On 11 October 22 November 2014 17 January 2015, the saxophone maestro and educationalist Alan Barnes will be returning to the Cambridge Jazz Co-op. The members of the jazz co-op will able to meet him as usual in morning session (11 am to 1:30 pm) for the regular to price of £10. Members and non-members alike can meet him in an afternoon session taking place between 2 pm and 4 pm that will cost £15. If you are unfamiliar with the Cambridge Jazz Co-op, please investigate the website a bit more and check out the FAQ where you will find details on our location and details on how to become a member. Checkout Alan on his website here. Here’s a nice video of Alan mentoring a young jazz band:
Alec
October 4, 2014: Tommaso Starace
Many thanks to Tommaso for an educational session in which we covered the following tunes:
“Anthropology” by Charlie Parker
“Lullaby of Birdland” by George Shearing
Much of the session was investigating “Anthropology” by Charlie Parker which is a contrafact of Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”. We spent some time covering the tricky head, ramping up the speed to a reasonable level.
Improvisation was discussed with particular emphasis on learning the chord tones, to which end we all played through using just the triads from the root, and then 7th chords from the root.
The bridge can be tackled in a similar fashion, but Tommaso introduced us to using the whole-tone scale, in particular creating patterns by alternating the augmented triads found within it. Another approach was to use a diminished scale, considering the original dominant chords a 7b9. Of course, these tools sounded great when in the hands of our tutor and showed that correct resolution is always required when using this sort of tool.
After the break “Lullaby of Birdland” was played through. Tommaso showed the importance of taking a head and making it your own using, delay, anticipation, leading/grace notes and improvisational fills. Several of the members were singled out to do similar with some very nice performances before everyone had a go at improvising over the form.
We returned to “Anthropology” and attempted to learn it by heart, phrase by phrase so that at the end most if not all of the members could play it by heart without reference to the sheet music.
Many thank to Tommaso for a great session.
![IMG_20141004_131937167[1]](http://www.cambridgejazzcoop.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/IMG_20141004_1319371671.jpg)
September 27, 2014: Pete Lemer
Many thanks to Pete Lemer for a session in which we covered:
“Cantarnos” by Andrew Hill
“Toccata” by Lalo Schifrin
“Cantarnos” taken from Andrew Hill’s “Black Fire” album and has a simple theme performed in a modal setting. Pete discussed modal improvisation with particular emphasis of the Phrygian mode as used in this composition.
“Toccata” is a fun minor blues-ish composition with a challenging bass-line originally performed by a Dizzy Gillespie big band.
Many thanks to Pete Lemer for an entertaining session.
September 20, 2014: Frank Griffith
Many thanks to Frank Griffith in which we covered:
“Totem Poll” by Lee Morgan
“In Passing” by Oliver Nelson
We started the session by warming up with a Frank Griffith etude involving ii-V-I’s in every key.
“Totem Poll” is a great composition found on Lee Morgan’s “Sidewinder” album which was great fun to play through.
“In Passing” is a dreadful technical exercise which even the original found on Oliver Nelson’s “Soul Brothers” is joyless. Maybe you can spot that I found this particularly tricky, not the least because it changes key every two beats.
Many thanks to Frank Griffith for a challenging session.
September 13, 2014: Andrea Vicari
Many thanks to Andrea for an excellent session in which we covered:
“Ponta de Areia” by Milton Nascimiento
We performed the Esperanza Spalding version of this song with its fantastic bass-line and some tricky changes arranged by Andrea.
As always Andrea came well prepared with an excellent worksheet covering the scales that can be used to improvise over the various sections and chords of the composition. Maybe on day I’ll get the hang of the augmented scale.
Many thanks to Andrea for a great session.
![IMG_20140913_131904527[1]](http://www.cambridgejazzcoop.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_20140913_1319045271.jpg)
September 6, 2014: Alex Hutton
Many thanks to Alex Hutton for an educational session in which we covered:
“Mack the Knife” by Kurt Weill.
during the session we discussed the application of the diminished scale over dominant chords (7b9)
[full session report unavailable]
We are moving (again)
The Blue Moon pub is no longer available as a venue for the Cambridge Jazz Co-op. While we find a more permanent location, we are returning to the The Meadows Community Centre.
Please ensure that you turn up at the correct location to avoid disappointment.
March 15, 2014: Roland Perrin
Many thanks to Roland Perrin for an enjoyable session in which we covered:
“Descarga Ardendo” by Roland Perrin
“Carioquinha” By Roland Perrin
The session started with a great composition penned by Roland “Descarga Ardendo” (Burning Discharge?) which had written sections interspersed with open ended ones of improvisation performed over a great groove that alternated between Csus7 and C7. Everyone got a good bit of soloing over this one.
The second Roland Perrin composition “Carioquinha” was a lot trickier with a non-stop stream of notes testing the sight reading skills of the front-line (which seemed to cope admirably).
Thanks again to Roland for bringing along two greatly enjoyable compositions and educating us in the way of the clave.
March 8, 2014: Colin Holdom
Many thanks to Colin Holdom for stepping in and providing an educating session in which we covered:
“Joy Spring” by Clifford Brown
“And What If I Don’t” by Herbie Hancock
With a view to handling ii-V-I’s, a key skill in tackling the great majority of jazz standards, Colin introduced the Dorian minor mode – the mode based on the second degree of the major scale. We played through a few exercises based on the Dorian to see how it could be applied to a ii-V-I. Heady with new found knowledge we played the fantastic if tricky “Joy Spring” composition that contains many ii-V-I’s and which also modulates in various ways: down a tone, up a semi-tone, down a semi-tone, etc. We all had the chance to improvise over several choruses at various tempi during the course of the pre-lunch session. To make us a bit more familiar with the tune, Colin made us play only the roots so that we could feel the underlying structure a process that should be applied to all tunes that we intend to learn.
After the break, “And What If I Don’t” a great bluesy feeling composition by Herbie Hancock with a rhythm changes bridge was also tackled.
Many thanks to Colin for stepping in at short notice to cover for a tutor that could not be present.
March 1, 2014: Roger Beaujolais
Many thanks to Roger Beaujolais to an educational session in which we covered:
“Lady Bird” by Tadd Dameron
“Half Nelson” by Miles Davis
This session involved a lot of playing over what was more or less the same chord sequence with Half Nelson being a contrafact on Lady Bird. Both are great tunes with interesting be-bop aspects in each.
Some time was spent on dealing with the unusual turn around in the last two bars that Lady Bird is famous for: CMaj7 EbMaj7 | AbMaj7 DbMaj7. Roger suggested applying a 1-2-3-5 digital pattern to each chord in turn and introduced us to a great practise technique of taking a 1-2-3-5 pattern through the cycle of 4ths C, F, Bb etc, first using a major chord and then a minor and pointing out that any pattern should be treated in the same way so that it becomes ingrained.
Thanks again to Roger.