Archive for the ‘PR’ Category
Sixth Annual Scranton Jazz Festival
August 6th, 2010 | 
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The sixth annual Scranton Jazz Festival kicks off Friday night.
Thousands of music fans are expected and businesses are ready to welcome them to the Electric City.
If you are looking to stay at the Hilton in downtown Scranton, you won’t be able to get a room. The manager said the place is booked this weekend.
A manager at the nearby Radisson said it will also be hard to get a room there this weekend.
“We are booked up on Saturday, Friday we have 15 rooms and Sunday too, that’s great compared to last year and the year before,” said worker Sameer Ali.
The festival includes a jazz walk, featuring live music at downtown bars and other businesses.
The owner of the Cigar Club on Spruce Street will be part of the event. He said the jazz festival is one of his busiest weekends of the year.
“I’d say a 10 to 20 percent increase of business. It’s kind of like fine wine and jazz and a good cigar it mixes very well with jazz,” said Peter Castelline.
The owner of 130 Brixx Grille and Tavern on North Washington Avenue doesn’t know what to expect. This is his first year participating in the festival, and he is getting his staff ready in hopes of a big crowd.
“We are hoping that they come in and do spend money and from what I understand it’s a lot of out of town money, again coming into our area, our area is so inexpensive compared to the bigger cities, in anticipation of that that they will spend a little more money,” said John Kerzetski.
Scranton’s Jazz Festival starts Friday night and runs through Sunday.
Organizers said there are tickets still available in Scranton.
Posted in PR, Scranton Jazz Festival Blog | 
Tags: Downtown, featuring live music, jazz, jazz walk | 
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Jazz focus at Keystone camp
Brian Wilensky Abington Journal Correspondent
LA PLUME – Keystone College will host its third annual Jazz Institute next week featuring some of the area’s leading jazz musicians.
The Keystone College Jazz Institute is a weeklong day camp where young jazz players can learn from jazz artists such as Marko Marcinko, James Buckley, Tom Hamilton, Tony Marino, Eddie Severn and Bill Washer.
The camp takes place in correspondence with the sixth annual Scranton Jazz Festival at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Scranton, Friday through Sunday, August 6 to 8.
The Jazz Institute usually attracts high school-age students in small groups—usually 15 to 30 students. However, the smaller numbers allow individualized attention for each student.
“Each year there is a wide range of experience. We always manage to match up skill levels when we put them into groups to play together,” said Marko Marcinko, founder of the Pennsylvania Jazz Alliance. “We have several students that have come back each year and then gone on to music school at Berklee, Temple, UArts and other schools,” said Marcinko.
The camp will cover music theory and ear training, improvisation, performing in combos, vocal style and technique, performance and practice routines, guitar and bass technique, rhythm section technique and jazz history.
The importance of improvisation in jazz is a driving proponent in the camp. “School bands usually focus on playing in a big band on stage,” said Marcinko. “It’s important to learn improvisation in small groups because there are more small group gigs. It’s even historically accurate because that’s where it all started.”
“Playing in small combos gives the students a chance to stand alone,” said Jim Buckley, Jazz Institute teacher and music teacher in the Scranton School District. “But it’s not a threatening environment either.
“We try to enlighten them with all the tools necessary to be a functioning musician by applying things like scales and modes to gain the ability of hearing the inner music’s inner chess game.”
Groups put together by the Jazz Institute will perform at the Scranton Jazz Festival August 8. “It’s a nice prize at the end of a week’s work for the students to be able to play for a crowd on a major stage,” said Marcinko.
The Keystone Jazz Institute will take place July 26 to 30, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Anyone interested can still sign up by contacting Crystal Siegle at Keystone College, 570.945.8580.
Copyright: The Abington Journal/ Times-Leader
Posted in PR, Scranton Jazz Festival Blog |
Tags: Keystone, keystone camp, music, scranton school district |
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