Jazz is popular all over the world, more popular than baseball. Jazz is the sound of freedom the sound of America. It was personified by Louis Armstrong; the sound of his horn bares the sound of freedom, of America. Were it not for Armstrong, there would be no jazz. The very essence of jazz lies within the persona of Louis Armstrong; he perpetuated jazz, in that it would continue for over a 100 years; it continues on today, growing, and branching out to new musical horizons; forms of expression.

The harmonic and rhythmic constituents of jazz have adorned all countries of our planet; they left an indelible mark in the form of cosmic energy, as the musicians lay to with the executive branch of music known to all as JAZZ.

Louis Armstrong sewed the musical seeds of jazz; other jazz giants came along and fertilized the seeds. They gave birth to music with their ordained artistry, they planted a foundation so big, so large, that it's growth has never stopped and never will. The fluorescent lights emanating from the idiom of jazz will beckon, and a galactic rendezvous will open other doors that jazz shall grow unto itself--leaving nothing behind to soil the terrain on which jazz walketh--to its ongoing destination--to ornament the very luster in which it layeth upon nature-- it's mother lode, the cosmos from whence it came.

Jazz as we know it today, is indubitably a product of the vicissitudes--trials and tribulations--associated with other forms of artistry that require a high degree of creative ability. Let the bells of jazz toll within the cosmic nature of all creative endeavors, as harmony and rhythm occupy and pervade the essence of that cosmic enterprise. Jazz will never be a victim of desiccation; it will continue to be that which it is destined to be--the cosmic nature of the musical enterprise.

And the architects that give unto us, the garnished flavor of jazz, will need, in addition to their artistry, the elected countenance from the people of jazz--those who relish and proffer from the fruit of this worldly form of music; as the jazz musicians, when offering a melody, entangle themselves in a rendezvous with harmonic and rhythmic content as they search for a new melodic line never to be played again.

Let freedom ring, jazz is right around the corner to comfort our souls with its grace. The soul hears and sends a message to consecrate harmony and rhythm for an everlasting renaissance with the cosmic structure of the Universe. Listen and you shall hear...look and you shall see the wayward wind of cosmic dust as it filters down and throughout the galactic vastness of the big sphere that God hath given unto us. Let there not be a reunion of song, rather let it be a song of endless duration, in that it will covet us all.

We can look at jazz as the art of rational conjecture; it will have fervor--emotions transmitted from the musicians who, with their artistry, produce the musical power necessary to convey the message throughout the heaving bosom. It reflects all that we represent as musical beings--to distort the music is to distort life itself...!

And today, in the twentieth-first century, we are abode with a labyrinth of jazz styles, some of which have been influenced from the uncanny history that has been bestowed upon us by the founders of jazz over one-hundred years ago. To attach the label of jazz to the all encompassing music of the same name is somewhat repugnant; styles have changed, and the musicians executing this music will never experience a cosmic rendezvous with nuance as did the many jazz virtuosos that lay before us. They, and only they, represent the building blocks of a music which is now called jazz. So be it that time is representing the past, which has affected the present.

As jazz passed beyond the 1960s, there was a kaleidoscope of styles--different forms of expressions; some were from renegades of the repository of modes that originated from the inception of jazz. With some modes of jazz, jazz-rock and jazz-fusion, there seems to be a need for an ostentatious presentation of musical values; amplification with sufficient volume for orbital expression, a dress code to entice the listeners to heed to the audacious display of music presented--a form of entertainment to the masses?

The repertoire of the musical conglomerates of which I speak--various forms of jazz-rock and rock 'n' roll--has, to some extent, changed the ethical and moral values of our standard of living. Their performances abode with electrifying hieroglyphics to satisfy the earthly needs of their listeners. What about freedom, freedom as in jazz--does it exist? Not with the same platform, but it does exist in the minds of those who behold it; freedom to scream, jump up and down, and indulge in harmful behavior, beyond which, there is no salvation!

This book is about the very essence of jazz; a music made by musicians; the architects that laid the groundwork, planted the seeds so it would grow, as it has, to fruition. And yet jazz represents the epitome of a perpetuating music which is popular all over this planet. It belongs to the people of the world--they have supported it since it began a century ago. And to the multitude of musical contributors--the architects of jazz--who no longer abode on this planet, rather in another constellation in the Heavens.

In memory of those giants of jazz, those great virtuosos who laid down the red carpet so that others might follow, I give my everlasting devotion; for they have coveted and influenced me, and to some extent, the new breed of horn players. To these architects, and they shall have eternal recognition, who made their contribution to the repository of a music representing freedom--freedom of America, their spiritual coffer is predicated on the essence of their being

And to wit, there is a plethora of a new breed of musicians flooding the music market with CD’s to an extent that, as Gerry Mulligan said, "What has happened to the meaning of this music?" It has reached a point now that there are so many different types of instrumentalists perpetuating the marketplace, we can hardly tell them apart in terms of their sound; an individualistic and unique way of producing sonorities and ultimately nuance? I leave the rest for you to think about!

In closing, I would like to mention the names of a number of musicians, who by now, you are familiar with, whose artistry and individualistic sound cannot be underestimated; for they are the masters--their unique style and tremendous contribution to the very essence of jazz cannot, and will not, ever be duplicated again. They remain steadfast as the prodigious musicians who have made jazz a permanent part of world culture.

Do you know these musicians:

Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong-the man who started it all, Kid Ory, King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson, Chick Webb, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, John Coletrane, Lester Young, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Jo Jones, Gene Krupa, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Christian, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz, Harry "Sweets" Edison, and so many more too numerous to mention.

Freedom shall reign as we peer through the kaleidoscope of jazz and find wisdom, which is needed to penetrate its ABYSS, leading to freedom of a world democracy as it came up through the ages to meet the demands of the Universe--the cosmic splendor of something made up of freedom, peace, harmony, love, and ultimately .God.

And let jazz be anointed and ordained with cosmic dust, as it filters down from the Heavens above--its umbrella opens to covet all that abode on the terrain which we walk in search of ."THE ABYSS OF JAZZ."

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