We began the session by playing through Quasimodo which is one of the tunes performed at Smalls this past sunday. I was happy with the addition the vibraphone . I think it makes a big difference for the players to play […]

What a great afternoon we had at Small’s for our performance! It was really nice to finally meet the rest of the workshop students, and well as have all the teachers together. Our Hard Bop group played Quasimado, Byrd Like, […]

I thoroughly enjoyed the performances of the 5 groups that performed at Smalls Jazz club yesterday. The team work within the groups was stellar and everyone rose to the occasion of the performance. I realize playing in a classroom is […]

Today we had a chance to showcase the songs we’ve been playing in class and our hard work payed off. My wife and best friend were impressed. Okay, jazz smarty pants they are not, but they loved us, thought we […]

All originals, with polyrhythms, mixed meter, modulations and….lets not forget the 4/4 tune. It takes serious concentration and dedication. I am proud of them and I can’t wait to hear them perform the complete set of music at Smalls on […]

It is great to hear how everybody in the group is stepping it up. I am very excited to hear them perform sunday, they worked hard, with as result a beautiful set of music. Smalls, here we come.Sent from my […]

Yesterday in class we ran through everything we will perform for our Smalls gig next Sunday. There was great energy and really nice interaction with the band. Our new alto player Kenji, fits right into the group. I especially enjoyed […]

Last night I started a bi weekly workshop for the New York Jazz Workshop(NYJW)! The NYJW has been working on this project for sometime and we’re all excited to get it up and running. We’ve started with four interested and […]

We sank our teeth in the challenging set of music that we are preparing for the gig. Its not there yet but we made great progress. More work to do, everybody is ready to move in second gear. Looking forward […]

Getting a set of music together and made a little playbook on who solo’s where. And a nice arrangement on Mr. Knight from John Coltrane. We have one more week to clean things up. Looking forward to hear the workshop […]

Today the Bebop to Hard Bop Workshop had Andrea Veneziani subbing for Mark Sherman. We worked on the tunes are going to be played at Smalls. We decided endings and introductions and worked a lot on interplay and the melodies. We also […]

Today the workshop was focused on the 5 tunes that we are going to perform at Smalls, so we tried to simulate the performance, deciding the order of the soloist and the exact arrangement of the tunes. Playing everything without […]

Another great workshop. The two hours literally flew bye. We worked on Rain, a tune writen by Miles Okazaki, and specifically looked at 23232323/222/32233223/22/2323 in triplets, sixteenth and quintuplets. We also checked out a new tune written by Olivia and […]