Listen & Play-Along

Learning jazz without listening to it is like like learning another language without hearing it spoken.

Check out these 2 playlists: These are the 2 eras we're playing music from in Jazz Band so far this year. Two subtly different Styles within the same Genre.

The first, they're calling it "Soul Jazz" is all blues, lots of dirty, gritty blues licks -- tenor sax, organ and electric guitar take the leads, the rhythm section pounds out quarter notes and shuffles, swing syncopations, and even Afro/Latin-inspired rhythms. Technical prowess takes a back seat to the screeching timbre of the Tenor sax, the wailing of an electric guitar feeding back, the vibrato from the organ's Leslie whirling through the air, all these sounds evoke a mood of crying out, of pain and suffering, recovery and relapse, hopelessness, loss, and amidst it all, surprisingly, resilience and toughness -- heart and soul on full display.

The second playlist is all Bebop. Horns are playing faster, trickier melodies, the rhythm section is busier, but still rock solid. The harmony has expanded beyond the blues form, though Blues is still very much there. The chords are trickier, key changes, harmonies that are more extended and dissonant, lots and lots of chromaticism, neighbor tones, and enclosures -- decorations in the solos -- bravado and virtuosity on display.

Pop these playlists on shuffle and get these sounds in your ear.

These previews only play 30-second clips. Click the Spotify logo, top right, to open the playlist in your Spotify app and you can hear whole songs.

Play-Along Videos

Use these Play-Along videos to practice tunes from Jazz Band, but also to try out improvisation ideas.

Extra Play-Alongs in Bb - one faster and one slower.