The International Jazz Summer School

Quite a few years ago now - just before university I think, a friend of mine was on a year out. She was doing a course in something she was really passionate about, and rang me up on one of her first days really excited and enjoying it. I longed to find something as exciting for me. I thought a little about what would be my perfect dream thing...I'm pretty sure I just typed into google 3 words: Jazz Course France. What came up was The International Jazz School (though since then the website has been redone!). It sounded amazing. I knew I wanted to go.

Year after year, every so often I'd google it again and look at the website, wondering if I could ever go, but each year there was a reason I couldn't. I thought to myself that it would be a target for me to travel alone and be abroad by myself, something that seemed a very big, slightly scary thing for me - my first 'independent' travel. Finally in 2013 I was able to make the dream come true!

Therefore whilst I was there, at some points I couldn't really believe I was finally there! I came to a very quick realisation of just how much I had to learn! I felt seriously out of my depth a lot of the time - but I think that was good in making me want to learn, and challenging me. It is not easy being out of your comfort zone though.

It also helped me to understand that a journey with music is a life long thing - every time you listen to something, learn something new, practice something old, you are on that journey - rather looking to always an end goal. This is a change in my thinking I am trying to keep hold of. Though being in a 'performing' profession it can be easy to lose sight of this.

The course is organised largely by Clive Fenner, and the Specialist Singers course I enrolled on runs alongside the Advanced Improvisers Course (instrumentalists). At times we joined with them and collaborated-which was really cool-and at times were separate.

I think there were possibly around 20 singers. Sometimes we had group sessions all together, sometimes we were split into 2 groups. And sometimes we were in smaller groups of about 5 for master classes. It was held in a beautiful chateau in the south of France. The setting was so inspiring and calming in itself, and the people there were great fun, people from many different countries, all coming together to enjoy music. I loved it.



The chateau

And a bit more of a close up!

One of the most incredible things for me was the girl I shared a room with - Tara- who I found I had more in common with than just music, she very quickly became a firm friend and I love her! :)

The teachers for the singer's course were Liane Carroll and Sophie Bancroft. They were both amazing tutors, and I have linked their names to their respective websites so you can check them out. They were very inspiring and gave me lots of food for thought.

As a few examples of what we did: we learnt about improvising, manipulating a melody, did some choral work, physical warm-ups outside in the sun and much more. Every evening there was a little showing of what various people had worked on through their day, and then people could perform whatever they wanted. We got to collaborate with musicians from the musician course and perform with them which was so cool. I really loved being able to sing with a band and improvise with them and jam a bit, it was incredible I hope I get more opportunities like that in the future! On the last night we did a concert for locals from the nearby village.



Bit nervous waiting to go in for the concert

On one of the days we had the afternoon off, so Tara and I wandered into the nearby village, sat outside with a drink, met a local who invited us to their home where we had French cheese on a balcony in the sun! C'était merveilleux!

 

On top of this was delicious food in the sun, wine, an outdoor pool and lots of laughing. It really was as good as it sounds (why can't life just always be like that?!). But alas I had to come back to the U.K and get back to work :-p

In the end the course seemed to affect me more deeply than I thought it would - though I suppose I didn't really know what to expect. It has changed some of my attitudes towards my own adventure with music, but also helped me see things I would like to improve and work on. It's highlighted to me the want for true rawness and passion in music. It's helped me to identify what I love about my favourite artists - such as Nina Simone and Billie Holiday- is the truth, voice and personality behind their songs, rather than just always striving for 'the perfect performance'. Because of the nature of work I have done before, it will take a little adjustment to let this come through in my own music! But I hope to be able to. It's shown me I have a lot to learn.

It was quite an emotional experience for me, and it's also affected me in more personal ways that I don't need to go in to- but I just want to say, that when you take an opportunity or go after something you want to do, though it may take a lot of work and time to be able to do it, you might just be blessed beyond what you imagine! I need to remind myself of that sometimes too. I'm very grateful for being able to go. If you are a musician who loves jazz I would highly recommend it.