Introduces some of the most famous jazz horn players, focusing on trumpet and saxophone players.

In The World of Jazz Trumpet - A Comprehensive History and Practical Philosophy, acclaimed jazz trumpet soloist Scotty Barnhart examines the political, social and musical conditions that led to the creation of jazz as America's premier art form. He traces the many factors that enabled freed slaves and their descendants to merge the blues, gospel, classical marches, and African rhythms to create a timeless and profound art that, since its inception, circa 1900, continues to have a major impact on all music. The World of Jazz Trumpet is a must-have study of the jazz trumpet for students, instructors, and professional musicians, as well as for anyone who appreciates the genre. Readers will appreciate Barnhart's personal and professional connection to a major part of American and world history. This book fills a major void in the world of jazz education as well as in general music education. With entries on 800 trumpeters, it is destined to become required reading in thousands of colleges, schools and homes around the world.

A swinging cultural history of the instrument that in many ways defined a century The twentieth century was barely under way when the grandson of a slave picked up a trumpet and transformed American culture. Before that moment, the trumpet had been a regimental staple in marching bands, a ceremonial accessory for royalty, and an occasional diva at the symphony. Because it could make more noise than just about anything, the trumpet had been much more declarative than musical for most of its history. Around 1900, however, Buddy Bolden made the trumpet declare in brand-new ways. He may even have invented jazz, or something very much like it. And as an African American, he found a vital new way to assert himself as a man. Hotter Than That is a cultural history of the trumpet from its origins in ancient Egypt to its role in royal courts and on battlefields, and ultimately to its stunning appropriation by great jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Wynton Marsalis. The book also looks at how trumpets have been manufactured over the centuries and at the price that artists have paid for devoting their bodies and souls to this most demanding of instruments. In the course of tracing the trumpet's evolution both as an instrument and as the primary vehicle for jazz in America, Krin Gabbard also meditates on its importance for black male sexuality and its continuing reappropriation by white culture.

The horn first appeared in jazz music in the late 1930's. Over time, the horn found a significant place as a side instrument in the music of Chet Baker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddy Hubbard, Stan Kenton, Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Wes Montgomery, Jaco Pastorius, and Oscar Peterson. Furthermore, there have been notable jazz horn soloists and a growing list of compositions for solo jazz horn. There is a significant place for the horn in jazz. Unfortunately, there is a considerable lack of scholarship to help aspiring players learn this style. Virtually all aspiring horn players can and will receive classical training on the horn. This training, however, does little to help prepare that student to play jazz music competently. There is a limited amount of published information about the jazz horn in pedagogy and in performance. Furthermore, the information is not presented in a unified format. This study will detail the careers of notable jazz horn players. The players will discuss how they were introduced into jazz, how they learned to play jazz, and how they learned to be successful in a non-traditional field. This oral history is a necessity because it will provide a reference for aspiring jazz horn players that currently does not exist.

Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic--acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world. Now Gioia brings his magnificent work completely up-to-date, drawing on the latest research and revisiting virtually every aspect of the music, past and present. Gioia tells the story of jazz as it had never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved. Here are the giants of jazz and the great moments of jazz history--Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club, cool jazz greats such as Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, and Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie's advocacy of modern jazz in the 1940s, Miles Davis's 1955 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, Ornette Coleman's experiments with atonality, Pat Metheny's visionary extension of jazz-rock fusion, the contemporary sounds of Wynton Marsalis, and the post-modernists of the current day. Gioia provides the reader with lively portraits of these and many other great musicians, intertwined with vibrant commentary on the music they created. He also evokes the many worlds of jazz, taking the reader to the swamp lands of the Mississippi Delta, the bawdy houses of New Orleans, the rent parties of Harlem, the speakeasies of Chicago during the Jazz Age, the after hours spots of corrupt Kansas city, the Cotton Club, the Savoy, and the other locales where the history of jazz was made. And as he traces the spread of this protean form, Gioia provides much insight into the social context in which the music was born.

In this beautiful book, Pulitzer Prize—winning musician and composer Wynton Marsalis draws upon lessons he’s learned from a lifetime in jazz–lessons that can help us all move to higher ground. With wit and candor he demystifies the music that is the birthright of every American and demonstrates how a real understanding of the central idea of jazz–the unique balance between self-expression and sacrifice for the common good exemplified on the bandstand–can enrich every aspect of our lives, from the bedroom to the boardroom, from the schoolroom to City Hall. Along the way, Marsalis helps us understand the life-changing message of the blues, reveals secrets about playing–and listening–and passes on wisdom he has gleaned from working with three generations of great musicians. Illuminating and inspiring, Moving to Higher Ground is a master class on jazz and life, conducted by a brilliant American artist.