I’ve been operating under the name of The Jazz Gospel (TJG) for just under a year and a half now and thought it was finally time to come clean and confess my role as its author. My name is Nick Brown, I’m a saxophonist, improviser, composer and newly proclaimed blogger currently in my third year of a BMus Jazz course at the Birmingham Conservatoire, UK.
If I’m honest, when I first set up TJG I never really knew what it was going to become. Twitter was the perfect platform to generate a following and create a positive contribution to the jazz community. However, 140 characters just doesn’t cut it sometimes. Of course this does not mark the end of The Jazz Gospel’s Twitter days. Simply put, this blog will exist alongside the Twitter page and coincide with the continuing development of TJG.
The digital presence of the jazz community is ever-growing and there are some great resources out there to mention. I’ve been inspired by a wealth of sources which I’m sure will be mentioned in posts to come but for now I’ll stick with Boston saxophonist Kevin Sun’s blog A Horizontal Search, an exemplary model of something I can only hope to achieve right here. I find that Kevin’s writings are impossible not to relate to, whether that being a personal association I can’t be sure but I’d definitely recommend checking it out to make your own decision. I particularly relate to his frequent use of the term “jazz nerd” as especially whilst in the walls of music college I’ve set myself the task of ingesting as much knowledge as I can attain; The original reason for setting up TJG.
I’ll make the promise now that this blog won’t become to saxophone heavy but being a sax player myself it’s inevitable there might be some orientation towards that from time to time. As I write this I’m listening to my newest purchase: Gerard Presencer’s ‘Groove Travels’. Gerard is an English trumpeter currently living in Copenhagen, Denmark and his latest album features the Danish Radio Big Band – a worthwhile listen! It seems since Maria Schneider’s visit to Birmingham in November 2015, I’ve been continually inspired to pursue large ensemble composition and arranging so I’m checking out as much of that as possible. I’ve probably listened to ‘The Thompson Fields‘ 100 times over and not once has it lost its freshness, probably why I made it “TJG’s Album of the Year 2015.” Maria’s visit will definitely become something I’ll always remember and I’ll be sure to share some of her wisdom from her masterclasses in blogs to come.
Today’s Musician of the Day is Jasper Høiby, a Danish bassist who I saw play with Malija last Friday at The CBSO Centre, Birmingham. Jasper is more well know for playing with British trio Phronesis definitely worth checking out!
For now, I’ll leave you with a quote spoken from the mouth of TJG’s face:
“Jazz washes away the dust of everyday life” Art Blakey
The Jazz Gospel 