Annual Summer Mailing, Etc.

By Wednesday, current students should be receiving the annual summer band mailing with details about the new year, such as some calendar dates, curriculum info, marching band camp, and my not so gentle reminder to become reacquainted with your musical instrument. I've actually been somewhat busier than usual with my saxophone over the past two months. While at the Wisconsin Comprehensive Musicianship workshop, I played every day in the demonstration rehearsals. My favorite session had me sight-transposing the alto clef viola parts to alto sax on orchestra day. Then, this past Sunday, I played in a combo for a jazz service at church. We had our contemporary worship pastor on piano, along with drums, bass, trumpet, trombone, and myself. One of the three singers was my daughter, who is a regular in the group. I got to write out some horn arrangements for a number of the pieces and do some improvising as well. It was interesting doing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" as a 5/4 Latin and "Ode to Joy" as a big-band swing tune. (Neither were my idea--I just did the voicings).

Anyway, I hope you are practicing now and then and enjoying yourself wherever you are!

July Jazz Listening

Here you go, Jazz Band members! Listen and reply by email. Enjoy!

For your July dose of jazz listening, I want you to begin with some big band music. Remember, 99% of the high schools in America have a big band as their main ensemble. That means 5 saxes, 5 trumpets, 5 trombones, and rhythm. Everybody plays off of sheet music, just like in concert band, and there are a few students who improvise. The focus (usually) is on learning the charts, note for note, with proper jazz style, blend, and balance. At its worst, it becomes the same thing as a concert band rehearsal. Our model focuses on everybody learning to improvise and creating our own arrangements of classic jazz combo tunes.

In any case, you should be familiar with the big band style and sound, and the Count Basie Orchestra is a great place to start. His album, Straight Ahead, is a classic, and it is filled with tunes that high school bands play often. After listening, write me an email about how this differs from a typical combo recording and provide your own thoughts and opinions.

Straight Ahead - Count Basie

If you have never listened to Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, please read on. You don't need to do album three. If you know the album well, skip to recording number three.

This album is considered by many critics and jazz aficionados to be the greatest/most important album of all time. Listen to how the three main horn soloists, Miles Davis on trumpet, Cannonball Adderley on alto, and John Coltrane on tenor, differ in their approaches. Compare the two pianists, Wynton Kelly on "Freddie Freeloader" and Bill Evans on all the other tracks. Notice how the chord progressions move very slowly, especially in "So What." This was the birth of modal jazz, when Miles and others decided to focus on improvising interesting melodies by limiting the number of chord changes they had to navigate. That allowed them ample time to explore a single scale or mode. After listening, write up your thoughts about the three horns, two pianists, and any other thoughts you might have.

Kind Of Blue - Miles Davis

If you've already explored Kind of Blue in the past, listen to this greatest hits package by pianist/composer Thelonious Monk. His tunes are some of the most often played in all of jazz, and his playing style is very individual. Note how he uses clusters (dissonant bunches of closely-spaced notes), little flourishes on whole tone scales, and a very punchy touch on the keyboard. He is also a master of rhythmic displacement, meaning he will play a lick on one beat of a bar and then repeat it on another beat in a later bar, giving it a new perspective. You'll especially hear this in the main theme of "Straight No Chaser." Write up your impressions of his playing and tell me about one or two of your favorite tunes.

The Very Best - Thelonious Mon...

Summer Marching Band Update

Hey, Warrior Marching Band members! Please check your school email accounts for a message from me about possible tunes for our first show. I could use your input on a couple of ideas. Thanks!

Music from the Stone Age

And I don't mean the theme to The Flintstones! Here is an article about the discovery of a 35,000 year-old flute in a cave in Germany. There is also a sound clip of a replica of the flute so you can hear what it may have sounded like "back in the day" at the end of the Ice Age, which is also when modern humans first began creating art by carving sculptures out of ivory.

Hello from Wisconsin!

This week I'm attending a workshop on Comprehensive Musicianship at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. The Wisconsin music associations have truly cornered the market on CM teaching, which is the subject of my dissertation. Essentially, they are promoting the teaching of performance, theory, history, and composition as a single, integrated topic. Too often, we teach the latter three disciplines in a specialized course, like Music Theory at DHS. This workshop challenges us as directors to go beyond teaching notes and rhythms to provide a "comprehensive," or complete, music education in our ensembles. So, when I teach about different chords in band rehearsal or talk about the history of the composer, I am engaging in CM teaching. This is something I've done all along, but this workshop is giving me some ideas about how I can do it in a more organized, intentional manner.

Next year, I hope you will recognize when I am asking you to be analysts, composers, and critics in addition to performers. Don't get me wrong--our main focus will still be learning to play our instruments well so that we can experience high quality music and perform it at the highest level possible. We'll just add on to that traditional model in a way that will make us all better musicians. Think of it as not just performance, but performance with understanding. Stay tuned!

(By the way, I am too old to be staying in a dorm without air conditioning. Just thought you should know that.)

Jazz Band Summer Listening, Part One

To the 2009-10 Jazz Band:

Here it is, your first monthly installment of the summer listening! What I'd like you to do is listen to these two albums and send me an email with your impressions, thoughts, and/or questions. Since these are provided courtesy of Lala.com, you will only be able to listen to each track once. After that, you will only be able to listen to 30 second samples unless you join and purchase the album.

The first album up is one of the many great albums from 1959 that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Mingus Ah Um by the great composer and bassist, Charles Mingus. Some important things to listen for:

• Most of what Mingus wrote is steeped in the blues, and this album is no exception. Listen to the bluesy phrases even in tunes that aren't in the 12-bar form (for example, the head to "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat."
  
• Mingus' band is very loose--they always stay together in perfect time, but it never feels uptight. There is always that sense that he values each player's individuality enough to allow them some flexibility in playing the heads.
  
• "Better Git It" is a great example of bluesy, gospel-style playing.
  
• "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" was written in memory of the great swing-era tenor player, Lester Young, who was known as "Prez," short for "The President."
  
• "Self-Portrait" is a rare jazz tune with no improvisation. It's a single chord progression of 14.5 bars (there's a 2/4 bar in there somewhere). The horns play it three times, adding a counterline the second time and another on the third.
  
• "Open Letter" and "Bird Calls" are tributes to Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, respectively.
  
• "Fable of Faubus" is one of the many tunes that Mingus wrote and then gave politically charged titles. Orval Faubus was the Arkansas governor who, in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court, ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the "Little Rock Nine" from integrating a Little Rock high school.
  
• "Jelly Roll" is for the the great early jazz pianist, composer, and band leader, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton.

The final three tracks are optional listening. They were not on the original LP release in 1959 due to the fact that vinyl records could only hold about 45 minutes of music total. You can read a bit more about the album on AllMusic.

Ah Um - Charles Mingus

The next album I'd like you to check out is much more recent, and it's by another bassist composer, Ben Allison. Little Things Run the World was released in 2008, and it is much more rock-influenced. Read these reviews as you listen to the album:

• All About Jazz
  
• AllMusic
  
• Palmetto Records--this is the label that released the disc, and the article includes some of Allison's own thoughts about the recording.
  

Little Things Run The World - ...

That's all for June. Enjoy your listening!

Summer is here!

Classes are done, all the grades are turned in, the music and instruments have been put away, and the uniforms are on their way to the cleaners. Summer is here!

Remember to keep practicing so you come back in good shape for the fall. The first football game is August 28, and the Potpourri Concert is on September 23. No summer chops!

Best wishes to the entire DHS band family!--Mr. B