Jazz education in the UK owes an enormous amount to Graham Collier (alongside Eddie Harvey and Lionel Grigson) without whom our current positions and extent of provision would been considerably harder to achieve. As well as being an instigator of projects for young jazz musicians, Graham was an articulate and politically astute advocate for theContinue reading “Graham Collier 1937 – 2011”
Do read this, a touching letter from Sonny Rollins to Coleman Hawkins in 1962 (from the website www.jazzclef.com). The greatest players possess not only self-discipline and powers of concentration, but generally, great humility.
Yes, its about to start, another “silly season”, the Jazz Summer School season. Actually, many of us feel that this is a special and immensely valuable time for aspiring musicians to immerse themselves and experience the music in a concentrated fashion. It is my understanding that great British composers of the mid-twentieth century such asContinue reading “Jazz Summer Schools”
Shock horror – jazz genius recorded “Nardis” 41 times (as far as we know)… I wonder why? Perhaps he wanted to go deeper. I have heard many famous jazz musicians advocating the necessity to learn a lot of repertoire. Nameless esteemed artist number one recently encouraged students to know at least 100 tunes, while esteemed artist number twoContinue reading “Shock, horror, Bill Evans records “Nardis” 41 times! (learning tunes properly…)”
A poet of the music, Paul Desmond was both self-deprecating and deeply insightful. This medley of quotes might tickle and provoke us… “I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast… I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player, as well as a special award in 1961 forContinue reading “Paul Desmond, a master mind and wit: some thoughts for a New Year”
Simon Purcell