The Lost American JazzBook
Oakland, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | SELF
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News Flash: The Independent Music Awards has nominated The Lost American JazzBook for Jazz with Vocals Album of the Year! How swell is that?
More Swellness: Jazz is Like Rain is a finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the Jazz category.
"Jazz music is an intensified feeling of nonchalance." Francoise Sagan
A few thoughts...
In the first half of the 20th century, two great musical streams came together—the songs of Tin Pan Alley (George Gershwin, Betty Comden, Kurt Weill) and jazz. What emerged was a music so new, so free, so rhythmically and tonally complex that it changed our very idea of what music could be. You can hear it in the recordings of Billie Holiday, John Coltrane and Bill Evans.
Today, musicians continue to bring a vibrancy and immediacy to the world of jazz. But the art of songwriting that is at the heart of so much of this most American of art forms has been all but lost. JazzBook is my attempt to tap into this great musical stream, while writing songs that speak to our time. That’s why it contains the only lesbian love song in the history of Big Band music—as well my own form of Cajun and various musings on love and rain.
Our world is a mess. Hopefully, The Lost American JazzBook offers a bit of a romantic and swinging respite, and provides a small reminder of just how swell life can be.
Albert Greenberg, creator and main composer
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The Lost American JazzBook is the WINNER of "Jazz Vocal Album of the Year" from the 14th Annual Independent Music Awards has nominated. And 2 of the songs, "Jazz is Like Rain" and "Sandy in the Rain" were finalists in the John Lennon International Songwriting Contest. JazzBook features some of the finest musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, including 2-time Grammy-winning violinist Mads Tolling, and introducing the extraordinary vocals of Rose Armin-Hoiland. Under the musical direction of pianist Dan Zemelman, The Lost American JazzBook just swings.
As much as it's about the playing, JazzBook is about the songs--written in the style of the great jazz standards--from the first lesbian love song in the history of Big Band music, to bebop to samba. But don't take our word for it. Listen!
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