Albums“Sunlight”

Columbia, 1977Herbie Hancock, vocoder & keyboardsTerry Adams, Emily VanValkenburgh,

Nathan Rubin, Linda Wood & Roy Malan, strings

Garnett Brown, Bobby Shew, Maurice Spears & Robert O’Bryant, brassLeon Chancler, Harvey Mason,

James Levy & Tony Williams, drumsFred Jackson Jr & Jack Nimitz,

woodwindsBennie Maupin, saxophone

Byron Miller & Jaco Pastorius, electric bass

Raul Rekow & Bill Summer, percussion

“Adam’s Apple”

Blue Note, 1966s

Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophoneHerbie Hancock, pianoReggie Workman, bassJoe Chambers, drums

“No Mystery”

Polydor, 1975Stanley Clarke, bassChick Corea, keysAl di Meola, guitar

Lenny White, percussion Return to Forever, band name

In the late 1960s and through the 1970s, jazz took a funky turn. With the release of “The Sidewinder” by Lee Morgan in 1964, straight eighth notes became a very popular way to make jazz more approachable to a mainstream audience and get more plays in jukeboxes. Funky R&B and soul were also very popular during this time: The Ohio Players, Kool & the Gang, Mass Production, James Brown (& the J.B.s), Parliament/Funkadelic, Bill Withers,

Stevie Wonder and Zapp & Roger are just a few examples. This straight eighth, synthesized sound bled into jazz and brought jazz musicians out of swing and into a more exploratory area of music. You can still hear their influences in the Robert Glasper Experiment and the RH Factor’s albums. Another jazz musician famous for his novelty use of electronics mixed with acoustic instruments is the tenor saxophonist, Eddie Harris.

The Groove

Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophonist) Casey Benjamin (saxophone & vocoder using keytar)

LISTENING GUIDEJAZZ SAXOPHONE STUDIO GUIDE 3

Why Listen So Much?• • •

Jazz is the people that perform it. In order to build a relationship with this music, we must build a relationship with its musicians. We are lucky because we don’t need to meet them and talk to them in order to get to know them and the stories they want to tell, we can do this by listening to what they have to

say in their music. Sometimes they tell us they’re happy, and sometimes they tell us that they’re sad. Sometimes they are at a party and sometimes they are alone, and we can learn this and more by listening to them. Maybe they are telling a story that we have been through before. Once we hear how they tell their story, we can use their example to help us tell our own. Listening to a lot of music also helps us explain our performance goals to other musicians. You may compose something and not know exactly how to explain it, but you can have your band listen to something from a record you heard that embodies a sound you want to portray.

How To Find Recordings

1. Online Radio: Spotify

2. Online Radio: Pandora

3. Digital Download: iTunes

4. Borrow: Public Library

5. Purchase: Encore Records

6. Purchase: amazon.com

7. Preview: allmusic.com

8. Online Video: youtube.com

9. Online Playlist: songza.com

Jaco Pastorius, bass

Your NotesThis is probably much different than “jazz” you’ve heard before. What sounds different? What sounds the same? Would you call this jazz? What did you like about it? What didn’t you like about it? Would you listen to it again?

Would you show it to your friends? Ask your parents about this music, what does it make them think of?