2/1/2020 – Quantum Harmony, Early Jazz – Special Guest Joshua Moshier

January 24, 2020 by Scott Healy No Comment

Quantum Harmony? I mean, you gotta call the class something, right? I do have an explanation, I guess you’ll have to show up at the 2/1 installment of the Ellington Study Group!

Plus the real attraction is the brilliant young composer and jazz musician Joshua Moshier. I’m excited to hear what he has to say about his music and his exploding career.

February 1st will be jam-packed with a detailed of some of the basic harmony of jazz music. I’ll start with a deep dive into early jazz harmony, focusing on how improvising players manipulated and exploited the “classical” chromaticism of popular music and the evolved late 19th century European tradition. I’ll talk about interpreting diminished passing chords, secondary dominants, other chromaticism, and some of the ways the complex jazz harmonic tradition evolved from three and four-voice harmony and voice leading. I want to take a look at the classic Ellington piece “East St. Louis Toodle-oo,” and if we have time we’ll get into the more modern polyphonic music of artists like Steve Lacy, the “Downtown” NYC sound, and some music from the 21st century “Trad” jazz movement.

After a short schmooze break I’ll bring up our special guest Joshua Moshier. Joshua is a magnificent jazz pianist and composer, and has become an established presence as composer for film and TV. He’ll discuss his career, his jazz background, how he combines improvisation with composed material, and the process of recording and editing scores which feature improvised music.

Link to purchase tickets on Eventbrite

About Joshua Moshier:

Joshua’s live-action work includes scoring the FX series Baskets, starring Zach Galifianakis, the Emmy-nominated Netflix series Special from Jim Parsons’ That’s Wonderful Productions, the Netflix film Happy Anniversary from writer/director Jared Stern, and the main title music for the Emmy-nominated IFC series Documentary Now! starring Fred Armisen and Bill Hader.

In animation, Joshua’s work includes the upcoming HBO Max series Looney Tunes Cartoons, the Netflix series Dragons: Rescue Riders from DreamWorks, and the viral animated hit Sidewalk, directed by Celia Bullwinkel.

Joshua studied music at Northwestern University. Throughout and after college, he delved deeply into the Chicago jazz scene, performing as a pianist with Marquis Hill, Chris Madsen, Milton Suggs, John Moulder and many others. In his own group co-led with Mike Lebrun, he released Joy Not Jaded and The Local Colorists, as well as his Chamber Music America commissioned work Touch and Go: The Studs Terkel Project.

Joshua is an alumnus of the Sundance Institute Film Music Program (Narrative Feature) and the BMI Conducting Workshop.