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!

 

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

Picture! A-JAM Meets the IASJ Mother Ship...

Here's the group photo of the 2013 IASJ family, taken in Herning, Denmark.

Can you find Odie Wallace? :-)

You may also recognize "Elia," the fabulous giant fire breathing sculpture created by Ingvar Cronhammar, the extremely interesting savant artist who gave us a guided tour. This was our beautiful day off...

Odie Wallace Interview - Katchie's Planet Jazz

Odie Wallace, our lucky and talented 2013 A-JAM representative to the 23rd annual International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ) jazz meeting, held forth on Monday, July 15, 2013 on Katchie's Planet Jazz, KRTU Jazz 91.7 FM (krtu.org). He was fresh back from his "mind-blowing," "enlightening," and "inspiring" trip, which was held this year in two locations in beautiful Denmark.

You can hear it all right here...

We spun some gorgeous sides from the brand new CD featuring the 2012 IASJ student groups, recorded live in Graz, Austria, including our 2012 A-JAM alum, Stephen Bennett from Northwest Vista College. Between cuts, Odie reflected on the music and spoke about his experiences, his fellow students, the nightly jam sessions, original compositions, teachers, and multi-lingual fun on the bus. We looked at what's next for him on his musical path, and he gave words of wisdom for the next A-JAM crew. The 2014 jazz meeting will be held in Cape Town, South Africa. Could be YOU next year!

And what's that crazy earthship? It's a huge iron sculpture called ELIA, created by Ingvar Cronhammar, who gave us a guided tour in Herning.  We were privileged to enter this incredible meditation space full of parabolae. It's set to spew flames into the sky on a randomized clock, with sensors that prevent it from firing if there are birds or humans in the area, or winds that would make it dangerous. Absolutely unbelievable!

IASJ Denmark - Streaming Video

Only a couple of days away from this year’s IASJ Jazz Meeting and we are very much looking forward to the events and the meeting. We hope that our A-JAM student representative Odie Wallace will have a great time meeting fellow musicians, students, teachers and representatives from schools all over the world.

Our Danish hosts have done their best to unfold a wonderful and inspiring artistic program, starting with a great concert evening on the 29^th of June in Herning. The evening starts with Kadri Voorand Group followed by Dave Liebman with a saxophone quartet and the string quartet called Who Killed Bambi. It will be a great evening.

In Aarhus we will attend a fantastic concert with Blood Sweat Drum+ Bass, Dave Liebman, Palle Mikkelborg, Carsten Dahl and Ensemble MidtVest. This concert will be streamed live! Feel free to spread the links so that your friends will be able to follow this great event.

• Listen to the concert on the web!  - or - 
• Listen to the concert on Facebook. 

A-JAM on KRTU - Listen to the Program!

If you missed the broadcasts of A-JAM on KRTU's South Texas Jazz project in May 2013, don't fret. You can listen right here.

Program host JJ Lopez interviews St Phillip's College singer Bianca Johnson, Northwest Vista College bassist Odie Wallace, and Trinity University drummer Ben Whitehead.  Richard Oppenheim and Katchie Cartwright sit in on alto saxophone and piano respectively.

They perform several of the IASJ Top 10 tunes and discuss the A-JAM program, their mentorship experiences, and what lies ahead. Many thanks to KRTU for documenting our program on this third annual A-JAM broadcast of the South Texas Jazz Project!