Tom Lee Music Workshops: Students Improvise New Jazz Fusion Possibilities with Global Masters

Intimate & Interactive…Tom Lee Music Workshops are free, open to the general public.  They also function as a kind of ‘masterclass’ for our students.  The world’s most respected musicians share their stories, play and demonstrate unique and exciting approaches to music.  Artists for 2011 hailed from Sweden (Jonas Kullhammar), China (Dong Jinming), the United Kingdom (John Butcher) and Vancouver (Lisa Cay Miller & Lan Tung).

Jonas Kyllhammar, Sax (Sweden) inspired melodious funk.

Lisa Cay Miller, Piano (Vancouver) introduced free improv and new composition.

John Butcher, Sax (UK) 'wowed' the audience by sustaining a note for several minutes!

Chinese Erhu/Jazz Fusion, circular breathing, free improv and more...This year, our TD High School Jazz Intensive students were invited to improvise on stage with all of our accomplished ‘jazz masters’.  Brave new experiments,  included first-ever attempts at free improvisation, Chinese/Jazz fusion and circular breathing techniques.  All of this, in front of a live audience -including their music savvy peers.

Watch them play!  See students improvise new fusion possibilities with Founders of the Nanjing Jazz Festival and West Coast Award Winning Orchid Ensemble.

Here's what some of our students had to say about their experience, 

Ken Pickering presents a Tom Lee Gift Certificate to our 2011 Composition Contest Winner:  Kazumasa Takasugi!

Kazumasa Takasugi:   "...listening to the guest artists’ inspiring stories and being able to actually play with them was an amazing experience. I always went up whenever I had the chance to play. The Swedish saxophone player, Jonas Kullhammar was the first guest artist I played with. I had so much fun interacting musically at such a high level. Dong Jinming, a Chinese Erhu player who had an inspiring story: incorporating jazz to traditional Chinese music, was also interesting to work with. Finally, another saxophone player from UK, John Butcher, who focused on the “sound”, demonstrated many sound effects. It was very interesting to play with other musicians on the stage with no time, form, or chord progressions..."

Jon Tobin graduates with a special TD Award  for Music Studies.

Jonathan Tobin:  " Coastal Jazz has brought in influential artists from around the world for workshops at the Tom Lee Music Hall. These have ranged from New York modern jazz bassist Mario Pavone to Swedish funk trombonist Nils Landgren, and into the realm of the avant-garde with players like Alexander von Schlippenbach. I have had the privilege of playing piano and trombone onstage for several of these workshops. The first of these was with Nils Landgren and his band. It was a bit intimidating playing a trombone solo with such a talented professional right beside me, but his sense of humour and positive attitude eased any nerves I might have had... More recently I jammed in workshops with John Butcher (a British saxophonist) and a Chinese erhu duo with Dong Jinming and Lan Tung. Being able to play music onstage with professional musicians completely unrehearsed was a wonderful experience, both exhilarating and invigorating. It was especially interesting to improvise with the Chinese musicians, because their approach and experience with jazz music is from a completely different context than my own. They were using traditional Chinese folk instruments to improvise and create a style of music, which had not been given much exposure in their country until recently. This was an experience, which shed new light on jazz as an art form of jazz…"

 

Miles Wong, won our TD Award for private music lessons (students 10-11)

Miles Wong: " It’s almost impossible for me to put in words how much I have gained from playing in the TD High School Jazz Intensive, but all I can say is that I really hope the program continues for many years to come so it can inspire and challenge young musicians like it has for me..."