Christchurch School of MusicJazz ensembles
What is Jazz?
a. A style of music, native to America, characterized by a strong but flexible rhythmic understructure with solo and ensemble improvisations on basic tunes and chord patterns and, more recently, a highly sophisticated harmonic idiom. - www.thefreedictionary.com
Musical form, often improvisational, developed by African Americans and influenced by both European harmonic structure and African rhythms. Though its specific origins are not known, the music developed principally as an amalgam in the late-19th- and early 20th-century musical culture of New Orleans. Elements of the blues and ragtime in particular combined to form harmonic and rhythmic structures upon which to improvise. Social functions of music played a role in this convergence: whether for dancing or marching, celebration or ceremony, music was tailored to suit the occasion. Instrumental technique combined Western tonal values with emulation of the human voice. - Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
"The real power of Jazz... is that a group of people can come together and create... improvised art and negotiate their agendas... and that negotiation is the art." - Wynton Marsalis
The CSM offers both practical and theoretical instruction in Jazz Ensembles and Jazz Improvisation. Please feel free to contact jazz director Stephen Nichols for more information.