Music 247 - Advanced Jazz

Spring
2013
01
4.00
Bruce Diehl

MW 02:00PM-03:20PM

Amherst College
MUSI-247-01-1213S
ARMU 7
bpdiehl@amherst.edu

In this class we will explore jazz through transcription, composition, arranging and improvisation. Materials for transcription will range from the classic renditions of jazz standards by Gershwin and Kern to highly complex works by such greats as Wayne Shorter and Charles Mingus. Advanced approaches to improvisation will include the exploration of new source materials including the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns by Nicolas Slonimsky as used by John Coltrane. Using members of the class as a laboratory band we will seek to develop our own unique compositional voices that draw on jazz traditions.

Requisite: MUSI 113, 246 and/or performance experience in the jazz idiom strongly suggested. Musical literacy sufficient to follow a score. Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Lecturer Diehl.

Permission is required for interchange registration during all registration periods.