Posts - Scott Healy

Gabriel Judet-Weinshel’s short film on Scott Healy’s “Hudson City Suite”

April 15, 2013 by Scott Healy

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.

Featured, Front Page, Videoshudson city suite, jazz video

April 14, 2013 by Scott Healy

The music Healy wrote for Hudson City Suite is a nine-part depiction of a mythological place, a city that might be if it hadn’t gone extinct more than a century ago. It unites past and present musically as well as conceptually, bridging traditional big-band swing with lithe jazz modernism.
Downbeat Magazine, March 2013

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…

Featured, Front Pagedownbeat magazine, healy, hudson city suite, jazz

May 10, 2013 by Scott Healy No Comment

Don’t worry about chords until it sounds good. Think about the beginning and the end of the phrase and how you want to get from point A to point B.
Professor ScoSco

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…

Blog, Featuredjazz composer, linear harmony, music theory, professorscosco, scott healy

Crowdsourcing?

May 4, 2013 by Scott Healy No Comment

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.

Blog

April 25, 2013 by Scott Healy No Comment

The layering of chords, with inner roots and strong voice leading are an important part of linear harmony; it's a melodic way of writing with chords, and with apologies to Schoenberg and Debussy, a jazzy way to invoke what Schoenberg termed Klangfarbenmelodie, or "timbre-structures", or "sound-color-melody".
Professor Sco-Sco

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,…

Blog, Featured

1 2 3 … 6 ›