Since 1978, the Jazz Music Institute has upheld a long-standing Summer tradition. Conducted over four days in the major Australian cities of Brisbane and Canberra, JMI’s Summer Jazz Clinics are enjoyed by a wide range of musicians from across the country. This year’s four day clinics were jam-packed with insight, inspiration and at times, some inopportune weather!
Read on for a bit of a recap for 2020 and some lovely testimonials from those who attended.
Brisbane
In Brisbane, a whopping 46 people gathered at JMI to participate in this year’s Summer Jazz Clinics! This is one of the highest attendance rates we have ever had for this event. Our Jazz Clinicians for Brisbane were definitely kept on their toes, entertaining and educating as JMI’s hallways bustled with music and friendly chatter.
Brisbane Faculty
Dan Quigley – brass
Travis Jenkins – guitar
Paula Girvan – piano
Andrew Shaw – bass
Josh Hatcher – woodwind
Dave Sanders – drums
Sharny Russell – vocals
Check out some photos and videos from our Summer Jazz Clinics via our Instagram!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7sZW5Ph6gE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Canberra
Further south, in the country’s capital, Canberra was hit with some cantankerous weather. Our usual venue of the Australian National University (ANU) was unfortunately, completely inaccessible for half of the clinics due to some destructive hail. Fortunately, the wonderful folk from the popular live music venue of Smith’s Alternative offered to hold space for us on the Tuesday and Wednesday. We would like to send our gratitude and thanks to Smiths Alternative and the 20 individuals who attended and remained in good spirits despite the weather.
Canberra Faculty
Dan Quigley – brass
Ben Hauptmann – guitar
Paula Girvan – piano
Brendan Clarke – bass
John Mackey – woodwind
Mark Sutton – drums
Sally Marett – vocals
Covering theory and harmony, small ensemble performance and improvisation techniques, our Summer Jazz Clinics are a perfect way to get an in-depth understanding of jazz-combo playing. We love to hear that individuals have walked away with a valuable and inspiring experience.
Testimonials
Here’s some of the wonderful feedback we received from some of the individuals who attended in 2020.
“Wanted to send a huge thank you on behalf of L and C for the Jazz Camp.
Really excellent experience for both of them – L got pushed pretty hard which he needs and he met some awesome musicians which has opened his eyes bit to his future potential.
C also got a huge amount out of it – she arrived having only played guitar for 6 months and now feels like she has reached a reasonable level of understanding of both jazz and guitar.
Shame we live so far away!”
– Georgia
“I appreciated the insightful, clear, inclusive and inspiring teaching. It was an honour to be taught by such wonderful teachers/musicians! Being required to decamp to the bar following the hail worked out sweetly as the venue had a great atmosphere and it was a good musical bonding and learning for the whole group.”
– Anonymous
“I just spent four days at JMI Jazz Clinic in Canberra. Been chugging away learning bass but it was not until this week I played in an ensemble and not until this week I played a solo in front of anyone. The team including Brendan Clarke and John Mackey did a great job in helping to demystify jazz for me (and plenty of others I spent the week with). There’s no mystery. Listen to jazz. Learn the rudiments. Practice as an ongoing thing and then have a go…oh and keep learning. Great week – thanks all!”
– Paul
*David is an avid jazz clinic attendee, and prior to this comment mentioned multiple jazz clinics and workshops that he had attended previously.
Thank you once again for your commitment and enthusiasm to jazz, and our Summer Clinics.
We are ever so thankful to keep up the tradition with you every year and look forward to doing it all again in 2021!