Charles Jennison
Lesson Feesfrom $25.00 / 30 Minutes
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About
At 75 years young, multi-instrumentalist Charlie Jennison has been an active member of the Seacoast, NH jazz scene since the early 1970s when he first appeared on saxophone with the Tommy Gallant trio at the Press Room. A current member of both the Capital Jazz Orchestra and the Seacoast Big Band, he also enjoys performing selections from the “Great American Songbook” on piano in the intimacy of the small club and restaurant environment.
New Hampshire-based multi-instrumentalist Charlie Jennison began his jazz career in 1961 playing at rotary clubs and at other local functions while still in junior high school. Moving to New Hampshire in 1965 when his father retired from the Navy, he helped revitalize the jazz program both as a student and later as a faculty member at the University of New Hampshire from which he graduated in 1969 with a degree in Music Education. During his undergraduate years, Jennison studied with such major jazz figures as Jerry Coker, Jerry Bergonzi and Charlie Mariano. Some of his former students include David Pietro, Jim Pisano and Jeff Coffin, all successful teachers and performers in their own right. He also pursued classical saxophone studies with Dr. Donald Bravo from Lowell State University, Paul Brodie, and Stan Hettinger. The defining moment in Jennison's career came about when he met pianist Tom Gallant, a teacher at the Berklee School of Music and an alumnus of Woody Herman's band. Jennison played with Gallant and bassist Jim Howe for more than 30 years, particularly at the Press Room in Portsmouth. He has also shared the stage with such notable jazz musicians as Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Hinton, Buddy DeFranco, Alan Dawson, Sal Nistico, and Marshal Royal.
In 1996, Jennison released his first album for Maine's Invisible Music label titled Iridescence, which features Jennison's tenor and soprano saxophone skills. In a quartet format, the album's play list is comprised of ten Jennison originals, which run the tempo gamut from ballads to faster paced material. In addition to backing vocalists Sharon Jones, Kathleen Kolman and Leila Percy on their projects, he has recorded as sideman on numerous artists’ albums including Irish folksinger Tommy Makem’s Lonesome Waters and with Randy Armstrong’s New Age music groups DOAH and Unu Mondo. A member of the Capital Jazz Orchestra which toured recently with clarinetist Ken Peplowski, Jennison also plays in and writes jazz arrangements for two other local big bands, and in addition to transcription and recording projects and performing in local venues, currently holds the position of instructor of saxophone and jazz piano at New Hampshire's Phillip Exeter Academy.
Online teaching, although more challenging than one-on-one in person lessons, can still be productive and if student and teacher take advantage of the tools currently available on various platforms, a running record of the student's progress for review and analysis can be made available.
I belive in meeting a student where they currently are in their journey to become a more accomplished musician, and no matter what their interests or goals, I feel I have the experience to help provide them with the most useful materials, videos, books, recordings, and expertise to help them solve any problem they might have to keep moving forward and making progress.
I am a great believer in an effective warm up routine that helps establish a grounding with fundamentals such as breathing, tone production, posture, technique and basic articulation and music theory on an everyday basis. I want my students to become self-sufficient as soon as possible and teach the concepts which give them independence and start them on their own path to self-discovery through music.
I pursued classical saxophone studies with Dr. Donald Bravo from Lowell State University, Canadian saxophonist Paul Brodie, and Stan Hettinger, director of bands at the University of New Hampshire, where I received a Bachelor of Science in Music Education in 1969. I also hold a Master's in Saxophone composition and performance from Lesley College in Cambridge, MA. (1996) The defining moment in my career came about when I met pianist Tom Gallant, a teacher at the Berklee School of Music and an alumnus of Woody Herman's band. I played with Gallant and bassist Jim Howe for more than 30 years, particularly at the Press Room in Portsmouth. I have also shared the stage with such notable jazz musicians as Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Hinton, Buddy DeFranco, Milt Jackson, Alan Dawson, Sal Nistico, and Marshal Royal.
My saxophone and clarinet lessons are based on curriculum found at most major university music departments and include texts such as those created by Klose, Teal, Baermann, Voxman, Hite, Karg-Elert and others. The jazz piano instruction includes materials by Randy Bell, John Mehegan, Dan Haerle, Mark Levine, Hal Galper, Dick Hyman and others. Daily routines include learning scales, arpeggios, patterns, syncopated rhythms, chord voicings, and above all developing a repertoire of standard jazz tunes.