Chris Speed: A Narrative Analysis

Louis Armstrong, one of the most influential figures in jazz music, enjoyed a career that spans across 50 years, and through different eras of jazz. Nicknamed” Satchmo”, “Pops”, and” Ambassador Satch”, Armstrong could do it all, he sang, occasionally acted, composed music, but was most famous for his cornet and trumpet playing. Although Armstrong is well known for his amazing trumpet play, he also influenced the direction that jazz music during his time was headed. Over the course of this paper I will concisely go over his early life, and focus more on his music career.

Throughout the story, the reader gets a close look at how the narrator’s perspective of jazz changes throughout the story. In this short

The music is rebellious and its uncompromising intensity is uncatagorizable for its urgent flooding past genre definitions. Miles’ music of the five-year period is unlike any music that preceded it, and still, 30 years later, so original, so Progressive, and so inadequately described.

With the tunes connected as a suite, Cinema Spiral opens with “Looking Directly Into the Camera”, whose unconventional structure takes us to hallucinogenic cinematic universes. Roebke roams through an early solo, corroborating with the idea that, for that particular moment, an unobtrusive atmosphere is worthier than a stormy agitation. Layers get thicker after the reed players

Long-revered altoist phenomenon David Binney is certainly proud of having created a very personal style within the modern jazz, mirrored along the nearly 30 years of his notable career. He has played with other ingenious artists such as Chris Potter, Bill Frisell, Donny McCaslin, Craig Taborn, Scott Colley, Edward Simon, Brian Blade and Kenny Wollesen. Those collaborations spawned truly exhilarating albums – Free to Dream (Mythology, 1998), Welcome to Life (Mythology, 2004), Out of Airplanes (Mythology, 2006), Cities and Desire (Criss Cross, 2006), Graylen Epicenter (Mythology, 2011) – that should be on the shelves of any jazz lover. In addition to his own projects, Binney has always a very busy schedule as a sideperson. The immensity of his

If you did not make it out to see The Jazz Ensemble on Tuesday, Apr. 19th, then you really missed out on a great evening of music. Family, friends, and jazz lovers nearly filled the Anne R. Belk Theater to watch and listen to the performance directed by Dr. Will Campbell, with special guest Derrick Gardner. Gardner is a highly accomplished jazz trumpet player, who has traveled the world playing jazz music.The Ensemble member are; Bryce Harris, Jonathan Carroll, Cody Belton, Garrett Brown and Bryan Patterson on the saxophone, Richard Hall, Casey Blackwelder, Wesley Taylor, Liam McMahon and Cameron Francis on the trumpet, Nathan Ricer, Patrick Foray, Virginia Crooks and Kyle Barnhardt on the trombone, Dallas Holder on the piano, Brian Gilbert on the guitar, and Colin Ray and Eric Chang on the drums. The Ensemble played seven songs, and four of those were played with Gardner. The songs were performed in this order “A Pair of Aces,” “You Must Believe in Spring,” “Count Me In,” “Big Dipper,” “Footprints,” “Just a Touch” and “Lil’ Fawdy.” All of the songs were performed exceptionally well, out of the seven these two were my favorite.

My soul was filled with its hypnotic percussive reverberations modulated with delay effect, and decisive guitar slides and harmonics. Connotations with world music and progressive jazz are easily identifiable and can be heard again in the shorter “Binding Time”.

Chris McCandless: Ignorance Is Not Bliss Judith Kleinfeld (2001) defines a dumb jerk as: ”a person who is futilely questing for something meaningless or worthless. A person who is woefully unprepared for a trip, who clings to misguided, self-righteous principles, losing friends and hurting themselves and their family in the process"”. This accurately describes Chris McCandless, a 24-year-old man who set out on a journey to find himself as he travels across the country, only to end in the complete and harsh wilderness of Alaska. Another part of the definition that McCandless fits is losing his friends and hurting himself and his family; moreover, during this hiatus in his life, he meets many people and creates strong bonds with them, only to destroy them after ignoring their advice about the Alaskan Tundra.

Charlie had a lonely childhood due to his parents’ separation when he was just 7 years old. After his dad abandoned him, his mom bought Charlie a saxophone to cheer him up. His mom worked two to three jobs and while she worked at night, Charlie would walk around town and listen to jazz. At the age of 11, he was playing the saxophone. Since he didn’t have any formal training, Charlie taught himself by practicing up to 14 hours a day and memorizing records made by Lester Young. When he turned 14, he dropped out of high school and joined his first band and started experimenting different styles. He played remarkably fast lines, added lengthy unpredictable beats which later became known as Be-bop.

Mark not only has collaborated with jazz legends such as Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Stanley Turrentine, Ray Charles, and Jimmy Smith, but also with recent stars like Sting, Chris Botti, Diana Krall, and Roy Hargrove.

The record ends with “Legacy”, another magnetic experimentation that will certainly be appreciated by the fans of Dave Douglas’ compositional style and powerful instrumentation.

Soaring like a feather in the wind, Sam Rivers’ “Beatrice” is subjected to a cultivated sonic treatment. The balladic journey starts with sophisticated trumpet lines over sparse piano textures. After interlocking bass lines and distinctive brushwork get aligned to build a solid ground, Laubrock’s saxophone pops up, weaving melodies in and out, as the gentle yet propelling swinging inflection takes over.

“NoD for Nelson” makes a strong entrance. The initial vamp boasts a gracing urban groove that consistently supports the reedists’ work, whether playing in unison or individually. If the ingenious young O’Farrill stands out on this opening tune, the astute Eskelin is impressive in “Grovi”, which gently flows with its laid-back posture and luscious melodies. It also shows a pretty active Sorey, who

Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson’s musical aesthetics is all elegance and graciousness. He earned a sterling reputation while accompanying the brilliant saxophonist Charles Lloyd, who detected the perfect touch in his pianism to better serve his musical intents. Besides the latter, the saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the trumpeter Tomasz Stanko also benefited with his lush chords and beautiful textures to enrich their albums.

On October 4th, I watched Louis Armstrong Live in Concert in Berlin in 1965. In this concert, I noticed Armstrong played a variety of songs with a variety of different tempos. The first song he played was more adagio and right after that his song picked up in tempo and changed to a more allegro with a vivace, lively feel to it. Each one of Armstrong’s songs had a different feel to it.