These four virtues of jazz—tradition, collaboration, improvisation, and transcendence... are also gifts for the larger world outside of jazz... Any jazz aficionado knows the musical virtues of jazz, ...

Jazz artist Louis Armstrong once said, "never play a thing the same way twice." Although musical improvisation—composing new passages on the spot—is not unique to jazz, it's perhaps the genre's most ...

Fingers graze a keyboard, poised to play. A trumpet rises to the lips. Drumsticks perch in the air, ready to fall. The improv begins, and this combo of jazz musicians instantly creates a piece of ...

Given what Mozart initially improvised in his head and what he later wrote out are one and the same, the listener will derive equal satisfaction listening to Mozart spontaneously invent at the piano, ...

Ziggy Elman became widely recognized for blending jazz trumpet with Eastern European musical influences. His lively solos and ...

The Bachelor of Music (B.M.) in Jazz and Improvisation is for musicians pursuing careers in jazz, studio recording, and performance in contemporary idioms (popular, world, experimental). The core ...

Pioneered in the 1950s by musicians breaking the rules of jazz and composition, free improvisation is still as difficult – and potentially transcendent – as it ever was. A Guardian documentary takes ...

It’s late at night in a smoky 1950s New York City nightclub, and Bird Parker is onstage. You’re mesmerized by the impossibly brilliant music cascading from his horn as you sip your gin—but what can ...