John Malmstrom

I’d like to point you to some spots on the web that as a musician, I’ve found so exceptionally informative, fun, and valuable that I visit them often. Some of these sites are commercial, some academic, some very home-made; but the authors all have in common a genuine love of their topic and a willingness to share their knowledge. To these generous friends — and you know who you are — I offer many, many thanks. Please let me know how else I can help!

Jazzstandards.com
Today’s jazz musicians must intelligently channel, reinterpret, recreate — or reject (!) the artistry of those who have gone before us and if a significant part of our job-description is performance of jazz standards, where do we go to learn about those compositions? The staff at Jazzstandards.com has gathered information from hundreds of reference books and historical documents with additional commentary by jazz performers, historians, and musicologists to create a one-stop treasure-trove of information on the 1000 most frequently recorded jazz tunes. The songs are easily searchable by title, popularity, or year. Most entries include a thorough summation of the origin and history of the tune, musician comments and anecdotes, and important listening recommendations (with samples). The section I’ve personally found most valuable and unique is an analysis of the musical structure of each song. I regularly refer to this site when preparing a performance, since even when I’m working in an historical style, I’m mindful that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it — and where’s the fun in that? Hmmm… OK, with jazz, even that’s fun!

Clarinet Jazz Point
Denise Razzouk, a clarinetist in São Paulo, Brazil, does something amazing every day. By combining her love for jazz and the clarinet with Facebook she’s built Clarinet Jazz Point

(CJP), a wonderful clearing house for hundreds of videos, indexed biographies, musician’s websites, discussions and comments, all about jazz clarinetists. This is an incredibly active community, with many entries each day. How Dr. Razzouk finds the time to obsessively troll the web for all manner of jazzy clips is a mystery, but the 1,600+ musicians, fans, and aficionados who regularly visit CJP to contribute, comment, or simply lurk, clearly appreciate her efforts. One of the joys of this page is that in addition to classic archive footage of jazz legends, Denise often discovers musicians who might otherwise have gone unnoticed (Full disclosure: I fall into that category!). Their videos range from the virtuosic to the naive, but always interesting and deserving consideration.

Against this backdrop, every-so-often we get a peek at Denise’s own growing skill in the style she loves most — you guessed it: jazz clarinet!
Thank you to everyone who contributes to the CJP community, but especially Dr. Razzouk. Keep posting and practicing, Denise!

Bret Pimentel
Bret humbly calls himself an emerging talent and woodwind doubler on saxophone, flute, clarinet, oboe, and bassoon. As Dr. Pimentel, he teaches the reed instruments at Delta State University, in Mississippi. What makes this blog so valuable are his well researched and written, academic yet accessible, discussions on all aspects of woodwind playing. So much information on the web is of a hobbyist nature. Not here — this site fills a valuable need. For anyone unable to enjoy a formal music education, visiting Bret’s wonderful site feels like sneaking in to the back row at a really fun university music class. Thanks Bret!

Next in the Spotlight: I came up with three — now it’s your turn! Contact me with your favorite online resource for jazz, woodwinds, or music!