JAZZ COLONY 2025 - SWINGIN'!
What an inspirational start. We're back and grateful for the support of Hazel Miller, Pete Bennett and Kennelly Keys! Our theme is swingin'. Like a solid baseball player, jazz improvisers need to play with intention and be dedicated to create a solid solo. This camp/workshop is no substitute for daily practice but it's an amazing community of learners and we're glad to be back.
Here's a link to the book that helped Mr. Bergevin think of the name of our jazz gatherings. This is a unique book about a special time in American history. Take a look?
https://www.amazon.com/Isles-Shoals-Remembered-Americas-Musicians/dp/0804817766
Here's a snippet of the kickoff combo playing for the students!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdVe1HO-3RE&feature=youtu.be
Passion Dance Trio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pra1mraU-08&feature=youtu.be
Tuesday, July 8th
7/8/25
Washington Nationals Combo - Room A103
Our goals for this summer:
- Become more comfortable improvising
- Learn new tunes
We played the blues “Sonnymoon for Two” and practiced improvising on it a few
times.
We read “Ladybird” from the song packet and practiced improvising on it. It was a
bit more difficult than the blues, so we broke down the chords and practiced
improvising using just the 1 and 3 of each chord, then adding the 7 and 5. We did this
working 4 bars at a time.
We also tried using the pentatonic scale as a tool for improvisation on Ladybird. We
discussed how multiple pentatonic scales can fit over one chord (Ex. C major, F
major, and G major pentatonic scales all fit over the chord Cmaj7).
We finished by playing Ladybird and improvising on it using our new tools, and
talked about memorizing the song.
- Forrest Aubrey
Foxy Royals in the Theater- Carla Bley - Baseball
We introduced ourselves and got to know each other a little bit before playing, we learned about each others favorite jazz artists.
We discussed the history of jazz, and where we thought it came from. Jazz did not start in the 60s with miles, as you may think. It was once popular music around 40 years before.
Jazz originated from Africa and Europe, polyrhythms come from west African drumming, 12/8 and 4/4 feels together.
We then learned the Honeysuckle Rose melody by ear, and then we closed out by jamming on a blues.
- Max Bartron
Rangers - A202
Hey y'all.
Joel's Giants – Daily Summary 7/8/25
Listening & Repertoire:
Students were encouraged to bring two songs of different styles that they enjoy. Some examples discussed included “Teach Me Tonight” (Bergevin), John Coltrane’s “Blue World (Late Trane),” Stan Getz & Bill Evans’ “Night and Day,” Grant Green tunes such as “The Kicker,” 1920s jazz standards, J.J. Johnson & Ray Brown pieces, and Joe Henderson’s “The Kicker.”
Improvisation Concepts:
We focused on using the melody’s rhythm and notes as material for improvisation. The Mixolydian mode was emphasized for dominant 7 chords. We also explored the idea that the upper structure of a dominant chord can be represented as a minor 9 chord built off the third.
Technical Practice:
An exercise was assigned to arpeggiate all the chords in a Db blues (using the 1, 3, 5, b7 chord tones), aiming to improve harmonic fluency.
Philosophy & Approach:
Key reflections included the phrase, “You can play the blues in everything, but you can’t play everything on the blues,” highlighting the blues’ versatility and limits. Students were reminded to focus on working on challenging material rather than defaulting to comfort zones. Another encouraging thought shared was: “Sometimes you gotta lay out the war, and the battles win themselves,” stressing patience and presence in practice.
Talli Kimani
Astros - A111
Tunes:
Stompin' at the Savoy
Lady Bird
Sweet Georgia Brown
The Intimacy of the Blues
Concepts:
Be Assertive
Though it can be an intimidating setting when it comes to taking solos, it's best to think about what we should do as opposed to what be shouldn't do. And what we should do is jump in and play!
Everyone is dying to hear everyone so let's do them a favor and let them hear us now!
Tritone Substitution
- chords often can be substituted via tritone substitution which involves swapping out a chord for one that is exactly a tritone (3 wholesteps/6 half steps) away:
- Example:
In the last two bars of Lady Bird, instead of a common | I vi | ii V | rhythm changes esque turnaround:
we instead see a tritone substituted version:
Though there are some artistic liberties taken with the chord qualities in this specific substitution, the principle by which this substitution is able to happen completely lies within the V chord (G7). The 3rd and 7th (or shell voicing) of a dominant chord is commonly hailed as the primary harmonic tension that takes us back to the I chord. In this case, the shell voicing of G7 is B and F which are a tritone apart. This interval is special because they lie across the circle of fourths (or fifths) from each other:
With this being the case, that means that this symmetry from our shell voicing can then be found in another dominant chord capable of substituting for our current G7.
Simply enough, chord in question will also be across the circle of fourths from root of our current chord:
Which is why we then see a Dbmaj7 in the progression where we would typically see G7. Ideally the substitution would also be dominant, however it is not uncommon that some artistic liberties are taken by composers that small changes like this happen.
If this substitution was rigidly done with the theory in mind, it would idealistically look like this instead:
Notice that the chord qualities mimic those from the original rhythm changes turnaround.
Voice Leading
Voice Leading is what gives music the sonic cohesion we understand as harmony.
Going back to the examples in Lady Bird, we know our last two bars as such:
And though at first glance we may see some chord symbols as a sort of instruction set and perform it as such but if we take a closer look at what the notes are we can have a better understanding of which notes carry a greater sense of weight and importance in the harmony of this progression:
C major 7:
B
G
E
C
Eb major 7:
D
Bb
G
Eb
Ab major 7:
G
Eb
C
Ab
Db major 7:
C
Ab
F
Db
Looking at each of these stack of notes you might be able to notice that if we were to pick any single note as a starting point, within the next chord there is always a neighboring note that is either within a half step or whole step away. Or sometimes, we don't have to change notes at all!
This is called voice leading, although this is a basic example of the greater picture, this is a great place to start so that we can have a better understanding of the relationships between the chords in the tunes we aim to learn.
Quarter Note Swing Feel
At first glimpse, what we know as the quarter note swing feel seems to be a rather rudimentary and metronomic type of groove. However, there are many things to consider as we develop improve and develop this groove, here are two that were mentioned:
Attack
- The attack of each note has to do with the initial strike that provides the percussive element we use to dictate the tempo we are setting
- examples of this shown were the sound of fully muted bass strings, or the ride cymbal when muted.
Body
- The body of the note refers to the sustain or duration of the note that contributes more to the feel
- examples of this would be the ring of the ride cymbal after each strike, or the sustain of each pluck of the bass strings
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