The Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Auxiliary Adjunct Associate Professor of Jazz and Trumpet Craig Fraedrich, M.M., recently presented its second virtual compilation, “BugaBlue.” Students submit recordings of their individual parts which are compiled into a first take. The recording is then sent back to them for their evaluation and the opportunity to re-record parts after they’ve been heard in context. Ensemble members meet once a week on Zoom to discuss what they heard musically and what they could do better, offering suggestions on how to improve individual recordings and ways to streamline the process.
This idea was originally a stop-gap measure intended to get us through our anticipated two-week hiatus from classes due to the COVID-19 threat. It is now going to need to be our semester’s work. Our new goal is to produce, between this group and our 10-piece Little Big Band, a full concert’s worth of music in the form of these collage videos. Our usual concerts are 90 minutes, but an hour of these videos is a more likely and realistic goal.”
Craig Fraedrich | Jazz Ensemble Director
This is “BugaBlue” the result of our week 2 virtual rehearsals for the Shenandoah Conservatory Jazz Ensemble. To be perfectly clear, we are not rehearsing in real time. Students submit recordings of their individual parts which are compiled into a first take. They are then sent back to them for their evaluation and the opportunity to re-record parts once they have heard them in context. We meet once a week on Zoom to discuss what we heard musically, what we could do better, offer suggestions on how to improve individual recordings and ways to streamline the process. We will be trying a new process for next week’s recordings that was a direct result of our discussion this week. This idea was originally a stop-gap measure intended to get us through our anticipated 2-week hiatus from classes due to the COVID-19 threat. It is now going to need to be our semester’s work. Our new goal is to produce, between this group and our 10-piece “Little Big Band”, a full concert’s worth of music in the form of these collage videos. Our usual concerts are 90 minutes, but an hour of these videos is a more likely and realistic goal.
Posted by Craig Fraedrich on Saturday, March 28, 2020
