arrange • compose • conduct
Posts about vocal jazz.
What is the best Christmas album and why is it Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas? It has the perfect selection of classic American Christmas songs. Ella sings flawlessly. (It’s my favorite period of her recording – around the same time she was recording the Songbook series, her classic Ella […]
My family is wishing you peace and connection this holiday season. We made this little music video together just for you! Wishing you all a Happy Holidays! We’ve built a lot of skills this year in our house – singing, juggling, audio & video engineering. And we decided to put […]
When I was selecting songs for GRCC Shades of Blue for Fall 2020, “Singin’ in the Rain” was the first arrangement I chose. For many reasons, including: It’s a killer a cappella jazz chart – swinging, great harmony, fun to sing. April Tini had a major influence in introducing me […]
Yesterday, I finally got to share one of the projects that has been occupying my work daily for the last couple of months. This arrangement, a lullaby version of the Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers,” was written in a flurry the week after we lost a former student, Katherine, at 22. She […]
I was flattered when my former student, Harrison Witt, asked me to write an arrangement for his Senior Recital in his Jazz Voice degree at Western Michigan University. When he settled on an “Out Of This World” theme, we came to “Lost In The Stars” as a song to write […]
I’m transcribing a standard from Ella and Louis right now – phrasing and all. It’s…hard. Because Ella’s phrasing is so complex and hip. The back phrasing floats across beats in a way that swings and is completely ineffable. So the question becomes, how do you balance accuracy and readability? On […]
This is my fourth year directing Shades of Blue Vocal Jazz Ensemble at Grand Rapids Community College. It goes without saying that normalcy isn’t going to be found in choral ensembles anywhere in the world this year. Here’s my plan for Shades of Blue. The ensemble will be focusing on […]
Take advantage of these two recent video panel discussions coming from the vocal jazz community. There is much to learn from here as we move into new worlds in the choral world. First, this forum from a couple weeks ago, titled Race Conversations in Vocal Jazz, features a wonderful group […]
Don’t miss this. Säje is releasing amazing new music fairly regularly right now… I’ve been grooving to this since the dropped it to their Patreon supporters recently, but they released it on YouTube today. Great singing, great sense of ensemble, amazing arrangement, super cool song. Tune in and put it […]
It’s my end-of-school-year tradition to publish the repertoire my ensemble sang over the year. With my third year at GRCC in the books, here are the pieces Shades of Blue learned and performed. Shades of Blue had six singers (2-1-1-2) in the fall semester and seven singers (2-2-2-1) in the […]