Scott Healy

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…

Blogjazz composer, linear harmony, music theory, professorscosco, scott healy

April 25, 2013 by Scott Healy 2 Comments

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,…

Blogfree jazz, jazz arranging, jazz composer, linear harmony, music theory, professorscosco, scott healy

I “rediscovered” Dave Holland’s music while dusting…

April 22, 2013 by Scott Healy No Comment

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…

Blogdave holland, free jazz, jazz cds, jazz records, linear harmony, vinyl

Beth Hart on “Conan”

April 17, 2013 by Scott Healy No Comment

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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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…

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March 29, 2013 by Scott Healy No Comment

Comparisons can easily be made to the styles of Pat Metheny, or Keith Jarrett with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian, but this quartet is clearly secure in its own identity.
Scott Albin - Jazz Times Magazine

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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