Upcoming Events › Workshops

A look into the role the montuno plays in Afro-Caribbean music styles, and its application to jazz; focusing on clave direction, and how to hear it in a practical setting.

Students gain a basic understanding of how the montuno fits into Afro-Caribbean musical styles and how to apply the concept to other musical styles.

Prerequisites: basic understanding of harmony and the II-V-I progression. Bring your instrument! (Piano will be available.)

Sunday May 26, 11 am – 1 pm

Eli Goldlink $20

Eli Goldlink is a Berkeley born and raised pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader finishing his final semester at the Jazzschool Institute to receive a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies. Eli currently plays piano/keyboards with bay area latin fusion band Cha Ching (the band from Oakland,) locally based project The Astronauts, and his own personal project Eli Goldlink’s Flavor of the Month Club Band (we hope you will enjoy the show.) Showcasing all original music composed by the man himself.

The Blues underlies much popular music and is a foundational skill for jazz musicians. The form provides an endlessly fascinating vehicle for improvisation and can be approached stylistically in many ways.

In this workshop, students investigate the functional areas in the blues form, examine the harmonic structure of a 3-chord blues, add jazz chords to create a more sophisticated harmonic structure, consider minor key blues concepts, experiment with the blues form by extending the number of measures, and explore sources for blues melodies.

This presentation includes numerous musical examples and recordings.

No prerequisites, open to all!

$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop

World-renowned bassist Kai Eckhardt (John McLaughlin, Garaj Mahal) leads a workshop open to all! Topics include: Intervals and rhythms — new look at old friends, the nature of the bass and its special place in music, from functional playing to creative freedom, knowing and accepting your roots, building a bridge from your roots to your ideas, how to practice and what to avoid, ways to avoid injury, getting healthy, and having fun!

$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop

Ensemble Concepts for Guitar with Anthony Wilson, Chico Pinheiro and Larry Koonse

This workshop is an opportunity for guitarists to sharpen their skills as players within ensembles of all kinds.  

Participants work on ensemble blend and phrasing, contextual improvisation within extended musical forms, dynamics and sound production, and accompaniment techniques. Student questions will be addressed throughout the workshop.

Prerequisites: For intermediate to advanced students. Ability to read traditional notation and familiarity with jazz harmony recommended.

Anthony Wilson and the Seasons Guitar Quartet

Founded in 2011 for a premiere performance and live concert recording at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Anthony Wilson’s Seasons Guitar Quartet features the master guitarist/composer/arranger exploring his deep rapport with three of today’s finest young jazz guitarists: Julian Lage, Chico Pinheiro, and Larry Koonse.

Much more than a chops-laden supergroup, the Seasons Guitar Quartet is an ensemble in the most complete sense of the word: the group combines Wilson’s rich, detailed composing and arranging with the interpretive and improvisational voices of four exceptionally strong instrumentalists and empathetic accompanists, working together to create a modern chamber-group sound based on the guitar’s various traditions— from American “roots” forms such as blues and bluegrass, to Brazilian Samba and Choro, to the most traditional as well as the most current, growing edge of modern Jazz.

For the last 10 years, Anthony Wilson has been an indispensable member of Diana Krall’s quartet, and he has appeared on recordings and performances with a who’s who of modern music: Willie Nelson, Bobby Hutcherson, Paul McCartney, Barbra Streisand, Madeleine Peyroux, Joe Sample, and producers Tommy LiPuma and Joe Henry are just a few of the diverse artists with whom Wilson has forged fruitful, lasting partnerships.

Anthony Wilson’s harmonic sophistication, technical control, and sheer suave elegance place him in the major ranks of jazz guitarists. Downbeat Magazine noted Wilson’s resemblance to Jim Hall, “in his harmonic sense and his relaxed, softly sparkling romanticism.” And The Village Voice wrote “He’s the real thing, with a voice and manner all his own and a promise that stretches to the horizon.”

Audiences will need little introduction to guitar phenoms Chico Pinheiro, Julian Lage, and Larry Koonse, whose performances and recordings as leaders in their own right, and as valued collaborators with world-renowned artists as diverse as Dianne Reeves, Gary Burton, Esperanza Spalding, Billy Childs and Luciana Souza have helped to create fast-spreading worldwide “buzz” about all three of these legends-in-the-making during recent years.

DownBeat Magazine has called Wilson’s Seasons project, “Nothing short of gorgeous: as close to understanding the marriage of artist and instrument as we’ll get in this lifetime.”

$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop

Altered dominant, sus, dominant 7#11, dominant 13b9… jazz repertoire is replete with dominant 7th chord variations.

Developing an understanding of the function and application of the dominant chord in its many guises is important for jazz improvisers and composers.

This workshop, for intermediate through professional-level players, takes a deep look at the spectrum of dominant chords focusing on two questions:

(1) Chords can convey a vast and subtle range of emotions. How can we use music theory to better understand these effects and improve the music we make?

(2) When we’re improvising or composing, when and why would we want to choose one dominant chord over another?

Class time is spent discussing the chords and their interrelations, listening to examples, and exploring related topics such as harmonic brightness and darkness, and different types of “outness.”

Guaranteed to have you thinking about these chords in ways you’ve never considered.

Prerequisites: Basic familiarity with common dominant chords (e.g. G7alt, G9#11, G13b9, G7sus) and scales (e.g. Mixolydian, Lydian dominant, diminished, altered).

Sunday June 2, 11 am – 4pm (with a half hour break for lunch)

$75 advance purchase/$90 day of the workshop

Upper structure voicings are the spice added to the meat and potatoes of jazz piano voicings. From Bill Evans to Mulgrew Miller, they have become a staple in the jazz pianist’s bag. Students will use Chick Corea’s “Mirror, Mirror” as a workshop tune for applying various upper structure voicings.

$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop

This workshop covers piano comping techniques from Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk to the present. Mark discusses and demonstrates various styles, including those of Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and Mulgrew Miller.

Grammy-nominated pianist Mark Levine has played/recorded with Woody Shaw, Mongo Santamaria, Joe Henderson, Willie Bobo, Bobby Hutcherson, Moacir Santos, Freddie Hubbard, Cal Tjader, Wallace Roney, Tito Puente, Milt Jackson, and many others. He is the author of The Jazz Piano Book, The Jazz Theory Book, and The Drop 2 Book, all of which have become widely-used jazz education texts in conservatories worldwide. 

$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop

Saying it: Developing Your Own Musical Voice

with Joshua Breakstone

Having something unique and special to say, and saying it in one’s own way, with one’s own voice is the ultimate achievement in jazz. The dynamics we use in speaking are literally the same dynamics which allow us to communicate on a deep level and in a unique way in music.

We’ll explore applying the dynamics of the voice – the dynamics of speech – to jazz improvisation and see how each of us can use these dynamics in our own unique way to develop a unique musical voice.

All this will be discussed within a framework of jazz history, and we’ll also go into ideas about repertoire, practicing, traps and pitfalls which are intrinsic to the guitar itself, how to listen to jazz, the functioning of the rhythm section, etc.



Examples will be demonstrated and, hopefully, workshop participants will participate as well – bring your instrument!

With 19 recordings as a leader with such jazz legends as Kenny Barron, Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, Pepper Adams, Jimmy Knepper, Jack McDuff, Mickey Roker, and Al Harewood, Joshua Breakstone has established himself as one of the major jazz guitarists of our day. He is also the author of Jazz Etudes: Studies For The Beginning Improviser, a standard text at many colleges and universities, and has both performed and presented workshops throughout the world.