History of Jazz Piano in One Video

Jazz piano
In this video, Kris Bowers sits down behind a piano and takes us through a history of instrumental jazz piano using more than 40 tunes. Bowers, a Thelonious Monk Competition winner, gets a little help from some other musicians from the “History” series and a sign that tells us what is going on.

Check out this video on the history of jazz piano.

NPR disagrees with a little of the commentary, but it is an interesting music tour. Check out some other videos in the History series posted by collectivecadenza.

What is your favorite jazz piano piece? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Barbara Dane’s Cool Musical Legacy: “Wild Woman,” “Gasser,” “Hard-Hitter”
  • 100 Years of Lady Day
  • Music Evolution: Hit Songs & Their Samples
  • Charlie Haden’s “Spiritual”
  • Ella Fitzgerald: A-Tisket A-Tasket
  • Take Five Dave Brubeck

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    “The River” Had a Happy Ending After All

    The River One of the many depressing songs on Bruce Springsteen’s 1980 double album The River, is the title track. The song ends with the singer haunted by memories, wondering “Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true / Or is it something worse?” The story is based on real life, but the real-life inspirations for the song did not have the ending foreseen in the lyrics.

    “The River”

    The singer of “The River” tells the story of meeting Mary in high school. The singer first recounts how the high school kids would go down to dive in the river. While the image is one of teenage joy, the music and earlier lines about growing up “to do like your daddy done” hint at something sadder. By the time the singer is nineteen, Mary is pregnant, and the couple find themselves getting married at the courthouse “with no wedding day smiles.”

    In the song, more troubles come.  The singer faces hard times and acts like he no longer remembers the past.  Meanwhile, Mary “acts like she don’t care.” But the singer does remember the past.  And it is those good times at the river that haunt his days.

    The Inspiration for “The River”

    Springsteen based his song on his sister Virginia (“Ginny”), who during her senior year of high school became pregnant. Ginny married her boyfriend, Michael “Mickey” Shave, who was a rodeo rider, in a small ceremony. The two then began their young family life together.

    In this video from one of his performances during the the No Nukes: The Muse Concerts For a Non-Nuclear Future on September 19-23, 1979 at Madison Square Garden, you can hear Springsteen introducing the new song with, “this is my brother-in-law and my sister.”

    The Real-Life Story

    Although Springsteen imagined a sad life resulting from such a start, things worked out better for Ginny and Mickey than they did for the singer and Mary. Ginny and Mickey have been married for more than forty years, and they had three children and several grandchildren.

    While, like everyone, Ginny and Mickey may wonder some days about what might have been, the real-life people who inspired “The River” do not seem as haunted as the characters in the song.

    Not only did things work out for the couple, but their wedding gave Ginny’s brother what Rolling Stone Magazine calls his fifth greatest song. It sounds like everyone’s dreams came true after all.

    What do you think of “The River”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

    Buy from Amazon

  • Bob Seger and Bruce Springsteen “Shout” In Their Third Performance Together
  • Bruce Springsteen: Always Roaming With a Hungry Heart
  • “New” Springsteen Track: “Meet Me In the City”
  • Passover: Moses and the Price You Pay
  • Bruce Springsteen Releases New Protest Song About ICE Protests: “Streets of Minneapolis”
  • 9 Thoughts on the “Deliver Me from Nowhere” Movie and Springsteen’s “Nebraska” Box Set

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Bobby Darin Singing His Last Hit With Stevie Wonder

    Darin Wonder Carpenter

    On May 14, 1936, Walden Robert Cassotto, who we all know as Bobby Darin, was born in the Bronx. When one thinks of Darin, the first thing that probably comes to mind is one of his hits from the late 1950s or early 1960s, like “Splish Splash,” “Dream Lover,” “Mack the Knife” or “Beyond the Sea.” But Darin continued to record in a number of different genres, including folk and country, and he also did some acting, even earning an Academy Award nomination.

    In 1963, Darin played a shell-shocked soldier in the World War II drama, Captain Newman, M.D.., which also starred Gregory Peck and featured other actors like Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, and Robert Duvall. The movie, based on a novel by Leo Rosten, followed the work of Captain Newman (Peck) at a neuro-psychiatric ward of a military hospital in Arizona.

    For his portrayal of the shell-shocked Cpl. Jim Tompkins, Darin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Additionally, at the Cannes Film Festival, he won the French Film Critics Award for best actor. He appears for a few seconds in this preview.

    Although he continued to record, act, appear on TV, and become involved in politics through the 1960s and the 1970s, Darin had his final Top 10 hit in 1966 with a recording of Tim Hardin‘s “If I Were a Carpenter.”

    Below Darin performs “If I Were a Carpenter” in January 1969 with Stevie Wonder when Darin hosted NBC’S Kraft Music Hall: Sounds of the Sixties special. Their performance has the feel of an impromptu jam, and it is pretty awesome.

    Although Darin is only 32 in the performance with Wonder, Darin had health problems through much of his life from a weakened heart due to a childhood illness.

    Darin passed away at the age of 37 on December 20, 1973, and at his request, his body was donated to science. As he did in his too-short life, Darin wanted to give everything he could even in death.

    What is your favorite Bobby Darin song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

    Buy from Amazon

  • There’s a Farm in Arkansas, Got Some Secrets On Its Floor: Tom Murton, Bobby Darin, and Robert Redford
  • Beyoncé and Dolly Parton: “Jolene”
  • Glen Campbell & Stevie Wonder: “Blowin’ in the Wind” (Duet of the Day)
  • BBC Releases All-Star “God Only Knows”
  • Berry Gordy and the Legend of Motown
  • WTF?: Janis Joplin With Tom Jones?

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    “What’s Up?” is What’s Up Again

    what's up?

    Linda Perry recently reunited with 4 Non Blondes to perform “What’s Up?” live together for the first time in twenty years. Fortunately, someone was there on Saturday, May 10, 2014 to capture on video the group at “An Evening With Women,” the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center‘s annual fundraising event.

    “What’s Up” is one of the most memorable songs from the 1990s. It first appeared on the group’s 1992 album, Bigger, Better, Faster, More! before being released as a single in 1993.

    Do you recall why the song is called “What’s Up?” even though the phrase never appears in the lyrics? Reportedly, Perry chose the title instead of the chorus’s “what’s going on” to avoid confusion with Marvin Gaye’s classic song of that name. Anyway, check out the recent performance of the worldwide hit song.

    Perry left 4 Non Blondes in 1994, but they still sound great together on “What’s Up?”

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • 4 Non Blondes Perform “What’s Up” at 2025 BottleRock Napa (Live Song of the Day)
  • Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Ain’t No Valley Low Enough
  • Metallica’s National Anthem at the NBA Finals
  • The Groundbreaking Rock and Roll Movie, “The T.A.M.I. Show”
  • The Big Chill Released in 1983
  • Queen Latifah’s Jazzy Anthem

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    George Carlin’s Stuff

    George Carlin Stuff

    George Denis Patrick Carlin was born in Manhattan, New York on May 12, 1937. In honor of the birthday of George Carlin and the stuff that we get on our birthdays, here is one of his famous routines about “stuff,” which is both funny and true.

    Carlin passed away on June 22, 2008.

    What is your favorite George Carlin segment? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Gravity Got Me Again: Mitch Hedberg
  • Lenny Bruce is Not Afraid

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)