Hi all, well in the last couple of days we've finished the web site which is now up and running, please have a look, it's actually quite good. The big band started last year when i finally realised i had so many jazz students that i needed to get them all together for some group therapy


www.mjbo.co.uk

Well done. A big pat on the back for that. I like the fact that it is educational as well as promotional.

Are you going to put any audio on?

Thanks, the band has been together now for a little over 1 year and is very mixed both in age and ability so its quite a challenge finding charts which everyone can play or enjoys, having said that we do have access to a library that is very extensive (approx 5000 charts). I'm going to take my little MP3 player along to our next rehearsal and record us and then we'll be uploading some demo's to the site.

Great website TenorClef. There's obviously a lot of work gone into it.

We've added it to the links resource pages in our Students and Parents section so that more people get to hear about you.

Best wishes

Christine Morris
Forums Administration

Hey thanks Chris, i'm feeling really positive about the jazz band at the moment. We had 4 new members at our last rehearsal and another 2 new musicians starting tomorrow, i'll also be handing out jazz certificates to 4 ABRSM jazz students who successfully passed their jazz grade exams. The new jazz exams have been a real benefit in building up peoples ability to improvise solos rather than just play the written out solos you generally find in big band music.

Well i see its been a bit quiet here in the jazz forum for a while but i'd just like to report my jazz orchestra is now up to 32 members with our latest members including 3 electric guitarists and one vibraphone player (how cool!). I did'nt even know people still played vibes!? Well their you go Chris Morris how about adding vibes to your new jazz syllabus??? One of my last students took the exam on baritone sax and to my surprise was issued results as alto sax, what was that all about? I'm not sure the Board has got to grips with the whole jazz thing yet, it should'nt be as rigid as the classical exams IMHO. At any rate we jazzers are still here.

Jim Hart is a great young jazz vibes player. He plays regularly with various bands in London - I'm sure some of them must get up to the North East at some point, you should check him out if you get the chance.

Well Done TenorClef!