The 24th Annual Blues Alley “Summer Jazz Camp”

will return to St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in southwest Washington, DC between July 24th-August 4th 2023

​

Camp Eligibility Requirements (in-person campers)
2 years of instruction with your own instrument. Students should be able to perform the major and minor forms of the following scales (2 octaves if possible): C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, G, D, A, E

A or B Group Placement
Each in-person camper must submit a video performance of the melody and one solo chorus of the
following (solo or accompanied):

1. A blues of your choice

2. A Latin song of your choice

3. The scales listed under camp requirements

4. Drummers should play the appropriate rhythms for #1 and #2, including rudiments

Drummers, Bassist, Pianist, Vibraphonist, Guitarist, must bring your instruments and amplifiers. You will be able to store them overnight at the facility. Everyone must bring their own wire music stand. All students should bring their own lunch and remain on campus during lunch break and throughout the day. Students must follow all directions given by camp faculty at all times. *Each student must bring a pen/pad for note taking, earbuds and a cell phone to access songs via YouTube etc used to learn solos. 
 

BAYO Jazz Education Missions
Curriculum BAYO Jazz Education Mission: Blues Alley Jazz Society is dedicated to providing the foundation for talented and aspiring middle and high school jazz musicians a holistic educational experience. Through improvisation we will teach individuality, through swing and the blues we will teach emotional depth, and through ensemble we teach team work! Students will be provided:

1. • Insight to the American songbook and jazz specific techniques

   • Insight to the American songbook and jazz specific techniques

   • Understanding of jazz through the philosophical lens of the great

   • ensembles and performers

   • Introduction to the history of jazz in a socio-political context

   • Guidance on how to interact with an audience as an artist and entertainer

   • Awareness of our role as jazz musicians today, building on the

   • foundation laid by earlier generations

Teaching Objectives:

1. • Redefine virtuosity by emphasizing the most communicative aspects of our music

   • Melody from its vernacular roots

   • Expressive tone in the tradition of the great instrumentalists

   • The primacy of the swing rhythm, with an emphasis on dance-ability and how to construct grooves in the African and Latin tradition

   • Rhythm and harmony as time and space

   • How to construct solos in the context of form and how to help the audience hear the form

   • Importance of singing

Three ways of approaching harmony:

1. • The sound of each note in a chord including extension

   • The sound of common notes that can be played through a chord progression

   • The sound of progression through different keys

Instructional Classes
Students will study and perform music from the American Jazz Songbook. Students will be able to play together in less formal settings, but be provided a training ground around the format and value of the jazz tradition. Students will demonstrate specific techniques of any given style including solo learning with analysis of texture, form, and meaning. These techniques will be taught by listening, asking questions that require deeper knowledge and playing.

History: Class will focus on the artists and recordings of the works being addressed in both large and small ensembles, their placement and significance in national and international contexts, and their position in the cannon of jazz. Master classes: Lessons will focus on instrumental technique and jazz pedagogy. All aspects of technique will be covered with an emphasis on breathing, tone, attack, flexibility, velocity, range, phrasing, control, special effects, reading, and expressing different emotions.