Photo by Nick Granville
RBC 2023
TEACHING/DISCUSSION
Jazz Theory: Jazz has a Regional Accent and a Vocabulary
Download SPEAKING JAZZ
Download CHORD SCALE RELATIONSHIPS
Keep a Date Book; Write Two Drum Parts
A good start with Four Parts
Download FOUR PART HARMONIZATION
Copycat and Oatts' Notes
Kikoski
Interest, Balance, Clarity
Except when they don’t
F-7 and the Problem with Jazz Theory
Melody: Three Levels
Ferris Bueller’s Ferrari
Jabba
Pee Wee's Big Ball of Foil
Clarity of Thought: WPU Brecker Archive
Cruise Ships
Wolpe/Schneider/Blanchard
Fearless (In Your Own Lane)
RECRUITINg, OUTREACH,
and enrichment
ENDEAVOUR JAZZ ORCHESTRA
The Endeavour Jazz Orchestra was created to showcase and promote the work of young composers, most of them my post-graduate students. Our first project is Ryan Brake’s Solipsis and features Alex Sipiagin, Dick Oatts, Francisco Torres, John Escreet, and John Riley. Solipsis was included in Downbeat Magazine’s Best Albums of 2022 and received a four-star rating. Several other projects are nearing completion.
As trustee (since 2011) and eventual chair of the New Zealand Jazz Foundation, I have been coordinating and delivering two main projects: the National Jazz Workshops and the New Zealand Youth Jazz Orchestra, that were initiated during the early 1980s. In addition to revamping the format and strategies of those activities, I have initiated and coordinated several additional projects for high school jazz students: the New Zealand Jazz Educators Workshops, the Wellington Youth Jazz Orchestra, the NZJF Jazz Academy, the Jazz Composition Workshops, and the Workshops preparatory course.
NEW ZEALAND YOUTH JAZZ ORCHESTRA
In 2011 I became the director of the New Zealand Jazz Youth Jazz Orchestra and invited my NZSM colleague, Rodger Fox, to co-direct the ensemble. The group is a high school aged ensemble (up to 19) and one of our major enrichment and recruiting endeavours. Our revised format for the ensemble included bringing international guest artists to New Zealand for each tour. These have included: Dick Oatts, Alex Sipiagin, Scott Wendholt, Luis Bonilla, John Fedchock, Francisco Torres, Clay Jenkins, and Tom Luer.
NATIONAL JAZZ WORKSHOPS
The New Zealand Jazz Foundation has been hosting a weeklong jazz "camp" since 1980 when American Jamey Aebersold brought his summer jazz workshops to Australia and then to New Zealand. The Jazz Foundation was established to facilitate these early workshops. I have been coordinating the workshops since 2012. Almost every jazz performance degree student at the New Zealand School of Music has attended the Workshops more than once and it's been an essential recruiting and outreach tool.
JAZZ EDUCATORS WORKSHOPS
Every year, during the same week as the student Jazz Workshops, I teach a five day jazz pedagogy course to adult jazz educators and directors with a wide variety of jobs and responsibilities in jazz education. I just finished our last session a few hours ago.
NZJF JAZZ ACADEMY AND COMPOSITION WORKSHOPS
A more recent initiative of mine, through the Jazz Foundation, has been establishing a weekly live-online course that can reach high school jazz students throughout New Zealand. The course includes topics in jazz theory, improvisation, history, listening. A separate Jazz Composition course meets online on the nights when the Academy classes are on break.
NEW ZEALAND SCHOOL OF MUSIC JAZZ FESTIVAL
In 2010, my first year in New Zealand, I wrote a proposal for the creation of a university-led educational jazz festival. The proposal was approved with a substantial initial budget/investment. I was the producer for the festival from 2011 to 2019. With international guest artists/clinicians, gala evening concerts, and a national improvisation competition, the NZSM Jazz Festival quickly became the marquee educational jazz festival in the country and a key component of the jazz school’s enrichment and recruiting strategy.
Guest artists and adjudicators for the festival have included Alex Sipiagin, Bob Sheppard, Steve Houghton, Dick Oatts, Eric Marienthal, Dave Weckl, Adam Schroeder, Bob Moses, Clay Jenkins, Bruce Forman, Karrin Allyson, Tom Warrington, and Joe LaBarbera as well as the NZSM Big Bands and small groups.
CREATIVE/RESEARCH
As a composer and jazz musician, my primary creative output has involved writing and performing my own work. This almost inevitably branches out to other necessary areas and skills: recording technology, publishing, and sharing that expertise with classical and jazz performance colleagues.
One significant but unexpected surprise has been the opportunity to create the book about the The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis/Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and the projects that have grown out of that book: the new history of the Village Vanguard itself and the analysis book of 14 Thad Jones jazz orchestra charts.
My Endeavour Jazz Orchestra has also recorded three albums on Thad Jones charts for Thad's 100th birthday (to be released in 2024).
CREATIVE/RESEARCH: RECORDING PROJECTS (JAZZ)
CREATIVE/RESEARCH: RECORDING PROJECTS (CLASSICAL/ELECTROACOUSTIC)
RECORDING PROJECTS IN PRODUCTION (JAZZ)
RECORDING PROJECTS IN PRODUCTION (CLASSICAL/ELECTROACOUSTIC)
CREATIVE/RESEARCH: BOOK PUBLISHING
BOOK PUBLISHING IN PROGRESS
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: PRODUCTION FOR UNIVERSITY COLLEAGUES
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: PRODUCTION FOR
TENURED FACULTY WORLDWIDE
