
• Chicago (1920s)
• New York (1920s)
• Swing and the Big Band Era (1930-1945)
• Bebop (1939-1950)
• Cool (1949-1955)
• Hard Bop (1951-1958)
• Modal (Late 1950s)
• Free Jazz (1959-1970)
• Fusion (1969-1990)

And for the ten albums recommended:

Jazz music has an interesting history and a fascinating, multi-layered ethos. But even without knowing all that context and background, people instinctively feel that it’s just plain cool.

Given that most of us would like to be a little more cool, a lot of folks would like to get more into jazz music. But, they don’t really know where to begin.

If you Google “jazz music for beginners,” up will come myriad lists of jazz albums and tracks for the would-be aficionado to sample.

But here’s the problem: many of these lists get too highfalutin for a beginner. They feature songs and albums that are high on technicality and artistry but aren’t very approachable for someone just getting started with listening to jazz.

To help me put together a true list of jazz albums for beginners, I tapped two professional jazz enthusiasts that I know, both who happen to live in the Bay Area. The first is a friend, jazz manager, and board member of Living Jazz, Charles Brack. The second is Michelle Hawkins, a jazz vocalist, jazz choir director, professor of music at Skyline College, and music correspondent at the Online Great Books podcast.

The combination of these two sources is actually pretty, well, jazzy. It’s like a call and response duet between Louis and Ella (two artists Charles and Michelle in fact recommended).

All of these albums are highly accessible for someone who is only used to listening to pop music. Michelle focused on albums that are primarily melodic and have simple improvisations that are easy to follow. Charles picked albums that, in his words, simply “swing.” Both selected albums from iconic jazz musicians from a wide range of jazz’s sub-genres, so you get a nice overview of the different dimensions of this rich music.

Without further ado, here are 10 jazz albums for beginners.

1. Ellington at Newport by Duke Ellington (1956)
2. Ella and Louis Again by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (1957)
3. Blue Train by John Coltrane (1958)
4. Portrait in Jazz by Bill Evans Trio (1960)
5. Jazz at Massey Hall by the Quintet (1953)
6. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis (1959)
7. King of the Tenors by Ben Webster (1954)
8. Somethin’ Else by Cannonball Adderley (1958)
9. Golden Hits! by Sarah Vaughan (1958)
10. The Blues and the Abstract Truth by Oliver Nelson (1961)

And here are a couple of videos if you want to learn how to "jazzify" a song:

"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Let it Be"

Interesting days

Today - Crayola Crayon Day, World Backup Day, Manatee Appreciation Day, Eiffel Tower Day, Bunsen Burner Day, International Transgender Day of Visibility and Cream Cheese Frosting Day

Tomorrow - Fun Day, Tell A Lie Day, One Cent Day, Reading Is Funny Day and Sourdough Bread Day

Next Wednesday - Beer Day, No Housework Day, Making The First Move Day, Day Of Hope, World Health Day, Bookmobile Day and Beaver Day

April 31 - You get a day off!