Angelica

Today our warm up was in the Mingus blues composition called" Noddin Your Head Blues."

It's a slow blues using the triplet's as a base to feel the eighth notes. We checked out playing over and emphasizing the diminished chord in measure 6 which led us to discussing the diminished scales and playing some exercises through it. Everyone sounded great when they took a solo.

After the blues we played through Ladybird which was a request by our new bassist Sri. Playing chord tones on the last measure was the first thing we did and then ramped up the tempo so the class will be ready for any jam session. Closing out the class we played through Angelica and then the students booked a room to play in after class. I was so impressed by that.

Mary Ann

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Duke Ellington

When I showed up to class we had a violinists and a new pianist. The pianist Bob told us he has delivered 2,000 babies and is retired and just wants to play jazz piano. He fit into the group very well. The violinist is a professional musician who wants to learn about improvising over changes. Everyone commented on her beautiful tone. Even though she wasn't used to following form of a blues or AABA she contributed  some great lines. The timbre of the group changed by having a string instrument in it. Also, we were excited to have Marc Mommaas stop in and play "In a Sentimental Mood with myself on bass and Ted on guitar. Marc brought his creativity and played an example of beautiful melodies you can play over the changes. We discussed Duke Ellingtoin a bit and then went on to learn a new tune by Elligton called"Angelica." The class did a great job o sight reading this and playing solos. I look forward to the next class as always.