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THE YAMAHA JAZZ EXPERIENCE ENSEMBLE IMPROVISING COMPETITION
(Notes from Bill C Martin, Yamaha's Education Liaison Manager)
In October 2008 Yamaha announced a major jazz education project for UK secondary schools (11-18 age group) and their teachers. There are lots of excellent jazz education projects happening in the UK, US and elsewhere but we wanted this one to really leave something behind. So phase 1 was aimed at music teachers with little or no skills/experience in jazz and improvising and began in March 2009 with a 1-day impro workshop in 7 UK locations, delivered by Julian Joseph, Tim Garland, Andrea Vicari, Neil Cowley and top jazz educator Richard Michael (2009 Jazz Educator award winner of the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Awards, director of Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra and contributor to the Associated Board's jazz piano syllabus). Legendary jazz bass player, Peter Ind, has given us the benefit of his considerable experience and each workshop featured a short video clip of Peter talking about how to set up effective jam sessions - something he knows lots about both from his days on the New York jazz scene and as former proprietor of the world-famous Bass Clef jazz club in London. This highly acclaimed workshop phase has already opened some doors for some of the wonderful secondary school classroom and instrumental music teachers we have in the UK, who are good musicians but who need help to begin building their own jazz impro chops! These workshops gave them great insights into how they might coach ensembles that improvise, rather than read scored-out band arrangements. From September 2009 we welcome any music teacher or music leader who works with 11-18s in the UK, to join our Yamaha Jazz Experience Competition. To take part they will start to coach their own school impro ensembles in Autumn 2009, each working on 1) a Blues and 2) either a jazz standard or something of their own choice that features jazz-style improvising. Our judges are looking for live impro so learned arrangements will not be eligible. Early in 2010 they'll send us a video of their ensembles' efforts and our judges will select the best 9 ensembles. These 9 finalists will perform at our finalists' event at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in April 2010 and the judges' 3 favourite ensembles will each receive some Yamaha prizes for their schools and gigs at Ronnie Scott's, the 606 and The Bull's Head clubs in London! Teachers in the UK who want to take part in this fantastic project can do so free. Details of the Yamaha Jazz Experience Competition are available now!
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