New Concepts of Bill Russo

During the Fifties, a musical style frequently called West Coast jazz became popular with both critics and serious jazz fans. It also appealed to many casual listeners, some as attracted to the provocative album cover art as they were to the music. However, by the mid-sixties when jazz was dominated of the Avant-garde or New Thing, this variation on modern jazz was discredited and frequently forgotten. This study examines the music produced by Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars at The Lighthouse nightclub in Hermosa Beach, California between 1952 and 1959 and its relationship to music recorded by New York-based groups during the same period. The Lighthouse provided a stable working environment for jazz musicians with few, if any, commercial restraints. The band produced both live and studio recordings over a period of seven years. The recordings contain a variety of modern or post-swing approaches to jazz improvisation, composition, and arranging similar to those found on recordings produced in New York. The recordings do not support the view that the All-Stars were playing an identifiable West Coast or Cool style that was different from an East Coast or Hard Bop style favored by players based in New York. Recent interviews with members of the All-Stars and articles appearing in both jazz and general interest periodicals during the fifties also indicate that the All-Stars were not playing in a different style. They viewed their music as modern, just as their New York-based contemporaries did. Using the All-Stars as an example of modern jazz in the fifties, the frequently confusing jazz history narrative found in most textbooks can be reshaped, providing a more useful picture of the music during that decade.

2005

In this essay the author discusses the origins, evolution and impact of Third Stream music, the broader outgrowth of it being Confluent music. Reference is made to relevant compositions and recordings from the USA, England and Europe, up to 2004. Background information about the composers is provided. Compositions including elements from African music are being examined. The author investigates the involvement, up to 2004, of Australian composers and composers resident in Australia. A substantial bibliography and discography is included.

2001

s compositions are significant to the study of jazz and American music in general. This study examines his compositional style through a comparative analysis of three works from each of his main stylistic periods. The analyses focus on form, instrumentation, texture and harmony, melody, tonality, and rhythm. Each piece is examined on its own and their significant features are compared.

PhD Thesis

An analysis of the author’s composition portfolio is presented with reference to selected compositions by relevant contemporary composers interviewed in this study: Australian composers Judy Bailey, Stuart Greenbaum, Mark Isaacs, Andrea Keller, and South African composer Stefans Grové. The aim is to identify the existence of fusion in the art music composed by the above mentioned composers and to determine the kind of fusion. Enquiries are being conducted into a composer’s body of work, whether or not there is a specialization in a fusion of genres or whether only certain compositions feature this phenomenon. Further reference is made to the influence of American composers Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Maria Schneider, and Australian composers Paul Grabowsky and Carl Vine upon the accompanying composition portfolio. Composers have to employ certain compositional techniques in order to overcome difficulties in practice. Presenting classical or jazz performers with musical genres they do not normally perform can be confronting. This thesis is an evaluation of compositions, as well as innovations by composers used to overcome difficulties in fusion.

Journal of Jazz Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 95-118 (Winter 2014-2015)