The reading material for the next few weeks discusses how jazz continues to be a viable art form. New artists regularly gain recognition for their contribution to the music, even to this day.

For this last discussion board, your objective is to introduce your classmates to a rising or currently relevant artist in modern jazz music.

The parameters

You must choose one of the artists from the “The Elite 150 Early- and Mid-Career Jazz Masters” list from the appendix of the text. If your artist is not listed there, you will not receive credit.

The artist you choose must have recorded with musicians outside of their own group (this probably includes everyone, but I mention in case there is a musician listed who is strictly a solo performer).

You may not write about the same artist profiled by one of your classmates.

My recommendation is to open Spotify, type in one of the artist’s names and briefly listen to a few of their recordings. Check out a dozen or more different artists. They will represent a very broad range of styles of jazz, and you might be surprised by what you discover.

• For your initial post:

State the name of your artist and their primary instrument in the title of your thread.

Provide basic background information… when they were born, where they grew up, their first major break, etc.

• List some notable artists they have collaborated with, especially if they have worked with musicians outside of jazz music.  Allmusic.com and Wikipedia typically provide this information, but you would be served better to visit the artist’s website (most of them have one).
• Name the style(s) of jazz mentioned in the text that you think were most influential on the artists style of music. Is there music reminiscent of bebop? Hard bop? Cool jazz?  You will probably find this information as part of your web search.