The Jazz Bucket List

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Found this JazzTimes column from a post on the great NPR jazz blog, A Blog Supreme.  Forty jazz-related things to do before you die.  Trumpeter Ian Carey also had a humorous response to the bucket list on his blog.  It turns out I've actually done a few, and plan on doing a few more.

Completed:

  • Memorize at least one solo from a famous jazz record and hum it for someone who might actually recognize it
  • See Sonny Rollins or Ornette Coleman perform anywhere, any time
  • Tour the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City
  • Buy the CD of a local jazz musician playing a gig where no one pays attention to the music, ever
  • Experience A-list vocal jazz in concert: Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson or Kurt Elling should do it (performing with Dianne Schuur probably counts)
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Minor Pentatonic Tutorial

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In this video, Paul Hanson breaks down three very easy to use minor pentatonic scales that sound great over a minor (dorian) mode.  Minor pentatonics are built by the using scale degrees 1, b3, 4, 5, b7.  The pentatonic scales that he uses are built from the 1, 2, and 5.  So in the key of G minor those scales are G minor pentatonic, A minor pentatonic, and D minor pentatonic.  As you can hear, the different pentatonic scales sound different when played over the G minor,  but they all work rather well as all the notes sit naturally inside the G dorian mode.  

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Is Jazz Dead? No!

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Bret Primack, aka JazzVideoGuy, weighs in on a more global scale on the topic.  As much as I want to lay this to rest (because if we keep repeating it, we may start to believe it), I feel he does a really good job explaining how consumption, jazz education, and the music business as a whole has changed over the years.  While jazz isn't really found on the radio dial anymore, you can find plenty of it on the internet.  Be sure to check out Bret's videos on YouTube, literally hundreds of great jazz videos.  And of course if we really want to put this question to rest, we must support it locally and globally, by attending local jazz performances, supporting the arts in the schools, and purchasing the albums legally.