Kevin Sun

Last year, a friend of mine introduced me to the term "mo-jazz," a.k.a. , modern jazz. We were playing an uptempo tune he'd transcribed called "Time to Spare," which was written by saxophonist Brice Winston who's most recently been playing with Terence Blanchard's band. He included a little thumbnail of Justin Brown's face in the corner of the leadsheet as a joke; it was supposed to inspire us and remind us of the unabashedly youthful and contemporary vibe that "mo-jazz," either as a pejorative or as a sincere descriptor, embodied.  Even though "mo-jazz" was just a joke, there was something to it—the idea of a shared aesthetic that's been spreading through jazz schools and also through regional scenes in general. I noticed it in the records my friends were listening to, many of whom had overlapping personnel: Ambrose, Gerald Clayton, Walter Smith III, Taylor Eigsti, Aaron Parks, Mike Moreno, and so forth. I also heard it in...

Ambrose Akinmusire in 2011. There's no question: Ambrose plays some bad stuff. The question is: what is he playing that's so bad and how's he playing it?  A friend of mine passed this bootleg on to me—it's Ambrose playing over an F Blues at a show, with Walter Smith III and Roy Hargrove for sure and the other musicians unidentified (probably Justin Brown on drums and Sam Harris on piano). Check out this line over the first four bars. Ambrose leaves a few measures of rest before launching into the top of the next chorus; the rhythm section sets it up.   "Ah!" That's how I felt too when I heard it—so clear and so fresh. Here's the line: So, an ascending line that travels up an octave and a sixth in two measures, followed by a descending octave jump that unexpectedly travels up another octave and a third by way of stacked 5ths. In my eyes and to my ears, the operative note in the line is the concert Ab—the half-step approach to the third...

A couple of years back, I had the chance to hang out a bit with trumpeter Brian Lynch at the Brubeck Summer Jazz Colony. Brian was generous with his time and was gracious enough to teach me about the fundamentals of bebop—much of which was missing in my playing. Of the concepts we discussed, one particular point has been on my mind more and more as of recently: the use of octave displacement in creating lines and melodic shapes, which Brian called "the pivot."  In a bebop context, octave displacement serves a practical purpose by enabling lines to fit in the range constraints of a given instrument, e.g. , saxophone or trumpet. A simple example is dropping the end of a line down an octave when nearing a note that's above an instrument's comfortable range. To illustrate, here's a generic ii-V-I line without O.D., followed by one with O.D.: Without octave displacement With octave displacement From what I can remember from speaking with Brian, horn player...

My Banff buddy Sam Neufeld hipped me to this hour-long masterclass given by Ambrose Akinmusire. I thought more people should know about it: check it out! Ambrose Akinmusire - Master Class from Monterey Jazz Festival on Vimeo . ***At the time of this posting: Only 120 all-time plays?! Hard to believe —hundreds of dollars worth of masterclasses available on the Internet, but it's finding them that's the challenge. And some brief thoughts The Steve Coleman line is great: "You have to come up with your own concept." I'm more used to seeing "concept" used in a sarcastic or derisive manner, e.g. , "I'm sick of all these young guys who don't know the history constantly BSing about their 'concept,' or whatever." But, there's wisdom in that advice—why else would listening to somebody be enjoyable or stimulating if they only played generic or impersonal stuff?