Registration for Summer 2021 is now open!
These are online summer courses, taught using Zoom
| Blue Rhapsodies and Hot Sonatas: The Influence of Jazz on Classical Music in the 20th and 21st centuries | Jul 5-12, 2021 |
| Through audio and video recordings (along with “live” performances by instructor Alan Matheson) this class will explore the influence of Jazz on Classical and concert music during the 20th and 21st centuries and the ways in which modern classical music influenced jazz composers and arrangers. Musicians covered in these classes include Scott Joplin, Debussy, Gershwin, Ravel, Bix Beiderbecke, Stravinsky, Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams and Aaron Copland as well as Canadian musicians Stephen Chatman and Ron Collier. | |
| Hotter Than That: A History of Jazz Trumpet (1923-2014) | Jul 19-26 |
| Trumpeter/composer Alan Matheson presents an overview of the history of jazz trumpet starting with the pioneers (Freddie Keppard, King Oliver), the first great soloists (Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke) as well as the modern giants of jazz trumpet playing (Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Ingrid Jensen). Via audio and video recordings and on-screen demonstrations, Alan will chart the lineage of this demanding yet expressive instrument’s role in the history of Jazz. | |
| Swing To Bop: The Roots of Modern Jazz (1933-1945) | Aug 9-16 |
| Modern Jazz has it’s roots in the Swing Era when forward thinking musicians worked to expand the language of jazz playing, composing and arranging. These classes will explore how this evolution took place, focussing on the work of modern jazz pioneers like Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, Charlie Christian, Billy Strayhorn, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. Via rare recordings, we will trace how this new style of jazz was a natural progression within the jazz tradition (and not the “revolutionary” break from the tradition as some listeners and critics thought at the time). | |
| Great Jazz Piano Trios | Aug 23 |
| The combination of piano, bass and drums (or guitar) is an instrumentation that is unique to jazz. Since the 1930s, there have been a number of important and influencial jazz piano trios led by great musicians like Teddy Wilson, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Geri Allen. This class will explore the music and wide-ranging styles of these group including the work of the innovative bass players in these ensembles (Oscar Pettiford, Ray Brown, Scott La Faro). Pianist/composer Alan Matheson will bring his experience as a trio leader to this class via audio and video recordings and “live” demonstrations. | |
| Duke Ellington’s Great Vocalists | Aug 30 |
| During his long career as a bandleader (1919-1974), Duke Ellington featured a number of great singers as part of his band. In this class, Ellington scholar Alan Matheson will explore the work of both his regular singers (Ivie Anderson, Al Hibbler and Joya Sherrill) as well as special guests who recording with the Ellington orchestra (Bing Crosby, Alice Babs, Frank Sinatra). Ellington and his co-composer Billy Strayhorn were masters of instrumental colour and devised unique ways to integrate these vocal talents into the texture of the Ellington orchestra. | |
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