A note from Rob Ewing, Jazzschool Community Music School Director

I think it’s important to remember that music is not about music  — that it’s about life. It’s an expression.  It’s a form.  It’s just like a language like Portuguese is a language to talk about life. Music is just a language to talk about life.  Of course, just as somebody has to learn vocabulary and how to be understood in their language, there are elements of practicing and of learning enough tools in order to be able to communicate. But then, the other part is to remember why you’re learning those things, which is to talk about the life you are living.    — Art Lande

Happy new year, everyone! I’m thrilled to share our classes and workshops with you in this winter 2012 course catalog! I would also like to mention the Jazzschool’s developing collaborations with top Bay Area jazz presenters SFJAZZ and Yoshi’s, and premier roots music venue, Freight & Salvage Coffee House. These important relationships allow us to do an even better job of serving our community of music students by providing access to world class international touring musicians and state of the art performance venues in the east bay and San Francisco. Thanks to everyone at Yoshi’s, SFJAZZ, and the Freight! This fall we were very pleased to host a fantastic workshop with Grammy-nominated Latin ensemble Tiempo Libre in a co-production with SFJAZZ. (Photo below.) We were also able to have several of our student ensembles perform at Yoshi’s and Freight & Salvage, both of which are hailed internationally as among the finest performance venues in the world. Much more to come from these exciting collaborations! Stay tuned!