Master Class with Lionel Loueke at The Carver a Success

The 2012 Alamo Colleges Jazz Mentorship Program is in full swing. The Alamo Allstars just had their first big mentoring experience, a master class with West African guitarist Lionel Loueke at The Carver Community Cultural Center on Saturday, Feb 4 was spectacular. An entire session one-on-one with one of the brightest stars in contemporary jazz. What an exhilirating afternoon. Many thanks to Yonnie Blanchette, Executive Director of The Carver, and to Lionel Loueke for making this happen for our students! 

And kudos to our Alamo Allstars for taking the initiative to prepare themselves for the Loueke master class and upcoming events with a stellar crew of visiting artists and local mentors.  San Antonio should be proud of  them all: Marco Antonio Escobedo - guitar (San Antonio College), James Buentello - drums (Northwest Vista College), Shea Adams - voice (Northwest Vista College), Rene Pintor - trombone (San Antonio College), and Stephen Bennett - bass (Northwest Vista College. 

The Allstars are working hard on the IASJ Top 10 tunes to know in jazz and are gearing up for the next workshop, with Geri Allen at Trinity University on Saturday, Feb 18 at 4 PM.

See you there...

  

2011-2012 Finalists Quintet Announced

Many thanks to all who participated in the auditions for the mentorship program in 2011-2012. The Small World jam at the Olmos Bharmacy was jam packed and the excitement was palpable. 

As in the past, this year's panel of judges was comprised of top regional professionals, none of whom is affiliated with the Alamo Colleges: saxophonist-flutist Rene Saenz, trumpeter-pianist Cecil Carter, and trumpeter-bandleader Adrian Ruiz. They chose a quintet of finalists, who are to be mentored during the spring semester. Their ranked list of finalists is below (#1 is their top choice). Congratulations to all!

1. Marco Antonio Escobedo - guitar (San Antonio College)
2. James Buentello - drums (Northwest Vista College) 
3. Shea Adams - voice (Northwest Vista College) 
4. Rene Pintor - trombone (San Antonio College)
5. Stephen Bennett - bass (Northwest Vista College) 

Their recommendations to the International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ) shortly. The IASJ will invite one of  these top 5 contestants to the meeting in Graz, Austria June 24-29, 2012; the final decision is in the hands of the IASJ, and will come some time during the spring semester.

We're in the process of finalizing quintet's spring schedule. We have master classes lined up with pianist Geri Allen through Trinity Uniersity's KRTU and Musical Bridges Around the World, West African guitarist Lionel Loueke through the Carver Community Cultural Center, and NEA Jazz Master saxophonist-educator Dave Liebman. The quintet has an engagement at the NISOD conference in Austin, and a radio date with JJ Lopez and the South Texas Jazz project on KRTU. 

It was disappointing that neither PAC, SPC, and NLV sent students this year. To make the program more visible on all the Alamo campuses, we're in the process of organizing master classes with colleagues at various Alamo Colleges campuses. Northeast Lakeview College (Chris Magee), Palo Alto College (Armin Marmolejo), and St. Philip's College (Greg Gonzales) have already come aboard. The quintet has also been invited perform at the annual Palo Alto College jazz festival in March. Thanks to all!

Stay tuned...

Mentorship Program Audition Materials - Download the IASJ Top 10

Click here to download the entire packet of audition materials as a single PDF.  Contents are below.  You can print out selected pages or the full packet. You pick 3 of these for your audition. Online application is here.

ALAMO COLLEGES JAZZ ALLSTARS MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

AUDITION MATERIALS – IASJ TOP 10 (2010)

1.       Blues

a.       Now’s the Time   F

b.      Centerpiece  C

2.       Rhythm changes

a.       I Got Rhythm  G

b.      I’ve Got Rhythm (truncated)  Bb

c.       Errand Girl for Rhythm  F

d.      Oleo  Bb

3.       All the Things You Are  Eb, Ab

4.       Stella by Starlight F, Bb

5.       There Will Never Be Another You Bb, Eb

6.       Body and Soul Ab, Db

7.       Autumn Leaves   Cm, Em

a.       French lyrics, translation

8.       Have You Met Miss Jones  C, F

9.       Footprints Cm

10.   Softly as in a Morning Sunrise  Am, Gm, Cm

ADDITIONAL SELECTIONS - FROM IASJ TOP 10 (2000)

1.       Green Dolphin Street G, C

2.       All Blues G, Eb

3.       There is no Greater Love  G, Bb

4.       Solar  Eb

5.       [All of Me G, C]

IASJ Top 10 - YouTube

The IASJ Top 10 are your "school figures," as they say in ice skating; your required jazz standards. When you apply for the program, you will select from among these to perform at your audition. See the online application for details.

Below are links to a few good performances of the IASJ Top 10 tunes on YouTube. There are tons more! Enjoy and learn...

1. 12-bar blues (various tunes and keys, minor and major)
1. Centerpiece
1. Coleman Hawkins et al, quintessential phrasing!
2. Lambert, Hendricks & Ross 
3. Instructional, with Lenora Zenzalai Helm
4. Master Class, with Roseanna Vitro
5. Roberta Gambarini 
2. Now's the Time
1. Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, 1945
2. Miles Davis solo, with notation
3. Parker at the Roost, 1948-9
4. Vi Redd, vocal
2. I Got Rhythm changes (various tunes and keys, including original)
1. Oleo - Miles Davis Quintet, featuring Sonny Rollins
2. Errand Boy for Rhythm - Nat Cole
3. Errand Girl for Rhythm - Diana Krall
4. I Got Rhythm - Gershwin plays
5. I Got Rhythm - Hiromi
6. I Got Rhythm - Judy Garland
3. All the Things You Are
1. Ella Fitzgerald - Nelson Riddle arrangement
2. Django Reinhardt
3. Baden Powell
4. Charlie Parker
4. Stella by Starlight
1. Sarah Vaughan
2. Miles Davis
3. Bill Evans
4. Stan Getz
5. There Will Never Be Another You
1. Chet Baker
2. Oscar Peterson
3. Bud Powell
4. Nat Cole
6. Body and Soul
1. Coleman Hawkins
2. Billie Holiday
3. Ella Fitzgerald
4. Anita O'Day
7. Autumn Leaves
1. Nat Cole - in French with lyrics on screen
2. Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis
3. Joe Pass with Sarah Vaughan
4. Bill Evans
8. Have You Met Miss Jones?
1. Anita O'Day [start listening ca. 2:00]
2. Ella Fitzgerald
3. Hank Jones (master class)
4. Art Tatum )
9. Footprints
1. Wayne Shorter
2. Gabriel Alegria (Afro-Peruvian version)
3. Young Israeli students (pop-ish version)
4. Rajdulari Jazz Project (with Dee Dee Bridgewater's lyrics)
10. Softly as in a Morning Sunrise
1. Dianne Reeves - with improvised "welcome" intro
2. Nelson Eddy
3. Sonny Rollins
4. John Coltrane

Titles from the earlier list (2000, Paris).

1. All Blues
1. Miles Davis
2. Ernestine Anderson
2. There Is No Greater Love
1.  Billie Holiday 
2.  Sonny Rollins
3. Solar
1.  Miles Davis
4. [All of Me]
1.  Billie Holiday
2. Sarah Vaughan
3. Duke Ellington

Allstars Video in the Works!

Northwest Vista College's Digital Video & Cinema Production Program is creating a video about the Alamo Colleges Jazz Allstars Mentorship Program. The project will include interviews, performances, audio, and--of course--video footage. We're excited.

A crew will be on hand to film Orquesta Vista's upcoming Latino Heritage Month concert.. That's Northwest Vista College's student jazz ensemble, Thursday, October 13, 2011, 1 PM. Come on over to the Cypress Campus Center patio to enjoy a lunchtime lakeside concert, if you're in the neighborhood.  Hope to see you there.

Many thanks to Patrick and Jonathan, student production team leaders, and to Ron Wojnar, Digital Video & cinema Production Program Coordinator.

Live Masterclass from the Village Vanguard - RSVP via Facebook ASAP

From my New York friend and colleague Lara Pellegrinelli, a rare opportunity to participate in a live chat and master class at the Village Vanguard on Wednesday, October 12 at 6 PM CST. RSVP via Facebook here and now. Read on...

 

Dear Jazz Students,

 

My name is Lara Pellegrinelli. You can call me Dr. LP. I work with National Public Radio on its Live from the Village Vanguard webcasts, produced in collaboration with member station WBGO.

 

I wanted to invite you to be part of our virtual Vanguard audience WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12 at 9PM for FABIAN ALMAZAN. Fabian is the young Cuban-American pianist in trumpeter Terence Blanchard's band and he'll be performing with his trio plus string quartet to celebrate the release of his  debut recording Personalities. 

Like Terence, who has scored most of Spike Lee's films, Fabian is also a budding film composer. So we decided we wanted to do something special. At 7PM before the performance, Fabian will doing a LIVE MINI-MASTERCLASS. We will be focusing our discussion on arranging, taking questions from our online audience in the NPR Music chat room and answering them on camera. Fabian has provided us with a few of his scores so we have the potential to get into some real musical depth. 

We are asking anyone who would like to participate in the masterclass to RSVP on a Facebook event page we have created: https://mail.alamo.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161285397293942

You can find the event page that will host the masterclass and performance at NPR Music here. It will go live shortly before 7pm:

https://mail.alamo.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.npr.org/2011/10/05/141085472/fabian-almazan-trio-string-quartet-live-at-the-village-vanguard

A link to Fabian's scores (available for download) can be found in this post on A Blog Supreme:

https://mail.alamo.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2011/09/27/140857156/live-interview-with-fabian-almazan

And if you would like to view the film First Match, for which Fabian has provided a score, you can find that on his website by going under the tab for film scoring and clicking video. It's also the best source of information on Fabian: https://mail.alamo.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.fabianalmazan.com/

 

Feel free to introduce yourself. We'd be really happy to have you. NPR Music has all kinds of amazing jazz materials available for free on its site and it's our hope that you will want to take full advantage of them. If you want to keep up to date on our offerings, we also have a new Facebook page for the liking:  https://mail.alamo.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.facebook.com/nprjazz

 

See you online!

 

cheers,

 

Lara Pellegrinelli (AKA Dr. LP)

Harvard University, Ph.D. 2005

Visiting Lecturer, Princeton University, Spring 2011

Freelance contributor, NPR Arts Desk

Consultant, NPR's Live at the Village Vanguard

 

ABOUT THIS SERIES

 

One of the world's preeminent jazz venues, the Village Vanguard has regularly presented jazz's greatest musicians since 1957. Renowned for its rich history and great acoustics, over 100 commercial albums have been recorded within the triangle-shaped basement room in New York's Greenwich Village. Live At The Village Vanguard is a collaboration between WBGO and NPR Music presenting live broadcasts from the legendary club, both on air and streaming online. WBGO's Josh Jackson hosts all the concerts; you can join the discussion in a chat room and watch a live video feed. After each show is over, NPR Music will host the archived recordings of all the concerts at this page.

"Rhythm Changes" - Tunes based on "I Got Rhythm"

#2 on the "IASJ's Top 10" is the harmonic scheme of George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm."  There are hundreds of tunes based on this chord structure. Below are some lists of tunes with "Rhythm changes."

1. David Baker's list from his excellent book "How to Learn Tunes"
2. List of Rhythm tunes in the "Real Book" from Learn Jazz Standards
3. Long list from Kimberly Stephan
4. Jamey Aebersold's Rapid-Reference Play-a-Long Song Index (download as Excel spreadsheet or PDF, search for "Rhythm")
5. List of Charlie Parker's "Rhythm" and blues tunes
6. "Rhythm Changes" resources on Bob Keller's Jazz Page
7. List from Saxontheweb  (see comments as well; some tunes listed are NOT Rhythm changes, e.g., "Perdido")
8. List from MoneyChords 
9. Bass perspectives on Rhythm variations from John Goldsby