The Creative Challenge
The Creative Music Workshop (CMW) is intended for curious ears and minds. The 2009 summer CMW session will run from July 5th to July 18th.
In year sessions: January 24 - Conduction Workshop with Jeff Reilly, Jerry Granelli & J Anthony Granelli. Please see below for contact details.
For two weeks every summer, and now throughout the year, musicians in CMW focus on creative process, developing artistic voice and instrumental mastery through game-playing, improvising, listening, composing, playing in ensembles and discussing music.
An experienced faculty provides energy and direction with the aid of a wealth of clinicians drawn from high-profile Atlantic Jazz Festival performers. Players from all music traditions participate and find themselves challenged and inspired by what CMW has to offer.
Participants are rewarded by a final performance on the festival's closing day, showcasing their new work in front of a supportive audience.
What They Said
Jane Ira Bloom, saxophonist (New York): It was clear to me after teaching at the Creative Music Workshop that this was a place that was interested in teaching students about music in a different way — passing on knowledge not only about what it means to be a musician but what it means to be an artist.
Dani Oore, saxophonist (Halifax): It is not a question of how dramatically I feel that I have improved, as much as a question of how much more I now see I can improve.
Mike Murley, saxophonist (Toronto): The chance for young Maritime musicians to workshop with Canadian and International jazz artists is a rare and wonderful opportunity. I only wish that the CMW had existed when I was growing up in Nova Scotia.
Jeff Torbert, guitarist (Halifax): Within two weeks, I've completely solidified my artistic vision into a clear and realistic path. Now I'm ready to walk it.
Core Faculty
Jerry Granelli percussion — There's no better mentor for aspiring young musicians than a seasoned session ace like Granelli who has logged time since the early '60s with a wide variety of artists, ranging from Ornette Coleman to Mose Allison.
(Dan Ouellette, CD Review)
David Mott baritone saxophone — Mott's work is greatly influenced by non-western musics. He is actively involved in shamanic and healing aspects of music and is chief instructor at Cold Mountain School of Martial Arts where he teaches Uechi-ryu Karate and Qi Gong. Mott teaches graduate composition at York University in Toronto.
David Tronzo slide guitar — performing & recording artist, Tronzo is credited with developing an innovative body of extended techniques for the slide guitar: fluid single lines, finger-behind-the-slide chords, and harmonic slaps, using unconventional slide accoutrements such as plastic cups, rags, pencils and wires. Currently on faculty at Berklee College of Music.
Christian Kögel guitar & electronics — Based in Berlin, Germany, Kögel teaches, performs and records internationally. He is a long-time Granelli collaborator.
J Anthony Granelli acoustic, electric & piccolo bass — From NYC and an active artist all over, Granelli is the founder of Love Slave Records for the distribution of self produced creative music.
Skip Beckwith acoustic bass — once a student of Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown, Beckwith is the leading acoustic player in Eastern Canada. Beckwith’s sound is powerfully simple, with an unmatched musicality and time-keeping ability. Beckwith is currently the faculty bassist in St. FX’s jazz department.
Clinicians Have Included:
- Vocalists Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton & Kurt Elling
- Bassist Rufus Reid
- Saxophonists Jane Ira Bloom, Dave Liebman, Kirk MacDonald, Mike Murley & PJ Perry
- Clarinettist François Houle
- Trombonist Gene Smith
- Pianists Steve Kuhn, Paul McCandless & Andy Milne
- Guitarists Ralph Towner & Lorne Lofsky
- Violinists Daniel Lapp & Jesse Zubot
- Drummer Akira Tana
- Composer Greg Carter
- Trumpeter Mike Herriott
- World Music artists Debashish Battacharya & Liu Fang, Suba Sankaran & Ed Hanley, the Lee Boys Sacred Steel, Vineet Vyas, Warsaw Village Band, Besh o droM, Abdullah Chhadeh
Registration
Registration for in year CMW sessions is open. January 24 - CMW Conduction with Jeff Reilly, Jerry Granelli and J. Anthony Granelli.
For more information on upcoming Creative Music Workshop events contact JazzEast at 492-0820 or send an email to Lulu Healy.
The Creative Music Workshop would like to thank Democracy 250 and the Shambhala School for helping to make the 2008 summer CMW session possible. CMW would also like to thank Steve-o-Renos for generously supporting the vocal workshops with Jay Clayton.
