Bull-Clayton Vocal Jazz Workshop

Immerse yourself in jazz voice techniques in this workshop taught by the phenomenal Katie Bull and Jay Clayton. Bull's focus will be the voice as your instrument, and Clayton will be teaching improvisation and leading the class through some of her structures.

Katie will teach Monday classes, and Jay will teach Wednesday classes. The workshop structure of alternating teachers will help you to explore your vocal instrument and to improvise, or, as Jay might say, to "Sing Your Story."

About Katie's Approach: The warm up is rooted in a playful relationship to gravity, and the speaking voice pathway into singing. The African proverb is: "If you can talk, you can sing." These principles as related to jazz singing will also bridge to some very basic Fitzmaurice Technique© explorations.  

About Jay's Approach: Clayton guides singers to "own"  the blues and jazz standards, and to take risks as improvisors. 

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Schedule and Syllabus

Monday, March 23 | Katie Bull | VOX WARM-UP > GROUNDING THE VOICE: Kinesthetic Awareness & Gravity Exercises for Breath and Vocalizing

Wednesday, March 25 | Jay Clayton | VOCAL JAZZ IMPROVISATION: Blues Heads

Monday, March 30 | Katie Bull | VOX WARM-UP >  SOUND VIBRATION in TONE; Release and Support

Wednesday, April 1 | Jay Clayton | VOCAL JAZZ IMPROVISATION: "4, 10, 2" Free-Structure

Monday, April 6 | Katie Bull | VOX-WARM-UP: Aligning/Centering & The Vocal Truth of the Moment

Wednesday, April 8 | Jay Clayton | VOCAL JAZZ IMPROVISATION: "In and Out" (more of Jay's structures)

Monday, April 13 | Katie Bull, possibly with Jay joining |  Structures & Play

Bonus: Thursday, April 16 Come to Kitano's to see Jay perform

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ABOUT KATIE BULL

Katie Bull is a “downtown cutting edge” jazz vocalist, composer and the band leader of The Katie Bull Group Project. Katie is a freelance vocal production coach for the speaking voice (founder, Whole Body Voice©; freelance voice coach of performers in feature and indie film, television, & broadway, off-broadway, and fringe theater; faculty master teacher and the Head of Voice at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting Studio & on faculty at  ATC NYU/Tish School of the Arts and has coached & directed several voice productions for NYU/Tish Drama Dept Stageworks series).  Katie  refers to her jazz singing mentors as her “jazz mothers”: Ms. Jay Clayton and Ms. Sheila Jordan.  Her original speaking voice mentor Chuck Jones inspired a life journey of hearing music through the primary path of the spoken word. Katie has many other voice influences and is honored to be a Certified Fitzmaurice Technique (c) Associate Teacher. She will offer all jazz singing principles with bridges to specific Fitzmaurice© "destructuring" and "restructuring" work.    

Katie has released four self-produced and critically acclaimed albums on her Corn Hill Indie label - Conversations With the Jokers; Love Spook; Cup of Joe/No Bull; and The Story, So Far (a CD/DVD dual release). Her last album, Freak Miracle, released on the Innova label, received a Grammy nomination consideration;  her next album All Hot Bodies Radiate, is due to be released in 2015 and features her band: Landon Knoblock on piano and electronics; Joe Fonda on bass; George Schuller on drums; Jeff Lederer on reeds.   Other KBGP musicians on the albums include Frank Kimbrough, piano; Martin Wind, bass; Harvey Sorgen, drums; Matt Wilson, drums; & Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, voice. (See Katie's website for notable radio airplay; honors/top-pick lists & press, and performance schedule.) She has performed with numerous musicians in numerous NYC jazz venues including 55Bar, Cornelia Street Cafe, Smith's, the Local 269, ABC No Rio, Nublu, Univerrsity of the Streets, the Brecht Forum, and most recently as part of the Arts for Arts/RUCMA Evolving Music Series at Clemente Soto Velez and the Whynot Jazz Cafe as part of Andrea Wolper's Why Not Experiment? Series. 

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ABOUT JAY CLAYTON

Book private lessons with Jay Clayton
Jay Clayton is an internationally acclaimed vocalist, composer, and educator, whose work boldly spans the terrain between jazz and new music. Jay has gained worldwide attention as both performer and teacher. With more than 40 recordings to her credit, Clayton has appeared alongside such formidable artists as Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve Reich, Kirk Nurock, Julian Priester, Jerry Granelli, Jane Ira Bloom, Gary Bartz, Jack Wilkins, George Cables, Fred Hersch, Gary Thomas, tap dancer Brenda Bufalino as well as fellow vocalists Jeanne Lee, Norma Winstone, Urszula Dudziak and Bobby McFerrin. She has taught extensively throughout the world and was on the jazz faculty of Cornish College of the Arts for 20 years. She is currently on the jazz faculty at Peabody Institute in Baltimore. Her book, Sing Your Story: A Practical Guide for Learning and Teaching the Art of Jazz Singing, was published by Advance Music in 2001.