I’m on a teaching sabbatical this semester, from January, 2022 through to May! This page will be an unfolding document on which I list the books, online workshops, instructional videos and podcasts I have waded through during this period. Some will be directly related to my creative research activities, while…
A quote from Clark, the autobiography of trumpeter Clark Terry: “Emulate, assimilate, and innovate.” (Clark Terry) Clark Terry’s formula for success is prominently displayed at the top of all my jazz improvisation course syllabi. A more succinct and accurate summary of the process for learning jazz doesn’t exist. I just finished…
Where Are We? How Did We Get Here? And Where Are We Headed? Why do most jazz history textbooks (not to mention the infamous Ken Burns jazz documentary) end around 1970 and/or give only fleeting mentions of truly contemporary jazz? Is thirty or forty years still too recent to comment…
Even now, after having studied and played jazz music for more than three decades, there’s still plenty I will admit to not knowing about the art form, and the context in which much of it was created. I was drawn to this music in the late 1980’s, as a Canadian…