MS JAZZ
Suggested Listening
Louis Armstrong
One of the originators of the New Orleans jazz style, "Satchmo" established the musical standards of the swing style, the Gold standard of jazz trumpet playing, and the artistic vocabulary of scat-singing for jazz vocalists.
Duke Ellington
Starting as a pianist and then band leader, Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington combined uptown elegance with downtown revelry, his oeuvre defined the World War II generation and the Big Band era. According to Dr. Steward, Ellington is America's greatest composer, and on par with Europe's Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart.
Miles Davis
With a career spanning five decades, where he was at the forefront of major musical developments in the styles of bebop, cool, and fusion, Miles Davis's style of trumpet playing is still emulated by today's jazz musicians. Any serious jazz student, or jazz enthusiast, must become familiar with the jazz albums 'Round About Midnight, Kind of Blue, Birth of the Cool, Sketches of Spain, and Bitches Brew.
Charlie Parker
With a technical virtuosity and an improvisational genius, Charlie "Bird" Parker reinvented the melodic and rhythmic vocabulary of jazz by playing soaring musical solos over incredibly fast tempos within the bebop style that he created and defined.
John Coltrane
His music was reflective and spiritual, John Coltrane pushed the boundaries of musical expression through jazz improvisation, inventing his own theoretical approaches to jazz melody and harmony, now known as "Coltrane changes." Also a session musician with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, Coltrane's seminal recordings as a bandleader and tenor saxophonist include Blue Train, Giant Steps, and A Love Supreme.
