Jazzfest 24
It was great to be part of the jazz festival in Preston again this year. CBS has a long association with the event. It's a while ago now, but as I remember it the 'Jazz and Improvisation Festival' developed out of Preston Jam which we played back in 2017. The Jam came from the University; a number of the staff including myself had an interest in improvisation and this linked into the undergraduate course and on to professional artists and then to community groups. There was also a long-standing link with Ribble Valley Jazz Festival who brought a great deal to the table.
Sadly, due to funding issues we weren't able to do exactly what we proposed this year, which would have involved a participatory workshop leading to a promoted performance. Instead we moved our monthly GRID session from the Ferret (which we love) to the Conti (which we also love but as a bit more space and a large projection screen which meant that we could do life soundtrack which is something we haven't done for a while). I chose to use Nosferatu as it's been a friend for many years in my teaching. I used it for the last time this year, so it seemed fitting to give it a send off in a public arena.
As ever in music, the group is facing some interesting questions at the moment: We've got new players coming down to the sessions who haven't done the previous (preparation?) workshops, looking at issues like the Offers System. Is it okay for them to join in? The answer has to be yes, the sessions are intended to be inclusive and every individual brings something new. This means accepting that some of the progress we've made as a group, some of the ways of working that we've developed, might not be known to those new players. Can you get round this? = I'll offer some 'catch up' exercises or very short pointers, though I'm not sure what form these will take just yet. It feels to be a test of the understandings emerging from the project as to whether we can over a relatively short period of time, through playing and discussion show players what we have been doing and they can decide whether or not it is of use to them. NB There is a lot of different ways to do this thing and some players will have better ideas to offer us!
As well as a good turnout of players we also had Tom (Poi) and Aki (Leviwand) from the Pro Circus group. They were conducting the group with movement as they had done at the Ferret earlier in the year. Working with them has proved a really productive collaboration and I'm sure we'll do more etc.
Thanks to everyone who came down, Tony Rigg for putting the Jazzfest on and Rob Talbot for helping with arrangements at the Conti. Photo as ever by Michael Porter Photography.
Link to Aki's video clips
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