Back to School

[dadadreamer]

I have enrolled myself onto two evening classes, both of which started this week. On Monday I trecked down to Morley College in Lambeth to start a Jazz Piano course.  Morley is the politest Further Education college I have ever been to, it focuses purely on part time adult education courses, mainly in the arts and performing arts areas, so there

Comments

[xtown_traffic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEmFFzgGDFA

Thelonius Monk... and it's my favourite of his songs, Round Midnight.

[xtown_traffic]

I have a lot to learn about jazz pianists. What I know is only the tip of the iceberg. We were given a listening list to go away and familiarise ourselves with different styles of playing, from Swing and Be-bop to Latin, Brazillian and South African jazz. Its all very exciting, but I find it a little bit sad that none of the names on the list were female.

[xtown_traffic]

there are not a great number of female jazz instrumentalists... vocalists, but not instruments... I can think of a few, but not on piano! Joanna Macgreggor (classical) plays a little jazz sometimes (and she's a very fine pianist indeed!)

[mzdt]

JM was the one talking about Nina Simone in the radio programme linked above, btw... they talked about how NS could have been a classical pianist too given the opportunities, I think?

[dadadreamer]

That's the great sadness when you read about Simone's life, and apparently what made her such a bitter woman. But ironically, the same bitterness is probably what made her a great jazz musician.

[xtown_traffic]

gosh, I read your comment but not the programme link... I shall have a listen to the R4 programme on the website! thanks for pointing that out! JM plays some quite avant garde classical piano music (eg Conlon Nancarow, which was intented to be played by mechanical piano-players not humans!)

[dadadreamer]

That was me, obviously.