Fall 2020 Yale Jazz Initiative Jazz Combo Coaching Program

2.  Musicians will be considered for participation in a combo by audition -– please list your preferred combo section on your audition form. 

3.  Combos are formed by the two coaches based on auditions.  You may submit an audition recording with other musicians; but you will be reviewed for your playing alone. 

4.  Each musician who would like to be considered for a combo must submit an audition recording (if several of you are applying and are already in a group, you may use the same recording). Please identify yourself in a group audition. 

5. Musicians may enroll in the combo coaching program for four semesters.  Enrollment will be an option beyond four semesters if there is space and with permission of coach(es). 

Individual instrumental/vocal auditions:

Your virtual audition must include your name, your instrument, and which area study combo group for which you are auditioning.

Prepare a video or audio recording performing three songs (15 minutes in total) demonstrating the ability to improvise over the following:

1.  12 bar blues (any key)
2.  Song from the standard literature, e.g. All the Things You Are, There Will Never Be Another You, Confirmation, Groovin’ High, Ornithology, Scrapple from the Apple, Cherokee, Woody N’ You, etc.
3.  Any piece of your choosing

Audition Evaluation:

All auditions are primarily judged on the following criteria:

• Knowledge of Jazz vocabulary
• Rhythmic Feel
• Technique
• Ability to fulfill your specific role in the ensemble 
• Musical maturity
• Individual expression 

5.  Upload your audition recording electronically to this Dropbox.

If you have any troubles with the dropbox upload, email  your materials or links to thomas.c.duffy@yale.edu. 

Audition deadline is 5:00 pm. Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020. For each recording, please identify yourself, your instrument, and which section you would like to be considered for (see below).

6.  Combos meet with coaches six (6) times per semester.  In a usual year, combos play a final juried recital at the end of each semester. This year final projects will be worked out with the coaches, but will be virtual. 

7.  Combo constituencies will be reviewed at the end of the semester.  Coaches will have discretion as to whether combos will continue intact or reform, whether musicians will be added or subtracted, and to what content style combos will be assigned.

Coaches: Wayne Escoffery, Jeff Fuller

Combos Sections: 

Swing & Standards Ensemble (Fall Semester)
Coach: Jeff Fuller 
The focus in this combo will be on music of the swing era and standards from the Great American Songbook.  Composers/arrangers and bands will include Duke Ellington, Count Basie and others; standards favored by jazz interpreters will include great composers like Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers and the like.  Students may create original compositions in similar styles.  Emphasis will be placed on melodic and stylistic interpretation, swing feel, groove, and improvisation.  4 - 6 performance assignments will be completed during the semester.

Jazz Legacy Ensemble (Fall and Spring Semesters)
Coach: Wayne Escoffery 
This combo is focused on exploring the music from 1945 through the early 1960s generally referred to as Bebop, Cool and Hard Bop. Through the music of musicians such as Charlie Parker, Bud Powel, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver, Miles Davis, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and others, students will work on building their basic Jazz repertoire and honing their fundamental skills of improvisation and ensemble playing. Combo participants should expect four to six performance assignments designed to foster their skill development in the following areas: