Berklee Blogs

First-hand accounts of the Berklee experience

Tag: Blues (Page 1 of 2)

Blues

Improvising Global Connections

By Jason Camelio, director of international programs.

Art of Improvisation Global Connection

Lollapalooza - Brazil award winner Sarah Messias and Ipshita Roy from India hang with Rick Peckham after the Art of Improvisation afternoon master class.

The afternoon session at the end of the first day of the Art of Improvisation: Blues and Jazz program was coming to an end. As the room began to clear an oddly familiar — in the land of Berklee — event took place. Two young women were having a discussion with assistant chair of the guitar department, Rick Peckham. This is fairly common. It gets interesting when you learn about the two talented musicians speaking with Rick.

First, we have a young Brazilian Blues vocalist and harp player Sarah Messias. Sarah is the winner of the 2012 Lollapalooza – Brazil Scholarship. The award affords her the chance to attend the Art of Improvisation program at no cost! Her peer is also a talented young Blues vocalist from India, Ipshita Roy. Both musicians are enjoying some level of musical success in their home countries. Both have traveled a great distance to the new campus in Valencia to make this connection.

For some, this would be the makings a fine Odd Couples sequel. But, for those of us at Berklee it is just another day in the classroom. The exceptions being that these two musicians totally ROCKED it during the afternoon master class. 

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Schooled in Groove

To many musicians, the groove is the basis of all that we do. It’s the feel; the groove moves us. As we wrapped up the last day of the Berklee Groove School program at the new campus in Valencia, the groove was in full effect.

2012 groove school dance

George Russell, Jr. wants you to feel the groove. So, get up and dance!

I do not think the students had any idea what pianist, composer and professor of harmony at Berklee George Russell, Jr. had in mind when he asked the group to get up out of their chairs and start to get their bodies in motion. The result put the icing on the cake of this 4-day program by making the students do what they had been studying over the long weekend. Shake it, baby! 

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Nashville Berklee Jam with Reese Wynans

Some of my earliest childhood memories are of my dad playing records and, dare I say, reel to reel tapes of the music of Paul Butterfield, John Lee Hooker, Santana, and Derek and the Dominoes. I guess this music made an impression, because my early teens in the early 1980’s I was buying my own records, not of the pop-based FM radio music of my generation, but of the previous generations more blues-based artists. While everyone else was listening to E.L.O. and Michael Jackson, I was discovering Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, BB King, and Bobby Bland. Sure, I liked some of the 80’s guitar rock of the day, but always kept digging back to a more rootsy sound. Then right smack in the middle of 80’s hair band mania came Stevie Ray Vaughan, and I immediately related to his music.

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Berklee Launches New Summer Program Series in Valencia

The Office of International Programs, in conjunction with Summer Programs, is excited to announce a new series of special programs to be conducted at our new campus in Valencia, Spain.  The programs will kick off this July and cover a range of musical topics.

Berklee’s Office of International Programs is known for traveling the globe to conduct music education programming at our partner institutions, world-class music festivals and prime hot spots of various music traditions.  With the opening of the Valencia campus at the Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain, we now have an amazing location in Europe to host our excellent educational programs. 

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A day working with Joe Satriani (( Um dia trabalhando com Joe Satriani ))

Nesta quinta-feira, dia 9 de dezembro, fui trabalhar por um dia com a equipe do show de um dos meus guitarristas favoritos, Joe Satriani.

A Live Nation, empresa de produção que praticamente domina todos os shows e eventos musicais mais relevantes, apresentou aos alunos da Berklee esta oportunidade. Quando descobri que eu fui o aluno que recebeu esta chance, fiquei bastante entusiasmado e mal podia esperar pelo dia 9.

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