Benefits of Training in Small Ensembles with Jazz Music

Notes on Conducting Jazz Ensembles  Listening, Imitation, Improvisation, Cultural, Personal and Historical Awareness  By David Berger (highlights) The universal love of jazz and its identification with America is about the personal freedom of expression and democracy in action. In order to be a responsible citizen, we need to be educated and articulate. This is especially true in being a member of a jazz band, which is a democratic musical society. Your first responsibility as a member is to understand the musical arrangements. Although the conductor is the final arbiter of taste, each player should bring as much understanding and personal

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Grammy winners Kamau Kenyatta and Gregory Porter share tight musical bond

By GEORGE VARGASEP. 24, 20169 AM Van Morrison, Hubert Laws, Don Was and Jamie Cullum are just a few of the luminaries who sing the praises of former San Diego State University-student-turned-Grammy-Award-winning singer Gregory Porter in the new film documentary, “Gregory Porter: Don’t Forget Your Music.” But when it came to composing and recording new original music for the soundtrack, the producers of “Don’t Forget” knew there was only one person for the job: Kamau Kenyatta. The veteran saxophonist and pianist is a lecturer at UC San Diego, where he is the director of the Department of Music’s jazz ensembles. He

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