You Like Jazz?

  For my blog, I chose to interview my Dad, Scott Garrett. He was born on April 9th, 1965 and he is head of inventory at Oilmens Equipment. He has definitely been one of the biggest influences on the music that I listen to and the musician that I am today. He introduced me to so many different genres, bands, and styles of music growing up and music has just been one of the things that he and I have always bonded over. I thought it would be fun to interview him just to get to know more details about why he loves the music that he loves and the history of how he came to have his music preferences. I also wanted to see if there was music that he liked that I didn't know about and what he really thinks about the music that I listen to.  First, here is a pic of the man himself along with some of my fav pics we've taken together.  Here is how our conversation went:  So Dad, what would you say is your earliest memory of anything music-related?       ‘It ...

Going into this blog I knew that I had to write about something that had to do with jazz. Jazz music is one of those things that absolutely blows my mind and amazes me each time I listen to it, especially live. It evokes emotions that I rarely experience while listening to other genres of music and watching it is like witnessing magic in the flesh. Also, being that the title of my blog for this class is "You Like Jazz?", I thought it would be only fitting to talk about a subgenre of jazz, that subgenre being "Cool Jazz".  What is Cool Jazz? Cool Jazz is a style of modern jazz that started in the 1940s in the US after World War II. The style is inspired by bebop but is quite contrasting to that style. The bebop style is fast and loud with a lot of energy and a lot of focus on improvisation, but cool jazz is quite contrasting. This style of jazz got its "cool" name due to journalists reporting on the new relaxed style. Journalists described the music as ...

When thinking about music and gender, the first thing that comes to mind is actually a person, Fanny Mendelssohn. I learned about Fanny Mendelssohn's story when I took Music History IV when we were learning about 19th-century music. I feel that her musical career is a great example of the history that gender has played in music.  Fanny is the older sister to the very well-known Felix Mendelssohn. She was an incredible musician and composer. Fanny composed many things, but when Fanny wanted to publish her compositions both her father and her brother told her it was not a good idea because she was a woman and because of her social status. She would continue to compose, but her brother would publish Fanny's compositions and would claim them as his own because she was unable to publish them herself. It wasn't until 1846 when she was forty years old that she published some of her compositions. She sadly died a year later when she was forty-one from a stroke. Fanny wrote hundreds...

Over the last few years, I have been asked to perform at a variety of rituals. From weddings and funerals to reunions and parties, worship services, and even the occasional Valentine's Day dinner. Rituals are a huge part of everyone's lives and as a musician, I have had the opportunity to help people celebrate the good times and comfort in the bad.  Funerals are a ritual that I feel, can be the saddest yet most beautiful. It's a time for people to grieve, but also celebrate the life of the person who has passed on. At funerals, the music is always varying as well. There are traditional songs that are usually performed at funerals such as well-known hymns like "In the Garden", and "Amazing Grace", but the families can also choose music that just represents their loved one and the life they led.   Recently I had the honor of singing at a man's funeral in Knoxville, Tennessee. The man's family asked me to sing "The Blessing" which is a con...

  Hello! I'm Mary Ashton Garrett and I am a senior at Converse. I am majoring in Music Education with a performance certificate in voice and a concentration in Music Theory. My primary instrument is voice and I dabble in piano. I've been doing music things for most of my life. I started singing at the age of three and began taking piano lessons when I was five. I've always loved music and it has always been a huge part of my life. When I began my college journey at Converse I honestly wasn't too set on majoring in music, to be honest, but I ended up really falling in love with music after taking all the different music classes and studying with Dr. MacPhail and I now know that performing and teaching music is what I want to do for the rest of my life.  Here are a few more of my fav pics:    ^Me and my kitty Ruth  ^Here is a pic from my Junior recital last year featuring the legend Lance Bastian ^This is a pic of me holding a pig. It made me very happy.  Her...