Andrea Vicari

Oct 24, 2015: Andrea Vicari

by

Many thanks to Andrea for an excellent session in which we covered:

“Fables of Faubus” by Charles Mingus
“Boogie Stop Shuffle” by Charles Mingus

In a popular session, Andrea arranged the members of the co-op as if they were an orchestra with the rhythm section at the back and the front-line at the front, thus breaking a decade or so of tradition.

Both pieces have their issues with quite a complex structure for Fables and just sheer speed for Boogie Stop, but under Andrea’s exacting leadership and armed with parts for all the instruments the co-op had fun creating respectable performances of both of the tricky pieces as well as having plenty of improv chances too.

Many thanks to Andrea for an exciting session.

September 13, 2014: Andrea Vicari

by

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]

May 11, 2013: Andrea Vicari

by

Many thanks to Andrea Vicari for an interesting session in which we performed:

“Resolution” by John Coltrane
“Get Busy Living” by Andrea Vicari

To start the session we listened to “Resolution” as performed on the “A Love Supreme” recording. We then discussed a few of the approaches used in the improvisations of McCoy Tyner and John Coltrane and attempted to apply a few of them in our solos. In particular both rhythmic and melodic motifs were explored. This is a particularly tricky composition to improvise on because of the high amount of band interaction required, but I think that most people enjoyed it.

Andrea made notes during our initial attempts and gave us a bit of critique and encouragement afterwards which was insightful.

After the break we played one of Andrea’s own compositions “Get Busy Living” which is a much lighter affair played over a New Orleans beat. This is a fun tune based on dominant seventh chords and so was a great place to get some bluesy feel going.

Thanks again to Andrea for a great session.

image