“You can jazz too,” says Nancy Blue

Nancy Blue has about 50 songs completed, many of which are similar to “jazz standards”. One person described her song “Darn Good Things” as like a classic Holiday song (not lyrics but melody and chords). But now it’s a new time – she began the jazz focus in 2012, now she’s on to making an album with soul/disco/funk/pop grooves. She’s a late bloomer and hopes to inspire folks over 50 who haven’t begun to be a musician, painter, business owner, dancer, etc to do that thing NOW and not listen to anyone saying they can’t begin to do art, or be creative, or own a business, because of their chronological age.

Nancy shared the process behind her song Bumble Bee. Download the lyrics to follow along.

We talked about:

• Our songwriting challenge for 2024 to write a holiday song. Please send us your answers to the challenge by November 18!
• How Nancy’s flautist performed his part to emulate the movement of a bumble bee
• Learning music theory by studying piano, and then with a jazz guitarist who was taught by Charles Mingus
• How difficult it is to arrange jazz music electronically
• If you want to introduce jazz into your songwriting, study some jazz standards
• How’s it’s perfectly fine to be an amateur musician and/or songwriter and not a superstar
• Ways to “find your people“
• Post-show discovery: Memetic music, a term we learned about after the show with regards to the flute imitating a bumble bee