For instrumentalists, singers, and curious listeners; a class to sharpen the musical ears. We'll practice aural detective work: the most basic skill behind harmonizing, improvising, composing, and finding chord progressions.
William Armando Rodriguez is a native of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. After graduating from Conservatorio de Musica Esteban Salas, Rodriguez went on to teach at Escuela Vocacional de Arte Jose Maria Heredia. as a professor of classic and Cuban percussion as well as African rhythms. He advanced to become chair of the percussion department at that school. In 2003 he joined the popular Santiago de Cuba group Septeto Tipico Tivoli as percussionist and music arranger; he infused the rhythms of son, salsa, bachata, merengue, bolero and other popular and traditional rhythms into the group's repertoire. William and el Septeto toured London and then the United Sates, where William now lives. His first love is to spread the Cuban culture to others through the beauty and diversity of its rhythms and musical instruments.
In the course we will learn:
Individual instruction is the cornerstone of music education. The VJC offers private classes and referrals for a wide selection of instruments. Call the Jazz Center to set-up classes with a teacher who best meets your needs.
How much fun is it watching a sport that you don't know the rules for? If you didn't know what a touchdown, a double play or a double dribble was how long would you watch? The game probably wouldn't hold your attention for long, much less cause you to become a fan.
It's the same thing in jazz. If you don't know what the songs are, or what the musicians are doing with them jazz sounds confusing. And that is really unfortunate because Jazz music is one of the richest art forms on the planet, relevant, full of tension, drama, joy and sadness. Once you have an idea of what is going on then your engagement with and enjoyment of this beautiful music starts to multiply by leaps and bounds.
George Kaye, a NY City Jazz bass Bassist with a Bachelors in Music from Manhattan School of Music, is now presenting a jazz listening course to not only hip you to the Jazz basics, but he can give you the inside stuff that makes the music so deep and addictive. As a society we glorify our sports heroes - Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Frank Gifford to name a few. Jazz fans glorify Jazz heroes, men and women like John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Mary Lou Williams, Betty Carter, Anita O'day who devoted their lives to the art of swinging improvisational music.
You'll get the basics of jazz - theme and variation, what is swing, what goes on inside the rhythm section while the soloist crafts his statement, the forces that shape a musical approach. You'll learn to identify musicians by their sound and approach, and appreciate their contributions to shaping and developing music. One of these greats changed popular music 7 times in his lifetime. Find out who and how in George Kaye's "Inside Jazz".
George Kaye bio.