ABOUT THIS PROGRAM

About This Program
Jazz history, live performance, and lively conversation make Discover Jazz the most distinctive jazz appreciation course available for adults. Each series includes stellar live performances by critically acclaimed guest artists, curated examples of historic...

ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
Jazz history, live performance, and lively conversation make Discover Jazz the most distinctive jazz appreciation course available for adults. Each series includes stellar live performances by critically acclaimed guest artists, curated examples of historically significant reco...

About This Program

For the third class in this groundbreaking series, we highlight the culturally transformative legacies of Gil Scott-Heron and Sly Stone at the intersection between music, politics and popular culture. Our special musical guest for this program is acclaimed Bay Area musician, ...

About This Program
Jazz history, live performance, and lively conversation make Discover Jazz the most distinctive jazz appreciation course available for adults. Each series includes stellar live performances by critically acclaimed guest artists, curated examples of historically significant rec...

Discover Jazz: For the Record: The Great Jazz Labels
Terrence Brewer & Friends, Atlantic Records

About This Program
Jazz history, live performance, and lively conversation make Discover Jazz the most distinctive jazz appreciation course available for adults. Each series includes stellar live ...

About This Program
Jazz history, live performance, and lively conversation make Discover Jazz the most distinctive jazz appreciation course available for adults. Each series includes stellar live performances by critically acclaimed guest artists, curated examples of historically significant rec...

About This PROGRAM

Jazz history, live performance, and lively conversation make Discover Jazz the most distinctive jazz appreciation course available for adults. Each series includes stellar live performances by critically acclaimed guest artists, curated examples of historically significant rec...

Episode 1 – “Dialog and Displacement”
Performance: “Gandinga, Mondongo y Sandunga” by Frank Emilio Flynn

Kicking off this classic Cuban descarga (jam session), Horacio and Tato open with a synchronized break, then the ensemble launches into the highly syncopated and classic piece penned by Cuban...

Among the essential elements of Afro-Cuban music is the alternation of rhythmical subdivision between 4/4 and 6/8 time. In this exercise, Horacio demonstrates how Cubans internalize and play “on top of” the clave. Using rumba clave as the foundation, he subdivides each beat of each measure into e...

The art of improvisation within an Afro-Cuban drumming context highlights how each musician utilizes the clave while they improvise, and how they negotiate the distribution of the clave pattern itself as an anchor or pulse. Even when the clave pattern is not literally stated, its “essence” remain...

In addition to the clave pattern, the Cuban cáscara pattern can serve as an anchor for polyrhythmic playing and developing heightened independence. A primary component of both folkloric as well as popular styles of Cuban music, the cáscara rhythm, as well as its primary accents, can underscore an...

An extension of the clave subdivision exercise in Episode 2, this segment highlights the seamless transition between duple and triple feel and the simultaneous use of both feels within a wide range of Afro-Cuban styles and genres, from guaracha to rumba, conga de comparsa and timba. Horacio and R...

Saxophonist, rapper, and composer Soweto Kinch breaks down his process for building rhymes through freestyling, and how this free associative approach parallels the key elements of jazz improvisation.

The London-born Kinch is seamlessly aligned with jazz and hip-hop. A progenitor and leading fig...

SFJAZZ Collective tenor saxophonist and composer David Sánchez illustrates three concepts that make up his approach to basic saxophone technique, focused on breathing, intervallic exercises, and practicing within song forms. And don’t forget your metronome!

Since his early exposure with Dizzy Gi...

World-class musicians break down musical concepts at various levels of difficulty, from beginner to advanced.

SFJAZZ Collective pianist Edward Simon and bassist Matt Brewer break down the concept of the clave, the fundamental rhythmic basis of much Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean music, using exa...

This installment of The Breakdown presents pearls of wisdom from piano titan Kenny Barron, who counsels pianists Elena Weng and Morgan Harrison on the concepts of touch and leaving space — critical aspects of piano performance that make musicians unique and can separate a good pianist from a trul...

World-class musicians break down musical concepts at various levels of difficulty, from beginner to advanced.

For this edition of The Breakdown, bass legend, composer, and producer Marcus Miller takes a group of three bassists at varying levels of experience through the process of learning his ...

This time on The Breakdown, saxophonist, vocalist, and composer Grace Kelly takes a group of saxophonists of varying experience levels through an exploration of extended techniques, focusing on the pitch bends, growls, and vibrato that add spice and expression to her playing. She concentrates on ...

This episode of The Breakdown is for the trumpet players. SFJAZZ Collective trumpeter Mike Rodriguez takes a range of musicians through his techniques for strengthening facility throughout the range of the instrument, specifically on the high notes. He focuses on embouchure, breath control, vario...

On this episode of The Breakdown, vocalist and 2017 NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater coaches three vocalists with varying levels of experience on her philosophy and concept behind the classic technique of “scatting” as a method of soloing as a singer. She stresses the importance of keeping the...

This time on The Breakdown, bass legend, composer, and 2017 NEA Jazz Master Dave Holland speaks to a group of bass players about uneven time signatures, tracing their history in jazz going back to landmark recordings by drummer Max Roach and their common use in Indian classical music. Holland ans...

Tickets are still available for Lila Downs’ 10/12 performance at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, but going fast:
https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/24-25/lila-downs-dia-de-los-muertos/

Jazz’s greatest artists trace the evolution of a composition from conception to performance, and yo...

Support SFJAZZ At Home:
https://www.sfjazz.org/support/donations/at-home-fund

Drummer and composer Johnathan Blake takes a deep dive into the swing beat — the heartbeat of modern jazz — citing inspirational examples, the mnemonic device he uses to keep the feel in his head, building the rhythm f...