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Jazz Page Index

• Articles About Jazz Activities
• CMEA Bay Section 2007 Jazz Festivals
• Summer Music Camp Listing
• About Jazz Festivals
• Notes for the 2007 Solo/Combo Festivals
• Internet Links for Jazz Directors
• Click here to see a jazz sessions photo gallery from the 2005 Winter Conference
• Return to the CMEA Bay Section Home Page

Articles About Jazz Activities

Jazz Notes for May, 2007

Can you believe the semester is more than halfway finished? Summer will be here before you know it, but there is still plenty of time to introduce your jazz students to some of the masters of our art.

If time permits, I would like to encourage you to show segments of the documentary film ���Jazz,��� by Ken Burns. This documentary is a fantastic account of jazz history with a great deal of footage and sound clips from some of jazz���s most notable artists. The documentary is very informative, educational, and will expose your students to a number of jazz musicians with whom they may not be familiar.

In addition to showing documentaries to your musicians, I also would recommend starting a ���jazz listening hour��� at some point during the school week. During this time period play recordings of different jazz musicians from different periods in jazz and have your students listen actively. Have the students compare the music to other jazz pieces with which they may already be familiar. Ask the students a number of questions like: What is the drummer doing here? Why do you think the pianist is comping this way? Why is the saxophonist using this kind of tone quality? These and other similar questions will help your students focus on the music they are listening to and will allow them to make educated comparisons between many different styles of jazz.

We still have one jazz festival remaining this semester -- Jazz Valley on May 5, 2007. This will be hosted by saxophonist Matt Pivec and will be held at the CSU Stanislaus School of Music. I am looking forward to hearing some great groups at that festival and I am sure it will be as fun and educational as were the previous jazz festivals this semester.

I am in the process of securing dates and venues for the spring 2008 jazz festivals so be on the lookout for those in the very near future. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your semester and best of luck with your end-of-year concerts.

Aaron Lington
Jazz Representative

Summer Music Camp Listing

Cazadero Performing Arts Camp (Russian River redwoods)
Email: CAZPAC@cazpac.org
http://www.cazpac.org/
510-527-7500

Pacific Music Camp
Bruebeck Institute Jazz Camp
University of the Pacific (Stockton)
http://www.edu/conservatory
209-946-2416

Hayward LaHonda Music Camp (in the Santa Cruz Mountains)
Email: lahondamusiccamp@yahoo.com
http://www.lahondamusiccamp.com/
510-537-4871

Lafayette Summer Music Workshop
Contact Bob Athayde at: :bob@stanleymusic.org
http://www.lafsmw.com/

Berklee College of Music, Boston, Mass
Email: :summer@berklee.edu

UC Davis Summer Arts
Email: Summerarts@ucdavis.edu

CSU Stanislaus Music Camp
http://www.csustan.edu/music/camp

About Jazz Festivals

As you work with your students please strive to involve them in learning to improvise. Teach them to listen and evaluate their individual and ensemble performance skills. Be sure that they listen to jazz greats as often as possible. Encourage them to listen to KCSM 91.1 FM a couple times a week. Make copies of Downbeat, Jazz Is, Jazz Times, or Jazz Player magazines available to them in your classroom or school library. John Frantz of California High School reads excerpts from jazz literature to his students on a regular basis. Do what ever you can to develop your students interest and enthusiasm for jazz music.

Remember festival forms are included in the September issue of Tempo or can be downloaded from this webpage. Register right away. Due to the great demand for festival spots last year we were forced to turn groups away who had made the registration deadline. This year we have added another one day festival in the North Bay in an attempt to serve everyone. Even so, we expect the festivals to be filled to capacity so send in the forms early and get your spot at the location and on the date that is convenient for you. Enter your students in the solo/combo event. Now that we're using professional players as accompanists there is no experience like it anywhere. With three musicians and an adjudicator commenting and assisting, each student receives quality accompaniment, tips from the prospective of rhythm section players and encouragement from all.

Notes for the 2007 Solo/Combo Festival:

• Student soloists may choose from EITHER "Take the A Train" (found in Aebersold's volume 12, key of C Major concert), OR "Whisper Not" (found in Aebersold's volume 14, key of C minor concert).
• Student soloists need to supply lead sheets for the professional rhythm section and the judges.
• Student combos need to supply lead sheets only for the judges.
• Follow the performance guidelines provided in the CMEA handbook, under Solo/Combo festival.

Internet Links for Jazz Directors:

• The Central New York Jazz Arts Foundation Online. CNYJAF promotes the art form of American jazz through live concerts, cultural awareness, the encouragement of jazz composers and arrangers, providing instruction and access to music students and teachers, and organizing community support through fundraising, grantsmanship and product sales.
• Europe Jazz Network. A non-profit electronic network of promoters, musicians' associations, artistic directors, and consultants in Europe working mainly in the field of jazz and improvised music.
• Mary Haley's Ragtime and Related Music Home Page. This site was originally started as a home page for the Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival and grew into an information source for ragtime fans everywhere.
• William Ransom Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz. Tulane's Center for Jazz Research is a renowned resource about New Orleans jazz. The collection includes oral histories, recorded music, photographs and film, and sheet music and orchestrations. There are also files of manuscripts, clippings, and bibliographic references.
• International Association of Jazz Educators. Main educational organization promoting jazz and jazz instruction in schools.
• Jazz Central. Has features on jazz education, history, jazz radio, New York clubs, and festivals.
• Jazz Clarinet. A site promoting the jazz clarinet with special reference to the styles of the 1920s and 1930s.
• A Jazz Improvisation Primer. This is the online version of Marc Sabatella's textbok on jazz improvisation. Topics include jazz improvisation, jazz history, music theory, and practical advice on playing in a group.
• Jazz Online. A commercial interactive network devoted to all styles of jazz including traditional, straight-ahead, progressive, fusion and contemporary.
• The Jazz Web. This page links to jazz information resources on the Internet.
• Mark Corey's Index. Has links for music educators in the area of jazz.
• A Passion for Jazz! A site containing information about the origins of jazz, styles and musicians, featuring a photo gallery, timeline, festivals, webcasts, piano chords, scales, online lessons and teacher locator.
• Twin Cities Jazz Society. Minnesota non-profit organization dedicated to promoting jazz music in all of its forms. TCJS sponsors concerts, workshops, and education programs in area schools and publishes the Jazz Notes newsletter which covers the regional jazz scene, includes a schedule of local and national radio and TV jazz programs, and information about national jazz festivals.
• Return to Resources Index.