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08-29-2005, 08:00 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Ontario | | | Back from jazz camp!
I got back from jazz camp last night...it was Friday night until Sunday afternoon. Amazing. Simply amazing.
The faculty members included Gordon Webster (pro musician out of NYC,) Jean Martin (drum teacher at UoT,) John Geggie (Ottawa bass player, total monster,) Frank Lozano (sax teacher at McGill,) Kieran Overs (bass player out of Toronto, on a totally different level than John,) Justin Haynes, Kevin Barrett (both guitarists,) etc. etc.
Basically, the days went: Breakfast at 8, masterclass at 9, workshop at 11, lunch at 12, combo rehearsal at 1, workshop at 5, dinner at 6, combo rehearsal at 7, jam sessions at 9, bed at...whenever the jam sessions finished.
All in all, I probably got about 9 or 10 hours sleep over 3 nights. First night I actually stayed in my cabin, and the next two nights, myself, and the drummer and sax player from my combo slept in the rehearsal space which was actually the basement lounge of the dining hall (it had a foosball table and countless couches/chairs.)
There were 3 areas for jam sessions -- dining hall (beginner/intermediate I,) art room (cabin near the hall, intermediate II) and the basement lounge (advanced.) There were house rhythm sections for the three places, but overall it was REALLY loose. I was actually somewhere between intermediate I and II, but I spent almost all my time in the advanced sessions. The problem being that the intermediate II place, the art room, became the haven for every singer and horn player in the place. I have now learned why jazz musicians hate working with (bad) singers, and I can now fully relate to Ed's comment a while ago about the "lines of unresponsive horn players" at NYC jam sessions. Today I listened all the way through Jazz at Massey Hall the clear my ears of the many, many bad trumpet solos I heard over the weekend.
There were 11 bass players there, 4 of which (including myself) played DB, not counting faculty. Two of them had just started, and one was an INCREDIBLE player my age by the name of Alex. His soloing was good, but at the basement jam sessions on Saturday night, I was sitting and focusing on his walking lines for about 4 choruses, completely ignoring the soloists. His lines are seamless -- never once did he end up in a place he didn't want to be, no awkward notes or jumps, chromatics working exactly where they needed to be, etc. etc. Totally amazing player. Also completely tears it up on electric.
There's so much more to say, but...I'm still exhausted.
PS: Oh, I also got rocking at foosball over the weekend.
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__________________ Quote: |
Originally Posted by HollowBassman Doesn't she know that they're not really people until the age of about three? | |
08-30-2005, 10:27 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Seattle, WA | | | Which Jazz Camp?
Maybe I missed a previous post, but which jazz camp did you attend? Was it adults and high schoolers or just one or the other?
-tk |
08-30-2005, 11:18 AM
|  | Supporting Member | | Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Ottawa, Canada | | | This is a camp near the Ottawa area. It's open to all ages and levels. |
08-30-2005, 11:34 AM
|  | Unprofessional TalkBass Contributor | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Brighton, England, UK, Europe | | I went to Jazz Summerschool recently, at the University of Glamorgan - two other UK TB members were there as well - great fun!! 
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“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.”
Charles Mingus |
08-30-2005, 12:44 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Quebec, Canada | | | The faculty members included Gordon Webster (pro musician out of NYC,) Jean Martin (drum teacher at UoT,) John Geggie (Ottawa bass player, total monster,) Frank Lozano (sax teacher at McGill,) Kieran Overs (bass player out of Toronto, on a totally different level than John,) Justin Haynes, Kevin Barrett (both guitarists,) etc. etc.
Hey Aaron, glad to hear you totally dug the camp, I was gonna go too, but decided to fork out the cash on private lessons instead, sounds like a fun time though, I may go next year, John's a fantastic player on the jazz/classical/whatever front, I happened to see Kieran perform in trio format w/the great bebopper Barry Harris not too long ago and man can that guy dig into the bass! I can see what you mean by different level, apparantely whenever Barry comes to Canada (not often) he tells whoever is in charge "and on bass...get me that cat from Toronto" and they all know who he's talking about |
08-30-2005, 01:02 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Ontario | | Adrian's right on the money -- it's regarded loosely as an adult camp, but there were a LOT of people in the 18 and lower category. Most of us were around 17 and a few from the younger crowd -- I'd hazard a guess at 4 sixteen year olds, 3 fifteen, and the youngest was a 13 year old singer with incredible chops and tone.
Marc, you and Adrian should definitely come out next year. It's gonna be great! Seriously, I had an awesome time...and probably will not sleep in the cabins there ever again, I've got my couch staked out  .
__________________ Quote: |
Originally Posted by HollowBassman Doesn't she know that they're not really people until the age of about three? | |  | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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