arrange • compose • conduct
Posts about vocal jazz.
With a vocal jazz quartet, you can’t have someone sick with COVID and still go on. That’s precisely what happened to Shades of Blue a few weeks ago, scuttling our performance at GRCC Jazz Night. We conspired, planned, and got support to put on a Family and Friends Concert after […]
Keep the music you select on the correct side of this axis. My students in Shades of Blue are working on the very difficult a cappella arrangement of “Almost Like Being In Love” by Darmon Meader. It’s aurally demanding, rhythmically tricky, and long! It’s been hard work, but they haven’t […]
Great new vocal harmony recordings are few and far between. We’re lucky to get a handful in any given year. Even rarer for them to come from a brand new group, as opposed to an established leading light such as New York Voices, The Real Group, or Take 6. What […]
I’ve never directed a group with just one on a part. To start: I feel incredibly lucky that I am able to run a class with this few number of singers; I am thrilled to be able to program quartet repertoire for them. We’re exploring great vocal jazz quartets from […]
One of the biggest gifts of the microphone is that it’s the greatest vocal equalizer. When I have sung in a concert choir, often I would be in a section with someone with a beautiful, big instrument. I personally have a small instrument, so in that situation there were only […]
Follow these two opposing instructions in sound checks. First, sing consistently like you’ll sing in concert. Don’t mark, because the sound person can’t get a reliable level if you’re marking. Second, don’t oversing. You’ll be singing a lot in a dress rehearsal/sound check, and you don’t want to overuse your […]
There are two types of vocal jazz ensemble. One (call it the Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross-type) uses group singing as a means to deliver improvisation, solo artistry, and essentially a vocal cover of instrumental jazz. It’s a jazz combo, but voices. The other (call it The Singers Unlimited-type) uses group […]
It’s my end-of-school-year tradition to publish the repertoire my ensemble sang over the year. With my fifth (!) year at GRCC in the books, here are the pieces Shades of Blue learned and performed. Shades of Blue had five singers in the fall semester and eleven singers in the winter. […]
This recording is a five minute masterclass in jazz singing. It is such a wonderful demonstration of space, swing, collaboration, listening, and mastery. Listen to the way that Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong interact with each other and their rhythm section to create something really special. Listen especially to the […]
A lot of my jobs involve me saying some version of this sentence. “End sustained notes with shadow vowels.” Yes, that’s usually true…but not in this moment/piece/style. “Keep your feet firmly planted.” Yes, that’s usually true…but not in jazz. “Look to the conductor for the sense of the beat.” Yes, […]