10 Jan 2014, The 4th of this Block

Ash and I met with Mark last week to discuss dates, tunes and arrangements for next year. These dates are confirmed:

Block 2 -  remaining date - 10 January

 

Block 3

17 Jan, 24 Jan, (delete 31 Jan), 7 Feb, insert 14 Feb

 

Block 4

insert 28 Feb, 7 Mar, 14 Mar, (delete 21 March) 28 March

 

Dates for Blocks 5 & 6 are provisional for now so will let you know when they have been confirmed.

 The level of support for the workshop indicates that it is a popular format. So far we have requested Mark to repeat some tunes. If anyone has other tunes we have done that they would like repeated then let us know. We discussed the emphasis that the sessions have had on timing. Mark said that he felt that this is an often ignored element of music and is as important as what notes to play. Ash suggested looking at arranging on the hoof on the bandstand. That way we could look at backing riffs which would have an impact on our phrasing when soloing.

We intend to keep the contemporary spirit. It would seem that a number of people have been happy to discover new music and to broaden their listening. If anyone has got suggestions for tunes then let us know. Otherwise we will continue to foist our tastes on you. We will be doing more tunes in 4/4 though!

Some ideas for themes for blocks are British , Middle Eastern, European and Scandinavian composers. We have already done tunes by Avishai Cohen and Henri Texier but there is a lot of really good stuff out there. We also want to look at some pop/rock tunes that have been covered by jazz artists. After all that is how most standards started life.