Jazz

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 8

Dale Clevenger

Principal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dale Clevenger spent his Tuesday evenings playing jazz, discovering a freedom that classical training alone could not provide.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Part 1

From musical wallpaper to the twelve-note row

The trombone in the chamber ensemble at the beginning of modern music (1913-1934)

Between 1913 and 1934, the trombone gained an unexpected place in chamber music as Satie, Milhaud and Stravinsky challenged orchestral traditions with jazz and new sounds.

By Michael Struck-Schloen

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 6

Peter Gordon

Classically trained but drawn elsewhere, Peter Gordon made the horn at home in jazz, studios and popular music without abandoning its orchestral foundations.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 5

Tom Varner

Choosing jazz over the orchestral path, Tom Varner confronts the horn’s stiffness, projection and unlikely place as a front-line improvising voice.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 7

John Clark

John Clark made the horn a jazz voice on its own terms, balancing improvisation, studio realities and an instrument still fighting to escape classical expectations.

By Jeffrey Agrell

George Swift, You see who I mean?

In the 1930s, George Swift brought cornet virtuosity and jazz influences to the concert trumpet, building a remarkable reputation through just a handful of recordings.

By Michel Laplace

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 4

Thomas Bacon

Classical discipline meets jazz-rock freedom as Thomas Bacon confronts improvisation, stylistic crossover and the physical demands placed on the horn.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 2

Julius Watkins

A pioneering career, landmark recordings and collaborations with jazz legends gave the French horn a place it had never occupied before.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Part 4

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

The instrument for jazz

Jazz trumpet playing balances equipment, embouchure and articulation, as changing sound ideals reshape mouthpieces, technique and the physical approach to playing.

By Michel Laplace

Aimé Barelli

Trumpet crooner

French jazz, wartime Paris and changing styles shaped a trumpeter whose playing balanced virtuosity, melody and expression across several musical worlds.

By Michel Laplace

Part 5

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and in Popular Music

Breathing

Breathing, Valsalva, mouthpiece position and daily practice collide with received wisdom as trumpet technique is reconsidered from the body outward.

By Michel Laplace

Part 1

The trombone in Jazz and Popular Music

Jazz did not invent the modern trombone: early virtuosos, New Orleans players and changing techniques reveal a more complex path toward flexibility and legato.

By Michel Laplace

Part 2

Does Jazz still have a soul?

By Michel Laplace

To be «Lead Trumpet» in a Jazz Orchestra

Glenn Stuart explores the demanding role of the lead trumpet in a jazz orchestra, combining leadership, endurance and musical vision to shape the sound of the entire band.

By Glenn Stuart

Part 6

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

Special jazz techniques

Vibrato, half-valves, growls and shakes lead to a larger argument: jazz transformed trumpet technique, yet its contribution remained strikingly undervalued.

By Michel Laplace

Part 3

The trombone in Jazz and Popular Music

Pluralism of expression since 1945

Bebop, cool jazz, free jazz and neo-classicism transformed the trombone after 1945, as new players, techniques and instruments pushed its boundaries.

By Michel Laplace

Miles Davis

Meeting with collard and mustard greens

A bag of greens opens an unusually intimate view of Miles Davis: cooking, horses, boxing, race and music collide far from the mythology of the stage.

By Robert L. Watt

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 1

Jazz and the Horn

The horn was once considered incompatible with jazz until changing ideas of sound and musicians like John Graas quietly overturned that certainty.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 3

Jazz and the Horn

Getting started

For the classically trained horn player, jazz replaces the security of the printed page with listening, swing and improvisation—and a different kind of discipline.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Maurice Ravel and the new trombone

Dance-band trombonists reshaped orchestral expectations in the 1920s and 30s, leaving their mark on Ravel’s Boléro and a generation of players.

By Michel Laplace

Can jazz performance be taught?

A profile of Charlie Shoemake

By Thomas Stevens

Part 1

Does Jazz still have a soul?

By Michel Laplace

Part 1

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

Before Louis Armstrong became the defining figure, jazz already carried competing traditions of tone, style and technique shaped by cornet players across New Orleans and beyond.

By Michel Laplace

Harry James (1916-1983)

Young Man With A Horn

Harry James stood between jazz virtuosity and popular showmanship, turning the trumpet into a mass-audience voice without losing the respect of classical players.

By Michel Laplace