David Marriott, Jr. is a jazz trombonist, composer/arranger, educator, and blogger. A two-time Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award recipient and winner of the 1999 National Jazz Trombone Competition, David is active in a variety of Seattle jazz groups, including the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, Zubatto Syndicate and his own critically-acclaimed groups Septology and Triskaidekaband.
It's been a hugely exciting 24 hours since releasing The Periodic Table of Jazz to the world at large. I spent every free moment of the day on the phone, returning calls about the image, the idea, the design, and jazz in general. I received some great emails with questions - I will be getting to all of you, so please be patient. I also discovered more than a few more duplicate element symbols -- I think the color differences must be the explanation, otherwise how could so many people miss them, including me? I also took the opportunity to update the image in a few other ways, including taking a few missed opportunities with clever element symbols. One student requested shirts, and my motto has always been, "ask and you shall receive," so here are some Periodic Table of Jazz shirts - available in many styles, so take your pick.
I've also posted a bit larger version for folks to look at -- sorry, I'm trying not to let a printable version out into the wild for free quite yet, but I'm working on that as well (a free version).
Also, I've made a little video to show the process I went through making the poster. I made the video before making the latest changes to the design, but it should give you a look at the spurts of work that created the majority of the design. Enjoy the evolution of The Periodic Table of Jazz:
Last but not least, if you ordered a poster and it has the old design, feel free to send it back to Imagekind or Zazzle and re-order the updated version. Otherwise, you have a one-of-ten (or less) rare version print! Treasure it! Enjoy - more as it comes!
When Mountlake Terrace High School band director Darin Faul approached me earlier this year to arrange Norah Jones' "Back to Manhattan" for the MTHS Jazz Band, I was excited, flattered, and most of all thankful -- I needed the work, too! There wasn't much to it, mainly just adding a backdrop to the original version, staying out of the way of the vocalist. But the last two things I've arranged for him -- Duke Ellington's "The Single Petal of a Rose" and Artie Shaw's "Concerto for Clarinet" -- were somewhat more daunting tasks. Ellington himself only recorded the piece as a solo piano composition, and the Artie Shaw piece had originally been recorded for a full orchestra -- and then there were the reputations of the pieces and the artists themselves. With a quick turnaround time needed for their Hot Java Cool Jazz performance, I had to squeeze all my musical and physical juices to get something completed that I was happy with.
Well, after seeing these two videos from the concert, I can only say, "Bravo!" The Mountlake Terrace High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Darin Faul, has hit a series of home-runs with these new charts, and made a whole ton of music out of some ink I put on a page. You clearly got the vibes I was going for, and then some. Bravo! Enjoy the videos of the two charts below:
In a recent series of articles for The Partial Observer, Neo Classical columnist Holly Mulcahy writes about the ten most common ways that performers alienate their audiences. While the article is generally written from the context of a classical musician's point of view, nearly every word in this article applies to the vast majority of musicians as a whole. The article is written with humor to demonstrate it's points without coming across heavy-handed. Musicians: pay attention to this article -- it could help you get hired back!
In a joint collaboration with Google, LIFE has placed millions of photos online for the general public to enjoy from their archive. Of those millions of photos, 200 appear when searching for "jazz", and there are some great shots here worth paying attention to that potentially were never published. View all 200 jazz photos in the LIFE archive, or feel free to visit the LIFE archive home page to look for other subjects -- on a side note, Louis Armstrong appears in the "People" list on the home page! I love the Miles one on the right, but I put my two favorites below, both taken by photographer Eliot Elisofon in 1954. Enjoy!
Forest Whitaker may end up being the only person in history to portray not one but TWO famous jazzmen on the big screen. We all remember his wonderful performance as Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood's "Bird" -- say what you will about the movie, but his acting was superb -- and now he will be taking on the role of Louis Armstrong in a the film,"What a Wonderful World". Whitaker will also direct the film, which is being produced by Paris-based Legende and co-executive produced by Oscar Cohen, executive of the Armstrong estate and the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation. With seemingly little action going on in the "jazz film" world, this new production will start shooting new summer in Louisiana. Maybe Buddy Catlett will get a cameo!
It's been a hugely exciting 24 hours since releasing The Periodic Table of Jazz to the world at large. I spent every free moment of the day on the phone, returning calls about the image, the idea, the design, and jazz in general. I received some great emails with questions - I will be getting to all of you, so please be patient. I also discovered more than a few more duplicate element symbols -- I think the color differences must be the explanation, otherwise how could so many people miss them, including me? I also took the opportunity to update the image in a few other ways, including taking a few missed opportunities with clever element symbols. One student requested shirts, and my motto has always been, "ask and you shall receive," so here are some Periodic Table of Jazz shirts - available in many styles, so take your pick.
