JazzImprovisationPrimer


 * 1.** The name of this website is Outside Shore Music: A Jazz Improvisation Primer (http://www.outsideshore.com/primer/primer/index.html)


 * 2. AUTHORITY**

The domain of this site is ".com". This is an appropriate domain: //A Jazz Improvisation Primer// is supported by Outside Shore, (http://www.outsideshore.com/), providers of educational products and services for jazz musicians and artists. The author of the site is Marc Sabatella, founder of Outside Shore. He is a professional jazz pianist, a respected educator, an accomplished impressionist painter, and a former software engineer for Hewlett-Packard. He attended college at Florida State University and University of California, Berkeley.


 * 3. INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT**

This website is the text of Sabatella’s book //A Whole Approach To Jazz Improvisation,// //published by ADG Productions. It discusses jazz history, jazz fundamentals, scales and chords, accompaniment, ensembles, and listening.// Sabatella includes an extensive and annotated bibliography (http://www.outsideshore.com/primer/primer/ms-primer-10.html) and discography (http://www.outsideshore.com/primer/primer/ms-primer-11.html).

National Music Standards addressed by this website include:

2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. 3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments. 5. Reading and notating music. 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. 7. Evaluating music and music performances. 9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

This website is copyrighted 1992-2000 by Outside Shore Music. It has no record of recent updates.


 * 4. PURPOSE, VIEWPOINT**

This page was created to be a free resource for amateur musicians who are interested in studying jazz. Sabatella’s three goals for the learner are the language of jazz, jazz appreciation, and jazz improvisation. He provides information as well as listening examples to achieve these goals. This web page was created to inform and instruct. It is sponsored by Outside Shore, a publishing/record company founded by Marc Sabatella. On his site, he includes and extensive bibliography and discography (mentioned above). One may easily conclude then, that Sabatella’s jazz guide is informative and unbiased.


 * 5. REPUTATION**

Major universities such as the University of Chicago and the University of North Carolina site //A Jazz Improvisation Primer// as a valuable resource. //A Jazz Improvisation Primer// has been translated into Italian, German, and Hungarian.


 * 6. OVERALL EVALUATION**

This is a great resource for any jazz educator or student. Marc Sabatella has put together an easy-to-navigate site with very extensive information on jazz language, appreciation, and improvisation. Since the site is very self-contained (Outside Shore is Sabatella’s company), it has a very small scope. Also, it has not been updated recently and contains no links to other web resources. The appearance is on the boring side: heavy on text and light on images. On the other hand, this keeps the site simple and straightforward as well as having a great bibliography and discography. To conclude, although it is not a fancy site, it is an excellent place to find accurate information on jazz (for teachers and students) quickly and easily.

Rating: +++

Reviewed by: Margaret Kiehl 4/9/06