Brass Special:Mark Bassey

and Jack Kendon

The Sussex

Fortnightly Issue 4 Monday 14th - Sunday 27th October 2013

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FeaturesA Tribute to

Andy Mackintosh

The Column:Eddie Myer

Brass InstrumentsIn Jazz

Interview:Mark Bassey

Interview:Jack Kendon

ListingsHighlights

Jazz Listings forMon 14th -

Sun 27th October

On The Horizon

The Venue Guide

ReviewsRadio Programmes

Podcasts

Review:The Julian Argüelles Quartet

ImprovThe Jazz Education Section

Improv Column: Terry Seabrook

A Guide toLearning Jazz in Sussex

Resources Column:The iBone app

CONTENTS

The Sussex

JAZZ MAGThe Sussex

Monday 14th October - Sunday 27th October 2013

! ! ! ! ! Credits! ! ! Contact Us

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Features

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Andy Mackintosh, one of the world's leading session and jazz sax players, passed away peacefully at Sussex County Hospital in Brighton on Sunday October 6. He had a short battle with liver cancer.

! Born in 1953, Andy started playing sax at the age of 4. His father, Ken Mackintosh, was a well-known sax player and bandleader so Andy was constantly surrounded by musicians and music and qu ick l y de ve loped a natural affinity and a musician's ear. His dad wanted h im to l ear n p iano , an ext remel y use fu l sk i l l fo r any ins t r umenta l i s t . He passed all the grades, going beyond eight, but he didn't particularly enjoy it. When the piano player in his dad's band took h im a s ide and showed him what the chord symbols meant on the band's music, it was an epiphany for Andy. He now had the tools to decipher the music he loved - jazz - and was able to apply his new-found knowledge to his sax. His dad took him to a lot of gigs, and eventually let him play piano on some of them. He s ta r ted a sk ing h i s son to transcribe popular tunes and arrange them for the band . Andy wa s a l so taken to Ronnie Scott's, and plenty of other jazz clubs at a young age, with Ben Webster making a par t i cu la r l y s t rong impression. As soon as he left school in 1969 he became a professional musician.

! In 1971 he got a big break: he was playing in London with Tommy Whittle's band, and Maynard Ferguson's manager was in the audience. He approached Andy and asked if he would do a gig with Maynard's band in London. It was a stern test - a live broadcast for the BBC, sight reading the music, as an 18-year-old. He passed the test with flying

colours and Maynard asked Andy to go to America with the band. Andy said yes, of course, and set off on his stellar career in the USA.

! Shortly after starting the tour with Maynard, he met his bride to be, Bonnie, in Pittsburgh, PA. They got married in 1975 in LA, by which time Maynard had grown close to Andy and Bonnie and gave the bride away.

! Andy left Maynard's band in 1975 and settled in LA, still going out on tours, but now from a permanent base. With Maynard the base was either the band bus or a hotel room but now he had a wife and home Andy committed to shorter tours. Some of

the artists he worked with at this time include:

Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson, Quincy Jones, Lew Tabackin, Sarah Vaughan, Diana Ross, Ray Charles , Frank Sinatra, Earth, Wind and Fire, Elvis, Nat Adder ley (depping for Cannonba l l ) , Supersax , L ione l Hampton, Tony Bennett.... The list of

top-drawer artists goes on and for most of them he was in the lead alto chair. He wa s a l so making strides in TV and film music.

! In 1980 Andy and Bonnie made the mo ve to Eng land a s Bonnie was pregnant with their son Kenneth, named after Andy's dad. Andy remembers h i s homecoming this way, "My favourite uncle was s i t t ing read ing h i s ne wspaper, and we showed up. Remember, this was a Yorkshireman. He knew we were there, but made a show of finishing his article, and eventually looked up for the briefest moment and said, 'All right, Andy lad?' and went back to reading his paper. I loved him for that."

! His unc le hadn't seen Andy for eight years, but he wasn't going to be dishing out any s ta r t rea tment . Despite being London born-and-bred, Andy had a lot of the Yorkshireman in him, with a strong s t reak o f Nor ther n humour. As he put it, "nobody gets away with

anything".

! Kenneth was born on February 13th, 1980, and the family were living in London. Andy was working in the studios, playing on film scores, TV, jingles and West End shows. He was making a good living, and could afford to deputise the shows if a good jazz gig came up. He also got a very long

A Tribute to Andy Mackintoshby Dan Sheppard

regular gig with the highest paid band on the planet at that time - The James Last Orchestra. He became great friends with Derek Watkins in this band, and the two of them, and their families, became close. Sadly Derek passed away last year, and I remember how sad Andy was about that. He didn't say a lot about it, but he went very quiet for a few weeks and said how he missed him.

# Here are some of the names he worked with during this time: John Barry, Elmer Bernstein, John Williams, Oasis, The Spice Girls, Elton John, Sting, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Amy Winehouse, Elaine Page, Andy Williams, The Supremes, The Jack Sharpe Big Band, Stan Tracey, Georgie Fame, Lips l ide (as leader ) , John Dankworth. He also worked on many TV soundtracks, including five Royal Command Performances, Taggart, A Touch of Frost, Bergerac, Wogan, Les Dawson, Tommy Cooper, and many, many more.

# Andy spent the last few years in Br ighton in semi - ret i rement , although he would do a few local pub gigs, the odd wedding or show, and p layed a lot of duets with loca l musicians in his flat overlooking Brighton from the 12th floor. He made a lot of new friends in Brighton during this time, being so friendly and full of humour. He was always nice to players of all levels, never looked down on people, hardly mentioned the heights of his career, and was very generous to a lot of folk. He'd let people stay at his place when they were down on their luck, and would never charge a penny when he gave somebody a lesson.

# On a personal note, when Andy was in between places, as he'd split up with Bonnie (though they remained close), Sara Oschlag and I invited him to stay with us. It was a lot of fun (mostly). He was always cooking us meals when we got back from gigs, and mixing the drinks. I said (mostly) because somet imes there 'd be a commotion in the kitchen at 5am, and we'd wake up to find him preparing a

curry or something, but he really was just being kind, the heart always in the right place. And they were fantastic curries. It's safe to say that I've never met anyone like Andy, so much talent and experience paired with the humble, no-bragging ways. And so funny, and full of fun.

# Although his last few days in the hospital were sad, he didn't stop being silly and entertaining with his many visitors. Bonnie and Ken were there all the time, and many of his former band mates, and friends old and new, came to see him. He caught me looking sad at one moment and told me, using some colourful language, to cheer up or sod off. He stayed feisty too, attempting several times to get up and go for a curry, or trying to get somebody to get a round in. He didn't stop being himself at all. Sara asked him if he had any regrets, and he said, "None. I'd do it all again."

Dan Sheppard

Brighton Jazz School Podcast - Episode 21An interview with Andy Mackintosh, from 2012

The National Jazz Archive PresentsThe Story of British Jazz

An interview with Andy Mackintosh from 1979

Here is just a small selection from the hundreds of recordings that Andy Mackintosh made in the past forty years:

Al Cohn:Keeper of the Flame

Louie Bellson Big Band:Dynamite!

Louie Bellson:Sunshine Rock

Maynard Ferguson:Chameleon

Stan Kenton:Live at the London Hilton

Amy Winehouse:Back To Black

The Frank Ricotti All Stars:The Beiderbecke Collection

(TV Soundtrack)

John Barry:Body Heat OST

! The first ever jazz record is usually reckoned to be the Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s shellac 78 release of Livery Stable Blues on the charmingly named Victor Talking Machine Company. The release date wa s March 7, 1917, p robab l y described by their A&R man as ‘not a great date for a release’ - a bit under a century ago. As there are an estimated 53,364 centenarians still at large in the USA alone, we can say that the entire history of jazz and re lated musics spans a s ing le lifetime. ! The pace of evolution has been dizzying; you can make a pa s sab le ana logy wi th the symphonic music tradition and say jazz has gone from primitive to baroque to classical to modernist to post-modern to neo-classical with such speed that some players have been long-lived enough to play all the above styles in the course of a single career. The bassist Milt Hinton’s cv spans this history of musical and technological changes from gut-string slapping with Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong to h i - f i d ig i ta l r ecord ings w i th Branford Marsalis, while Herbie Hancock’s protean career has seen him make a stab at all kinds of new things from bop to free to funk to electro to hip-hop and back again in a kind of time-loop.! The sad news that Sonny Rollins has had to cancel his annual London appearance on health grounds makes us realise how fragile are the links that connect us to the past. The black-and-white, 78rpm, racially segregated, war-torn world of the be-boppers seems so far away from contemporary life, and the pace of musical change has been so fast, that it’s a bit of a shock to realise that Roy Haynes, still alive and gigging this year, was also once in Parker’s band to witness the birth o f moder n i sm. The be -bop vocabulary is now so codified and curated by the most respected

echelons of musical academia, that it’s hard to credit how recently it was brought into being, within the working lifetime of a drummer, out of nothing more than ta lent , chutzpah and some well-thumbed Stravinsky scores: no Berklee study programmes were available to these hard-working dance band musicians as they set about re-writing the rules . Equally, post-war British players trying to keep up with de ve lopments had to teach themselves, by ear, from whatever scratchy shellac discs they could get their austerity-pinched hands on. Jazz musicians are characteristically hungry to learn and progress, and it’s this appetite that has driven the relentless pace of change. ! A sadder side to this picture is revealed when you start account for the thinness in the ranks of survivors of these generations of innovators. If the jazz discographies are long, so are the jazz obituaries. Whi le j azz mus ic i ans ha ve historically shown an appetite for progress and innovation, they’ve also been prey to darker and more destructive appetites, and the blue-print for the ‘rock-and-roll lifestyle’ was drawn up in the jazz age of the 1920s or before. The sad story of Parker, dying ‘of everything’ at the age of 34 is well known, as is the pernicious effect that his hard-par ty ing reputat ion had on subsequent generations of imitators. Equally, Billie Holiday’s life story was spun into the destructively endur ing myth of the t ra g ic , doomed hero ine , w i th Amy Winehouse most notable among its recent victims. But jazz musicians in the old days were vulnerable to a range of afflictions peculiar to the way they had to live; a little research through my Penguin guide shows that most ‘classic era’ jazz players were lucky if they made it past 60. As well as their own self-induced drink and drug problems, they were p icked o f f by communicab le

diseases (Jimmy Blanton and Charlie Christian both lost to TB just as they were changing the course of the music), heart attacks caused by the general stress of non-stop late-night gigging and touring with the concomitant terrible diet (Wes Montgomery, Cannonball Adderly, Grant Green) and mental health problems exacerbated in many cases by racism, poverty and frustration (Bud Powell, Monk, Butch Warren). A significant amount of talent was also lost on the roads (Richie Powel l , Clifford Brown, Doug Watkins ) ; then , a s now, jazz musicians had to travel constantly to make a living, and endless car journeys could be pretty risky in the days before ABS, airbags or even seatbelts were standard equipment. A lesser-known risk, certainly one that nobody at the time would have counted, reveals itself when you notice the amount of 1950s and 1960s horn players who died early of emphysema - night after night of hard blowing in smoky night-clubs took the inevitable toll.! Nowadays, the situation is much improved on a lmost a l l counts. Jazz now has a place on the tranquil pastures of academia, and the security of academic tenures, the improved safety features of modern cars, the smoking ban and (in the UK) free universal healthcare have all significantly improved the jazz musician’s life expectancy. The Musician’s Union, the PRS and the Musician’s Benevolent Fund all provide assistance to players who may find their health failing just as their gigs dry up in their uninsured old age. And in the meantime, we can all benefit by going to see performances by the originators and creators of the music we love whenever we get the chance...These guys are repositories of the entire history of the music, and at the risk of sounding ghoulish, you have to realize they won’t be around for ever.

The Column: Eddie Meyer

ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS.

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Brass Instruments In JazzAlthough the tr umpet and the trombone are the most popular brass instruments used in jazz, there are lots of other, lesser known, instruments that have been used over the years.

The cornet was popularised by Buddy Bolden and King Oliver, and was played by Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke before falling out of fashion. Nat Adderley helped re-invent the instrument in a modern jazz setting and Freddie Hubbard played it on Herbie Hancock’s Empyrean Isles. With a mellower sound than the trumpet, most players achieve a similar sound on the flugelhorn instead.

Joe ‘King’ Oliver and Bix Beiderbecke were early masters of the cornet.

Although Django Bates plays the tenor horn, it is rare in jazz (and orchestral music) and is mostly played in brass bands.Just to confuse things, Americans call it the alto horn.

Django Bates playing tenor horn with saxophonist Iain Bal lamy in Bi l l Bruford’s Earthworks.

The french horn was played in big band settings by Willie Ruff and Gunther Schuller (Birth of the Cool), and also by hard bop french hornist Julius Watkins (pictured, right). A number of contemporary french horn players were students of Watkins, such as Tom Varner.

Bernard McKinney plays euphonium on the following classic albums:

Freddie Hubbard - Ready For Freddie The Cool Sound of Pepper Adams Donald Byrd - First Flight

Pianist Gwilym Simcock also plays the french horn.

Bob Brookmeyer pioneered the use of the v a l v e t ro m b o n e , a hybr id instrument, closer to a bass trumpet than an actual trombone.

The popularity of the valve trombone l ed to the de ve lopment o f the Superbone, a valve trombone with a slide at the end, allowing players to switch between the two.

The tuba has been used as a bass instrument since the early days of jazz, with many bassists doubling on ‘string bass’ and ‘brass bass’. Tubist Ray Draper recorded several albums during the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies.The instrument can also be heard in contemporary groups such as The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and The Modern Jazz Tuba Project as well as by Bob Stewart.

British tuba player Oren Marshall has pioneered extended techniques such as foot-muting and the use of electronics and effects.

http://orenmarshall.com

Trombonist Mark Bassey mo ved f rom London to Brighton a few years ago and talks to Charlie Anderson about the change.

Interview: Mark bassey

How did you start out playing music?" “I was born with no hands and I have an artificial hook on the left side and an artificial finger on the right side. When I was 11, at secondary school, the instrument I started on was actually the drums. I learnt the drums for three weeks. The drum teacher was Brian Booth, a very inspired man, and he said “I could teach you the rudiments of playing the drums, but because of your artificial hook, you’ll find it hard to master some of the more intricate techniques’. (press rolls etc.). He said ‘What about the trombone?’ and I remember thinking at the time, ‘I could give that a go ’ . I d id ha ve a recollection that my mum and dad had an elderly friend who had lost both his arms in the war and had two hooks, and he played the trombone in the Salvation Army. So I knew it was possible to play a trombone with a hook. So the following week I went to the brass teacher. The school I went to were absolutely brilliant. The metalwork teacher created a g-clamp with a rod and a g-clamp clamped on to the chair. I didn’t have to take the weight of the trombone. And they also built an extension rod so that I could reach the lowest notes. And the woodwork dept. c reated an amazing car ved wooden handle that fitted the shape of my metal hook, so I could grab onto it. Looking back on it, what a fantastic break. Some really, really great people out there for me. I’m enormously grateful. I suspect that, at the age

of eleven, I didn’t really think about it much but, looking back, what a great break.”What happened after that?! “I moved to London to do my Linguistics degree at UCL in 1979 and I hooked up with various rehearsal bands. I played with NYJO for a little while. Moving to London gave me an opportunity to join lots of rehearsal bands. So my way into jazz music was not from playing in small bands but playing in big bands. I guess that’s a feature of being a trombone player. Big bands are always looking for trombonists as saxophone players

are more abundant. I had a day job for a year working as a finance clerk for the BBC. Then I did the classic thing, I gave up my day job because I wanted to be a trombone player. I went home and sat by the telephone and waited for it to ring.”! “I actually managed to wangle a study year at Trinity College of Music, I didn’t do a degree programme, just one year, which from the point of view of networking, was fantastic. I got to meet four years worth of students. That really got me going into the music business as a profession and I met lots of

interesting people and I started doing shows, gigs, function bands, that sort of thing. As far as the jazz field goes, for a long while I didn’t do many small band things, mostly big band things, quite a lot of playing peoples’ own projects. I kind of hankered after just playing some standards and things.”How did you find moving to Brighton?“What was interesting to me, moving from North London (I lived there for 15 years or so) was when I moved down to Brighton I didn’t know so many people. I hooked up with Terry Seabrook pretty early on, he invited me to come and sit in with his band, with Spike Wells on drums, Paul Whitton on bass and Simon Savage playing tenor. Terry put a few gigs my way. I started doing some more small band things with him. Also, Nigel Thomas, Da ve Tr igwe l l and S imon Robinson had a little thing going over in Lewes.”! “The thing, I think, that was different for me, was when I was in London I was doing a lot o f p l ay ing or ig ina l mus ic , people’s own projects. Roland Perrin, Mike Westbrook, John Dankworth. Wonderful bands. A rea l p r i v i l ege to ha ve the opportunity to play with people like that but I kind of missed just sitting in a pub playing some tunes. I did start my own band, Bassey Plays Basie with Terry Seabrook and Simon Savage and bassist Dave Whitford and drummer Ron Parry. Those were some people that were important to me at that time, and still are.”How do you think the jazz scene is different, in terms of gigs and jam sessions?! “I’ve never been a great fan of going to jam sessions, I did in the dim and distant past. There’s a place for jam sessions, it’s a great networking thing, it’s a social thing and musically, I guess it’s nicer to do an actual gig and play all evening.”

! “The separation of the different genres of music, which happens everywhere, andcertainly in London, it’s quite compartmentalised. There’s a bebop, trad, African, Latin scene. There’s not a huge amount of overlap. I’d like to say it’s less the case in the Sussex area, but I think it probably is a little bit compartmentalised as well here. I’ve always ducked and dived a lot. It’s one of the ways that I’ve managed to keep going, by doing as wide a range of things as I can. And I enjoy doing it. I wouldn’t say I’m a genius at any of them but I enjoy dipping into lots of different fields. I play most styles, bop things, I’m happy to do a trad gig, dixieland things. I’ve done lots of playing on the Latin scene. In the Brighton area I’ve played with Bacalao salsa band. The scene is still a bit separated in Brighton, which is a shame, I think it would be nice for there to be more integration.”! “Charlotte Glasson is a

perfect example of someone who embraces different styles. I’ve done a lot of work in her band. She works hard at promoting herself and promoting jazz. She’s a good illustration of someone who crosses genres. Her band does some bluesy things, New Orleansy things, swing things, original things, some of my tunes. And through Charlotte I’ve been working with bassist Herbie Flowers and guitarist Chris Spedding. Now, Herbie Flowers. His show. He plays a huge variety of things. He does some jazz, pop, old swing tunes. From an audience point of view, it’s pretty broad-ranging. I’ve done a few gigs with him at the Corn Exchange and he packs it

out. Where do they all come from? It’s not the regular jazz crowd.”You do quite a wide variety of things yourself. What have you enjoyed most?! “I’ve enjoyed playing with Imogen Ryall and Rod Hart, over in Rott ingdean , p l ay ing standards. I do love playing just small-band standards. I love sitting in a pub just playing some standards. I like doing other things as well. I’ve been working in Alex Eberhard’s latest project, A# Things Must Pass, a celebration of the music of George Harrison. It’s a nine or ten piece band. Alex plays guitar and sings in that. It’s a mixture of jazzers and others.”! “In the past couple of years, I’ve been working with a woman based in Cambridge called Daphna Sadeh. Daphna’s band uses a lot of Middle Eastern traditions. She’s from Israel and her music has klezmer and East-European influences.”! “I also play in Skatoons, a Lewes-based ska band. Once a year they put on a big band version of their small ska band, Ska Kestra.”! “I’ve also really enjoyed doing guest spots with the Paul Busby Big Band and Straight No Chaser, The Lost & Found Orchestra, Harvey’s Brass and the The Sussex Trombone Project.”You also do quite a bit of teaching as well.! “I’d always taught a bit privately and I kept up my contacts in London, teaching at London music colleges such as Royal Academy, Trinity and Gui ldha l l and some of my students from London still came down to Brighton for lessons.”! “Over the years I’ve done a few workshops for the Brighton Jazz Co-op. The Ropetackle course [in Shoreham] is a really nice development. I’ve enjoyed doing that very much and as the Musical Director of the Sussex Jazz Orchestra, I feel very

“I’ve always ducked and dived a lot. It’s one of the ways that I’ve managed to keep going, by doing as wide a range of things as I can. And I enjoy doing it.”

Find Out More

http://www.markbassey.com

chuffed to be doing that as well. The work that I do is a balance of performing and teaching. It’s probably about 60% teaching-based, at the moment, and 40% performance-based.”! “Some jazz musicians do a bit of teaching to bump up their income, which is fine, but I genuinely enjoy my teaching and I feel fortunate to have some really nice opportunities to work with students who are both interested and interesting, that doesn’t always happen. I’m very fortunate in that sense.”T h e t ro m b o n e a s a n instrument. Not everybody likes it.! “I used to love listening to the trombone. As a teenager, when a l l my f r i ends were l i s ten ing to Led Zeppe l in , Genesis and Pink Floyd, I was listening to Acker Bilk and his

Jazz Men, Kenny Ball. I used to love all that trad and dixieland because the trombone got used a lot. I also used to listen to a lot of big band music, including the BBC Radio Big Band. There were always trombone solos coming up so that wa s a lways an inspiration for me.”! “Even today, I can get on a train with my case over my shoulder, and people say ‘What’s that? Is that a saxophone?’ And I say ‘No, it’s a trombone’ and the number of people who go ‘Oh. I don’t like trombone much’ and that ’s the end o f the conversation. That always cracks me up. It’s very honest. Fair enough.”! “I guess part of that is because The trombone is used in a very wide range of genres. A person who likes really gut-bucket dixie land trombone

might never have heard a really smooth, sultry Tommy Dorsey solo. And then probably different again from someone who listens to Bob Brookmeyer who plays valve trombone. A very different s ty le o f p l ay ing . And contemporary jazz players, like Mark Nightingale, have a very sophisticated, beautiful smooth sound. The trombone does get used in a lot of different styles and I think people who have heard one style, generalise. It’s amazing the number of people that think the trombone is a loud instrument. Often, at private par t ie s , peop le a re a lways caut ious about ha v ing a trombone. It doesn’t have to be played as a raucous instrument, it can be played quite smoothly, dare I say it, like a saxophone.”

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Interview: Jack Kendon

! “Later, I went to the south of France with my mum, my aunt and my cousins and we ended up going to this really boring part of the south of France where there’s nothing to do for us kids. So it was three weeks there in a hammock listening to minidiscs. I made my own minidiscs, NAS and some Jay-Z. They were the only things I had so I listened to them over and over again. They are such great albums and such a great first pick. I got back and that was me entering my year eleven. I’d already picked music and from there it was jazz. That was my thing. It was actually quite cool. Before, it was like ‘Jazz? My Dad’s a jazz musician’. When you’re young, jazz is not the hip music. That was the turning point.”! “Following year 11, I went off to Chichester College where my Dad wa s r unning the Chichester jazz course. It was incredible. It was just so much,

so much playing. I was in two bands for the two years that I was there so it was three hours each morning, three days a week and a big recital at the end. It was just so much playing and performing. Those two years we had some really good players, young players. My second year there were quite a few people who went to Tr in i ty and Middlesex. I really had a great time in Chichester. Maybe I didn’t work as hard as I should have (as I never have) but the big thing was the performing aspect. Playing every day in a variety of ensembles and a wide range of repertoire.”# “After Chichester, I went to Middlesex University. It was kind of weird, like the expansion pack of Chichester College, as so many ex-Chichester guys ended up at Middlesex. That was nice and homely. Lots of people that I had played with before, and great tutors - Nikk i I l e s , Chr i s Batchelor, Stuart Hall , Rob

Townsend. Trumpet tutors, if you ha ven’t heard o f them I recommend them highly - Nick Smart. He’s running the Royal Academy now and one hell of a player. A great tutor - if you ever find yourself in a lesson with him, take it in. And Chris Batchelor, undoubtedly one of England’s finest, in so many different things. He’s an expert in Free Jazz amongst other things. He was awesome. Middlesex was great. Lots of skills picked up there, particularly compositional skills.”! “I suppose with any music university, conser vatoire or Brighton Jazz School, Chichester College, wherever, it’s about the kind of people you meet, the people you play with, the tunes that you play. That kind of musical setting that you find yourself in, on a regular basis, that is what’s beneficial. You can learn your 2-5-1s and all your arsehole theory, but at the end of the day it’s about when you play

An Electrifying Evening With The Dizzy Gillespie Quintet

“One hell of a powerful album with Lalo Schiffrin on piano and Leo Wright on sax. Anyone who is anyone should check it out.”

Clark Terry with theOscar Peterson Trio

“Still, today, one of my favourite albums.”

Brighton trumpeter Jack Kendon talks to SJM.

How did you first get into jazz? “When I was nine or ten, my Dad bought me a minidisc player and he gave me four minidiscs.”

“The other two were a Miles Davis compilation of the Relaxin’ and Steamin’ a lbums and a C l i f f o rd B ro w n compilation. One of my big inspirations is Clifford Brown. This compilation had all the classics such as Joy Spring, Jordu and others.”

and i t ’s about the mus ica l experience rather than the analytical one. Although it was less structured, performance-based, it was just the fact that there were so many musicians there to give that opportunity.”

What about the transition from college to the outside w o r l d a n d b e c o m i n g a professional musician?" “That’s always a tough one and that takes a while. You now have to do i t yourself. That transition is quite difficult. I s tayed in London for another year and d id a variety of just arsehole jobs, working in bars and stuff. We set up our own jam session, just round the corner from where I was staying in Turnpike Lane. It was good fun. But it was very much a Tottenham pub. We did it on a Sunday but we kept getting pushed back because of the football. The bar manager had this idea that we would play as soon as the football finished to keep all of the football punters in, not realising that actually it’s a completely different crowd and more than likely, most of the Tottenham fans hate jazz. We gave that a go for a couple of weeks . We had some great players come down to that, including a student from the year above me at Middlesex, Binker Golding. He is just one hell of a player.”! “After that I went travelling for five and a half months. Just before I went travelling, I got head-butted right on the lip. Split my lip and I was out of playing for about eight months properly. I took my pocket trumpet with me to live in South America but I couldn’t

play it for the first two or three months. It was only when I got back that I started to practice again. Realistically, even when I got back from travelling, it still felt uncomfortable and quite weak where the scarring was. When I was out there, I did have a play. When I was in Buenos Aires I got up in a jam there and that was fun. Playing with a couple of locals in Peña bands, up in the north-western part of

Argentina. That wa s q u i t e interesting. But it did take me a long t ime to get my chops back in to any k ind o f shape. And still, today,

I can feel the scar and still today it’s a bit of a burden.”! “As soon as I got back from travelling, within a month, I had a residency at The Bristol Bar, and that has continued for the past two and a half years. It’s a good gig. It’s me booking all the bands and it’s a variety of bands each week and I pretty much get to pick the finest musicians in Brighton each week, which is really nice, getting to play with them on a regular basis each week. More recently, I started up a swing band, Flash Mob Jazz, playing loads of Louis Prima, Louis Jordan and that’s been going really well. We’ve

been a really popular band. We do every Monday night at The

Mesmerist and it’s absolutely packed every week. We have the lindy hop, jive dancers come down. The Jack Kendon Quintet - we get various gigs at the Chichester Jazz Club and The Verdict club.”

What are your future plans?" “There has been a plan of doing an album. It’s kind of re-assembling the band because of Dave Drake going to New York and Joe Thoma s go ing on another Scandinavian cruise and Joe Downard busy in London. That is the plan, to do an album of my own compositions, which I’ve been working on. It’s about getting the group together again. The Flash Mob are going in to the studio and we’re doing a promotional music video and I’m currently writing for a smaller big -band for that. That’s all exciting. I definitely want to sort an album out. My mum keeps going on about me getting my arse in gear and doing it, so I ought to!”

Do you have any regrets?! “Not really any big regrets because actually I am who I am today and I am that person for that reason. And part of that reason is because I’m so bloody useless and that’s not a bad thing. But I would like to be not so useless. And I’m becoming not so useless in my old age. I’m 26 now. So I’m learning and as each year goes by I realise that there’s less time. I could have worked a bit harder and not had such a good time at University but I decided to have just that good time. And I was always quite naturally competent musically and on the trumpet so-so. I didn’t find the assignments that we had that challenging. I didn’t find it as hard as much as other people found it that hard.”! “Going to New York, that’s always a dream of any kind of musician and that opportunity is always there forever but the

“I definitely want to sort an album out. My mum keeps going on about me getting my arse in gear and doing it, so I ought to!”

Roy and Jack, courtesy of Mike Guest

older you get the harder it becomes. I’m still thinking about moving f rom Br ighton but l ean ing more towards the European continent rather than further afield. I would love to check out Berlin. Paris is great. That’s the plan with Flash Mob Jazz and the Jack Kendon Quintet. A Tel Aviv radio station has recently shown an interest.”! “I could have worked a bit harder. That would be my tip for any musician out there - don’t drink, learn. That’s the path I took and that’s what’s made me into the person I am today. Your mus ic i s rea l l y ju s t an amplification of yourself, as a person.”

And the teaching side of being a musician?! “I would like to do more. I was offered a job not too long ago teaching kids in an infant school but I turned it down, because I think it would turn me mad. I’m not there yet. A lot of people come to me wanting to learn jazz, more than anything else. The trumpet is a challenging ins t r ument , a s a l l b ra s s instruments are. We are the vibration. Whereas if you look at woodwind instruments they have a reed that vibrates but with brass, our lips are that reed. That is the challenge and lots of other things going on. I teach people a whole structured lesson on how

to play it, the mechanics behind it. I definitely still learn from teaching. I learn stuff about my own technique and musical insp i ra t ion f rom teach ing someone. It’s great and you get to see peop le de ve lop a s musicians. That’s another path, another side of being a musician that we all have to do and we all have to find that enjoyment from it . My Dad [bassist Adrian Kendon] was an educator at Chichester College for about 14 years and he loved it and didn’t want to lea ve . It was on l y because he was 65 and he had to retire. He was always there to give. Teaching’s a good thing.”

Find Out MoreFlash Mob Jazz play at The

Mesmerist every Monday night.

http://www.flashmobjazz.com

The Jack Kendon Quintet play The Verdict, Saturday 19th

October.

r

Jack Kendon plays at the Bristol Bar, Kemptown every Thursday

from 8pm.

Five Fun Facts About...Brass Instruments

Wagner tubas aren’t used much in jazz, but this pub in Freiburg, Germany has found another use for them.

The tenor horn was invented by Adolphe Sax.

Adolphe Sax also invented an early valved bugle (later developed into the

flugelhorn) and a range of saxhorns which were later developed into the

euphonium.

Ska trombonist Rico Rodriguez attended the Alpha Boys School in Jamaica. Former alumni include jazz musicians Dizzy Reece and Joe Harriot, together with most of the members of the Skatalites.

T h e S h e w Ho r n , invented by Bobby Shew, is a double-barrelled trumpet. One wi th mute , one without.Here you can see him doing one-bar cal l and response phrases on the head fo l lowed by h im trading twos, with himselfon Stompin’ At The Savoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6ayD4yjUQk

The ‘Gillespie-style’ or ‘bent’ trumpet was copied by a number of trumpet players and was even copied by trombonist Wayne Henderson of The Jazz Crusaders.

Listings

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Don’t be disappointed

If you are traveling a long distance, contact the venue before setting out, in order to confirm that it is sti l l going ahead.

Details are assumed to be correct at the time of publication.

Keep the noise down

Please remember to switch off your mobile phone and other mobile devices.

And don’t talk during the bass solo (or any solo for that matter).

Nothing is free

Gigs that are advertised as free mean that they won’t charge at the door, but the musicians will be paid by the venue who rely on income from the bar and/or kitchen.Please support artists and venues by buying a few drinks, and maybe having something to eat.

Be on time

The times listed are those given by the venue. This is normally the start time so you will have to get there about 30mins beforehand to get a seat and settle down.

Highlights

When should I clap?

When you’re the only one clapping, it’s time to stop.

Monday 14th October

The New Brighton Jazz Quartetat The Snowdrop, Lewes

Vocalist Imogen Ryall with Geoff Simkins, Terry Seabrook and Alex Eberhard.

Tuesday 22nd October

Geoff Mason Quintetat The Hare & Hounds, Worthing

Trombonist Geoff Mason makes a welcome appearance at The Hare & Hounds with Kelvin Christianne on

sax, Don Hunt (piano), Godfrey Sheppard (bass) and Malcolm

Mortimore (drums)

https://myspace.com/geoffmasonquintet

Saturday 19th October

Jack Kendon Quartetat The Verdict, Brighton

Jack Kendon ( t r umpet ) , Wi l l Gardener (sax), Joe Thomas (piano), Joe Downard (bass) and Pete Hill (drums)

Gig Listings

Jazz Jam SessionThe Brunswick, Hove8pm Free

Andy Urquhart QuartetThe Hare & Hounds, Worthing8:30pm Free

Jazz Jam with One Hat TrioThe Bee’s Mouth, Hove9pm Free

The New Brighton Jazz Quartet The Snowdrop, Lewes8-10:30pm Free (see highlights)

Liane CarrollPorters Wine Bar, Hastings9pm Free

Wayne McConnell Trio +JamThe Verdict, Brighton8:30pm Free

Jack Kendon + GuestsThe Bristol Bar, Brighton8pm Free

Karen Sharp/Adrian Fry QuintetSmalls, Brighton8pm £13

The Bugle Jazz JamThe Bugle, Brighton8:30pm Free

Paul Greenwood, Terry Seabrook, Nigel ThomasThe Ancient Mariner, Hove8:30pm Free

Lawrence Jones All StarsLion & Lobster, Brighton8-10pm Free

Imogen RyallQueen Victoria, Rottingdean2-5pm Free

Jack Kendon QuartetThe Verdict, Brighton8:30pm £7/5 (see highlights)

Mike Pappenheim with Aprile BiggsBarney’s Cafe/Bar, Worthing8:30pm Free

John Law TrioThe Verdict, Brighton8:30pm £12/9

Gig Listings

Jack Kendon + GuestsThe Bristol Bar, Brighton8pm Free

Nigel Price, Terry Seabrook, Nigel ThomasThe Ancient Mariner, Hove8:30pm Free

Jazz Jam with One Hat TrioThe Bee’s Mouth, Hove9pm Free

Danny Moss Jnr. with Pete Burden & Terry SeabrookThe Snowdrop, Lewes8pm Free

Jazz Jam SessionThe Brunswick, Hove8pm Free

Geoff Mason QuintetThe Hare & Hounds, Worthing8:30pm Free (see highlights)

Preston/Glasgow/Lowe/LockraneThe Verdict, Brighton8:30pm £12/9

Sue McCreeth TrioThe Verdict, Brighton8:30pm £8/6

Mike Pappenheim with Charles Brereton, John Bedford and Olivier CantaloubeBarney’s Cafe/Bar, Worthing8:30pm Free

Lawrence Jones All StarsLion & Lobster, Brighton8-10pm Free

Liane CarrollPorters Wine Bar, Hastings9pm Free

Wayne McConnell Trio +JamThe Verdict, Brighton8:30pm Free

On The Horizon

Tuesday 29th October

Guitarist Tony Williamsat The Hare & Hounds, Worthing

Thursday 31st October

Simon Savageat The Ancient Mariner, Hove

Friday 1st November

Czech pianist Emil Viklický with Julian Nicholas at The Plough, Rottingdean

Liam Noble & Shabaka Hutchings at The Verdict, Brighton

Future gigsMore details in the next issue...

The London Jazz FestivalFriday 15th - Sunday 24th November

Madeleine Peyroux, Marcus Miller, Arild AndersenThe Geri Allen/Terri Lyne Carrington/Esperanza Spalding Trio, Carla Bley and many others

Sussex-based musicians: Claire Martin at The Elgar Room (Royal Albert Hall), Monday 18th November

Mark Bassey appears in Stan Sulzmann’s Neon Orchestra at The Purcell Room, Friday 15th November

http://www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk

Venue GuideAll Saints Church, The Drive (corner of Eaton Road), Hove BN3 3QE Tel. 01273 733331Barney’s Cafe/Bar, 46-56 Portland Rd., Worthing, West Sussex BN11 1QN 01903 527075Casablanca Jazz Club, 3 Middle St., Brighton BN1 1AL Tel. 01273 321817Charles Dickens, Heene Road, Worthing, West Sussex, United Kingdom. BN11 3RG Telephone: 01903 820972Chichester Jazz Club, Pallant Suite, 7 South Pallant, Chichester PO19 1SYCoach and Horses Arundel Road, Worthing. Monthly jazz  01903 241943Forest Row Jazz Club, The Forest Row Social Club, End of Station Rd, Forest Row, RH18 5DW Tel: 01342 822856Hand In Hand, 33 Upper St. James’s St., Brighton BN2 1JN Tel. 01273 699595Jazz Hastings, The East Hastings Sea Angling Association, The Stade, Hastings TN34 3FJ (near Jerwood Gallery and the Lifeboat Station) Tel. 01424 250221Lion & Lobster, 24 Sillwood St., Brighton BN1 2PS 01273 327 299Porters Wine Bar, 56 High Street, Hastings TN34 3EN Tel. 01424 427000Queen Victoria, 54 High Street, Rottingdean BN2 7HF, England Tel. 01273 302 121Smalls, The Caxton Arms (basement), 36 North Gardens, Brighton BN1 3LBSteyning Jazz Club, Steyning Centre, Fletchers Croft, Church St., Steyning BN44 3YBTel. 01903 814017The Albion 110 Church Road, Hove, BN3 2EB The Ancient Mariner, 59 Rutland Road (off Portland Rd.), Hove BN3 5FEThe Bee’s Mouth, 10 Western Road, Brighton BN3 1AE Tel. 01273 770083The Bristol Bar, Paston Place, Brighton BN2 1HA Tel. 01273 605687The Brunswick, 1-3 Holland Raod, Hove BN3 1JF Tel. 01273 302 121The Bugle, 24 St. Martins Street, Brighton BN2 3HJ 01273 607753The Denton Lounge, Worthing Pier, Worthing Tel. 01903 218 250 The Dome, Church St., Brighton BN1 1UEThe Hare & Hounds, 79-81 Portland Road, Worthing BN11 1QG Tel. 01903 230 085The Mesmerist, 1-3 Prince Albert Street, Brighton BN1 1HE Tel. 01273 328542The Paris House, 21 Western Road, Brighton BN3 1AFThe Ropetackle, Little High Street, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, BN43 5EG 01273 464440The Snowdrop Inn, 119 South Street, Lewes, BN7 2BU Tel: 01273 471018The Verdict, 159 Edward Street, Brighton BN2 0JB Tel.01273 674847Three Jolly Butchers, 59 North Road, Brighton BN1 1YDUnder Ground Theatre, (below the central library), Grove Road, Eastbourne BN21 4TL White Horse Jazz Club, White Horse Smokehouse & Grill, 23 High Street, Steyning, BN44 3YE Tel. 01903 814084

Add your gig to the listings: sussexjazzmag@gmail.com

Reviews

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Radio programmes

There’s still some great jazz to be heard on Jazz FM:

Helen Mayhew presents Dinner Jazz, 7-10pm

Mike Chadwick presents The Cutting Edge, Sundays 10pm-midnight.

http://www.ukjazzradio.com

The Modern Jazz Show with Peter Slavid is one of the best shows on UK Jazz Radio.There are also other Contemporary Jazz shows such as Europe Jazz Nordic Sound with Jesper Graugaard and UK and Europe Jazz Showcase with Brian SoundyAlso worth a listen are Women In Jazz with Verona Chard and Vocal Zone with Juliet Kelly.

DAB digital radiowww.jazzfm.comSky channel 0202

Freesat 729Jazz FM smartphone app

FM radioDAB digital radio

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3BBC iPlayer

Geo%ey Smith’s Jazz, Sat. evenings at midnightGeoffrey Smith profiles trombonist Jack Teagarden.

Jazz Line-Up, Sat. 19th October 6pmJulian Joseph presents music by Quercus recorded at Brecon.

Jazz On 3, Mondays 11pm-12:30amMon 14th Oct. Tomasz Stanko and Gary Burton.Mon. 21st Oct. Fete Quaqua Festival

Jazz Record Requests, Sat. 5-6pm Alyn Shipton plays listeners’ requests.

Radio Reverb 97.2 FM, Brighton

The Mystery LessonPlaying free jazz and improvised musicSunday 9-10pm

TrainspottersAn eclectic mix of genres, some jazzMonday 1pm, Wednesday 6pm, Friday 2pm

Ears Wide Open‘Jazz and Obscurity Skanks’Wednesday 7-8pm

Shows are often repeated during the week. Check website for details:http://www.radioreverb.com

http://www.npr.org/music/genres/jazz-blues/

NPR have a fantastic collection of radio broadcasts, including Piano Jazz with the late Marian McPartland and JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater and live broadcasts and recordings from the Newport Jazz Festival.

www.jazzradio.comor iTunes Radio

JazzRadio.com have 31 different stations covering different genres and instruments, including Avant Garde, Bass Jazz, Bebop, Bossa Nova, Gypsy Jazz, Hard Bop, Straight Ahead, Trumpet Jazz, Vibraphone Jazz and Vocal Jazz.Although largely presenter-less and commercial free, these stations rely on automated playlists.

Podcasts

Wayne McConnell has been presenting his Brighton Jazz School podcast since January 2012. So far he has interviewed local jazz musicians Paul Richards, Dave Drake, Terry Pack and Steve Thompson along with international stars Geoffrey Keezer, Joey Calderazzo, Joe Locke, Cathy Segal Garcia, Christian McBride, Gary Burton and Kurt Elling. Upcoming interviews include Ahmad Jamal and Ron Carter.

http://brightonjazzschool.com/episodes/iTunes

The Jazzwise Podcast is a monthly podcast linked to the content of Jazzwise magazine for that month.Hosted by editor Jon Newey and presenter Chris Philips, the show plays music from the featured artists as well as music from the review section of the magazine.

http://www.jazzwisemagazine.comiTunes

Jason Crane, a jazz fan and saxophonist f rom Massachusetts, began The Jazz Session in 2007 and went on to interview Sonny Rollins, Gary Burton, Ron Carter, Christian McBride and numerous others. Jazz podcast fans mourned the final episode of The Jazz Session back in October 2012 but thanks to a Kickstarter campaign The Jazz Session returned on 1st October 2013 with an interview with saxophonist Lee Konitz.

http://thejazzsession.comiTunes

The Brighton Jazz School Podcast

The Jazzwise Podcast

Line Up

Julian Argüelles - Tenor and Soprano Sax

Kit Downes - Piano

Sam Lasserson - Bass

James Maddren - Drums

Set List

Phaedrus

La Dee Da

Triality

A Lifelong Moment

Peace For D

(Interval)

Jazz Suite(newly composed and, as yet, untitled)

Julian Argüelles Quartet

Charlie Anderson

The Verdict, BrightonSaturday 5th October

! Julian Argüelles began with an explanation that the first set would be older original compositions and the second set would be a brand new suite of compositions, as yet untitled.! The first tune, Phaedrus, from the album of the same name, was a good tune to start with, the title coming from a character in the book Z e n a n d t h e Ar t o f Mo t o r c yc le Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. The driving drum beat of James Maddren made this feel like a motorcycle ride.

For the second tune, Argüelles sounded equally expressive on La Dee Da, a Spanish-sounding ballad played on the soprano saxophone.The highlight of the first set was undoubtedly the tune Triality with its complex interweaving of melodic lines, evocative of later Coltrane. The set f inished with another Coltrane-esque composition with an intense 6/4 afro-swing groove. ! The second set was very much ‘sit back and enjoy the ride’ , as Arguelles took the audience on a journey with each piece conveying a certain mood or feeling. Starting off cerebral, esoteric and energetic, then moving into slow and contemplative; each piece contained complex unison passages.! Bassist Sam Lasserson and dr ummer James Maddren d id a fantastic job at handling the transitions from one section to another and Maddren, in particular, exhibited an intensity that was powerful without being overbearing.

Find Out More

http://www.julianarguelles.com

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The Improv ColumnTerry Seabrook’s Jazz Tip No. 2

Improvisation – Playing it like you mean it

! In my previous article I suggested that improvisation is perhaps something quite familiar to all of us in so far as it is something we do in verbal conversation. The difference with improvisation in music, and in jazz in particular, is that we don’t do it from a very young age, as we do with language. But it is quite likely that regular exposure to music at a very early stage enables the grammar, vocabulary and syntax of music and the different genres (dialects, if you like) to enter our consciousness early on.

! If the vocabulary etc is in our “hearing” then it should be poss ib le to har ness th i s in to developing an ability to participate in the creative musical process. Well, that is a big task. First there is the work of learning the technique of playing an instrument. It has been said that a professional standard of performance requires 20,000 hours of practise. That’s not surprising as we probably didn’t evolve to play the ins t r uments we ha ve c reated throughout musical history. The one exception to this is, of course, the human voice. If the voice is the most obvious “instrument” then it could be said that instrumentalists are to some extent trying to mimic their voice and “sing” with a different sound. I think this is very true e spec ia l l y in j azz where an improvised melody is an immediate expression of an inner musical thought.

! But maybe it’s not always like that because too often jazz education focuses on the theory of what you can use to “sound good” rather than emphasising that musical

ideas have to be there in the first place. Just knowing the theory is a bit like painting by numbers – a bit of green here and a bit of D dorian there. But equally just playing by ear can sound aimless. That depends on how good your “ear” is and there are many great players in the history of jazz who reputedly couldn’t read music and probably had a minimal theoretical approach but who produced some or its greatest music.

! “Playing by ear” is in any case a misnomer. It is really the brain that directs the musical process, not the ear. Beethoven should be testimony to that. But then if ear training was called brain training, even fewer people would do it for fear that it sounds a bit like brainwashing.

! Anyway, the po int I ’m coming to is that when improvising it is important to seek the inner musical voice and play or sing from the huge store of ideas that you have probably been accumulating for as long as you have been listening to jazz music. This might not be an easy process and needs work, ie: practice that enables strong musical ideas to take shape and “come out” in your playing. So try this: put a play-along track on with a medium tempo (Jamey Aebersold or irealb) and start with something obvious – a blues or a simple modal tune like So What . Then s ing some 2 -bar phrases. When you feel comfortable with this (it could take a few days or weeks) try singing a short phrase (1 bar at first then 2) and try playing it back on your instrument. You might need to do each phrase a few times to find the notes you sang. If you

can’t keep in time tr y using a metronome.

! You could then also try all this with another player and trade phrases back and forth. Gradually, you will be improving your ability to control the pitches and rhythms you create and this is a very important part of jazz improvisation. Having control like this is what makes a good improviser because you are tr ying to sound aloud al l your musical ideas correctly. It is what we have to be able to do when we speak – conversation is after all verbal improvisation.

! Saxophonist Dave Liebman ha s sa id that the de ve lop ing improviser is engaged in a long process of trying to increase the percentage of being able to play what he or she “hears” (or rather what he or she thinks of). It might be 5-20% at first and by the time you are a Dave Liebman ( he played with Miles) it might be 95-99%. That’s an immensely liberating concept and a lifetime’s work. But get cracking – even a small improvement can feel rewarding.

! Of course not all parameters of music are melodic and vocal-like. Harmony and rhythm aren’t so easily sung and Coltrane’s “sheets of sound” does not lend itself well to a song-like approach. But the same mental processes apply which again mimic human conversation. That is, you really need to hear or possess the musical idea (be it a chord or rhythm or melody or even all three) before you play it (even a split second before) if it is going to “sound like you really mean it”. r

A Guide to Learning Jazz in Sussex - Part 1Listings of jazz courses and workshops in Brighton and Hove.

Sussex Jazz Guitar School

Guitarist Paul Richards has only been running the school since June this year but it has already become a popular course for aspiring jazz guitarists.The course covers everything from technique and how to practice e f fect ive l y through to chord voicings, soloing ideas and learning repertoire.Students are given prep work to practice before classes as well as a recap on what was covered in previous classes.Although the course is not designed for total beginners, Paul offers one-to-one lessons for those wishing to learn jazz, latin or classical guitar.

Dates & Times:One Saturday each month.11am - 1:30pm

Location:The Brunswick, 1-3 Holland Road, Hove BN3 1JF

Cost:£20 per class / £55 for 3 classes

Website: http://paulrichardsguitar.com

Contact: LatinGuitarPaul@hotmail.co.uk

Brighton Jazz School

Jazz pianist Wayne McConnell has been running Brighton Jazz School for nearly 3 years and the school continues to grow and develop as a place to learn jazz in an authentic way.Brighton Jazz School students are eligible to perform each week at The Verdict and the school also runs masterclasses with world-class jazz musicians. Wayne McConnell is also the host of the BJS podcast every month.

Dates & Times:Beginners, Saturdays 11am-2pmLearn To Play, Tuesdays 11am-6pm.Jazz Extensions, Mondays 3-6pm

Location:Beginners Course: The Verdict, 159 Edward St., Brighton BN2 0JB Learn To Play & Jazz Extensions: The Brunswick, 1-3 Holland Road, Hove BN3 1JF

Cost:Learn To Play £250 for 10 weeksBeginners £150 for 10 weeksTaster Days available.

Website:www.brightonjazzschool.com

Contact: brightonjazzschool@gmail.com

The Brighton Jazz Co-op

The Brighton Jazz Musicians Co-operative has been running since 1986. A group of local musicians get together once a week and pay a top-class tutor to give a workshop.

Local musicians such as Geoff S imkins , Mark Ba ssey, Terr y Seabrook and Julian Nicholas are always very popular tutors.

Tutors o f ten teach for two consecutive weeks but expect a different set of students each week, along with a few of the regulars.

The summer months usually see a friendly jam session where students get together and play through the tunes learnt in previous workshops as well as other tunes that students are interested in.

Upcoming tutors include bassist Nigel Thomas.

Dates & Times:Every Tuesday. 8-10:15pmStudents are encouraged to arrive a few minutes earlier to set up their instrument(s).

Location:The Good Companions (upstairs room), 132 Dyke Road, Brighton BN1 3TE

Cost:£7 per class / £4 concessionsCash payments are collected during the break.

Website: www.brightonjazzcoop.org.uk

A Guide to Learning Jazz in Sussex - Part 2Listings of jazz courses and workshops around the Brighton area

Geoff Simkins Jazz CourseA Saturday course r un by saxophonist and jazz educator Geoff Simkins:

“I've been running the Saturday classes for over 20 years, until recently they were part of the Centre for Continuing Education at The University of Sussex, but when the University closed the entire department, many students asked me to continue to run the classes independently.”

“They are now held at The Bridge Community Centre, Lucraft Road, Brighton and this year I'm running an Intermediate and an Advanced class on alternate Saturdays.”

“It's aimed at serious musicians who want to improve all aspects of their playing and so students sign up for a year's classes (5 classes per term, 3 terms) but the coming course is fully subscribed already and, like every previous year, there's a waiting list.”

“My teaching is based on the knowledge/experience acquired o ver near l y 40 year s a s a professional jazz musician and as a teacher at conser vatoires, including The Royal Academy, Trinity Laban, and The Royal Welsh College of Music.”

If anyone wou ld l ike more information about the Saturday classes or one-to-one lessons they can contact Geoff Simkins at geoff.simkins@ntlworld.com.

Jazz Singing Workshopswith Imogen Ryall

Dates & Times:Saturdays, 10:30am-12:30

Location:Rottingdean, contact Imogen for more detailsimogenryall@gmail.com

Cost:£7 per person

Contact:imogenryall@gmail.com

For more information on Imogen Ryall visit:www.myspace.com/imogenryall

As well as teaching vocal students on the Chichester Jazz Course, Imogen teaches at these other courses: ‘Swing While You’re Singing’ at Evolution Arts, Brighton on three Saturdays starting from 14th September.

Visit www.evolutionarts.org.uk for more info and booking.

Jazz Singing for Beginners/Intermediate at Chichester College is taught for ten Wednesdays (7-9pm) from 19th September onwards.www.chichester.ac.uk/Course/Adult-Education/

Jam sess ionsin the Br ighton area

MondaysThe Bee’s Mouth,10 Western Road, Brighton BN3 1AE

Hosted by guitarist Luke Rattenbury9pm - late.

Tuesdays

The Brunswick,1-3 Holland Road,Hove BN3 1JF

Hosted by guitarist Paul Richards8pm -11pm

Wednesdays

The Verdict,159 Edward Street, Brighton BN2 0JBHosted by pianist Wayne McConnell.8:30pm - late.

Thursday 17th OctoberThe Bugle, 24 St. Martins Street, Brighton BN2 3HJThe Bugle Jam Session 8:30pm -11pmThe monthly jam session continues in the small and friendly pub, just off Lewes Road.

A Guide to Learning Jazz in Sussex - Part 3Listings of jazz courses and workshops around Sussex.

Jazz Smugglers, Bosham

The Jazz Smugglers regularly put on workshops that focus on musicianship skills which can only be learnt in a group setting.

Dates & Times:Starting on Sunday 8th September Sundays 7-9pm

Location:Bosham

Contact:jazzsmugglers @yahoo.co.uk

Tel. 07533 529379  

For more information:

http://www.jazzenthusiasts.com

Ropetackle, Shoreham

Renowned jazz trombonist Mark Bassey leads this workshop for intermediate to advanced level jazz performers. The focus is primarily on contemporary jazz and student’s o r ig ina l compos i t ions and arrangements.

Organiser Steve Lawless says:“Mark's popularity has meant that we have been continually full. We keep a balance between rhythm instruments, and vocal / horns and have a waiting list for the piano seat”.

Dates & Times:Dates vary depending on Mark’s busy schedule.Fridays 2-4;15pmTwo one-hour sessions with a 15min break in between.

Location:Ropetackle Arts Centre, Little High St., Shoreham-By-Sea, BN43 5EG(First Floor, Mezzanine Room)

Cost: £15 per workshop, to be paid in blocks of four.

Website: http://www.ropetacklecentre.co.uk

Chichester Jazz Courses

HND Jazz (Level 5)for advanced musicians

Diploma in Music - Jazz (Level 3) for intermediate musicians

Diploma in Performing Arts - Jazz (Level 2)for beginners

Dates & Times:Courses start every September,

Location:Chichester College, Westgate Fields, Chichester PO19 1SB

Cost:Variable fees depending on status.

Website: www.chichester.ac.uk

Re:sourcesEditor Charlie Anderson reviews the iBone, a smartphone and tablet app

aimed at trombone students.

! When I first downloaded this app, the first thing that struck me was how dark it was. Where are the notes? Then I went to the settings and turned up the brightness in the ‘Notes Display’ menu. The notes show up on a grid, which is actually a lot clearer than most of the trombone position charts that you find in method books.

! Once you have changed these settings, it’s idiot-proof and you can play around with it and have some fun. I had a quick run through playing A# Blues, just to get a feel for it.! The first thing that struck me was that it sounds like a real trombone, certainly a lot more like a trombone than a MIDI sound. You can play with vibrato, play staccato or play long tones.

! From the settings menu you can turn on the ‘Blow’ facility which allows you to blow into the microphone to make it even more realistic. I found this a bit awkward with an iPad but I could see this working on a smartphone.

! The other small menu in the top right-hand corner allows you to play along with songs inside the Songbook. You can a l so download other songs (mostly Xmas tunes) at 69 pence each, or play along to mp3s. The advantage with the songbook titles is that the robot function shows you which notes to play by highlighting them as the tune is played. The free, bundled songs include public domain favourites such as 2001, Air on a G String, Aura Lee , Greens lee ves , Guantanamera, Ride of the Valkyries and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

! Unfor tunate l y, there aren’t any jazz tunes available, not even a simple blues in Bb, but I guess it’s easy enough to

play along with an Aebersold mp3.! Another obv ious omission is the ability to see music notation for the notes that you play. It think this would greatly enhance the learning potential of this app.! It ’s a usefu l too l for beginners to learn the positions and where the notes are located. And it would also be useful for teachers to use to demonstrate things to students when an instrument isn’t available. And it’s certainly a welcome addition to a marketplace dominated by apps for guitarists and pianists.!

Available for Android devices (Google Play £1.79) and Apple devices (iTunes Store £1.99).

Preview video of the iBone app:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h60GhaMnAAQ

Also of interest is the iTrump, made by the same company and applying the same principle to the trumpet.Preview video of the iTrump:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJrN4z8ZOMY

r

The Credits

Photography CreditsA special thanks to Mike Guest and Lynne Shields for allowing The Sussex Jazz Mag to use their photos.A special thank you to Mark Bassey for allowing us to use his publicity photos.p. 5 Andy Mackintosh photograph courtesy of Wayne McConnell at Brighton Jazz School.p.27 Julian Argüelles photograph © Louis DeCarloAll thumbnail images are used under the fair use terms of Copyright Law.

EditorCharlie Anderson

Sub EditorDon Walker

ColumnistsEddie Myer, Terry Seabrook, Wayne McConnell

Technical DirectorSteve Cook

Marketing & Public RelationsCarmen & Co. and Dave Hill

Photography ConsultantMike Guest

Financial ConsultantChris Sutton

THE SUSSEX JAZZ MAGIssue 4

October 14th-27th 2013

www.sussexjazzmag.com

Next IssueA Special Issue Dedicated to Jazz Vocalists

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Liane Carrollinterviewed by Lou Beckerman

Imogen Ryallinterviewed by Charlie Anderson and Anabel Alegre

Sara Oschlaginterviewed by Charlie Anderson

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