Upcoming Events

World-renowned bassist Kai Eckhardt (John McLaughlin, Garaj Mahal) leads a workshop open to all! Topics include: Intervals and rhythms — new look at old friends, the nature of the bass and its special place in music, from functional playing to creative freedom, knowing and accepting your roots, building a bridge from your roots to your ideas, how to practice and what to avoid, ways to avoid injury, getting healthy, and having fun!

$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop

Ensemble Concepts for Guitar with Anthony Wilson, Chico Pinheiro and Larry Koonse

This workshop is an opportunity for guitarists to sharpen their skills as players within ensembles of all kinds.  

Participants work on ensemble blend and phrasing, contextual improvisation within extended musical forms, dynamics and sound production, and accompaniment techniques. Student questions will be addressed throughout the workshop.

Prerequisites: For intermediate to advanced students. Ability to read traditional notation and familiarity with jazz harmony recommended.

Anthony Wilson and the Seasons Guitar Quartet

Founded in 2011 for a premiere performance and live concert recording at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Anthony Wilson’s Seasons Guitar Quartet features the master guitarist/composer/arranger exploring his deep rapport with three of today’s finest young jazz guitarists: Julian Lage, Chico Pinheiro, and Larry Koonse.

Much more than a chops-laden supergroup, the Seasons Guitar Quartet is an ensemble in the most complete sense of the word: the group combines Wilson’s rich, detailed composing and arranging with the interpretive and improvisational voices of four exceptionally strong instrumentalists and empathetic accompanists, working together to create a modern chamber-group sound based on the guitar’s various traditions— from American “roots” forms such as blues and bluegrass, to Brazilian Samba and Choro, to the most traditional as well as the most current, growing edge of modern Jazz.

For the last 10 years, Anthony Wilson has been an indispensable member of Diana Krall’s quartet, and he has appeared on recordings and performances with a who’s who of modern music: Willie Nelson, Bobby Hutcherson, Paul McCartney, Barbra Streisand, Madeleine Peyroux, Joe Sample, and producers Tommy LiPuma and Joe Henry are just a few of the diverse artists with whom Wilson has forged fruitful, lasting partnerships.

Anthony Wilson’s harmonic sophistication, technical control, and sheer suave elegance place him in the major ranks of jazz guitarists. Downbeat Magazine noted Wilson’s resemblance to Jim Hall, “in his harmonic sense and his relaxed, softly sparkling romanticism.” And The Village Voice wrote “He’s the real thing, with a voice and manner all his own and a promise that stretches to the horizon.”

Audiences will need little introduction to guitar phenoms Chico Pinheiro, Julian Lage, and Larry Koonse, whose performances and recordings as leaders in their own right, and as valued collaborators with world-renowned artists as diverse as Dianne Reeves, Gary Burton, Esperanza Spalding, Billy Childs and Luciana Souza have helped to create fast-spreading worldwide “buzz” about all three of these legends-in-the-making during recent years.

DownBeat Magazine has called Wilson’s Seasons project, “Nothing short of gorgeous: as close to understanding the marriage of artist and instrument as we’ll get in this lifetime.”

$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop

Altered dominant, sus, dominant 7#11, dominant 13b9… jazz repertoire is replete with dominant 7th chord variations.

Developing an understanding of the function and application of the dominant chord in its many guises is important for jazz improvisers and composers.

This workshop, for intermediate through professional-level players, takes a deep look at the spectrum of dominant chords focusing on two questions:

(1) Chords can convey a vast and subtle range of emotions. How can we use music theory to better understand these effects and improve the music we make?

(2) When we’re improvising or composing, when and why would we want to choose one dominant chord over another?

Class time is spent discussing the chords and their interrelations, listening to examples, and exploring related topics such as harmonic brightness and darkness, and different types of “outness.”

Guaranteed to have you thinking about these chords in ways you’ve never considered.

Prerequisites: Basic familiarity with common dominant chords (e.g. G7alt, G9#11, G13b9, G7sus) and scales (e.g. Mixolydian, Lydian dominant, diminished, altered).

Sunday June 2, 11 am – 4pm (with a half hour break for lunch)

$75 advance purchase/$90 day of the workshop