Cambridge Jazz Co-op

2004-05-24T12:24:00.000Z

Cambridge Jazz Co-op now has a website at
cjc.jazzcreation.com

2004-04-28T16:30:00.000Z

Programme change - June 26th

Pete Churchill can't make it, but luckily Terry Gregory has agreed to step in.

2004-03-28T22:07:00.000Z

Here is the programme for April - May - June 2004

April	3	Adam Amor
April	10	Jam (Roberto)
April	17	Renato D'Aiello
April	24	Jeff Clyne
May	1	John Horler
May	8	David Gordon
May	15	Jam (Pete Fraser)
May	22	Malcolm Earle-Smith
May	29	Chris Biscoe
June	5	Roger Beaujolais (vibes player)
June	12	Jam (Pete Shepherd)
June	19	Tommaso Starace
June	26	Pete Churchill (TBC)

2003-12-22T12:09:00.000Z

Have a look at Pete Shepherd's music web site which includes the stuff on jazz theory that was published in the newsletter, expanded and clarified (or possibly obfuscated), plus sheet music downloads, jazz musician links et al.

2003-11-03T11:24:00.000Z

On Saturday the first of November Angela Elliott made a welcome repeat appearance. We did three pieces and the first two were amazing meditative, repetitive and rhythmic exercises. Angela told us afterwards that she hopes to bring some of her ideas about music and voice production into the corporate training world... sounds interesting! She is appearing in Cambridge with her group The Shout on the 17th of November. Some of us have already got tickets.

Steve Waterman next week.

2003-11-03T11:18:00.000Z

ANGELA ELLIOTT IN CAMBRIDGEMONDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2003

Part of the Fast Forward Series

THE SHOUT

DEEP BLUE

SEA SONGS, LOVE SONGS

MUSIC BY ORLANDO GOUGH, RICHARD CHEW & THE SHOUT

The Shout is an extraordinary phenomenon. A choir of diverse voices and fantastically talented individuals, it has been called a vocal big band, a club choir, a vocal stomp, a dangerous choir, a choir of Babel, and a choral phenomenon. It is, in fact, all of these things.

Deep Blue is a semi-staged concert of songs about the sea and about love. Love songs with a difference: about falling in love in a sweetshop; about an old man caring for his wife after she’s had a stroke; about housework; about electricity; obsessive work & desire. The lyrics come from, among other sources, the Song of Solomon and even a packet of Love Hearts sweets!

Taking musical inspiration from Eastern Europe and Africa, The Shout use improvisation

and look for fascinating new ways of making choral music. Hear them sing anything from a 'ghazal' - an ancient form of Persian verse - to an Albanian wedding song with English lyrics and, amazingly, a song through megaphones.

‘A glorious celebration of the human voice in all its diversity’. THE TIMES

Learn how to sing with The Shout in ways you never thought you would (or could) using unusual and remarkable vocal techniques. Exhilarating and fun, and quite unlike any voice workshop you’ve ever been to before. Places are limited to 30. Book in advance on 01223 357851. 3.00 – 5.00PM TICKETS: £7.00 Meet in Corn Exchange foyer.

CONCERT: 7.30PM TICKETS £9.50 (£5.00 Concessions)

Buy tickets for two concerts and get the third concert ticket for £5.00

For availability please check with the Box Office.

2003-10-28T20:28:00.000Z

2003-10-28T10:20:00.000Z

Tutor List till the end of 2003
Sept 6 Malcolm Edmonstone
13 Josh Kemp
20 (jam) Pete Fraser
27 David Gordon
Oct 4 Russell Van den Berg
11 Malcolm Earle-Smith
18 (jam) Pete Shepherd
25 John Horler
Nov 1 Angela Elliott (TBC)
8 Steve Waterman
15 (jam) TBA
22 TBA
29 TBA
Dec 6 Jeff Clyne
13 Malcolm Creese
20 (jam)
27 no session

2003-10-28T10:17:00.000Z

Tutor for CJC Saturday 1st November
angela elliot @ melbourne, australia voice is a violinist, improvising singer, and teacher. her vocal skills can be enjoyed in the london based vocal big band THE SHOUT, NEW LONDON JAZZ VOICES and drum'n'bass outfit CHALK HILL.

2003-10-28T10:10:00.000Z

Practical use of notes from diminished 7th chords in improvisation
Pete Shepherd
There are good reasons for learning to play diminished 7th chords (as broken chords or arpeggios) and using them in improvisations.
They are useful over some of the commonest chords (as well as those pesky diminished ones, of course), and best of all, you only need 3 of them to cover every key instead of the usual 12. That saves the time taken to practice 9 scales, so you can spend more time down the pub and still astound with your virtuosity at the workshop on Saturday! (we’ve noticed – Ed)
On the sax, I find the diminished 7th chord that goes D-F-A-B the easiest to play. I really need to practice starting on each note, going up and going down, so I can start anywhere without thinking. At the moment there’s a bit of a delay while I find the note, and then it’s too late – we’re already on the next chord!

I also need to practice the other two chords: the one that goes C-E-F#-A and the one that I find trickiest, E-G-B-C.

Anyway, concentrating on the first one, it can be played over the diminished chord indications Do, Fo, Go, Ao and Bo, which are all the same chord, of course. It’s quite handy to be able to do this, because it can be hard to “hear” your way through diminished chords sometimes. But the main thing I want to point out is that it can also often be used over E7, G7, B7 and C7.
If you think of it over a G7, the 4 notes are the 3rd B, 5th D, 7th F and 9th A. So it is ideal over a G79 chord. Even if the G7 chord isn’t actually notated as a 9 chord, it is often OK to play it as if it were a 9. The only problem will be a clash if the rhythm section is playing a natural 9, or if they’re augmenting the 5th. Don’t worry, I’m sure no-one will notice. And a sensitive rhythm section will soon adapt themselves to your harmonic ideas (!)
You can use these chords in Autumn Leaves wherever you see a 7 chord, for example. Considering Autumn Leaves in the key of A minor (the usual key for B instruments), the chord in bar 2 is G7, which can be interpreted as G79, and played over with notes from the diminished 7th D-F-A-B. You can use that same diminished 7th over all the G7 and E7 chords. Not only is this easy to do, but it also sounds interesting because of the “colour” added by the 9.
Once you’ve mastered playing the 4 chord notes as broken chords, you can add approach notes to them from above and below. Each chord note can be approached from 1 tone above or from 1 semitone below. So you could play B-B, G-A, E-F, C-D, using the lower approach notes, or E-D, G-F, B-A, C-B using the upper approach notes. You’ll be fascinated to hear that these 8 notes make up the “diminished scale”.