Sonic Bloom and collaboration with The Human Experience

[My Alter Ego]

MAE, as someone who enjoys the "old school" 30s/40s jazz, and really doesn't have any idea of any..new school jazz..could you point me in the right direction there?

Granted..I always thought it was funny that people try to put music in so many little boxes..Musical genres are more like webs..with borders that aren't quite defined. Something that always bothered me about Idol's "you don't know who you are" critique. Haley knew who she was..she was a singer with R&B, Blues, Jazz, and Classic rock influences.

Mercfan, your observation of musical genres as "webs" rather than boxes is a very good one. Perhaps the tendency is a result of what happened in the 19th century when an attempt was made to "canonize" classical music. Composers often wrote in styles that overlapped the particular period that they wrote in, but they are still pigeonholed by period.

And, while I'm rather tired of the Big Band style, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. There's a reason for its longevity -- and you can never, ever go wrong with Ella!

As for newer jazz styles, there really are so many and so many artists, I don't know where to start. If the area you live in has a good radio station that plays jazz (and by "good" I mean it plays a wide variety, not something like "smooth jazz" which is often closer to elevator music than jazz), I'd advise that you listen to it.

If not, and you can listen online try KPLU's Jazz 24 @ http://www.jazz24.org/. (This morning is not a great example of variety, unfortunately. The artists may be current, but they're predominately playing jazz standards.)

Happy listening!

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Mercfan, after listening to Jazz 24 today (hoping to hear one particular song that I have in mind that I consider more contemporary jazz, which they didn't play), I heard this song by Melody Gardot.



Melody has followed, I believe, a unique path into a music career. She was severely injured in a bike accident eleven years ago, and used music as therapy during her recovery/rehabilitation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_Gardot