WolftoMan77

Miss Jenson hello, first off I've heard many great things about you. As an aspiring jazz trumpet player I was wondering if you could give me some pointers on how best to approach jazz. Most people say that you need to listen to jazz in order to play it well. My teacher Michael Capps, has highly regarded you as a great player.
Thanks

gridjam

First of all- check out the thread- "here is your degree kid"....
There are so many insightful tips there to get you started at whatever level you may be at.
In a nutshell, as with any language- you must immerse yourself in the environment of the art form in order to get an idea of what tools are needed in order to communicate.
Step one is to start listening.ALOT!
Step two- get fishing. Fishing for fingers as Clark Terry says. The way I learned my first tunes were by ear, trial and error...is it this fingering? ....
Eventually you will get the melody, then the bass notes that outline the harmony, then the different voices of the chords (starting with a medium blues is a good place to start)then as much of the solo material as you can execute on your horn. Miles Davis- Kind of Blue is a solid recording to start with as you can learn a ton from NOT just Miles' solos but all of the players on the date.
Check out 25 Highly accessible jazz cds for the unititiated on Amazon...aside from Boz Scaggs (not sure how he got on there) it's a decent list. That in combination with ANY Louis -Hot Fives and Hot Sevens
...memo to self, get a good list of available CDs together for site.!
Last thought- go to the library, either local or any university and set aside some time to weed through as much music as possible and make a list of musicians and bands that move you.
have fun!
Ingrid