Education News

Children Schooled on ABCs of Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
July 23, 2008

When listening to jazz, many forget that the genre is linked to blues. For that reason, Felice Green, a member of the Handy festival board of directors, has been organizing the ABCs of Jazz for the W.C. Handy Music Festival since the festival began. On Tuesday, area children and adults gathered at Mount Moriah Family Life Center to learn, in a Music 101 style, about the elements and origins of jazz. The overall mission, Green said, is to inform the ...

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Jazz for Kids: Jazzed up About Music

Source: All About Jazz
July 23, 2008

Through performance, band teaches children value of genre at Knights of Columbus Hall LANCASTER - Larry Cook believes in the educational power of jazz music. With the help of his double-string bass - and four other musicians - he attempted to pass his knowledge of jazz on to a very special audience Monday - children. “Our music, it's not watered-down jazz," Cook said. “Some performers will go in front of a young audience and play 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.' But ...

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#1 Blues Harmonica Mastercourse Finally Debuts Online

Source: All About Jazz
July 17, 2008

Jerry Portnoy, one of America's leading blues harp master players for over 30 years, has toured with Muddy Waters and shared the international stage with Eric Clapton. Now he has finally released his acclaimed “Jerry Portnoy's Blues Harmonica Masterclass" to be enjoyed by blues harmonica devotees directly from the web. The 3-CD box set also features a book with witty, insightful commentary, and historic tour photos of Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Junior Wells, Willie Dixon, Sonny Terry, Dizzie Gillespie, and ...

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Dave Douglas on Ear Training

Source: All About Jazz
July 8, 2008

You can't deny the power of raw talent in music, but it is possible there is an even greater strength in the human capacity for self-transformation, growth, and genius. Some people have enormous natural talent and ability. Some have to work really hard. One way or another we're all striving to find a true expression in sound, one that touches on something universal, and we all have to strive to find our own path, no matter how gifted or challenged ...

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New on JazzPianoOnline.com

Source: All About Jazz
June 27, 2008

Star Spangled Banner Celebrate Independence Day with this jazz arrangement of our national anthem. Incorporating a wide range of reharmonization and arranging devices- substitutions, upper structures, deceptive cadences and non-functional harmony among them- you will no doubt enjoy hearing this familiar melody juxtaposed with the chromatic sounds of the reharmonized chords. What is JazzPianoOnline.com? JazzPianoOnline is Online, Interactive, Streaming Video Jazz Piano Lessons. Watch Watch high-quality streaming video lessons with synchronized annotated notation on ...

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MENC to Serve Jazz Educators

Source: All About Jazz
June 24, 2008

The National Association for Music Education announced plans to form a Society for Jazz Education to serve the unique professional needs of jazz educators. “According to the MENC Constitution and Bylaws, the National Executive Board may establish 'Societies' to foster communication among and meet the needs of specific segments of MENC's membership, “ said Barbara Geer, MENC president-elect. “With the recent demise of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE), the time is right for an MENC Society for Jazz ...

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A Horn Blows in Brooklyn

Source: Michael Ricci
June 22, 2008

And the Band Honked On THE classroom filled with the sounds of a band struggling to be born, a cacophony of squealing and buzzing. Middle school students in a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood were trying to produce the note F.

ALANA VEGTER built her credentials as a professional musician while coaching students in Brooklyn. Ms. Vegter, 25, was there as part of a well-financed experiment by some of the nation's most powerful musical institutions. The experiment is called, clumsily, the Academy ...

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Listening Tip: Abene with Kirchner

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
June 18, 2008

Saxophonist, composer, arranger, band leader and educator Bill Kirchner is also a broadcaster. For several years, his Jazz From The Archives series has been airing on Sunday nights on WBGO-FM in Newark, New Jersey, just across the river from New York City. It is also heard on the worldwide web. His next program will feature another musical polymath. Here's Kirchner's announcement.

Pianist/composer/arranger/producer Michael Abene (b. 1942--pronounced uh-BEN-ee) is one of jazz's “quiet as it's kept" heroes--hugely respected by ...

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