Discovering Jazz

One of my favourite Discovering Jazz podcasts. I used to play French Horn and tried to play blues on it. Even used it in a rock-blues group, with questionable success. But there is quite the tradition of truly great jazz french hornists, and I’ve d

According to Wikipedia, Jan Randall, a Canadian composer, pianist, and arranger, has made a career of composing soundtracks for films, theatre, radio, and television.  He combines playing by ear with his formal classical and jazz training.  And

Shortly before I moved from Peterborough, Ontario to Victoria, B.C., I spoke with Peterborough jazz guitarist, Mike Graham. I asked him for his thoughts on the future of jazz. He had lots of interesting things to say….and on this episode I play par

While many of those jazz tunes jazz artists like to play are from films or Broadway, many are written by jazz musicians. For this episode, from 2019, I feature seven tunes that have become ‘standards’. Two of them were written for films, and

This is a program originally aired on Trent Radio and placed on my podcast site in November, 2017. Inspired by a jazz instruction blog & podcast , LearnJazzStandards.com, hosted by guitarist Brent Vaarstra, and his post called “92 Modern Jazz Albums

I’ve truly learned a lot since I started putting together these podcasts four years ago. That’s why the program is “Discovering Jazz”. I keep discovering new things about jazz and about jazz compositions. That being said, a lot of

Some great music here! I’ve listened to a track or two from each of the albums nominated in the jazz and world music categories for this year’s Junos. I’m playing something from the winner in four categories, plus a handful of jazz nomi

Last week I spoke about how Miles Davis could be considered to be the most predominant jazz ‘bellwether’. This was related to his role in contributing to particular tunes becoming ‘standards’, even influencing how other musicians

This was inspired by a book by my favourite science fiction writer: Connie Willis, called “Bellwether”. In a flock of sheep, there is one sheep that, for some unexplained reason, influences all the others in terms of when and where they move.

This episode was inspired by somebody, when I played and sang “How Deep Is The Ocean?” asking me if I was playing ‘jazz chords’. So this episode tries to discover, using the same Socratic method as in the lyrics to that tune, what

This week I dig into my record collection again and pull out a few favourites. You’ll hear tracks from: -Toronto’s Archie Alleyne with the Frank Wright Quartet, -Lalo Schifrin, -Zoot Sims w. Jimmy Rowles, -Shelly Manne, -Lenny Breau, -Stan Ge

This week I went through my jazz lp’s and selected a few familiar favourites. Well, at least familiar to me. I play some Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Bobby Hutcherson w. Eugene McDaniels, Shorty Rogers, Mose Allison, Buddy Emmons w. Lenny Breau, Big Miller

This week I play blues, gospel, jazz, and world music employing instruments you don’t usually hear that often in that context. You’ll hear two bagpipes, and six tubas (but all on the same tune). I also play some recordings featuring a kora, a

This is the first of a couple programs where I play jazz recordings that feature instruments not commonly associated with jazz. This time round you’ll hear some harp, steel guitar, five string banjo, pipa, Euphonium, Steel Pan, and French Horn. And

Five more great songs with interesting stories behind them. And I play different versions of each one, ranging from Nat King Cole to Sam Gendal. And in-between, you’ll hear Wayne Shorter, Xavier Thollard, Teresa Doyle & Doug Riley, Antonio Adol

Once again I’m talking about some timeless great melodies and lyrics and some of the ways they get reinterpreted by jazz artists. I start with some great (and one not-so-great) recordings of Skylark, written by Hoagy Carmichae and Johnny Mercer, fo

As I go down the JazzWeek chart, I find I’m enjoying what I’m listening to more and more. But I’ve always tended to love the ‘hits’ at the bottom end of the charts more than the top end. Even as a kid listening to the pop To

More music from recordings released this year, as I pick and choose from a few records that interest me. One of my favourites is through a new label called Le Coq records, and it features Bill Cunlifee, John Patitucci, and Vinnie Colaiuta. That same labe

For this episode and the next two, I’m exploring current jazz. Using the JazzWeek Charts, I’m picking out a few newer releases that appeal to me, and playing a track from each of them. This week, you’ll hear Santi Diabro, Greg Murphy, D

This is the last episode of a tune within a tune. And I thank jazz fans from the JazzWord site for many of these ideas for bits of songs that jazz musicians put into their solos. The quotes you’ll hear include Donna Lee, Pavane (Morton Gould), Slow

This podcast, as well as playing some great jazz recordings with ‘quotes’ of other tunes coming from various soloists, explores the purpose of these quotes. It’s not just jazz musicians who put quotes into their songs. There is a bird (

I found one well-known tune played in the midst of five different jazz recordings. And I’m sure it’s present in a lot more. Guess what the tune is? In this episode I play all five of them. Then there is Mary Had A Little Lamb, which I found i

The first 20 minutes of this week’s podcast is dedicated to the piano styles of Nat King Cole and Oscar Peterson. I explore similarities and differences, plus a ‘story’ that is told about why one stopped singing and the other stopped pl

One way of understanding what any modern (or ancient) jazz pianist is doing is to know the ‘roots’ of what they are playing. Even the wildest jazz is influenced by what came before. So this episode, to get more clarity about different piano s

I was always amazed by those Blindfold Tests in Downbeat Magazine where Leonard Feather would challenge various jazz musicians by playing certain pieces of music—and have them guess who was playing. Musicians would rate the selection and talk about