Jazz Day - an international affair
All photography: Emanuela Redaschi @emanuelaredaschiphotography
“Jazz day was cool beans with awesome sauce on top. ”
Jazz North team member Helena Summerfield writes;
“I celebrated International Jazz Day in style with a fantastic group of young musicians at the British International School of Marbella, Spain. In preparation for the event, I met with Victoria Conlan (Head of Primary Music) to find out what range of notes the children could play and their previous experiences of improvising. Guided by this information, I composed two pieces of music featuring call and response phrases and repeated riffs to make them memorable and help the children to learn them aurally (by ear). The school made me feel so welcome and it was amazing to see how much the children achieved in one day. Improvisation has benefits far beyond the classroom and I hope that this event has given the children the confidence to try something new”.
Helena Summerfield, Jazz North’s Learning & Participation project leader performing with the ‘house band’ of peripatetic music tutors
“Improvisation has benefits far beyond the classroom and I hope that this event has given the children the confidence to try something new.”
During the morning session the musicians, who were all learning saxophone or clarinet through their school's instrumental programme, tried improvising in different ways. They started by improvising in response to hand gestures, then tried improvising by varying rhythms and finally using pentatonic (5 note) scales. During the afternoon the wind players were joined by a rhythm section from the school’s sixth form and shared their new found jazz skills with parents and peers in a special music assembly. As part of the assembly programme Helena also performed three original compositions with a ‘house band’ of peripatetic music tutors.
“Everyone who participated had a really valuable and fun introduction to Jazz on International Jazz Day!”
“What a fantastic experience for our children. Everyone who participated had a really valuable and fun introduction to Jazz on International Jazz Day! The children are still buzzing, not only those who took part, but children in the audience too! It really has inspired everyone here at BISM and we are definitely going to use all of the new skills we learned with Helena in the future”.
Victoria Conlan
“I loved the experience of doing my own improvised solo”
Participant feedback
About The British International School of Marbella
Founded in 2010, The British International School of Marbella is a co-educational school, providing education for children from the age of 2 to 18. Music is a vibrant part of school life with emphasis being placed on learning an instrument or participating in one of the school choirs. Pupils perform frequently in individual and ensemble performances during assemblies and other occasions and events inside and outside of school.
Learning Resources
The two pieces composed for this event will soon be added to Jazz North’s growing bank of learning resources. The free, downloadable materials in our Learning Resources Area are designed for curriculum music teachers (Key Stages 1-4), instrumental tutors and lifetime learners. Rather than being aimed at experienced jazz educators they offer simple yet effective pathways to help and encourage everyone to engage with improvisation #improvisationisforeveryone
Bespoke workshops
If you would like to arrange a similar bespoke workshop in your school or music service please contact helena@jazznorth.org for more information.