"SWING AND SWEET"
JAZZ AND BLUES IN CHORAL MUSIC
San Candido (Bz), Joseph Resch Hall, 27th - 29th June 2002
Coordinator M° Robert Sund (Sweden)


Within the fifth Festival edition, M° Robert Sund held a workshop titled "Swingle & Sweet", from 27th to 29th of june 2002, taken place in Joseph Resch Hall, in San Candido (Innichen).

The workshop was focused on the typical musical language of jazz.
On general lines, mornings were dedicated to the analysis of the principal stylistic inflections, while in the afternoons we applied what we had learned to repertoire of famous evergreeens, and listened to great pieces and bands.

The pedagogical approach has been really appreciated for its awareness and consciousness, making the active participation easy and enthusiastic in all students.
Lessons were organized with a glance to the students' concentration, dedicating some time to improvisation and to explore ways of expression.

During the whole workshop, M° Sund explained general rules and typical mistakes concerning this music. He suggests a state of soul essential to jazz: an interior smile. It's impossible to sing this kind of music in a passive way, without enthusiasm.

Inflections, rhythm tricks, syncopations and snap of unexpected beat notes need a light stand out, a way to stay a bit behind to play with time with no rush or apprehension. Some jazz musicians start singing also a bar after, and this is a symptom of this way to feel and act this music.

THURSDAY 28th OF JUNE


Morning
The first meeting with M° Sund took place in an sense of immediate and concrete communication. All students were suddenly involved and dragged on the path into the world of vocal jazz.
After a short body warm-up, we passed to vocal excercises and explorations to activate the diaphragm and attention, sliding into jazz atmosphere.
M° Sund proposed musical fragments to the whole group; once understood and practiced, they became specifical segments for the differents choral parts. Each fragment was a jazz inflection: we were aware of it when we were already able to do it and that made it all easier for us.
Helped by overhead pictures and pedagogical CDs, the teacher illustrated 6 different
inflections:

· BASIC SWINGLE, or the way jazz rhythm lives. A couple of eighths must be considered as a triplet (of a crotchet and a quaver) so that the first note is longer than the second, but without rush!

· TENUTO AND STACCATO, applied to couples of eighths: sing the first tenuto and second staccato.

· HORIZONTAL ACCENT, you can find it on off-beat notes, to underline syncopation.

· VERTICAL ACCENT, it's on crotchets, on beat, often staccato, whose effect must be more evident compared to h. accent: a longer and stronger note, but staccato.

· BREATH ACCENT, it is performed with a diaphragmatic push of the breath on the last one-third of the dotted quarternote.

· FORTEPIANO, CRESCENDO, is performed by strongly accenting a note followed immediately by a sudden drop to a very soft dynamic level (piano or pianissimo). Then the dynamic level rises gradually back to forte.

At the end of the lesson, a combination exercise of the six inflections was studied.

Afternoon
After a second glance at the combination exercise, a few details were focused on the piece "Ain't Misbehavin'" (arranged by Kirby Shaw) performed by the vocal group "ANSIBS" from Gorizia. Then some extemporary pieces were sang.
Then we passed to "God bless the child", by Billy Holiday, arranged by Bo Lindell, for three voices and piano.
After reading the text, the students explored the piece to understand the musical phrases and structure.
M° Sund suggests a Da Capo, based on a piano solo to bar 25, from where the choir sings ti the end.
Then we studied and sang "The Lord Loves A Laughing Man", arranged by Norman Luboff. The really positive lyrics are arranged in a simple form: after a short introduction of the theme, male voices develop, in unisono, the first verse. Female voices follow with the second and third verse. The central section is arranged for the whole choir, homophonous, but with a thicker harmony, enforced by divided sections for altos and tenors.
After an instrumental solo, the piece is varied by small canons and ends with a coda based on the repetition of the incipit.
A characteristic of this piece is the conclusion of the phrase, for text and music as well, on the last eighth of the bar - off-beat - : in the frequent usage of syncopation don't loose the sense of beat and off-beat, to avoid rush!

FRIDAY 29TH OF JUNE

Morning
After a warming up, the morning was dedicated to the analysis of 6 other inflections:

· GHOST, an eighth with a mute sound (dn, dl), generally after-beat and being part of a quick phrase, tuned but without vowels.

· ASCENDING SMEAR, a slide into a note from below to reach the pitch just before the second note. The interval is generally limited to a minor third or less. The longer the value, the slower the ascending speed.

· FALL OFF, a descending slide followed by a rest. It should give a feeling of relaxation and includes a diminuendo.

· ASCENDING SMEAR, FALL OFF, these two inflecions are often used together to underline a soft and relaxed way of intonation.

· DESCENDING SMEAR, as for the ascending smear, it's a way to softly tune the note, a sort of grace-note without precise pitch and aggressive rythm, but this time, tune starting about a third higher the real note.

· ASCENDING GLISSANDO, a known stylistic device, to be performed keeping for a little while the first note, then start with glissando and crescendo, underlining the cromatic lift through pitches.

At the end of the lessons, we sang a combination exercise of the six studied inflections.

Afternoon
Under the guide of the teacher, the whole group of students sang:
And So it goes, arranged by Bob Chilcott, the famous version performed by the Kings' Singers.
In this homophonous arrangement of the four parts, the dissonance of altos over the chord of G stands out, enforced by the echo in the tenors over the tonic chord: the delicate effect, constant from the second verse on, opens the strictly chordal structure, like the variation of the rythm too. A solo by the Bass follows; the second part is ended by a double solo by Bass and Soprano followed by a coda as a synthesis of the parts.
Scandinavian shuffle, by Swe-Danes, 1985.
All based on phonems like in scat songs (a solo in which the singer imitates an instrumental solo), it's a really enjoyable piece, for the presence of many ghosts in chromatic passages, the envolving rythm, glissando in tenors, fall off and a little section in scat song.
Phonems generally suggest not only a kind of sound (instrumental, percussive), but also the way to pronounce them: the presence of some consonants point out how fast to sing, the timbric effect ecc.
Sweet Georgia Brown, arranged by Kirby Shaw.
In this edition all the inflections are marked: glissandos, smears, the possibility to snap fingers after-beat, to welcome the singers expression and suggesting a free and relaxed behavior.
The arrangement develops into a A B A' form, in which B is a scat song for soprano, free to add or change effects.
The other voices generally support the soprano after-beat, almostly set against it's rythm, with spicy harmonic effects: in this piece too it's of great importance not to hurry, not to loose the sense of rhythm. The presence of rests must not lead the singer to breathe: it would slack entrances and phrasing. Actually, you easily note that the anxiety to breathe is not really a problem: jazz phrasing is quite natural, including syncopation.
A Child Is Born, arranged by Sven Inge Frisk, develops through a progressive thickening of the harmony: after a mixed choir introduction without text, sopranos and altos sing the delicate and nighty theme in ¾. Bassos take place of altos; the first part ends with divided sopranos, altos and bassos. The second part is a repetition of the first, but with all voices, divided and of greater intensity, to be underlined with a vivid expression, with greater excursion in dynamics and a little more jazzy.

SATURDAY 30th OF JUNE

Morning
As always, a warming up and a concrete introduction of the inflections to be studied. Then we sang a canon in jazz style, freely walking on the stage, to activate concentration and better catch the different voices.
The last six inflections analyzed were:

· DESCENDING GLISSANDO, keep the real note for a while, then start with glissando and crescendo, enjoying chromatism.

· DOIT, a sort of long and big glissando pushed to the highest -non fixed- pitch you can.

· PLOP, similar to a ghost grace-note (often with a sound like "dwi"). It is performed by a quick downward slide to a given note from a large interval above.

· FLIP, a quick upward lift followed immediately by a rapid drop to the next note.

· DIP, between two notes: after tuning the first one, slide downwards and then go up again -like a glissando- to the second one (like with an olive in Martini!)

· SHAKE, a big tremolo between the written note and a higher pitch, at least a major second. It often includes a crescendo and an accelerando.

To conclude, a combination exercise.
The inflections studied in these days should be practiced for long to become a way of expression, to make improvisation and to participate in a personal way. Scores rarely have marks for inflections, thus it is of great importance to make up a personal taste and use them freely, with the pleasure of consciousness.

Afternoon
The piece studied with more attention is To be or not to be, by Wilhelm Hansen, for SATB and piano. The piece, of particular gayness, develops in a moving rythm, with phrases ending after-beat, is mainly homophonous except for the central section with soprano standing out. Being quite short, M° Sund suggested a longer version involving the different choir sections. This means a free behaviour, within the style, needed to approach this music.
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head, by Bacharach, arranged by Anna Cederberg - Orreteg.
The melody is generally committed to the soprano, sustained by the other voices, while the central section envolve the whole choir, the first time singing words, the second time as a scat song. This section is opposite of the two extreme ones: very syncopated and rhythmical.
The students also sang "Ja-Da" without scores, directly following the teacher instructions, like warming up, but also performing a little choreography (!) in the style of musicals: this moment assured the comprehension of the state of mind of many jazz pieces!!
To complete the repertory, the choir of student quickly read the remaining pieces together with the teacher, confident in a further deeper study, once passed the difficulties here faced during the lessons.
M° Sund dedicated time to listenings too: here is a little discography proposed during the lessons.

DISCOGRAPHY

Miles Davis - "The legendary years" 1955 - 1965 Sony Music 503039 9

Mel Tormé - "Jazz Festival in Japan 1990" Concord Jazz CCD - 4481

The Real Group - "One for all" Gazell Records" GAF CD - 1024

Take 6 - "Doo be doo wop dop" Reprise 925670 - 2

Dee Dee Bridgewater - "Dear Ella" Verve 529102 - 2

Scatcats - Demo, not published.

Just 4 Kicks - "All in good time" Primary A Cappella Records PAC 6255

By
Giordana Castillett