Meter and Time in Jazz Composition

Scott Healy opens up the topic of meter and time in jazz composition. He talks about how a composer can engage meter, ways to work within a grid of time, or to work expressively against it. He gets into techniques like like plastic meter, hemiola and cross-rhythms, tuplets and more. He shows musical examples cued up from all eras of large ensemble jazz…perhaps time and meter in jazz music is a bit like quantum physics…flexible, dependent upon your point of view…there are a lot of ways to go about this!

About Scott Healy

Composer Scott Healy leads the The Ellington Study Group in Los Angeles, a hands-on study of scores and recordings of large ensemble jazz music as well as music theory and orchestration techniques. The material is advanced, and is geared toward professional classical and jazz composers, film composers, arrangers, and instrumentalists who want to increase their understanding and appreciation of large ensemble jazz writing. The discussion ranges from the minutia of voicing and harmony, to broader topics like form, pacing, transparent orchestration, compositional intent, and improvisation. Previous classes have included works by Duke Ellington from the 1930’s, Ellington/Strayhorn from the 1950’s, and works by jazz composers, arrangers, and band leaders Gil Evans and Miles Davis, Bennie Moten, Fletcher Henderson, Sammy Nestico, Thad Jones, and Sun Ra. Visit Scott’s website: bluedogmusic.com