Afro to Jazz…Jazz to Afro – Roland Vazquez

Roland Vazquez
Brent Fischer
Scott Healy

Big Band Arranging Secrets Revealed
Elliot Deutsch

Guest Speakers: Pete Myers and Serge Kasimoff

Exploring the deep African Connection to American Jazz!
Join Scott Healy, Roland Vazquez, Brent Fischer, and other esteemed audience guests who will discuss the dynamic interactions & rich multi-cultural dialogues between Afro & Indigenous music cultures of the mid to late 20th century; examples of compositions as they were recorded by their composers: either Afro American or Afro Caribbean Jazz masters; and then as re-interpreted by their musical cousins “on the other side of the clave”.

The “American Jazz” we are familiar with, at its essence, is a language deeply influenced by ancient rhythms, cultural traditions, formal evolutions, and both literal and abstract “sacred & secular vocabularies”—inherited long ago from the diasporas of music from Mother Africa. Jazz music continues to inherit from multiple cultural legacies, to evolve and to contribute to the live music of today’s world. The deep African connection to American Jazz remains as a “coaxial cable to essential Blackness (Robert Ferris Thompson).”

Elliot Deutsch shares helpful big band arranging tips continuing his
‘Big Band Arranging Secrets Revealed’ series.

March 29, 2023