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May 26, 2013 11:00 am
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May 26, 2013 11:00 am
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January 20, 2013 12:00 pm
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May 26, 2013 2:00 pm
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May 24, 2013 8:00 pm
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May 26, 2013 4:30 pm
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May 26, 2013 7:00 pm
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May 31, 2013 8:00 pm
Calendar of Events
January 20, 2013
Bass Workshop: creating strong bass lines and improvising effective solos
Berklee College of Music faculty member Ed Lucie explains and demonstrates the use of chord tones in creating interesting and supportive bass lines in many styles. The use of chord tones to develop melodic improvisation is also addressed.
Please bring your bass! There will be opportunity for questions and answers as well as a chance to try the concepts. Open to all!
Ed Lucie received his BM from Berklee College of Music and his MM from the New England Conservatory. He has performed with Buddy Rich, Stevie Wonder, Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule and Leo Nocentelli. He is also a contributor to Bass Player Magazine.
Jazz Drum Set Workshop with Mike Connors
New England-based drummer Mike Connors offers a jazz drum set workshop open to drummers of all levels.
A wide range of topics are covered including:
-How to practice
-Exercises for increasing hand technique
-Creative use of rudiments
-How to practice using a metronome
-Developing a vocabulary for jazz comping
-Basic brush patterns
-Solo construction and development inside and outside form
-Grooves everyone should know
-Introduction to odd meters
-Applying your existing 4/4 vocabulary to odd meters
Mike Connors has toured internationally for the past twenty years with a variety of jazz and pop artists and has performed on over 50 albums and several movie sound tracks. He is currently on Faculty at Clark University and the Rivers Conservatory.
$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop
Learn to Make the Changes by Going With the (8th note) Flow with Steven Kirby
This workshop focuses on gaining fluency while improvising over changes by learning to write and improvise musically interesting and effective constant 8th note solos.
Want to be able to jazz up your blues playing? Create interesting new sounds over a tired vamp? Flow through fast moving changes in a free and creative way?
Learning to create effective melodic flow while still “describing” the harmonic underpinnings of a tune, as well as being able to convincingly superimpose reharmonization ideas for that tune, is a prerequisite for most styles of music which involve improvising over harmony.
Though effective solos will ultimately contain rhythmic variety, improvisors need to develop harmonic fluency so that they can “make” the changes in an interesting and creative way. One tried and true way to get that skill is to work on constant 8th note exercises which lead to creating non-mechanical sounding, musically effective, fluent passages.
Once the ability to create interest with a long flow of well chosen notes is acquired, the improviser can fairly easily learn to incorporate rhythmic variety and rhythmic development by paring things down, while still retaining the solid and creative relationship with the harmony.
Session participants will be given a series of guidelines (derived from insight gained from transcriptions of great solos), examples of effective constant 8th note material applied to common sets of chord changes and the opportunity to try out the concepts in the workshop by writing and playing themselves.
The material in this workshop is applicable to all improvising instrumentalists and vocalists. An intermediate level of theory knowledge, including the ability to spell chords, along with the ability to read music on your instrument, and some experience with improvising over changing harmony are suggested prerequisites.
Please bring your instrument/voice!
$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop
Bringing Singers from the Past to the Present with Stephanie Nakasian
In this workshop, Stephanie Nakasian demonstrates specific elements of style, phrasing and improvisation derived from the study of some of the most important and influential jazz vocalists including Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, and others in order to help singers acquire good, pure ‘ingredients’ of authentic jazz to mix with their own personal, contemporary interpretations of jazz singing.
$50 advance purchase/$65 day of the workshop
The Horizons Trio
The Horizon Trio is a collaborative project featuring three acclaimed performers/educators: guitarist Steven Kirby, bassist Ed Lucie and drummer Mike Connors. From melodic ballads to burning uptempo excursions, highly arranged compositions to free improvisation, this is a versatile and adventurous trio with a penchant for melodicism and lyrical expression.
Steven Kirby is a professor at Berklee College of Music and has released two critically acclaimed CDs as a leader on Challenge Records: “North Light” and “Point Of Balance.”
He has performed at jazz festivals throughout North America and Europe, and is a contributor to Guitar Player Magazine and True Fire.
“Kirby plays and writes from inside the music, putting melody and feeling first.”– Bob Blumenthal, Boston Globe
Ed Lucie is a professor a Berklee College of Music. He has performed around the world, with artists such as Buddy Rich, Stevie Wonder and Warren Haynes, and is a contributor to Bass Player Magazine.
Mike Connors is a professor at Clark Univesity and Rivers School. He has performed with Combustible Edison, Bryan Ferry, among others.