Yesterday I made another blog post in my jazz composition blog, professorscosco.com. It’s another in a series about linear harmony, a really dry subject, but one that I believe is ignored in schools. Many writers I’ve heard recently are obsessed with chords and scales, and counterpoint is just in service of the chord progression. I like it when the lines are the chords, or maybe you can’t tell what the chords are. I’m finding that although it’s a little dull using my own music for demonstration (due to copyright restrictions and hubris), I’m compiling a body of examples that will...

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I’m wondering about it crowdsourcing. There are many ways to go. I want to do a project of varying sizes of ensembles, with some crossover classical/jazz elements, and some free jazz. “Serious” music. That’s what they used to call it in school. How offensive. I’d be curious about any experience you’ve had with it.

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  I have a jazz composition blog, ProfessorScoSco, and of course this one, which you are reading now. So I publish a post in the other one, now I’m compelled to tell the world about it here. I am definitely spending too much time on shameless self-promo, but I actually enjoy writing about music theory, probably because I love the sound of my own voice. Perhaps it’s therapeutic too – but I do recognize that most of the theory crap I learned in school is useless, and wasn’t applied to anything concrete. I have a series going on Linear Harmony,...

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Rediscovering a piece of music, or an artist’s body of work is a double-edged sword. At first comes the thrill of the (re)discovery, but soon thereafter the pangs of remorse and regret as I count the years since I last heard said oevre… Such is my experience today as I inauspiciously rediscovered the music of Dave Holland, for I was just thumbing through a dusty stack of vinyl wondering why I would ever let that stuff take up my valuable real estate. Seeds of Time was my favorite album for a while in the late 80′s; it’s a quintet date...

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It’s always great to play real Hammond B3 – no “clonewheels” allowed… Yesterday I had the opportunity to play with vocalist and pianist Beth Hart on Conan.I played one of Lon Cohen’s Hammond B3′s, a 1959 with a percussion mod. I used my own Leslie 122, first modified by Al Goff and then worked on in LA by keyboard guru Frank Rich. I first played Hammond when I was about 6 yrs old at my grandma’s house. She had a M3, and she taught me the drawbars and the legato organ technique. She also taught me how to turn it...

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NYC filmmaker Gabriel Judet-Weinshel directed and edited this dramatic and compelling video, which is compiled from interviews, live session and location footage. This video documents the recording of Hudson City Suite, and delves into composer Scott Healy’s  process. Gabriel reveals Scott’s reverence to both the classical and modern jazz traditions, and how he was inspired by the iconic Ellington Suites to create a work that speaks “about” something. Shot at The Bridge Recording in Glendale, and on location in Jersey City, NJ, and NYC. For more of Gabriel Judet-Weinshel’s work, visit waxwingfilms.com.

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Downbeat Magazine – March, 2013 Wow! An profile article in Downbeat. I’ve been reading this mag since I was 14, I remember the transcribed solos in the back (“Spain” by Chick Corea from Light as a Feather, Zawinul’s “Euridice” from Weather Report), and of course all the feature articles and record reviews. I’m honored and frankly blown away. Writer Shaun Brady hits all the points, and took my hour-long, typically rambling interview and made it somehow work and make sense. Click for original article… Coastal Composer by Shaun Brady Conan O’Brien’s very public firing from “The Tonight Show” in 2010 not...

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Jazz Times: Northern Light– Scott Healy-Glenn Alexander Quartet Click for original article… The appealing music on this newly released CD was actually recorded in December of 1991 when pianist Scott Healy and guitarist Glenn Alexander went into a New York studio with bassist Kermit Driscoll and drummer Jeff Hirshfield and created these six tracks covering an economical 38 minutes. Unfortunately, both Healy and Alexander quickly got busy on other projects, with the pianist landing a full-time gig with the new Late Night with Conan O’Brien show, and the master tapes were shelved for over 20 years. In 2012 Alexander found...

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The first time I listened to “Hudson City Suite“, the latest recording from pianist/composer Scott Healy, the music blew me away.  Haven’t changed my opinion in the 4+ months the CD has been in rotation but am not sure why this review has taken so long (the word “laziness” comes to mind.)  Healy, who worked in Conan O’Brien’s “show” band when he started at NBC and his subsequent move to TBS, admits to being greatly influenced by Duke Ellington.  There are moments on the 9 tracks that make up the “..Suite” where one can notice that influence but what is...

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