arrange • compose • conduct
Posts about vocal jazz.
Enjoy this, the likely last recording of The Real Group to feature Anders Edenroth singing. Blidöpolska was written by him as a capstone piece to his tenure in the group. And it has a beautiful story to go with it. As he said in this interview (translated from Swedish) “A […]
One of the best ways to find new repertoire is one that didn’t exist not too long ago. I love to see the programs posted online by the colleagues I most respect. The repertoire they’re programming is, by definition, the repertoire I want to program, and while not everything they […]
I arrange vocal jazz because I love it. I sang in vocal jazz ensembles throughout school and listen to vocal groups all the time because I love it. I teach it because I believe in it. I believe that learning to sing the close harmony we encounter in vocal jazz […]
I’ve been revisiting some old works of mine recently, and simultaneously thinking about the current musical trend of harmonic maximalism.* I love the rich harmonies that are at the heart of harmonic maximalism, but my heart isn’t in exploring that path. As I’ve looked at older and more recent works, […]
Two recently resurfaced arguments that in my brain are long-settled. “You can’t sing straight-tone healthfully.” I can’t believe vocal educators are still saying that, when the evidence is clear that that is simply not the case. Any style of singing can be healthy. Any style of singing can be unhealthy. […]
A big part of singing close harmony is personal time spent learning your parts. “Sing it like it’s a solo” my teachers would say. But a big part, and one I didn’t hear as often as a student, is that you have to make friends with the dissonance. Dissonance can […]
It’s easy to forget the power of great live music. Listening to pristine studio recordings is great – I love listening to records. But it’s something else to be present, when a truly special group of musicians share their art. There are two factors that have conspired to help me […]
I remember wanting to learn to mark scores more effectively, and being told by someone, “there’s lots of different ways to mark score. However you do it is fine, just pick a method.” I remember mostly being utterly unsatisfied with that suggestion – what I wanted was a specific tool […]
Recently asked online: “Are part recordings cheating?” That is, does providing part recordings diminish an ensemble experience because we don’t force our students to develop the reading and keyboard skills to learn the music on their own? The answer is: of course not. In fact, I think our music education […]
Almost nothing happens in the lyrics of the classic Antonio Carlos Jobim song “Waters Of March.” It’s kind of my favorite thing. The plan of the houseThe body in bedAnd the car that got stuckIt’s the mud, it’s the mud Afloat, adriftA flight, a wingA hawk, a quailThe promise of […]