RICHMOND JAM
Richmond Jam is an improvising jazz ensemble of young musicians that will make its debut at the Georgian Theatre Royal on the 19th September 2010.
The ensemble arose out of a two-day jazz workshop held as part of the 2009 Richmond Jazz Festival. The aim of the workshop was to help young musicians to create their own music through individual and group improvisation. Many of the musicians who took part in the workshop, most of whom were new to ‘playing by ear,’ wanted to continue the experience as did the Festival.
Some of these musicians also wanted to contribute to the realisation and development of the experience and to be involved in its management and administration.
Out of this mutual desire came the aim to establish a series of workshops leading to a concert at the 2010 Richmond Jazz Festival based on the following guidelines:
- the fundamental aim of the series would be to help young musicians, through individual and group improvisation, to acquire the knowledge, skills, experience and confidence to create their own music in whatever genre.
- pieces would initially be developed based on existing tunes and/or chord progressions presented by the workshop leader and through group improvisation. As the series progressed, workshop members would be encouraged to present original material for development and to direct pieces, whether their own or those already developed in the workshops.
- workshop material would be recorded and made available via MP3 format on a Facebook site created for members in order to allow members to reinforce and internalise learnings in between workshops.
- members would be encouraged to invite other young musicians to join the workshops.
An application was made by the young musicians to The Keyfund Federation for funding towards the costs associated with the series of workshops and the concert.
A prime objective of Keyfund is to engage young people and help them to develop social and emotional skills so that they may make successful transitions to adulthood and play a positive role in their community. In order to achieve this objective, Keyfund awards incremental grants to groups of young people, giving them the opportunity to run projects and gain experience previously beyond their reach. It uses these grants as an incentive for young people to organise something beyond their present capabilities and to progress the stages by designing and developing more complex projects.
Keyfund accepted the application and, through Viv Osbourne of NYCC 4Youth Service, Richmondshire, the young musicians were granted free use of Richmond Youth Centre in which to hold the workshops.
Mike Fowler and James Mainwaring were each engaged as workshop leaders. Mike is a performer, teacher, composer, bandleader and jazz educator. For over 25 years Mike was a director of Birmingham Jazz, one of the most successful jazz promoting organisations in Britain with a history of annual jazz education weekends. James Mainwaring is a performer, composer, arranger and bandleader who graduated from the Leeds College of Music in 2010 with a BA in Jazz. In addition to jazz, jazz fusion and soul jazz, James’s playing and writing experience takes in drum and bass, funk, grunge and heavy rock.
Monthly workshops began in February, 2010 and will continue until the concert on the 19th September.
If you are a young musician aged 14 – 18 years, you are welcome to come along to one of the workshops to see if it offers what you are looking for. Previous experience of ‘playing by ear’ or jazz is not required.
The dates of the remaining workshops in the series are:
- 1st August, 29th August, 5th September, 12th September.
- workshop times are 10am-5pm with a lunch break from 1pm-2pm.
- the venue is The Richmond Youth Centre, Richmond School, Darlington Road, Richmond, DL10 7BQ.
If we don’t see you at a workshop, we hope to see you at the concert!
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Ben Stockdale, James Emmerson, Joe Tankard, Piers Donno-Fuller, Rob Tweddle, Will Stockbridge
Keyfund Representatives
Colin Bailey
Keyfund Facilitator
Chris Powls
Festival Director
More about Dales Jam Jazz Ensemble
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Richmond Jazz Festival is a ‘not for profit’ event