How The Audience Figures In
For a performer, what’s the difference between a vocal jazz performance and a traditional choral one?
arrange • compose • conduct
Posts about vocal jazz.
For a performer, what’s the difference between a vocal jazz performance and a traditional choral one?
Säje is one of the best things happening in vocal music today.
Overheard recently: a traditional bel canto voice teacher offering critique to a crossover student singing a jazz standard.
Having a group of singers who can sing well together isn’t the special part. Thousands upon thousands of singers have learned to master vocal jazz and choral music over the decades, singing tight harmony in tune. As hard as it is, it’s not that special. What is special is finding […]
It matters who you choose to listen to. As I wrote yesterday, when my students are learning a jazz standard, I work hard to impress on them the importance of targeted listening. This is, after all, an oral tradition, and we can only sing these songs well if we understand […]
It matters who you choose to listen to. When my students are learning a jazz standard, I work hard to impress on them the importance of targeted listening. This is, after all, an oral tradition, and we can only sing these songs well if we understand that tradition. Even as […]
I’ve spent a lot of hours listening to the great Tin Pan Alley songwriters – the ones who composed the core of the Great American Songbook/jazz standards. Along the way, I’ve developed some strong opinions about the songwriters’ output. Here’s my ranking of TPA songwriters. (Who did I select to […]
Even the harmony master himself agreed. Gene Puerling loved unison singing. I can’t prove it to you, because the album is not available on any streaming services. I can’t link to a YouTube video because they’re all unavailable. But go and find The Hi-Lo’s singing “A Quiet Girl” By Leonard […]
This concert will be one for the memory books. One of the things I’m most excited about for Friday’s Rockford Aces 15th Anniversary Concert is a world premiere. With the help of the Rockford Education Foundation and the Rockford Choir Boosters, The Aces were able to commission a brand new […]
It’s my end-of-school-year tradition to publish the repertoire my ensemble sang over the year. With my sixth year at GRCC in the books, here are the pieces Shades of Blue learned and performed. This is the first year in which the ensemble stayed intact across both semesters – same four […]