arrange • compose • conduct
Posts about vocal jazz.
Please join me and GRCC Shades of Blue this Friday for a real, live, in-person concert! We’ll be presenting an evening of vocal jazz outdoors on GRCC’s campus. There will be lawn seating – bring blankets! Music will include three group numbers, as well as five solo songs that Shades […]
My new Patreon is focused on creating a new vocal/choral work each month, and a big part of that is arranging songs newly released into the public domain. In April, I created a new SATB arrangement of the Irving Berlin standard “What’ll I Do?” – and I’m working to find […]
I’m excited that my first live concert in over a year is just one week away. With tremendous support from leadership at GRCC, and incredible work from Shades of Blue, I’m excited to present a concert of live jazz, out on the lawn behind the Music Center. We’ll present three […]
My ensemble, Shades of Blue, is attending the virtual SMV/Real Group Vocal Jazz Festival, presented by Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa, and spearheaded by Dr. Jeremy Fox and the rest of the SWCC music staff. It promises to be an amazing festival, with dozens of sessions for all ages, […]
I’ve said more than once that the world needed a proper history of The Real Book. And Adam Neely did a great job with his video about the handmade viral sheet music collection of the 1970s. But never did I imagine something made with the loving care that Roman Mars […]
One of the most poignant songs I know, “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” is a meditation on lost love penned in 1955 by Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf. The title is a loose reference to T.S. Eliot’s “April is the cruelest month.” For me, one year on, […]
I have long loved Steve Zegree’s beautiful setting of the Gershwins’ “Love Walked In.” It’s a study in suspension-resolution, it reaches beautiful jazz harmony while retaining excellent voice leading, and it brilliantly teaches expressive singing. I selected it for GRCC Shades of Blue this fall, because while a cappella ballads […]
For singers brought up in a “classical” mindset, the first chance to interpret in a jazz idiom can be disconcerting. Do I need to sing the exact rhythms on the lead sheet? Why are there chords in parentheses at the end? (Either it’s part of the piece or it isn’t, […]
By all rights, I should be introducing the Michigan All-State Jazz Choir right about now, and then standing in the back as they tear up the stage singing tight chords with skill and passion. Of course that’s not the case: the Michigan Music Conference is virtual, and all of the […]
I made a list today of reliable jazz singers for my students. By reliable, I mean that when they interpret a song, their interpretation is going to be helpful in understanding the bulls-eye of the song. Consistently. I omitted singers who are inconsistent in their output or whose recorded output […]