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May 26, 2013 11:00 am
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May 26, 2013 11:00 am
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May 26, 2013 12:00 pm
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May 26, 2013 2:00 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
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June 2, 2013 4:30 pm
Calendar of Events › Workshops
May 19, 2013
Mark Levine Workshop Series: How to Voice Standards for Piano – The Menu
Grammy-nominated pianist/educator Mark Levine shows pianists how to create effective jazz piano arrangements using 4th chords, upper structures, the “So What” chord, the “Kenny Barron” and “Herbie Hancock” chords, and rootless left-hand voicings. Mark has created a “voicing menu” to facilitate matching the melody note at any given point with the best possible piano voicing. Students use Alice in Wonderland as a workshop song.
$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop
Vocal Jazz Workshop: The Music of Harold Arlen with Maye Cavallaro
Over the Rainbow: The Music of Harold Arlen
Known for his bluesy and harmonically sophisticated tunes, Harold Arlen paired with the best lyricists of his day including Ted Koehler (with whom he wrote “Let’s Fall in Love,” and “Stormy Weather,”) and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg (with whom he wrote the music for The Wizard of Oz.)
In this 3-part workshop, singers explore the music of Arlen including well-known tunes and some not so well-known.
Students also listen to how jazz greats have interpreted these songs to get ideas for their own arrangements.
May 19, 26 and June 2, 2013 Noon – 3 pm
$220 advance purchase/$235 day of the workshop
Instructor provides 10 charts and practice tracks. Class time is spent learning the songs and developing new arrangements. In the 3rd meeting of the series, students work with an accompanist.
Maximum enrollment: 8
Mark Levine Workshop Series: Jazz Theory Complete in 2 Hours!
Author of the one of the most widely used jazz theory texts in the world, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music), Mark Levine boils it all down to a single two-hour intensive. From the II-V-I progression through advanced harmonic techniques, scale theory and reharmonization. Please bring music manuscript paper and a pencil to class.
$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop
May 12, 2013
Harmonic Innovations in Brazilian Popular Song
The popular songs of Brazil have had an ongoing conversation with American jazz for over 60 years. This is due in part to the incredible harmonic sophistication of this vast body of music. From the golden age of samba, through bossa nova, to the creative explosion of 1960′s-1990′s MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira), Brazilian popular song has been an astonishingly rich source of harmonic innovation. In this workshop we will listen to representative songs from all three eras. Using detailed and accurate lead sheets as a guide, the instructor will analyze the tunes harmonically and melodically, revealing a throughline of increasing harmonic depth and formal innovation that is unsurpassed by any other popular music tradition. Improvising musicians, jazz composers, and songwriters will all find inspiration and new material in this survey/analysis.
Like jazz, much of the best Brazilian music has gradually evolved from dance music to art song, becoming more complex but losing none of the directness or melodic lyricism that is at its root. Whether you are steeped in Brazilian music or a newcomer, there will be lots to discover and hear in this exciting presentation.
Sunday May 12, 2 – 4 pm
$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop
Joe Mulholland
Joe Mulholland is an Associate Professor of Harmony and Interim Chair of the Harmony Department at Berklee College of Music. Before coming to Berklee, Joe taught piano and ensemble at Brown University and Boston area music schools, as well as serving as music director for Didi Stewart and Friends, an award-winning ensemble devoted to presenting full-length tributes to composers and performers in the American Songbook and classic r’n'b styles.
An accomplished pianist, recording artist, composer, and teacher, he has released three CDs of original music written for his sextet and has composed numerous electronic scores for Boston-area dance companies, including a Tango Suite commissioned by the Northeast Youth Ballet that received performances in Boston and New Jersey. Joe performs with his trio one hundred nights a year at the Top of the Hub, an upscale jazz venue in Boston, in addition to appearing as a sideman and vocal accompanist in numerous other concert and club settings. In his capacity as music director for the Windhover Center for the Performing Arts, he has composed and recorded sound design and songs for original productions of Peer Gynt and Dogtown Common. He also wrote eleven songs and three dance numbers for the original musical Battle for Pigeon Cove Harbor, which received a three-week run in theaters on the North Shore of Boston.
May 5, 2013
Hip It Up! Developing Style & Improvisation with Kellye Gray
As singers, we practice scales and sing a variety of runs to loosen up the voice. Our rote memory of the pitches and movement of notes through these scales and exercises is available to us at the ready. Improvising the melody or completely changing it, as during the improvised second chorus, becomes second nature.
This workshop series teaches the singer to ʻhip-upʼ their performance and interpretation. You don’t need to scat sing to take this workshop. You will gain confidence in your choices during performance. Jazz singing is always a work in progress and each opportunity to develop your craft through performance is where personal style is born. The more you ʻhip it upʼ, the more stylistic your approach. Itʼs fun! Come and take baby step towards self-confidence as a stylist and a jazz singer.
First Week – Sunday May 5, 2 – 4 pm
Video examples of melodic diversion and the second chorus. Explore basic movement around the melody line. Style and stylistic approaches (How Hip Do You Wanna Get?)
Second Week – Sunday May 12, 2 – 4 pm
Students take chances with the melody. Students improvise second chorus. Improvised Endings.
Third Week – Sunday May 19, 2 – 4 pm
Final Performances. Open Discussion on vibe, style and the ‘hip’ factor
$180 advance purchase/$205 day of the workshop
Jazz Piano with Larry Vuckovich
Jazz Piano
with Larry Vuckovich
Master jazz pianist Larry Vuckovich offers a unique hands-on workshop highlighting the history of jazz piano. This event is designed for both musicians and jazz fans who would like to learn more about the history and origins of jazz piano from a nationally and internationally acclaimed musician. Larry will bring CDs of the jazz piano masters and also demonstrate on piano the signature styles of many of these legendary pianists. He starts with New Orleans sounds of Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines, moves through swing era piano of Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum, and on to bebop era innovations of Bud Powell,Thelonious Monk and Barry Harris, then, original jazz expressions of Erroll Garner, followed by hard bop bluesy inflections of Red Garland and Sonny Clark, and post bop changes of Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan, to further post bop extensions of Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea. He concludes with free jazz and atonal piano improvisation of Cecil Taylor. This versatile pianist has performed and traveled with many jazz giants throughout the years – as mentioned below – enabling him to capture the characteristic sounds, including harmonic, melodic and rhythmic expressions, of a wide spectrum of jazz piano masters.
Larry Vuckovich gained first-hand knowledge and authenticity from performances and/or recordings with many of the jazz greats, including: Dexter Gordon, Philly Joe Jones, Elvin Jones, Charlie Haden, Bobby Hutcherson, Tom Harrell, Charles McPherson, Billy Higgins, Lucky Thompson, Joe Williams, Jon Hendricks, Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, Bobby McFerrin. He has been associated with several piano masters – some for a long period, others for a brief, but meaningful time – such as Bud Powell, Red Garland, Bill Evans, Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, and as the only student of Vince Guaraldi, untilVince’s passing. (Although Vince is mainly known today for his Peanuts fame, he gave to Larry true jazz and Latin elements that he obtained during his important tenure with Cal Tjader’s band, that included Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo and Al McKibbon. Larry was honored when Vince Guaraldi chose him as his partner in a two-piano quintet.
May 4, 2013
The Art of Brush Playing with Jon Arkin
Brushes are among the most effective and essential tools available for drummers when playing in an acoustic jazz context.
This workshop provides an overview of brush techniques and concepts, including basic time patterns, variations, accents, textural possibilities, articulation, and finger control, and in moving beyond the fundamentals, covers the ways that brushes can open one’s playing up to new ideas, dynamics, and interactive possibilities.
Open to all drummers, as well as any musicians interested in learning basic time playing with brushes.
$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop
Rhythm in Jazz: Swing to World Grooves Workshop with Freddie Bryant
This workshop covers numerous arrangements of standards and original tunes using typical and less frequently encountered grooves.
Over the course of the workshop, students examine and play Brazilian, Latin and more groove-oriented jazz styles (funk, New Orleans second line, etc.) as well as more ‘exotic’ world-influenced rhythms from India and the Middle-East.
A key goal of the workshop is to see the thread of influence of African rhythms in new world styles starting with the blues and triplet-based beats going from slow blues to 6/8 and 12/8.
The event begins with a lecture/demonstration by the instructor followed by an interactive session with students analyzing, learning and playing arrangements taught by ear and standard notation.
Open to instrumentalists and vocal improvisers.
Prerequisites: basic knowledge of reading and improvising but also open to students who play more by ear than by reading. Some music is taught completely by ear.
Freddie Bryant received a Master’s degree in classical guitar from the Yale School of Music and is in demand in the New York jazz and Brazilian scenes, where he has worked with Elaine Elias, Tom Harrell and many others. He currently is a member of Ben Riley’s Monk Legacy Septet, the Mingus Orchestra and leads his own groups, Trio del Sol and Kaleidoscope.
Bryant has six CDs as a leader: Live Grooves…Epic Tales (just released in Oct. ’12 on HiPNOTIC records) Trio del Sol (Twinz Records); Brazilian Rosewood, Boogaloo Brasileiro, Live at Smoke (Fresh Sound Records); and Take Your Dance into Battle (Jazz City Spirit).
He has toured 50 countries and collaborated with musicians from a variety of backgrounds, including Indian classical musicians, African singers, oud players, traditional Arab groups and klezmer bands. In 2006, Bryant spent a week in Cuba , performing and working with other musicians.
As an impassioned educator, he has taught jazz to all ages around the world. Bryant is on the faculties of Berklee College of Music and Prins Claus Conservatory in Groningen, Holland . His website is www.freddiebryant.com
$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop
April 28, 2013
Mark Levine Workshop Series: The Enigmatic Diminished Chord
Many jazz musicians draw a blank when confronted with a diminished chord. Sure, you know how to spell it, but it doesn’t sound like jazz! This workshop addresses all aspects of the diminished 7th chord including chord theory, scale theory, the various functions of the diminished 7th chord in jazz, four-note voicings, voice leading, plus how particular musicians such as Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock, and Barry Harris effortlessly use this much-misunderstood chord.
$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop
Mingus Sings: The Vocal Music of Charles Mingus with Ellen Johnson
Charles Mingus is one of the most important figures in twentieth century American music as a virtuoso bass player, pianist, bandleader and composer. What many people don’t know is that Mingus also wrote lyrics for some of his most beautiful and interesting works. This workshop explores many of his vocal compositions with lyrics by Mingus and other lyricists. This is not only for singers but instrumentalists or anyone interested in the music of Mingus. During the workshop we will sing and play the songs, discuss the construction of the compositions, provide charts to several songs and explore the meaning of the lyrics.
$50 advance purchase/$65 day of workshop
Ellen Johnson
Vocalist and lyricist, Ellen Johnson has been enamored with the music of Charles Mingus for over three decades. She has recorded six Mingus compositions with original lyrics to three of them with permission of Sue Mingus and Jazz Workshop. Her version of “Peggy’s Blue Skylight” on her debut CD, Too Good To Title, featured alto saxophonist and frequent Mingus collaborator, Charles McPherson. Ellen has performed Mingus compositions in concert, club and other venues and shares her lyrics with other vocalists. Ellen has also performed and/or recorded with Sheila Jordan, Bobby McFerrin, Charles McPherson, Louie Bellson, Pete Christlieb, Roy McCurdy, Billy Drummond, Larry Koonse, John Stowell, Cameron Brown, and Hugh Martin.