IAJE 2005: Memories of Long Beach

Jack Bowers

Senior Contributor since 1997

A former newspaper writer / editor who has been writing about big-band Jazz for more than fifteen years.

Recent articles (1,749 total)

Published: February 1, 2005

Clinics — Handheld Computers in Jazz Education; The Art of Solo Jazz Guitar; The Jazz Choir Scat Soloist; The Art of Comping; Performance Techniques for the Jazz Ensemble Saxophone Section; Developments in Afro-Peruvian Jazz; Arranging Techniques for the Small Group; Teaching Music on the Internet; It Don't Mean a Thing If Your Drummers Can't Swing; Vocal Jazz Arranging; Digging for Gold: The Art of Jazz Transcription; From Rehearsal to Performance: Jazz Ensemble Techniques; Solo Jazz Piano: A Linear Approach; Drums and Bass in Jazz; Student Jam Etiquette; Playing Standards: Better Solos Start with Better Changes; A Cappella Vocal Jazz; The ALIVE Project (Accessible Live Internet Video Education); Total Immersion Bass Playing; Versatile Jazz Piano Workshop; The Final Frontier: Imagination and the Future of Music Technology; Collective Improvisation in Mainstream Jazz.

Panels — A Conversation with "Mr. Bongo," Jack Costanzo; 67 Years of Jazz with Gerald Wilson and Sammy Nestico; Ellington, Composer of Fashion and Snappy Patter (Mercedes Ellington, moderator); BET Jazz Presents a Conversation with George Duke; The Legacy of Benny Carter (Chris Neville, Ira Nepus, Mel Martin, Sherman Ferguson); Legends of Jazz Radio; Excuse the Musical Disruption (Christian McBride, Bob Blumenthal); Adding Pages to the Great American Songbook; Closed Doors and Glass Ceilings; How to Build a Meaningful Jazz Outreach Program; The Voice / Instrument Connection (with Bobby Watson, Dena DeRose, John Santos); Jazz in the Foreground: Great Jazz Film Scores and How They Got That Way.

Research presentations — Rivers of Consciousness: The Nonlinear Dynamics of Free Jazz; The Art of the Solo Piano Introduction; Key Signatures and Chordal Elements in Jazz Improvisation; The Use of Common Tones and Symmetry in Selected Jazz Harmonic Substitutions; Body and Soul: The Acid Test for Tenor Saxophone Ballad Performance; A Conversation with Guitarist Sal Salvador (oral history interview). As we said, that's only a partial listing, and surely there's something on it for almost everyone.

But that's not the half of it. Even though I spent four frenetic days in Long Beach, I missed out on performances by, among others, the Clayton Brothers (John, Jeff) Quintet, the Capital Jazz Project with Bobby Shew, vocalist Rebecca Paris, the Bob McChesney Group, Diane Schuur with the Caribbean Jazz Project, the Joey DeFrancesco Trio, DekaJaz, the Baritone Saxophone Band Plays Mulligan, the IAJE Community College All-Stars, vocalists Tierney Sutton and Monica Mancini, the Kim Richmond Concert Jazz Orchestra and the Kenny Burrell Quintet.

Oh, well, like everyone else I have a year to get ready for the next one. IAJE's 33rd (and 34th) Conferences will be held in New York City (in January, as always — definitely one of the best times of the year to visit the Big Apple, he noted wryly). See you there?

And until next time, keep swingin'!

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