Rebecca Cline: Talk on Latin Jazz Piano and Performance at Seacoast Jazz Live

This hour-long live online event will be a mixture of performance and presentation about the art and mastery of Cuban piano improvisation.

Rebecca Cline will be the guest speaker/performer. Her expertise in Cuban piano improvisation is vast. For two decades in Boston she has been an educator, presenter, and performer specializing in Latin and jazz piano. She is author of 'Latin Jazz Piano Improvisation' (Berklee Press) and has led workshops in the US, Asia, Europe, South America and the Caribbean. For nearly 20 years, she has taught ensembles, Cuban piano styles, and jazz studies at Berklee College of Music....

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This hour-long live online event will be a mixture of performance and presentation about the art and mastery of Cuban piano improvisation.

Rebecca Cline will be the guest speaker/performer. Her expertise in Cuban piano improvisation is vast. For two decades in Boston she has been an educator, presenter, and performer specializing in Latin and jazz piano. She is author of 'Latin Jazz Piano Improvisation' (Berklee Press) and has led workshops in the US, Asia, Europe, South America and the Caribbean. For nearly 20 years, she has taught ensembles, Cuban piano styles, and jazz studies at Berklee College of Music.

ABOUT THE PRESENTATION
The evocative Cuban piano style that developed in the 1950s and 1960s set the standard for piano improvisation in Latin jazz today. Exhilarating performances by Chucho Valdés, Michel Camilo, Rubén González (Buena Vista Social Club) and others have lured many jazz pianists to further explore the rich tradition of Cuban piano improvisation. An accessible, diatonic melody tells a straight-forward story, followed by a rousing chromatic passage from one end of the keyboard to the other. Gentle, consonant intervals of thirds and sixths yield to more abrasive fourths voicings. Short melodic ideas repeat and develop into long, winding phrases. Octave unison lines evolve into heated debates between right hand and left hand.

During this presentation you'll explore and look at transcriptions of exemplary solos by Lilí Martínez, Pedro “Peruchín” Justiz, Bebo Valdés, Eddie Palmieri, Papo Lucca, and Manolito Simonet, You'll learn how each of these artists achieve their own particular balance of these pervasive stylistic elements and gain an understanding of the artistry and technique of Cuban jazz improvisation.

It promises to be a lively entertaining evening, so have your chips and salsa on hand!

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