John McGann, your friendly neighborhood string dept. mandolin/guitar etc. teacher here, reporting from the lovely Camden Court Hotel in beautiful soft (read: rainy) Dublin, Ireland on the first day of our journey.
It’s 10:30 on the first full evening in Dublin. After a blissfully uneventful trip (with the exception of the usual lost luggage which was eventually delivered), we got a little sleep and walked down to the venue, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) for an introductory jam session to introduce ourselves to the students, who have travelled far and wide, like us, to get together and experience some ideas about improvisation.
The teachers from Berklee are myself, Matt Glaser (Strings/violin), Jim Kelly (Guitar), Greg Badolato (Tenor sax) and Michael Farquharson (Composition/Bass). The jam also featured a teacher from Newpark here in Dublin (full name to follow!) on drums. We had a blast playing 4 tunes from the pen of Jim Kelly, as well as a Matt Glaser blues number. We had a wonderful alto player (name to follow!) sit in on alto, and also a pair of fine vocalists who came up to join in the mayhem.
Tomorrow is the first day of actual teaching.
- Berklee in Dublin 2009 as seen by John McGann pt 1 - April 13, 2009
Steveo
Dear John,
Could you please make sure that greg wears a lobster bib at dinner. You’ll be glad you did.
Love to all,
Steve
Shelly Booth
The sax player who played with the band was Jacob Veloo-( http://www.jacobveloo.com ).
We hope to post some video footage of the concert- so check back in the next day!