The Educational Jazz Band: Where Are the Girls? by Kelly B. Clingan In Seattle’s nationally celebrated jazz ensembles, we have a serious but often-overlooked equity problem. Where are all of the girls? Let’s be brave, let’s be honest, let’s talk about it, and let’s problem-solve. I don’t have surefire answers, but we need to start the […]
Dealing With Weird Instrumentation and Improving Improvisation…It’s Real Easy! by Steve Wiest When I have the honor of taking part in a middle school, high school or university jazz festival as an adjudicator, I am presented with an all-too-common list of perplexing situations: Big Bands with bizarre instrumentation (REALLY bizarre!) Virtuoso charts that are WAY […]
Jazz Listening 101: A Primer For Students Of Exemplary Songs Of the Genre by Dr. David Fodor I was recently asked by a friend for a good online jazz listening resource that covered a broad range of history of the music and featured its best exemplars. I jumped at the chance to create such a […]
How to Maximize the Jazz Festival Experience By Caleb Chapman, Educator, JEN Vice President Maximizing ensemble growth at a jazz festival involves so much more than just rehearsing music! This article is will help you create the best possible festival experience for you and your students. MUSICAL PREPARATION Showcase the Strengths of the Ensemble A […]
The Journey through Jazz: Hong Kong Institute of Music (HKIED) Jazz Ensemble at the 5th JEN Conference By Dr. Sheung-Ping Lai, Hong Kong Institute of Education The HKIED Jazz Ensemble and I were invited to perform and to give a presentation at the 5thJEN Conference in Dallas in January 2014. It was a great honor for […]
Collective Improvisation in Big Band Dr. John Reynolds One of the real challenges a big band director faces in daily rehearsal is how to get all students improvising. Truthfully, Jazz ensembles in which each member is a proficient improviser swing harder because each individual has done so much listening. Let’s face it though, not every […]
Set & Setting in the Combo Room By Hal Galper PART ONE: SETTING The Combo Room Is Part Of Your Instrument. “Set & Setting” is a phrase borrowed from the 60’s. In this instance “set“ means the state of mind of the student during an event and “setting“ means the environment within which the event […]
How to Establish a Jazz Program, and Ideas to Jumpstart Your Existing Program By Steve Holley, Educator and JEN Membership Committee Chair As the chair of the JEN Membership Committee, I spent a good amount of my time at our conference sitting down and asking you, our members, what resources you would like to see […]
Drum & Rhythm Section Performance Tips: Understanding and Executing the Tune by Marvin Sparks Tunes (Examples) Straight Ahead: Medium Tempo: “Take The A-Train” – Duke Ellington (Sonny Greer) Up-Tempo: “Milestones” – Miles Davis (Philly Joe Jones); “Impressions” – John Coltrane (Elvin Jones) Latin/Samba: “Blue Bossa” – Dexter Gordon (Al Foster) Funk: “Chameleon” – Herbie Hancock (Harvey Mason) […]
The Big Band Music of David Baker by Monika Herzig We recently lost one of our jazz legends, David Baker, but his legacy continues. The stories, tributes, and pictures that were shared in the Remembering David Baker Facebook group speak volumes about his impact on the jazz community worldwide and beyond. In addition, major publications all over […]