Harlow Concert Band

Harlow Concert Band

Me playing clarinet for the Harlow Concert Band.

At the Jazz Workshop

Last night I attended the jazz workshop that I have recently joined and I had had another great night. I have been messing about with playing jazz for some time now but never had an outlet for my playing. I have a huge amount to learn but had nowhere to put my theory studies into practise.

This workshop has solved that. Don't get me wrong I am still struggling with the chords and sales but each week getting more and more confident to be experimental.

Last night we played, Summertime, Now's the Time, St. Thomas and Sister Sadie. Summertime I tried to play just the b minor pentatonic scale (I play alto sax) and it sort of worked but I did not quite like what I was playing. But it felt like good experience not just messing the melody.

Now's the Time was for my instrument a d blues which I am familiar with and had a good time with he d blues scale. But now I understand what others have said about too much use of the blues scale can get boring. I will find other scales that I can use to make it more interesting. Both St Thomas and Sister Sadie were a bit of a disaster for me as I had no idea what to play over the chord progression. But that is the value of a workshop like this. It shows your weaknesses and gives you something to work towards.

I drove home with a real buzz and sang along to the Miles Davis CD ' Kind of Blue'.

I love jazz.

Adam Glasser

On the 25th June we went to GoogliesJazz to see jazz harmonica player Adam Glasser. We had a fantastic night and I thoroughly enjoyed his music. The chromatic harmonica is a rare instrument to be heard and even rarer in the jazz world. But this guy created great sounds and deserves a wider audience.

His repertoire was a mixture of jazz standards and South African jazz. In fact a particular South African number was the highlight for me. The tenor player Bill Yeomans of the house band had obviously never seen some of the chord charts before that night but this did not put him off. After the melody which, had a very african taste to it, he got down to improvise. He done a great job and it was clear that he did struggle at first but once he got the harmonies in his head he hit the right notes.

The whole audience errupted at the end as did Adam Glaser himself.

A night to remember.

MondayJam

One day whilst browsing the web I googled the keywords jazz workshop and came up with one not far from where I live. after a couple of e-mails to the organiser I got an invite to join them and last night I attended my first jam with them.

I have to say from the outset that i had a fantastic night. The people were very friendly and of about the same ability as me. There was a nice range of instruments being played with tenor and alto saxophones, clarinets guitars and a trumpet. The rhythm section was good with a very enthusiastic drummer.

We played a good range of standards and I think I improvised well on most. The songs I did struggle with were 'The A train' and 'Blue bossa'. But that is the point of a workshop, learning. There was no pressure to play a solo, it was left up to you and everyone was supportive.

This will be a regular thing for me and I hope that my jazz education will now flourish.

Derek Nash

The White Hart Jam jazz

Well I have finally done it. After all the practise, studying and lessons from various people I have at last performed some jazz in front of an audience. This important event in my musical education took place last night at the White Hart Public House, Wimbish, Essex. To get there has been a long journey, rather like the trip we had trying to find the Pub. My jazz journey started a couple of years ago with a lot of enthusiasm but very little direction. After a while I started to find my way although very slowly. It helped to have a good map. I used the Jamey Aebersold play-a-long books a great deal and read them over and over again. I learnt how to practise my scales and arpeggios with a purpose in mind and with every turn and new road began to understand more and more. I played tunes at home and struggled to improvise over the chords. I studied jazz theory and tried to get my head around dominant 7th’s and ii-v7-1 sequences. I also attended a couple of jazz workshops at the Benslow Music Trust which were fun but really only highlighted my ignorance and what I needed to know to progress further.
Eventually I recognised the need to stop and ask someone the way. After a lot of searching I found a great teacher in Hannah Horton who has helped me enormously. She has given me better directions and taught me exactly which roads to take during my improvisation. I still have a great deal to learn but last night I was able to exorcise a ghost of the past (See Half Moon link) and now feel that I am on the right road to continue my mission.
The White Hart PH is in the wilds of the Essex countryside. It took us ages to find it. We seemed to be going round in circles in the dark looking for a sign. Backwards and forwards we travelled until eventually we gave up looking and asked someone the way. We discovered we were just yards away. This is just like my music; I was close but not close enough. But now I feel I am in top gear and on my way.