Phily

I know Ishould be posting way more but I'm filling my time up with so much stuff I keep forgetting to hop onto a computer so apologies!
However an update on Philadelphia. For a small city it has an amazing scene for the arts, I would say it's very close to being on a par with sports which says a lot. Whilst I was in the city a festival called PIFA was running, which is a festival that revolves around influences derived from the arts scene in Paris between 1910-1910. Musically, the main genre on show at the festival was jazz and classical.
One event that stood out was a high school big band, who I would say were on a par with NYJO 1 (National Youth Jazz Orchestra) when it came to their technicall and reading skills and getting close to their improvisational skills, playing mainly standards. Their average age was 13.
The other band that stood out was a percussion group who were mostly playing pitched percussion. Although they were all drummers I later learnt that they had started to play their pitched instruments three weeks prior to the performance and the performance was most deffinately at a proffesional level. They did not play in 4 for one bar and would often take drum solos with the time signature changing every bar. Their average age was 14.
After seeing these two shows and interviewing some of the collaborators, it became evidant that the majority of students in an American high school get the chance to learn how to improvise, read, arrange and follow a conducter from the age of 12 which is something that can not be said of the UK for the large majority.

I also want to mention the first gig that I attended that was not jazz, but a mix of classical and Hip Hop and was presented by ?uestlove a world renowned Hip Hop drummer who is a founding member of the Roots.
The gig consisted of a 14 piece orchestra, with 3 pianists and was one of the most artistic performances I have seen in America. The gig consisted of one classical piece which lasted around an hour, with vocal and Hip Hop breaks that seemed to fit into the set very naturally, I learnt so much about arranging from this one set. After the show Questlove did a free DJ set in a smaller theatre within the venue which I attended and I must say the set was a testimant to how an artist can entertain a huge variety of people within one night and gave me several ideas for musical projects and themes for possible future projects within a jazz context.

I will now sign off as I am off out to explore Chicago however I want to apologize for my poor spelling and grammer throughout these posts, I have been fitting so much into the trip I am certain that I can't be making to much sense however hopefully you get the jist of what I'm up to. I'll put a new post up in a few days once I find out a little more about Chicago and let you guys know what's happening here!