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Congratulations on your selection to the 2018 Arizona All-State Vocal Jazz Clinic Choir. I am looking
forward to the opportunity to make some great music, teaching you new things about vocal jazz and
ensemble singing, and having fun with you in a few weeks!
In order to have the most positive musical experience, we have to put in a lot of work ahead of time
(especially with six songs in our set). Therefore, here are a few of my expectations for you:
2) That you have an open mind about trying new things, such as vocal jazz improvisation (scat
singing).
3) That you are physically and mentally ready to work hard when asked, and ready to have fun
when appropriate. J
1 ) To provide you the tools and information ahead of our first rehearsal in order to be
successful.
2) To be available via email if you have any questions regarding preparation of the music.
3) To run rehearsals quickly and efficiently over the course of the three days.
The first thing that I need you to do is to visit the dropbox link provided to you and/or you director.
This folder will have my notes and comments for each song, recordings, and other tools to help you
be successful in your music learning process.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me via email. I can’t wait to work with all
of you!
Sincerely,
***This means that some of you will be switching staves on occasion (like in Send in the Clowns,
where the S2 will sometimes be on the soprano line and sometimes on the Alto line)
Notes: A tribute to Gene Harris, one of the great jazz/blues pianists ever...check out a video
of him playing here. We will feature both piano and scat solos. This will be our opener for the
set.
For this song, I want to put a couple of altos on the tenor line, so here is the divisi for this song.
If you are not comfortable with the range of your part, please let me and Mr. Neely know and
we can make a switch (or put you on one of the speaking parts).
Make sure we do that the quarter notes receive their full value, so for example in measure 9
the first note carries ALL the way to beat two, and it has a nice percussive release (Wor-DZ)
m. 27, 31, 33, etc. – no breath between the word “them” and the next word. This applies to the
entire song.
This is a new piece for me, but I LOVE Rosana’s writing, especially with her latin pieces.
The recording is from the group that commissioned the piece, Vos Arsana, a Slovenian
vocal jazz group (very cool!). Check them out at http://www.voxarsana.si/?lang=en You may
notice some of their pronunciations are a little different – ignore them.
Here is where the divisi gets a little crazy…especially in the women. For example, in
measure 4 it is a 3 part split (SSA), but then in measure 6 it is a two part split (SA). If
you have any questions about it please email me.
The recording in your dropbox folder is very square (like a concert choir)…so don’t get
too used to their phrasing…
Diction should be very colloquial (sing it like you normally speak it)
m. 6 – no breath
m. 16 – altos and tenors lift on the comma
m. 19 – we are going to slam on the brakes on “wanted was yours”
most of the time – look for the punctuation marks to take a breath.
A demo recording (of Kerry Marsh and his wife Julia singing) is included in the dropbox, along
with part tracks for each voice part (with divisi)
***IN MEASURE 79 – I want Soprano 1 & Tenor 1 on the top line “Bah”, Soprano 2 & Altos on
the second line, and B1 & B2 on the bottom line.
This is going to be a male feature solo – please listen to the original recording to hear Keb’ Mo’
singing it and feel free to emulate and copy)
m. 54 – altos only
one of the most important things is too really overdo the crescendos throughout, and to have a
full throated, gospel sound (with vibrato)
Dr. Holder