(This series has closed)
April, 2023
We are excited to offer a NEW THREE WEEK COURSE on JAZZ, hosted by jazz musician and educator Tim Shia. It will be presented on Wednesday evenings in April: the 12th, 19th , and 26th. 7:30 PM start and running for 2 hours. The cost will be $75 for all three sessions or $30 for a single ticket. (Annual Passes do not apply to this event).
Jazz 101 Learning Objectives: At the end of the course, students should be able to engage in an educated discussion on what “Jazz” is and be better able to appreciate the qualities of a jazz performance. At the same time they will have the knowledge to go out and create a jazz library that is very broad stylistically or one tailored to suit their particular tastes.
Week 1: The sound of Jazz? The first week is discussing and coming up with what the sound of Jazz is? We will look at the big jazz “hits” from over the years and try and distinguish how this is different from other styles of music. We’ll look at the foundations of music, the instruments and sections of a band and examine how Jazz musicians may use them differently than other styles of music, especially with regards to Improvisation. Listening to Jazz We’ll get “under the hood” and focus on the key elements that come together to make a great performance. We’ll investigate how to appreciate solos even without any formal musical training. We’ll discuss the unique qualities of different instruments.
Week 2: History and Evolution
History and Evolution Part 1: We’ll look at the origins of jazz and look at how it’s evolved up until the 60s. We’ll examine important jazz musicians, and discuss how they impacted Jazz either musically and/or socially.
History and Evolution Part 2: We’ll continue to look at Jazz and it’s players into current times and examine how it has spread globally and how jazz has influenced and is influenced by modern music.
Week 3: Jazz in Canada: Canadian jazz musicians have gained great artistic and commercial success both at home and abroad. We’ll give you some background on the development of jazz in Canada and highlight some important Canadian jazz records. Live Performance / Summary A live performance by some talented musicians to demonstrate many of the concepts that have been discussed during the course. You’ll have the chance to ask questions and possibly even make requests to these amazing performers, Matt Giffin, KW local pianist and George Koller, bassist!
So who is Tim Shia?
Over the years, whether it be backing Holly Cole at the Festival International de
Montreal; grooving with Donne Roberts at Afrofest; filming a tv spot with Elizabeth
Shepherd and Michael Occhipinti; touring Mexico with Rich Underhill and Reg
Schwager; or winning the Trille Or with Amelie and Les Singes Bleus, Tim Shia has
been fortunate enough to play with a host of Juno, Polaris and Grammy Award
nominated musicians.
As a bandleader, Tim’s own group, Worst Pop Band Ever – featuring Adrean Farrugia,
Chris Gale, Drew Birston, Dafydd Hughes, and LEO37- has packed festivals and clubs
across the world from St John’s to Seattle, NYC to Taipei and received critical acclaim
on various media platforms including All About Jazz, NOW magazine, the Toronto Star,
Huffington Post and Something Else! to name a few.
When he’s not performing, Tim has scored and licensed music for film and television
including work for CBC, the Toronto Public Library, Teletoon, the NFB and even
Disney. This includes a number of award winning animated works produced by the
multimedia company, PPF House, that he operates with his brother, Howie.
Tim has run masterclasses and workshops on performance and improvisation at every
level from Kindergarten to Post Secondary Institutions across Canada for over 2 decades.
And for a brief while, he also hosted a radio show on Jazz Fm 91.1 and Paul Chin’s
Istolethesoul FM internet radio.