What Songs Are Gateways Into Enjoying Jazz?
Ep. 30 of Themes and Variation features Peter Martin, jazz pianist and composer, educator, and founder of the e-learning site, Open Studio.
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7 Genre-Bending Artists Fusing Jazz With Electronic Music
With genres as diverse as jazz and electronic, there’s a ton of room for experimentation. Here are 7 artists defining a space for themselves in the middle.
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What Makes a Great Cover Song?
That’s the question we’re asking, answering, and passing along in Episode 5 of Soundfly’s new podcast, “Themes and Variation.” Check it out!
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Why Leon Bridges’ Powerful New Song “Sweeter” Works on Every… Single… Level
We break down the devices that help Leon Bridges and Terrace Martin’s song, “Sweeter,” function on every level, musically, poetically, and emotionally.
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How Esperanza Spalding Is Bringing Value Back to Music with Her New Album
“In the paper, the lyrics are waiting. And we’re just gonna pull them out with a pen.” – Esperanza Spalding Music today is hardly something to get too excited about. Let’s face it, with all the streaming services available to us at any moment for free (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, etc.), music as a commodity has […]
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Unsung: In Praise of Rap’s Studio Musicians
Rappers used to say, “The real backbone of hip-hop is disc jocks.” Nowadays, though, the real backbone of hip-hop is ostensibly the virtuosic studio musicians dominating the most heralded releases of the past few years. In leaving their indelible marks on records by award-winning artists like Chance The Rapper and Kendrick Lamar, instrumentalists like Nico Segal (a.k.a. Donnie Trumpet), Robert […]
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How Jazz Is Secretly Rewriting Its Own Future in Camouflage
+ Bridge the worlds of theory, improvisation, and jazzy hip-hop, and improve your piano chops with Grammy-winner Kiefer in his course, Kiefer: Keys, Chords, & Beats. You may not have known this, but yesterday was International Jazz Day. Look around, and you’ll find a ton of jazz festivals happening right this moment worldwide — from Denton, Texas […]
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Breaking Up with Barack: Playlists for All 5 Stages of Grief
Welp, it happened. You didn’t think it would happen but it did. President Obama has completed his presidency with flying colors. Although he still has a few months before he has to turn over the keys, it’s time for Americans to realize the inevitable… We have to break up with Barack. It’s been a good […]
