Jazz Appreciation Month at MPL

We realize it's almost over, but we couldn't let April pass without acknowledging Jazz Appreciation Month.

Jazz, swing, bebop, cakewalk, even the blues that birthed it (along with spirituals and African polyrhythms)—whatever you may call the music—is bigger than one blog post. But if you're new to jazz, hopefully we can provide some sort of introduction; and if you're an old cat, perhaps we can introduce you to something new.

Getting started

Better people than us have provided better introductions to jazz: Ken Burns, Bob Blumenthal and Herman Leonard just to start. (By the way, all these links lead you to books, music and films that you can check out for free from Mentor Public Library.)

So let's talk about the music and its early practitioners. The earliest jazz music came out of New Orleans: pianists like Jelly Roll Morton, clarinetists like Sidney Bechet, and trumpeters like Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong.

Some modern musicians still make jazz in the style of the old Hot 5s and 7s, for example, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Back then, jazz was mostly dance music: the emphasis was on syncopated rhythms, strong melodies and catchy improvisations. The harmonies and rhythms were not yet as complicated as they would become during the bebop era.

Big Bands

What started as the realm of solo pianists and small groups grew until bandleaders had entire sections of brass, woodwinds, percussion and sometimes even strings at their disposals.

Composers like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Woody Herman and Buddy Rich took the music to new places, incorporating aspects of classical, world, Broadway and even rock 'n roll into their songs. Meanwhile, the Gershwins were using jazz as the basis to create some of the most memorable show tunes of all time.

The Big Bands were often accompanied by singers who became just as (or more) famous in their own right: Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra and more. (That's right. Ol' Blue Eyes got his start singing with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.)

When we think of jazz, we tend to think of this era—with its Dukes and Counts and Cabs. You could argue that jazz would get more complicated and even more popular, but it would never be bigger.

Bebop

Musical genres tend to evolve overtime. The Beatles may have been influenced by the 1, 4, 5 chord changes of the blues, but they grew it into a wall of sound. Kanye West may work with Rick Rubin, but the final product is going to sound a lot more complicated "My Adidas."

Jazz also evolved from the swing of Jelly Roll to a dense jungle of chord changes, overlapping improvisations and unorthodox (sometimes dissonant) harmonies. This jungle's name was bebop.

Thelonious Monk would integrate seemingly atonal and arrhythmic strikes in his arrangement. John Coltrane and Miles Davis would use modal (as opposed to diatonic) harmonies in their solos and arrangements. Charles Mingus would take the lessons of Ellington and stretch them into suites depicting anger, depression and contemplation.

Jazz grew from dance music to almost anything you could imagine sonically.

Fusion

Let's be honest. Genres are arbitrary things. Whether you're bluegrass or blues, bebop or hip-hop, you're still using the same 13 notes. So it's unsurprising, natural even, for genres to meld.

Just like the Gershwins combined jazz and classical, Weather Report would fuse jazz and funk, Miles Davis would combine bebop and hip-hop and Herbie Hancock would mix everything with everything.

It's unsurprising that jazz would fuse with other genres. After all, one of its patron saints—Duke Ellington—was influenced by everything from Tchaikovsky to the music of Asia

Modern

So what is jazz today? Is it swing? Big band? Bebop? Fusion?

It's all of that and more.

Dr. John is keeping the New Orleans sound strong, Branford Marsalis performs a lovely Coltrane homage, and Takuya Kuroda uses hip-hop breakbeats in his percussion on his newest album, Rising Son.

Jazz has more faces than a hydra, and it's adding more all the time.

But enough of me talking. I suspect you'd rather listen to some music.

A little night music at Mentor Library

A short update today—mostly just wanted to share our video from Mentor Library's jazz age garden party.

We have a couple of other concerts coming up this summer if you're looking for a little night music.

The Travelin' Man Band will perform from 6:30 to 8 p.m. July 23 at our Mentor Headlands Branch. They play everything from Rolling Stones to Janis Joplin, so stop by for some good music and good times. The concert—like all of our programming—is free.

Then, on Aug. 7, we have a special concert for kids to close out our children's summer reading program.

By the way, there's still time to sign up for our summer reading programs—yes, even you grownups.

Sweet Jazz at Mentor Public Library

No 1,000-word monologues today. Just some music.

The Four Clarinets performed Monday night at the Mentor Public Library Main Branch. They played jazz standards like "Girl from Ipanema," "I'll Take Romance," "Jitterbug Waltz" and "Try a Little Tenderness."

(Yeah, "Try a Little Tenderness" was a jazz standard before Otis Redding funked it up.)

The Four Clarinets also talked about the history or jazz and basics of jazz improvisation. If you missed the show, I've embedded a video of them breaking down the blues. It gives you a taste -- but I'll be honest -- it's not a substitute for being there.

If you love jazz, feel free to drop by Mentor Public Library and check out some of our hundreds of CDs. You can also use your library card to download a lot of great jazz music on Freegal or stream it on Hoopla.

We have a lot of books on jazz too, if you're a reader. (And if you're reading a library blog, then we bet you are.)

Get Hep to the Jive with a Jazz Show at Mentor Library

Louis Armstrong had a line, "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know."

Far be it from me to disagree with Pops, but everybody from dilettantes to Charlie Parker had to start somewhere.

I started at the library. As a kid, I used to borrow stacks of CDs and cassette tapes -- Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughn, Arturo Sandoval, Parker, Herbie Hancock, Charles Mingus and, of course, Armstrong. (Yeah, cassettes -- that gives you a sense of how old I am.)

I was introduced to most of my favorite jazz artists at the library.

But I never got to hear them play live at the library.

Jazz lovers (and those with just a passing interest in the genre) can enjoy the music firsthand this Monday at our Main Branch.

The Four Clarinets will perform jazz tunes from the 1920s through 1950s from 6:30 to 7:45 in the Garfield Room as part of our Monday University series.

They'll play their own arrangements of standards like "I'll Take Romance," "Jitterbug Waltz," "One Note Samba" and more. They'll also give historical anecdotes on the music and explain the basics of jazz improvisation.

The program is free and open to the public -- kids and adults. However, we do ask that you register for it beforehand. You can do so on our website or by calling the Mentor Public Library at (440) 255-8811.

By the way, jazz lovers, have you tried Freegal yet? It's a program that allows you to legally download mp3s of your favorite artists for free. And you can keep the mp3s forever. Play them on your iPod, burn them to CD, record them to cassette (if they still make those) -- whatever you want to do. They're yours.

Freegal's library includes John Coltrane, Abdullah Ibrahim, Jerome Kern, Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Wynton Marsalis and a lot more.

And it's free with a Mentor Public Library card. Check it out.

For the Love of The Beatles

That's what I'm talking about.

I can't think of anything better than a beautiful summer's evening and Beatles music.

If you missed the Abbey Road concert Wednesday at the Read House, the video gives you a taste of all the fun. (But, to be honest, it's just a taste.)

Abbey Road is one of the longest-performing Beatles tribute bands in the world. They have more than 30 years of experience playing the tunes of the Fab Four. On Wednesday night, they played for about 170 people outside of Mentor Public Library's Main Branch.

We host concerts at Mentor Public Library for a lot of reasons. Sometimes, it's to promote local talent. Sometimes, it's to introduce you to something new.

Now, granted, there aren't many people left on this planet who don't know The Beatles. But, believe it or not, there were some young children who came to the Abbey Road concert last night who didn't know their "Hard Day's Night" from their "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

Now they do. They got to learn about The Beatles in the funnest way possible without a time machine. I suspect they'll be some kids raiding their parents CD collections this weekend... or their grandparents' records.

Another thing we love about concerts -- the costumes.

But the two biggest reasons we host concerts is because they're fun and we love music.

So we want to thank the band and everyone who saw them perform. (And the Mentor Arts Commission who sponsored the performance.) We hope you all had as much fun as us.

By the way, that may have been the last outdoors concert of the season over at the Read House, but we have a couple of other performances coming up.

Travelin' Man Band will be playing everything from The Rolling Stones to Sam Cooke to Janis Joplin at 2 p.m. Saturday at our Mentor-on-the-Lake Branch. (The show will be right after the Labor Day Parade.)

Then, on Sept. 9, a clarinet quartet will talk about the evolution of jazz and perform songs from the 1920s through 1950s in the Garfield Room at our Main Branch.

Both shows are free. We hope to see you there.

One last thing: if you love music, you should check out Freegal. As its name implies, it's a free and legal way to download mp3s from hundreds of artists including Pink, Beyonce and Kenny Chesney.

You can download up to three mp3s per week. And they're yours to keep -- load them on your iPod, burn them on CD, play them on loop ad infinitum -- forever.

And it's free with a Mentor Public Library card.