MMUST Science Robert Glasper Artists Discussion

The reading material for the next few weeks discusses how jazz continues to be a viable art form. New artists regularly gain recognition for their contribution to the music, even to this day.

For this last discussion board, your objective is to introduce your classmates to a rising or currently relevant artist in modern jazz music.

The parameters

You must choose one of the artists from the “The Elite 150 Early- and Mid-Career Jazz Masters” list from the appendix of the text. If your artist is not listed there, you will not receive credit.

The artist you choose must have recorded with musicians outside of their own group (this probably includes everyone, but I mention in case there is a musician listed who is strictly a solo performer).

My recommendation is to open Spotify, type in one of the artist’s names and briefly listen to a few of their recordings. Check out a dozen or more different artists. They will represent a very broad range of styles of jazz, and you might be surprised by what you discover.

For your initial post:

State the name of your artist and their primary instrument in the title of your thread.

Provide basic background information… when they were born, where they grew up, their first major break, etc.

List some notable artists they have collaborated with, especially if they have worked with musicians outside of jazz music. Allmusic.com and Wikipedia typically provide this information, but you would be served better to visit the artist’s website (most of them have one).

Name the style(s) of jazz mentioned in the text that you think were most influential on the artists style of music. Is there music reminiscent of bebop? Hard bop? Cool jazz? You will probably find this information as part of your web search.

Include two links (recordings from albums, not live performances)

One link should contain a recording made by their primary group. This group will be listed under their own name (JD Allen Trio), but in some cases they primarily perform with a group with a band name. For example, Ethan Iverson has recorded several albums under his own name, but he is most well-known for his work with the group The Bad Plus.

The other link should be for a recording where your artist is a sideman/accompanist on the album. Sticking with our last example… Kenny Garrett is well known for his own recordings, but he did record an album with The Bad Plus on which he performed their music.

Ideally these two different recordings will give us an impression of the depth of their range. Try to pick two recordings where the styles of jazz sound different.“ Sara Gazarek (vocals)47. Robert Glasper (keyboards)48. Aaron Goldberg (piano)49. Wycliffe Gordon (trombone)50. Larry Grenadier (bass)51. Mats Gustafsson (saxophone)52. Wolfgang Haffner (drums)53. Mary Halvorson (guitar)54. Craig Handy (saxophone)55. Roy Hargrove (trumpet)56. Eric Harland (drums)57. Stefon Harris (vibraphone)58. Miho Hazama (composer)59. Arve Henriksen (trumpet)60. Vincent Herring (saxophone)61. John Hollenbeck (drummer)62. Susie Ibarra (percussion)63. Jon Irabagon (saxophone)64. Ethan Iverson (piano)65. Vijay Iyer (piano)66. Christine Jensen (saxophone)67. Ingrid Jensen (trumpet)68. Norah Jones (vocals)69. Ryan Keberle (trombone)70. Grace Kelly (saxophone)71. Guillermo Klein (piano)72. Julian Lage (guitar)73. Biréli Lagrène (guitar)74. Steve Lehman (saxophone)75. David Linx (vocals)76. Lionel Loueke (guitar)77. Rudresh Mahanthappa (saxophone)78. Tony Malaby (saxophone)79. Mat Maneri (violin)80. Grégoire Maret (harmonica)81. Branford Marsalis (saxophone)82. Wynton Marsalis (trumpet)83. Christian McBride (bass)84. Donny McCaslin (saxophone)85. John Medeski (keyboards)86. Brad Mehldau (piano)87. Vince Mendoza (composer)88. Nicole Mitchell (flute)89. Robert Mitchell (piano)90. Ben Monder (guitar)91. Jason Moran (piano)92. Youn Sun Nah (vocals)93. Qasim Naqvi (drummer)94. Fabiano do Nascimento (guitar)95. Vadim[…]”Excerpt FromHow to Listen to JazzTed GioiaThis material may be protected by copyright.