Education News

Donal Fox Named Visting Artist at MIT

Source: Dawn Singh Publicity
June 1, 2009

COMPOSER-PIANIST DONAL FOX AND WRITER-ACTOR RICARDO PITTS-WILEY NAMED MARTIN LUTHER KING VISITING ARTISTS AT MIT CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Composer-pianist Donal Fox and writer-actor Ricardo Pitts-Wiley have been named Martin Luther King Visiting Artists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the 2009-2010 academic year. Established in 1995, MLK Program participants are appointed for their contributions to their professions and their potential contributions to the intellectual life of MIT. The program, which supports six to twelve visiting professors and scholars in ...

Continue Reading...

NYC Summer Saxophone Workshops, Presented by New York Jazz Academy, Now Enrolling Students

Source: New York Jazz Academy Publicity
May 26, 2009

NEW YORK CITY -- The New York Jazz Academy, the city's newest music school, will soon be opening its doors, and is now accepting summer and fall 2009 registration inquiries from all interested parents and students. The New York Jazz Academy 2009 Summer Saxophone Workshops, open to aspiring saxophonists, ages 11-19, are offered the weeks of July 13-17 and July 20-24, from 9am-3pm, in Manhattan at Park Avenue and 50th Street. Each workshop session accepts only a select number of ...

Continue Reading...

Jazz Giant Billy Taylor Inspires Philadelphia Music Students

Source: All About Jazz
May 22, 2009

A man sits at the piano and - across seven decades - the magic happens: Master imparts wisdom to student. Jazz giant Billy Taylor, 87, is giving pointers to budding pianist Dont Ford, 17. Taylor spreads his famous left hand over a dozen keys and ripples off a chord. “That looks like it hurts," says Steven Fox, 17, also a pianist. Taylor, bandmate of Bird, Duke, Dizzy, and Miles, surprises them by saying, “Sure it does. But keep on doing ...

Continue Reading...

2009 Hudson Summer Jazz Workshop

Source: All About Jazz
May 20, 2009

Third Annual 2009 HUDSON SUMMER JAZZ WORKSHOP Armen Donelian & Marc Mommaas, Faculty Special Guest, Dave Liebman Thursday, August 13 - Sunday, August 16 Hudson, NY Pianist Armen Donelian and saxophonist Marc Mommaas present the third annual Hudson Summer Jazz Workshop, an inspiring and intimate jazz intensive. This year's Special Guest is David Liebman, widely regarded as one of the most important saxophonists in contemporary music. Improvisation, composition, duo and ...

Continue Reading...

Seattle Times: Seattle Schools Continue Decade of Dominance at Essentially Ellington

Source: Seattle Jazz Scene
May 19, 2009

Another year at Essentially Ellington, another triumph for Seattle bands. Garfield High School won here and Roosevelt placed second in the 2009 festival, the top high-school jazz-band contest in the country, which wrapped up here last Sunday. “We kind of chuckle that people are going to get tired of seeing Garfield and Roosevelt all the time,” said Scott Brown, the band director at Roosevelt High School, which is located within five miles of Garfield. It’s been quite a decade for ...

Continue Reading...

New on JazzPianoOnline.com: Improvising over Passing Diminished Chords

Source: All About Jazz
May 18, 2009

Improvising Over Passing Diminished Chords

Improvising Passing Diminished Chords There is a lot of uncertainty that surrounds diminished chords. How do they work exactly? What chordscales do they take? How do you improvise over them?

Gain some insight into these questions through an examination of Red Garland's solo over the changes to the standard tune It Could Happen to You from the recording Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet from 1956.

This lesson will show you a couple of his ...

Continue Reading...

Berklee to Hold Scholarship Auditions in Nairobi, Kenya

Source: All About Jazz
May 14, 2009

Berklee College of Music, the world's leading institution for the study of contemporary music, will be holding audition and interview (A&I) events in Kenya as part of its Africa Scholars Program, offering talented musicians the chance to be awarded scholarships to attend the college. The college inaugurated the Africa Scholars Program with A&I events in Accra Ghana, and Durban, South Africa in the summer of 2008. Those resulted in $1.4 million in scholarships being awarded to 26 musicians, including a ...

Continue Reading...

Notes from the Net: More on Kind of Blue's 50th Anniversary; Quincy Jones Speaks out on Music Education; Plus News, Reviews, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
May 12, 2009

Here's this week's compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:* Starting, as we usually do, with news of the St. Louis area's most famous jazz musician, it seems that the Montreal Jazz Festival will honor Miles Davis with a series of concerts, including “Sketches of MD," featuring new ...

Continue Reading...