In this post, Brian Jump explores the history of rhythm & blues and rock 'n' roll. He covers exciting musicians like Ike Turner, Ray Charles, and Elvis Presley, and explains their crucial contributions to the evolution of both styles. Also included are listening suggestions, video links, and study questions.
This post offers a broad view of humanity's musical customs. It explores the evidence for prehistoric music making, and it explains how music got passed down through the ages. The world's musical traditions are also explored, as are the earliest efforts to notate music.
This post explores the swing style of jazz. It summarizes swing's defining characteristics, and it covers two influential swing musicians: Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington.
This blog post is about bebop, which is a form of jazz that evolved during the 1940s and 1950s. It covers how bebop changed the jazz genre, and it examines how Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell contributed to this change.
This blog post is about the methods used by musicians to compose, improvise, and perform jazz music. It focuses on compositional principles and improvisational techniques.
This blog post offers a synopsis of jazz history. It covers the origin, character, and trajectory of the genre, and it briefly describes the context in which jazz music evolved.
This blog post summarizes the events that lead to the birth of jazz. It covers the European and African traditions that conspired to create this style, and it inspects the important figures who contributed to its development.
Chasing the Chords 