Jazz Roots class series starts next week in Healdsburg

Now that the Healdsburg Jazz Festival is over and deemed a success, it's time to sharpen jazz appreciation skills. Meanwhile, keep an eye on healdsburgjazzfestival.org for an upcoming photo review of the festival.

Starting next Wednesday, June 22...

Jazz 101: Journey into Jazz with Bennett Friedman

A free seminar in jazz history — for everyone!

Are you new to jazz, and want to learn more? Would you like to come to a jazz concert, but don't know what's right for you? Or are you jazz-curious, but hesitate to jump in?

Perhaps you are already a jazz fan but you want to learn more about the roots and history of the music. Well, we've got a class for you -- and it's free!

Veteran saxophonist and local educator Bennett Friedman will teach this free four-part course that demystifies jazz, offering an historical overview and musical insight into compositional forms, improvisation and the nature of jazz’s essential pulse, swing.

The classes will outline the history and introduce ways of listening to the music and the great artists that shaped the art form. By using recordings and live demonstrations this class will be an enjoyable journey into the world of jazz.

These four classes are the perfect introduction for casual listeners looking to understand how jazz works and how the music evolved throughout the 20th century.

They will be four, two-hour classes, on consecutive Wednesdays from 6 - 8 pm. They will be held at the Healdsburg High School Band Room, on the HHS campus (1024 Prince St. at Powell Ave). Admission is FREE. If you plan on attending please RSVP to info@healdsburgjazzfestival.org

There are four classes, one weekly until July 12. The first one (Wednesday, June 22) is about the foundations of jazz.

June 22: Foundations of Jazz

This class starts at the beginning, exploring jazz’s origins in the blues, funeral marches, and popular songs of the early 20th century. Friedman explores early jazz styles that develop in New Orleans and Chicago, and the emergence of the music’s most influential star, Louis Armstrong, who radically shifted jazz’s focus from group improvisation to a soloist’s art form. By close listening to classic recordings, Friedman illustrates what sets jazz apart, and how to follow an improvised solo.

Other classes will include:

• June 29: Swing to Bop
• July 6: The 1950s
• July 13: Coltrane and Beyond

Details on these classes wil be sent in subsequent emails, or you can find them on our site here.

Please, if you plan on attending please RSVP to info@healdsburgjazzfestival.org to allow for arrangements for an appropriate-sized audience.

About Bennett Friedman: A Berkeley native, Friedman has been performing, writing and teaching music in the San Francisco Bay Area since the early 1960's. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and San Francisco State University, where he received a master's degree in music (performance) in 1971, Friedman has performed with Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, The Temptations and Michael Jackson among many others. He directed the jazz ensembles at San Francisco State University for eight years, and since 1977 has been a full-time instructor and head of the jazz department at SRJC, and conducts the Santa Rosa Wind Symphony.