Jazz Links

Here are some useful resources

Leicester Jazz Consortium

A consortium of jazz promoters in Leicester. Representing a range of venues from the regionally significant (De Montfort Hall) to the intimate (The Musician).

I found these on the web, and hope you enjoy them too. Contents: -

Local bands / artists: Afro Elements Chris Conway

Stuff: Buying a saxophone Nuclear Whales Blue Note Jazz Central

All About Jazz Jazz On Line Jazz Zine Red Hot and Cool RedHot Jazz

Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club A Great Day in Harlem Jazz Services

BBC Radio 3 Jazz Gig Guide BBC Radio3 Jazz Coverage

Artists: Miles Davis Charles Mingus Norma Winstone

Records: The Bebop Shop Jazz House Records Bird Pages

Resources: Jazz Class Dorn Publications Jamey Aebersold Euromusic Jazzwise

E-mail me your comments

Chris Conway

Excllent local multi-instrumentalist, and Leicester's hardest working musician. Not just jazz, but folk and indo-jazz fusion stuff too!

saxophone, jazz music This site is absolutely essential whether you are buying your first student model, or a professional standard saxophone, and whether you are buying new or second-hand. Read this page first! Please also note the vital information take any advice given by a music teacher at school with a pinch of salt. In Leicestershire there is a company supplying teachers to schools which is sponsored by a Far-East manufacturer of saxophones; oddly enough they only recommend their own saxophones. Read this before you buy on the internet! This invaluable article was written by Jason DuMars.

Local (Nottingham) wind instrument and sheet-music specialist Windblowers has a site - not much content as yet, though.

John Myatt comes highly recommended.

Nuclear Whales

A must for all saxophonists. Worth a visit for some extraordinary pictures of a phenomenal instrument.

Blue Note

The Jazz record label. Lots of sound clips - try before you buy!

Jazz Central

Not as good as I'd hoped, but appears to be under construction. When I visited I was not allowed to search.

All About Jazz

A very good site.

Jazz On Line

Lots of links!

Jazz Zine

On-line fan magazine. Lots of fun.

Red Hot and Cool

All three true. Lots and lots of stuff to investigate!

Red Hot Jazz

Jazz before 1930, including Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet.

Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club

Need I say more? One of Britain's greatest jazz musicians. Oh, and a jazz club too (though a little more expensive than your own Some Like It Hot!)

A Great Day in Harlem

A very famous jazz photograph indeed, about which a very charming documentary film was made. This site has lots of information on the participants.

Jazz Services

Everything you wanted to know about jazz, but were too afraid to ask! Education, musicians, venues, promoters are all available in their searchable database.

BBC Radio 3 Jazz Gig Guide

Somewhat limited at present.

BBC Radio 3 Jazz Page

What's coming up and webcasts.

Miles Davis

Trumpeter withou equal. Exhastive site.

Charles Mingus

Wonderful composer (e.g. of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat ) and bass player.

Norma Winstone

Britains top vocalist.

The Bebop Shop

Specialising in jazz on CD from swing, through bebop and hardbop, to free jazz. Take a look! They say that you can order safely online with a secure shopping cart and that they are soon to have Which? Web Trader status.

Jazz House Records

Local jazz guru Alan Ross provides a knowledgable service and collectibles.

Bird Pages

Your online gateway to U.K. record shops, delaers, and collecting.

Improvisation resources

Jazz Class

An Australian site offering some free jazz educational material, I haven't tried out the stuff that costs though.

Dorn Publications Inc.

A U.S.A. publisher, producing bi-monthly magazines Jazz Player and the Saxophone Journal (all music styles), each with a play-along C.D., and other products are available. The Jazz Player magazine is interesting, but occasionally somewhat perverse - I still remember reading an excellent article on diminished scales in the Advanced Improvisation column, and an almost impenetrable article on the Byzantine scale (not used widely, if at all) in the Beginning Improvisation course. As always, remember that Jazz Theory (even with capital letters) is just that, Theory. What is important is what does it sound like?

Jamey Aebersold

Jamey Aebersold produces a bewildering array of play-along C.D.s which can be great for honing your skills before (and after) approaching a band-stand or jam session. If you are starting out, I would recommend Volume 54 "Maiden Voyage", and Volume 70 "Killer Joe", which provide great, but relatively easy, modern jazz standards and a blues on each, which are fun to play and improvise to. Volume 24 "Major and Minor" gives you a chance to play along to tracks consisting either of a major or a Dorian minor key in all twelve keys; listen to the sound of each note in the scale to hear how they sound as a start to your ear-training, which is essential.

jazz music improvisation Jamey Aebersold does tend to emphasize scales too much for my taste. Do not spend weeks practicing something odd like the altered dominant / diminished whole-tone / mode VII of the melodic minor ascending scale (guess what - these are all the same scale - isn't music theory a fine thing!). Of course the scale, and better still melodic fragments made from it, does work on a dominant seventh chord - but it won't work if you have simply meticulously practiced the scale even in all twelve keys.

The advice I was given by the great saxophone player Geoff Simkins was to practice one note - say the flat 9th - on a dominant seventh, until you know what it sounds like (bluesy, with tension), and you know how to resolve it. After a while you will find the new note coming into your solos more and more because your ears hear it. Now add in the next "altered" note, say the sharp ninth. You should know what this sounds like already if you play the blues - it's the flat third. Continue with the sharp 11th (flat fifth) - again, maybe you know this from the Lydian dominant - and finally the flat 13th. It might take months, but you will then know the sounds, and be able to use the scale musically. Now you can practice the scale in all twelve keys to gain technique and dexterity.

Jamey Aebersold also provides other jazz educational material, and an interesting discussion forum - post your questions and get them answered. You can not order from them direct in the U.K., but must use one of their distributors: -

Euromusic (Birmingham)

JazzWise (London)

The views expressed here are my own, and I'm not the sort of person to say that there is a "right" and a wrong answer, especially in jazz improvisation. If you strongly disagree or have any comments to make - E-mail me (Chris).