Show Review: Wynton Marsalis Orchestra at Boston Symphony Hall

Wynton Marsalis’ orchestra and choir blew the roof off of Boston Symphony Hall on Sunday night. A stirring ensemble of forty female and thirty male vocalists gave a rousing gospel invocation with “The House of The Lord,” while the orchestra swung back and forth over belting vocals and blaring horn …

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Jose James: The Evolution of Jazz

In the beginning there was jazz. A deviation from the conservative pathway of European musical tropes, jazz was America’s original counterculture. Largely defined by the ingenuity of its artist, it found structure in a lack thereof, improvisation its blueprint. With such an inherent flexibility, jazz engaged many a strange bedfellow, …

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iRock Jazz LIVE! with Saxophonist Jaleel Shaw

Jaleel Shaw, alto saxophonist grew up in Philadelphia, PA, where he studied with saxophone instructors Rayburn Wright and Robert Landham. He also studied with jazz instructor Lovette Hines, whose students have included Bassist Christian McBride, Organist Joey Defrancesco, Drummers Johnathan Blake & Ari Hoenig, Vocalist Bilal, Trumpeter Daud El-Bakara, and …

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Music Historian Ashley Khan: The State of Jazz Today

Ashley Khan is a journalist, music historian, producer, and adjunct professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to contributions to the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Down Beat, Jazz Times, and Mojo, Khan has authored Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece …

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Advice from the Classroom to the Bandstand

Victor Goines is a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist. Goines talks about performing with this former students, dressing for the bandstand and taking care of your music business.

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iRock Jazz Partners with Concord Music Group on Jazz Discovery App for Spotify

iRock Jazz provides music recommendations for Stylus, the first jazz discovery application for Spotify Stylus™, a music application specially designed for leading music streaming service Spotify, premiered  as a fun, easy and exciting way for listeners to explore and discover the best of classic and contemporary jazz from among an …

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Hear Great Advice from Musicians for Musicians

Hear Roy Hargrove, Terence Blanchard, Poncho Sanchez, Wallace Roney, Gregory Porter and Kenny Barron talk about what it takes to make in the music business.

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iRock Jazz LIVE! with Pianist Marc Cary

Jazz pianist, keyboardist, producer and composer Marc Cary holds tight to his roots in Washington, D.C.’s go-go music scene, but they represent only one more element to fuse with the many other musical forms he explores. Cary’s interests run from Indian classical to Malian music to hip-hop. He started his …

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Gary Bartz: Talks About Drug Use Among Jazz Greats

Grammy Award winning  jazz saxophonist Gary Bartz first came to New York In 1958 to attend the Julliard Conservatory of Music. Just 17 years old, Gary couldn’t wait to come to the city to play and learn. “It was a very good time for the music in New York, at …

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Victor Goines: Jazz and Democracy

Saxophonist and educator Victor Goines explains what jazz is, how jazz music helps shape the democrat process and the advantages New Orleans musicians have over the music. SAXOPHONIST • CLARINETIST • COMPOSER • ARRANGER • EDUCATOR 
Born: August 6, 1961, 
New Orleans, Louisiana

 “Laconic yet agile, serious yet playful, studied …

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iRock Jazz LIVE! with Guitarist Paul Jackson Jr.

Though Paul Jackson Jr. never got to meet or work with Wes Montgomery, one of his chief guitar influences, he has forged professional relationships with all the others who touched his formative years, including Earl Klugh, George Benson, Ray Parker Jr., Al McKay and Lee Ritenour. Since breaking into the Los Angeles …

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iRock Jazz LIVE with Dr. Watkins, The Jazz & Democracy Project® Founder

The Jazz & Democracy Project® manifests a hypothesis that Wesley J. Watkins, IV, Ph.D. has been investigating since he was an undergraduate: a music-centered curriculum with genuine links to the other subject areas can increase student identification with school, impact academic engagement, and have a subsequent positive effect on overall academic …

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