Jazz Education Review: Brighton Jazz Education Conference 2014
Brighton Jazz Education Conference The Verdict, Brighton Saturday 12th April 2014 Brighton Jazz School’s Wayne McConnell began the inaugural Brighton Jazz Education Conference with a talk on the subject of ‘Jazz and Community’ and the idea of ‘communities of practice’. You can read more about this in Wayne’s monthly column, below. […]
Improv Column: Wayne McConnell – Jazz and Community
Pianist Wayne McConnell looks at Jazz and Community, a talk presented at the inaugural Brighton Jazz Education Conference. Jazz and Etienne Wenger’s Community of Practice "The term ‘community of practice’ is of relatively recent coinage, even though the phenomenon it refers to is age-old. The concept has turned out to provide a useful perspective […]
The Column: Eddie Myer – A Tale of Two Cities
I was in New York last week on non-jazz related musical business and managed to find the time to drop into the Zinc Bar for one of their Tuesday night jam sessions, hosted by the outstanding pianist Orrin Evans. The jam session remains a popular format here in Brighton and it was interesting and […]
Frank Harrison Interview
How did you first get into jazz? “On a family holiday when I was eleven we had a Billie Holiday tape on loop. I was really intrigued by the harmonies – they were just the right balance between accessible and unusual – and when I got home I sat at the piano and tried […]
Elaine Crouch and Helen MacDougal Interview
Vocalists Elaine Crouch and Helen MacDougal will be the first students to graduate from Chichester College’s new HND jazz course. Here they talk about the course and their upcoming gig. How did you first start to get into jazz? Elaine: “Quite late actually! Although I’ve always loved all kinds of music and had a […]
Improv Column: Terry Seabrook’s Jazz Tip of the Month No. 8
Pianist Terry Seabrook’s Jazz Tip of the Month No. 8 Expanding the II – V – I progression A nice idea for adding more chords is to move up in minor thirds on the minor seventh chord. For example: | Fm7 | Bb7 | Ebmaj7 | can become |Fm7 Abm7 […]
Guest Column: Julian Nicholas – Country Diary of a Nobody
With blue skies and frenetic feathered activity around the barn where I live on Hawthbush Farm, comes a sense of urgency and freshness following the sustained grey onslaught of wetness over the winter. It seems as though there may be a metaphorical spring in the UK jazz scene, too, with more festivals, gigs, and […]
Ivo Neame Quintet Interviews
SJM editor Charlie Anderson interviews three members of the Ivo Neame Quintet: pianist Ivo Neame, saxophonist Tori Freestone and vibraphonist Jim Hart. Ivo Neame How did the quintet come about? “It came about because it's built on musical relationships that have been developed over a long period of time. I've been playing with Jim […]
Mattia Bourgis Interview
Tell us a bit about yourself. “I’m 35 years old and in my 20th year in music. I started in rock music but quickly I moved to playing blues. I was confused at that moment, so I learnt the music from the roots.” “I studied music at a conservatory for classical music […]
Improv Column: Wayne McConnell – The Forgotten Pianist
Phineas Newborn Jr. is not a household name like, say, Oscar Peterson or Art Tatum. The simple fact is that he an under-represented genius who was a member of one of the most talented musical families to come out of Memphis. Origins of the Newborn Style Realistically, to shed light on Phineas’s […]