This came up on my Pandora station! Smells like Giant Steps. Perhaps their improvisation over the chord changes sounds better than our first time playing it…

While working on a jazz arrangement of “Out of Nowhere” for a different class (ahem, Jazz Theory), I ran across this similarly titled piece by Acoustic Alchemy. Perhaps this is a long shot, but I think this is an arrangement of the same song. Here is a more traditional arrangement for comparison. The melody sounds very […]

It seemed appropriate to post something about Cottontail… I really like the interaction between Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Allen. Similar to our last class, they really seem to be utilizing call and response. There’s a nice balance between repeating a previous motif and introducing new material. Also, I really like 7:43 where they play the […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbL9vr4Q2LU Considering our recent discussion about jazz syllables and vocalization, I thought it would be appropriate to post an example of scat singing. I posted this particular clip because it is an impressive demonstration of Ella Fitzgerald’s ability to convey a distinct musical idea with her choice of syllables. One example of this is at 3:02 […]