This blog's a resource!

Dearest A-JAMmies and interested parties!

Please use this blog as a resource. I've been posting items of  interest here for years. And the blog enables searching through of my posts. Use it! It contains lots of pertinent information.

For example, if you want to understand what "rhythm changes" are, just search the word "rhythm" within the blog. There are LOTS of links you can follow. Use it or lose it...

Bass Student to Attend "World Cup of Jazz" in Cape Town, SA!

South African College of Music, host of the 2014 IASJ Jazz Meeting

Drum roll please! We've just heard from the IASJ (International Association of Schools of Jazz) host school that they have picked Lorenzo Perez, bass student from Northwest Vista College, to participate in the 2014 International Jazz Meeting in Cape Town, South Africa. Congratulations, Lorenzo! Read all about it...

 

"South Africa to Host World Cup of Jazz"

A professor of jazz studies at the University of Cape Town’s South African College of Music, Prof. Mike Rossi, has presented a successful bid to host the International Association of Schools of Jazz in Cape Town in 2014. Rossi and his students, Zeke Le Grange and Darren English, attended and performed at the 21st annual meeting of the International Association of Schools of Jazz – IASJ in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in July. Delegates from 40 institutions from 19 countries attended the event. At the meeting, Rossi performed, lectured and presented a successful bid to host the IASJ meeting in Cape Town in 2014.

In his words, he explains what it means to UCT and jazz lovers to host the event: Why is it such a big deal for UCT – and Cape Town – to host the IASJ conference? This is the first time in the IASJ’s history, which presents a meeting and a conference each year, that the meeting will be held on the African continent. Read more >>

A-JAM 2014 - Winning Combo Announced!

And the members of the winning 2014 A-JAM combo are...

Tania Reyes, voice (Northwest Vista College)

Andrew King, saxophone (Northwest Vista College)

Luis Gonzalez, guitar (San Antonio College)

Isaiah Cosey, piano (St Philip's College)

Lorenzo Perez, bass (Northwest Vista College)

Odie Wallace, drums (Northwest Vista College)  

 

Congratulations to all! We're excited about spending next term with this talented group of students. Special thanks to all who auditioned for the program, and to Richard Oppenheim for adjudicating. If you did not get into the program this year, don't be disheartened. Stay in touch, keep practicing, and try again next year...

One of our lucky A-JAMmies will be honored with an invitation to the annual Jazz Meeting of the IASJ (International Association of Schools of Jazz), which takes place this year in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa from June 22-27. S/he might even get to ride the Jammie Shuttle.

 

Thanks again to all the applied teachers and jazz program directors for sending students and spreading the good word. Here's hoping we'll be able to bring one of our superb teacher/performers to the 2015 IASJ meeting in Portugal. Stay tuned...

 

Stay in touch! Follow this blog via email by clicking the box on the right, and like A-JAM on Facebook. Could be YOU next year...

Fall Music Fest! And A-JAM auditions...

Hey, people, it's time

For Vista's FALL MUSIC FEST!

This Wed and Thursday.

Celebrate our students and

Support our A-JAM program... :-)

And don't forget that

A-JAM auditions are Tues.

Come by, bring a tune... 

Looking for lead sheets?

Looking for lead sheets and repertoire? Check the Vista library. We've got lots of stuff. Here's what a search for "Chuck Sher" or "Jamey Aebersold" will yield. Lots of goodies!

Auditions! Could be YOU this year...

One night only! Tuesday, November 19, 5-7 PM

Palmetto Center for the Arts

at Northwest Vista College

Wiseman Boulevard at Highway 151

Rehearsal Hall 152

Who can audition? Auditions are open to any serious full-time student enrolled in any of the Alamo Colleges and Trinity University.

What instruments do we want? We will select a rhythm section of piano, bass, and drums, along with an open "front line" (any combination of voices, reeds, brass, percussion, strings, vibes, guitar, etc.). Horn players, electric bassists, and guitarists should bring their own instruments. Vista will provide piano, double bass, vibes, xylophone, drum kit, Afro-Latin percussion, and PA system for singers, as required.

What to prepare for the audition? Prepare a couple of contrasting standard jazz tunes. Please bring at least three copies of accurate treble clef concert key lead sheets for each tune you want to perform. Prepare to play melody, accompaniment (rhythm section players), and to improvise on each tune. You'll also be asked to read a couple of additional standard treble clef concert key lead-sheets.

What to expect if selected? We will select a combo of 4-8 players, which will meet at Vista during the spring semester, on Tuesdays from 5-6 PM. You'll register for this as a 1-credit course in improvisation. In addition, you'll play live performances and a radio broadcast, and participate in master classes by local and visiting artists, as available. Some time during the semester, the IASJ (International Association of Schools of Jazz) will invite one lucky member of the combo to take part in the international jazz meeting in Cape Town, South Africa in July. It could be YOU this year! 

Judging criteria? We are looking at 4 primary aspects of your playing:  sound, including intonation and technical proficiency; improvisation, including soloing, melodic variation, and accompaniment (as applicable); rhythm, including steadiness and swing; and reading ability, including interpreting treble clef concert key lead sheet notation 

Questions? Contact Katchie Cartwright, Program Director: kcartwright2@alamo.edu, 210-486-4828.

A-JAM and the IASJ: It could be you next year!

 

Where is Odie Wallace?

This summer, bassist-drummer-guitarist Odie Wallace, a multi-talented Northwest Vista college music student, spent a week in Denmark, participating in the IASJ (International Association of School’s of Jazz) jazz meeting. The IASJ selected Odie to be the 2013 “super star” delegate from our A-JAM (Alamo Jazz Allstars Mentorship) program. Each year, a limited number of music students from all over the world are chosen by the IASJ to form no more than six student combos, small collaborative performing groups. 

Each group is coached by two teachers from the organization, all from top jazz programs in different corners of the world. The students spend an action-packed seven days learning together: rehearsing, performing, composing, attending concerts and workshops, participating in late night student jam sessions, and—yes—even doing some sightseeing. We call it “playing” music, but there is a lot of hard work involved! Odie Wallace will remember his experience with the IASJ for a long time. “Mind-blowing, enlightening, and inspiring” are a few of the words he used to describe it. 

How did Odie Wallace find his way to Denmark? A-JAM. Launched in 2010, A-JAM was created to provide opportunities for Alamo College students to succeed both locally and internationally in the world of jazz. An intercollegiate and intercultural project, it is open--by audition--to music majors from any of the five Alamo Colleges and Trinity University. Auditions are held each year in November (the week before Thanksgiving), at which time finalists are selected to form the A-JAM combo for that year. Contact Katchie Cartwright for more information. 

A-JAM prepares serious music students like Odie Wallace for high-level pre-professional experiences like the IASJ meeting. During the spring semester, The A-JAM combo meets for weekly rehearsals, performs locally, and is coached by top regional professionals and visiting artists. Among other events, they are the subject of a one-hour radio broadcast on KRTU’s South Texas Jazz Project, hosted by JJ Lopez, and a follow-up interview on KRTU’s Planet Jazz, hosted by A-JAM program director Katchie Cartwright. The 2013 A-JAM group featured student soloists Bianca Johnson (voice) from St. Phillip's College, Odie Wallace (bass) from Northwest Vista College, and Ben Whitehead from Trinity University.

Odie is the third student from San Antonio to participate in the international jazz meeting. Singer Jeané Gaines went to Brazil in 2011 as the first A-JAM super star; Stephen Bennett went to Austria in 2012 as the second. The experience of this yearly jazz meeting is the subject of a new documentary. You can watch the inspiring trailer to see the program’s vision in action. As Israeli filmmaker Leon Segal said, “It’s not just about the music.” All participants go back to their schools with energy and ideas that they share with their friends and colleagues back home. It’s not hard to see how these one-on-one experiences widen the local horizons exponentially over a very short period of time.

The A-JAM program gives San Antonio students a chance to learn their craft at home and to collaborate with a small select group of students and teachers abroad. It serves as a launching pad for serious students who want to make their way into the field, and gives them an opportunity to learn from high level teachers and to collaborate with the finest students in the jazz world.  Both at home and abroad, the program is sustainable, precisely because it is based on small-scale grassroots one-on-one experiences.

The 2014 jazz meeting will be held in Cape Town, South Africa in July. Auditions are the week before Thanksgiving. Listen up, jazz students. It could be YOU next year!

 

Follow the A-JAM Blog.

Like A-JAM on Facebook:

Contact Program Director Katchie Cartwright, 210-486-4828.