Gift of Jazz Summer Online Classes—Saturdays, July 11 – August 15
Peter Stoltzman will lead classes this semester
Offered Online through Zoom’s Web Conferencing Application!
Click here for more info

Jazz Piano: Hard Bop – From Horace to Herbie
Saturdays 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
Jazz in the 1950’s was transitioning away from being America’s favorite popular music. Beboppers and free jazzers turned jazz towards an artistic pursuit that wasn’t for dancing or for consumption by the masses. However, the Cool Jazzers (Brubeck, Mile Davis, Chet Baker, etc.) and Hard Boppers (Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Lee Morgan, etc.) kept jazz very much alive in the American popular music market. This class will take a deep dive into the Hard Bop piano style, examining the comping, improvising, and composing of Horace Silver and Herbie Hancock and others from that generation such as Bobby Timmons and Sonny Clark. Students will learn repertoire from that era, transcribe and emulate improvisations, and maybe even compose their own tunes to play in this bluesy, feel-good style.