2-5-1

2-5-1

By Simon Whiteside and Nicholas TomalinArtsMusic
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2-5-1 episodes

  • 2-5m-1-S2E52-Outros-Endings

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    To round off this series we talk about Outros and Endings - the way jazz players stop a tune.  Thanks for listening and look out for series 3! 

    Perhaps you will hear the ending and intro of our podcast in a new light.

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    6 min
  • 2-5m-1-S2E51-So you make it all up right?

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    In this episode Simon and Nick talk about common misconceptions around how jazz happens.  We actually made this episode up off-the-cuff....How very meta!

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    6 min
  • 2-5m-1-S2E50-What is a Chord Symbol?

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    This is one of our more technical episodes, where we try to demystify the way jazz musicians make the music. By the end of this episode you may even know what Cm7b5 means in musical terms. 

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    6 min
  • 2-5m-1-S2E49-Jazz versions of pop tunes

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    Jazz has always taken popular tunes as a starting point.  Some of the most famous jazz originals like Ornithology are new tunes on old chords sometimes called contrafacts. In this episode Nick and Simon discuss the subject of modern songs done in a jazz way.

    Jazz versions of Beatles tunes playlist here 

    Rock Swings here

    Herbie Hancock The New Standard here

    When Love Breaks down Dominic Howles Septet here

    Post Modern Jukebox here

    All above are Apple Music Links you will find them on other streaming sever ices too


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    6 min
  • 2-5m-1-S2E48-URP-Terry Pollard

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    Watch Terry Pollard with Terry Gibbs here

    Terry Pollard (August 15, 1931 – December 16, 2009) was an American jazz pianist and vibraphonist active in the Detroit jazz scene of the 1940s and 1950s. She has been described as a "major player who was inexplicably overlooked." 

    listen to Terry Pollard on Apple Music here  or Spotify here

    Listen to a Detroit Legend on Apple Music here or Spotify here


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    6 min
  • 2-5m-1-S2E47-Book Review-You Can't Steal a Gift

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    You can't steal a gift a book review You Can't Steal a Gift. Frederick Eugene John Lees (February 8, 1928 – April 22, 2010) was a Canadian music critic, biographer, lyricist, and journalist. Lees worked as a newspaper journalist in his native Canada before moving to the United States, where he was a music critic and lyricist. His lyrics for Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Corcovado" (released as "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars"), have been recorded by such singers as Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Queen Latifah, and Diana Krall.


    Listen to arranging the score Series 1 episode 44 here


    Erratum Simon Apologises for getting his American Geography wrong Louisville is in in Kentucky!

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    6 min
  • 2-5m-1-S2E46-URP-Christian Jacob

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    Christian Jacob 

    Jacob was born in Metz, Lorraine on 8 May 1958. A pianist by age four, he was immersed in studying the French classics. Something of a child prodigy, Jacob had perfect pitch and natural talent. He did not discover jazz until age 10, but when he did, its improvised nature appealed to him immediately. Early influences were Dave Brubeckand Oscar Peterson. As a teen, Jacob studied under Pierre Sancan at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris.Later, he would teach piano at the Conservatoire National de Region in Metz.

    In January 1983, Jacob entered Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and won many awards as a student, including the Joe Zawinul Jazz Masters Award, Oscar Peterson Jazz Masters Award, and Down Beat "Top Collegiate Jazz Soloist" before graduating magna cum laude in 1985. Jacob then took a teaching position at Berklee.

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    6 min
  • 2-5m-1-S2E45-Book Review-Coming Through Slaughter

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    One of our book reviews - this time it's the novel (or is it?) Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje

    Buy it here in print or listen to the audio book here

    The work deals with the life of Buddy Bolden the legend of early jazz who never recorded and wasn't documented much during his life.

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    6 min
  • 2-5m-1-S2E44-Jazz and the Beat Writers Part 2

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    This is a follow-on to episode 44. We go a bit further into the Beat poets reading their poetry with live jazz backing.  We talk about City Lights and Steve Allen and more.

    A couple of corrections

    Howl was first performed  by Ginsberg who read a draft of "Howl" at the Six Gallery reading in San Francisco in 1955.  Fellow poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books, who attended the performance, published the work in 1956. Upon the poem's release, Ferlinghetti and the bookstore's manager, Shigeyoshi Murao, were charged with disseminating obscene literature, and both were arrested. On October 3, 1957, Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that the poem was not obscene.

    Also

    Al jazzbo Collins records were with Steve Allen, you can watch the records revolve and listen to his righteous Spiel here 

    If you haven't already, check out our on podium blog on this subject 

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    6 min
  • 2-5m-1-S2E43-Jazz and the Beat Writers Part 1

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    We intended for this to be just one episode but felt that we had a lot more to say and ended up with enough for 2 five minute episodes the next will follow on March 1st 2025.

    This is the introduction to a blog on the Beats on our website links below

    The Beat movement was a literary movement which emerged in the United States in the post war-era. ‘Beat’ was slang for ‘down and out or poor and exhausted’. Jack Kerouac also spoke of the beat, especially the Jazz beat and also beatitude in a spiritual sense.  Central elements of Beat culture were the rejection of standard moral and narrative values, the importance of spiritual quest,  rejection of materialism,  experimentation with psychedelic drugs and sexual liberation. 

    Pivotal works include Alan Ginsberg’s Howl, William Burrough’s Naked Lunch and jack Kerouac’s  On The Road. The core group met in 1944 in and around Columbia University in NYC, although later writers settled on the West Coast. 

    The beat writers were attracted to jazz and especially bebop because of its underground, counter-cultural status. The writers were also influenced by the ‘improvisational’ nature of jazz which many tried to replicate in their writing. 


    There is a good documentary called " The Source" a standard definition version is on You tube here  but full fat versions are available to buy from apple  or Amazon Prime the imdb page is here 

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    6 min

About 2-5-1

From the publisher's feed

Nick Tomalin snd Simon Whiteside host a variety of podcasts about jazz .From the short vignettes of two pianist, five minutes, one podcast through to the Two pianist, Five Podcasts, One subject an in…