KBB Music Festival Presents: FREE one-day Rodger Fox Jazz PD

To launch this year’s KBB Music Festival season, and in response to a large amount of feedback from participants, the festival committee will be staging a reprisal of the hugely successful Rodger Fox Jazz Directors workshop which we first ran in 2016.

“Demystifying Jazz Ensemble and Improvisation: with Rodger Fox” will be a one day workshop targeted primarily at these two fundamental principles of Jazz playing.

All Jazz Directors, aspiring Jazz Directors, students with an interest in musical leadership and music educators wanting to further develop this side of their music programme are encouraged to attend.

In order to create the ideal environment for investigating Jazz at this level, we would like to put together a student Big Band whose role would to both learn and demonstrate techniques to the panel of directors. The student Big Band would be involved in the workshop for the full day. One of the main goals of the workshop will be to demonstrate how to begin the process of teaching Jazz improvisation. For that reason we want to put together a Jazz Band of competent players from various schools who have some experience in playing in a Jazz Band, but who are NOT already experienced improvisors. Do you have some good players who with reasonable sight-reading who are not yet confident at improvising solos?... then these would be ideal for the Big Band. Rodger Fox is gifted at getting the best out of young players in a short time frame and any musicians involved in this workshop will learn a lot.

Please help us by recommending players to build a Jazz Band with the following instrumentation:

Alto 1, Alto 2, Tenor Sax 1, Tenor Sax 2 Baritone Sax, Trumpet 1, Trumpet 2, Trumpet 3, Trumpet 4, Trombone 1, Trombone 2, Trombone 3, Trombone 4 (bass), Piano, Guitar, Bass, Drums

Workshop Details:

DATE: Friday May 10th

TIME: 10am – 4pm

VENUE: Music Auditorium, Music Department, Auckland University School of Education, Epsom Campus

ADDRESS: 74 Epsom Ave, Epsom, Auckland. (Best access to Music Department via Gate 3)

COST: Thanks to the sponsors of the KBB Music Festival, this opportunity will be provided Free of Charge.

PARKING: Parking directly outside the Music Department is for faculty members only. Ample free parking is available in the School of Education Parking Building, which is within sight of the Music Department. (Best access to parking building via Gate 2)

ARRIVAL: Please arrive in enough time to find parking, locate the music theatre and check in your name before the workshop, which will begin at 10am.

SESSIONS:

• Session One: 10am – 12:30pm “Demystifying Jazz Ensemble Technique”
  
• Lunch: 12:30pm – 1:30pm
  
• Session Two: 1:30 – 4pm “Demystifying Improvisation”
  

LUNCH: Lunch is not provided at this workshop, but if you bring your own there are plenty of spots to eat in and around the Music Education faculty, or, Mt Eden village is a short walk/drive away up Epsom Ave, where there are many cafes and places to buy food.

WHAT TO BRING: This will be a fully interactive workshop, which will have elements of participation, observation, discussion, lecture and performance. The afternoon session will have a focus on the fundamentals of teaching improvisation and Rodger Fox has asked that if possible, all directors/teachers/observers also bring their instruments along so that they can fully participate in this workshop.

HOW TO REGISTER: Please reply to Warwick Robinson at kbbmusicfestival@gmail.com to register as a participant. Just let us know the following info:

• Full Name
  
• School(s)Schools and ensemble you are associated with.
  
• Role: Teacher/Director/Student etc.
  
• Whether you would be bringing your (Big Band) instrument to participate, alongside the Student Band in the afternoon Improvisation workshop. We’re hoping to have quite a large group of willing participants for this, so please let us know which instrument you would be bringing.
  

REGISTERING STUDENT PLAYERS

• If you are registering a student for the demonstration band they will ideally be competent players who are not yet confident improvisors. If you have a student would be interested in participating in the demo-band please supply their:
  
  • Name
    
  • School/Ensemble
    
  • Instrument
    
  • Approximate level of experience
    
• We will do our best to balance the needs of creating a working Jazz Band with sharing this opportunity amongst as many schools as possible.
  

(Photo taken from the 2018 KBB Music Festival Gala Concert)