Jazz your Lifes

Posts Tagged ‘jazz’

Jazz Improvisation Transports the Human Brain to a Different Realtiy
New research by John Hopkins University and National Institute of Health scientists found that the brains of improvising jazz musicians operate in a fundamentally different way than those of musicians playing a memorized, composed melody. .
The study was under the direction of Charles Limb, a hearing specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital and teacher at the University, lecturer on the neuroscience of music and music perception at Peabody Conservatory of Music, is also a jazz saxophonist.
Jazz and the Brain Research Methods
Designing effective equipment for watching the brain at work is difficult. Limb and Allen Braun, who co-authored the paper published in the journal PLoS One, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look into their subject brains. The device emits a strong magnetic field, which creates images based on the movement of blood through the brain. Interpreting the images is based on the idea that blood flows in larger amounts to active areas of the brain.
A Jazz Instrument that would Work inside a Scanner
The researchers created a keyboard with no magnetic parts that could be linked to a computer outside the scanner. It plays like a piano, but when someone presses a key, it actually sends a signal to a computer, which then sends a sound sample from a real piano into a set of headphones worn by the musician in the scanner. Read the rest of this entry »

Clint Eastwood and Jazz Go Hand in Hand
Jazz – that true American form of music that can be sultry, soulful, swingy, or smooth. Clint Eastwood – director and star of films like Dirty Harry and The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly. Add the two together and you get Eastwood After Hours.
Jazz Concert for Clint Eastwood
Eastwood After Hours is a jazz concert recorded live at Carnegie Hall, celebrating the actor and his contribution to the jazz music industry. This is a disk both jazz and Eastwood fans will enjoy listening to as well as watching.
There are over twenty-five songs performed by some of the top jazz musicians in the country and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. Most of the songs are from Eastwood’s movies, including Play Misty for Me, Honkytonk Man, Unforgiven, The Bridges of Madison County, White Hunter, Black Heart, Bird, and more. Because of his love of the music, Eastwood purposely includes a lot of jazz in his films. How about the training, I guess he practice it on his apartment, how about you? you could start it with kharkov apartments for rent.

Using Jazz in Eastwood Movies
During much of the concert images from the films as well as pictures of musicians past and present are shown on the screen. Between songs Mr. Eastwood explains a little about his love of jazz and recounts stories like the time he heard Roberta Flack singing “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” He instantly knew he wanted that song in the movie Play Misty for Me, so he contacted the record company and made a deal.
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What Makes Jazz, Jazz? Defining the Jazz Genre of Music
Also known as, “America’s classical music” characteristics of jazz include the following:
• Strong beats or rhythms (often syncopated);
• Sad tones or blue notes;
• A swing element (playing of triplets);
• A call and response element (a musical phrase is echoed by different instruments or human voice);
• Frequent use of syncopation;
• Unique, individualized style of the musicians; and,
• Major emphasis upon spontaneous improvisation (using the harmonies of a composition then creating a spontaneous melody line).
History of Jazz
Where the actual name of jazz came from is anyone’s guess.
But first, work and misery produced the call and response element known to jazz from the plantation fields of southern American slavery. A leader during a work regime might call out a melodic line to be answered by the workers.
Additionally, the African-American spiritual was another root to the jazz genre. The drudgery of the plantation fields and all of the misery experienced by a people once considered less than human was captured in these musical pieces. Thus, these two elements began the foundation that jazz was built upon. Read the rest of this entry »

Jazz is an American style of music. It began in America’s Deep South and has spread throughout the country. Jazz festivals and concerts are now part of American culture and pop culture. In the film High Society, the Newport (Rhode Island) Jazz festival was part of the story. The Newport Jazz Festival began in 1954. In the years since the Newport Jazz Festival began, Jazz has worked its way across the country from Newport, Rhode Island to Newport Beach, California.
The 2010 Newport Beach Summer Jazz Series
“With an ensemble of top musicians in the genre for the 2010 series, this year’s outstanding group of performers showcase a range of jazz sonance from traditional to contemporary and smooth jazz, to R&B and big band,” said Event Producer and Promoter Jim “Fitz” Fitzgerald of Wendy Jayne Productions, Inc. “Our vision this year – as the new event management company – is to enhance the popular series with expanded talent, increase outreach to the public, heighten community involvement and sponsorships, and give an overall polished identity to grow the series for years to come,” explained Fitzgerald in a press release to publicize the event. Read the rest of this entry »