Blue in Little Green

Well the jam scene in Manchester seems to be recovering from the dire situation earlier this year. All That Jazz on a tuesday seems to be going from strength to strength. I went down last night and was again enraptured by the gorgeous soulful vibes and general cool karma of the ace Judy Green from the fanatastic band Little Green. I jammed down there with her a few months ago and it was fab to get to play with her again last night. Special.

Their website, http://www.littlegreenmusic.com/ gives you a good feel for where she's at - quite mysterious and mystical:

sPriNg is sPruNg
the GrasS is RiZ,
I woNdeR wHeRe
the BiRdiz iz ?

Some of the singing and talking between the jams was pretty much stream of consciousness. They've got a myspace area with a few download tracks - http://www.myspace.com/tactac. The track 'Cupid' is particularly good. I managed to chat to her last night and was treated to more mystical enchantment which follows through to one to one conversations. Such quality on the doorstep.

Inspiring.

Berklee Jazz Harmony

Berklee College in the US appears the be the place to study jazz. Not cheap and not particularly convenient if you're from the UK. David Valdez on his excellent blog, Casa Valdez Studios, has kindly pointed us to some PDFs for the Berklee Jazz Harmony course. Very handy. Get 'em while they're hot. Quite interesting for me as I studied jazz harmony with a tutor called Amit Sen who attended the Berklee course and last I heard was Head of Jazz Composition at the Royal College of Music in London. I now know that when I mention modal interchange and get blank looks that I'm not repeating the musings of a crank teacher and that it is a legit concept (or at least the musings of some well respected cranks!)