Luminary

SKU: PR.144407290

ISBN 9781491135150. UPC: 680160687008.

Jazz luminary Ali Ryerson traces a unique and personal artistic path in this solo work. With an engaging form reminiscent of jazz charts (a dreamy introduction, a catchy, swinging head, and improvisatory-feeling 12-bar choruses), Ryerson’s music pays deeply-felt homage to Charlie Parker and other jazz greats, while maintaining an organic connection to the lineage of unaccompanied woodwind music in the classical tradition. Classical players will gain insight into jazz harmony, rhythm, and expression as they learn this knockout recital piece, while Ryerson fans in the jazz world gain an image of her musical mind in this fully-notated composition.
Jazz Dream, a jazz-inspired solo flute piece, was commissioned by Claudia Anderson for her Glass Ceilings project. Claudia once told me that playing jazz flute has been one of her musical ambitions. I daresay her performance of JD could very well break a glass ceiling of her own!Moved by the events of 2020, composing Jazz Dream became my way of honoring my musical heroes from the Black community, namely the jazz musicians who created this music and truly broke glass ceilings. As jazz shares its origins with the blues, both genres having originated in the African-American community, I decided on a 12-bar blues form as the framework for the piece.The opening theme gently draws us into a dream-like state, with a melody in slow motion and lines that linger. When the REM cycle kicks into gear, there’s an abrupt rhythmic shift that leads straight into a swingin’ blues. Idiomatic jazz rhythms abound, with blue notes galore – the tension notes that virtually define the sound of both the blues and jazz (i.e. the flatted third, fifth, and seventh notes of a scale in place of the expected major intervals).After several groovin’ choruses of a 12-bar blues in B(, often played as if the soloist is improvising, the blues modulates to the key of E(, and as a tribute to the great Charlie Parker (AKA Bird), I harmonically suggest the more complex set of bebop changes that Parker introduced in his composition, Blues for Alice. Often referred to as Bird Changes or Bird Blues, instead of the basic I - IV – V chord progression commonly used in the blues, Parker used a series of sequential ii-V progressions (and secondary ii-V progressions). With the addition of some tritone substitutions, a chromatically descending bass line deftly replaces the original I-IV-V root movement. This is the harmonic background I was hearing as I wrote this particular chorus.After my 12-bar nod to Bird’s changes, the introductory dream theme returns, now in tempo and with a straight-ahead swing feel. Variations on this theme follow, again to be played as if improvising, with the soloist once again bringing their own personality into the performance. This section builds to a climax, the music pauses, then modulates to C, with a return to the original blues theme. The energy and groove increase through the final flourish, where a blues line ends on the idiomatic flatted fifth.

SKU: AP.1-ADV19107

ISBN 9783892211136. UPC: 805095191073. English.

Imagine that you had an opportunity to ask your favorite jazz trombone player any question. Now imagine that you had over 30 of these great musicians in one place, captured here, giving you their advice and insight. Bonanza: Insights and Wisdom from Professional Jazz Trombonists is unique in that a series of similar questions were posed to a variety of experts. Topics include advice on listening, early steps in improvisation, appropriate sequences to take in learning tunes and chord progressions, approaches to playing ballads, and strategies for playing up-tempo tunes. Jazz luminaries such as Hal Crook, Bill Watrous, Jiggs Whigham, Josh Roseman, Conrad Herwig, Jim Pugh, and many others discuss their careers and lives in music in their own words.

SKU: GI.G-10451

ISBN 9781622775934.

Featuring: George Lynn • George Eugene Umberson • Donald Neuen • Paris Rutherford • Peter Bagley • Charlene Archibeque • Eph Ehly • Joseph Flummerfelt • Joan Conlon • Ann Howard Jones • Simon Carrington • Earl Rivers • Henry Leck • Hilary Apfelstadt • André Thomas • Maria Guinand Choral conductors shoulder a great responsibility as custodians of their craft. And there is perhaps no better source of inspiration and guidance for today’s conductors than the experiences and insights of choral giants who have blazed the trail we now tread. In Search of Inspiration is a collection of in-depth interviews with fifteen highly respected choral conductors from around the world. Each answers a series of fundamental questions about how they shaped their achievements: How do they balance their time making music and fulfilling teaching schedules and concert schedules? How do they motivate students, manage outside professional commitments in the educational setting, and satisfy administrators? Each conductor generously shares their wisdom and expertise, discussing memorable educational moments on the podium and in the classroom, recounting stirring experiences in the concert hall, and sharing stories about their work with historic figures in music. They also offer insights on programming repertoire and explain how they have successfully navigated a career in music. These interviews document the through lines within the choral art—elements of performance and mentorship stemming from such luminaries as Julius Herford and Robert Shaw that connect so many of the great conductors. A fascinating and relevant read for any choral educator, In Search of Inspiration explores the choral art through extraordinary 20th- and 21st-century voices whose artistry and influence will be felt for generations to come. Gregory Gentry is director of choral studies and the Lynn Whitten Choral Music Faculty Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is editor of the Gregory Gentry Choral Series (Fred Bock Publishers), past president of Arizona ACDA, and former chorus master with the Phoenix Symphony and Colorado Music Festival. Gentry states that he felt it was time to revitalize and update the book In Quest of Answers: Interviews with American Choral Conductors (Howard Swan and Carole Glenn). Contributors: Emilie Bertram, Corie Brown, Galen Darrough, Stephen Futrell, Anna Wheeler Gentry, Gregory Gentry, Sharon A. Hansen, Aaron Harp, Vernon Huff, David Kates, Dee Romines, Kira Zeeman Rugen, Paul Thompson, Betsy Cook Weber, Adam Zrust.