Trumpeter Releases Book Interviewing Today’s Great Storytellers of Jazz
Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt has released numerous albums over the last 20 years and with his newest album, Griot: This Is Important! (February 2021), it is clear that music has clearly always been at the forefront of his artistic abilities.
Now, Pelt has ventured into a new medium of writing to continue the conversation of music and Black social issues. Inspired by Art Taylor’s Notes and Tones, Pelt presents pointed conversations with many of today’s top Jazz musicians in this first volume of Griot: Examining the Lives of Jazz’s Great Storytellers. Currently, the book is only available directly through Jeremy Pelt. (Check out his Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook pages for more information).
Update: Click here to purchase the book and music directly from Jeremy Pelt’s website.
To learn more about this book, see below to read the back cover provided by Jeremy Pelt.
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Griot is defined as a member of a class of traveling poets, musicians, and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa. It is this very concept that inspired trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and now, author, Jeremy Pelt to seek out generations of amazing Black storytellers of America’s indigenous music, Jazz, to record their stories and bring it to the fore.
In the first volume of Griot: Examining the Lives of Jazz’s Great Storytellers, you will read very intimate and candid discussions from Paul West, Warren Smith, Bertha Hope, Dr. Eddie Henderson, Larry Willis, René Marie, Lewis Nash, Wynton Marsalis, Peter Washington, Terri-Lyne Carrington, Justin Robinson, Greg Hutchinson, JD Allen, Robert Glasper, and Ambrose Akinmusire.
“It is the juxtaposition between ambiguousness and creative magnitude that lives at the heart of so many of our jazz musicians’ personal histories. This makes Griot such an important text; it serves to narrow the proximity between their untold genius and the impact of their artistic value.” – Angélika Beener
Image Sources: Jeremy Pelt
Last Updated: Monday, February 15, 2021, at 2:35 PM. Originally, the article stated that Nat Taylor was the author of Notes and Tones. That has been corrected to say the book was written by Art Taylor.
Update: Click here to purchase the book and music directly from Jeremy Pelt’s website.
