Letting Music Breathe

So far the story about how Jazz musicians foster a young generation of players has been one story that I enjoyed the most in reporting with Steve Weinman. In the vibrant music scenes of Columbia, the coverage of Jazz is surprisingly underplayed. Artists would asked me the question:"How could you do a story about Jazz without me?"

So we ended up getting a lot of soundbytes and original Jazz music. My initial production was very much artificial, according to the feedback from our faculties. I was inserting music for the transition of soundbytes and voiceover, leaving chunks of silent background for most of the piece. After following the suggestion of cutting longer music and padding the piece with a Jazz base, the story suddenly came to life. Letting music breathe brings much more delight in hearing such a story that is less hard-news factual than entertaining. I wish I could have learned all the rythm and movement well enough to convey what news there is.