The Berkeley Jazz Workshop are ensembles that meet once a week, evenings, in spacious quarters in North Berkeley. There are eight ensembles at various levels, beginning to advanced, and players on all instruments are welcome. Every three months we put on a concert that’s free to the public.
The material ranges from standards (Thirties & Forties repertoire) to bebop, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, and modern jazz pieces.
The Jazz Workshops are a place to gain experience, to meet other stir-crazy musicians and to make all the mistakes you want. Fees are reasonable, covering rent on the space and some low-key, but useful, coaching.
If you think this might be what you need, please come by and visit, listen, and – if you like – sit in on a tune. We’ll try to find an ensemble where you’ll fit in.
Classes are moderated by bassist and composer Clark Suprynowicz.
The Berkeley Jazz Workshops are $25 per meeting for participants, paid monthly. There is never a charge for stopping in, checking out what we are doing, sitting in on a few tunes. That’s how most people in these ensembles first got involved.
The Berkeley Jazz Workshops meet at several locations, weeknights, in Berkeley, California. Call or e-mail for details!
Monday Evenings
6:45-8:30 pm and 8:30-10 pm
Tuesday Evenings
6:30-8:00 pm and 8-9:30 pm
Wednesday Evenings
6:45-8:15 pm and 8:15-9:45 pm
Thursday Evenings
6:45-8:15 pm and 8:15pm-9:45pm
Clark Suprynowicz is a bassist and composer who has worked with Tom Waits, John, Zorn, Bill Frisell and many musicans in the Bay Area, where he lives. Besides recordings and compositions in the jazz realm, he’s written operas (for Berkeley/West Edge Opera), orchestral music (for the Berkeley Symphony and the Mill Valley Philharmonic) and choral music (for the Pacific Mozart Ensemble).
As a music educator, he’s taught musicanship and composition at both the Crowden School and the San Francisco Conservatory, and was artist-in-residence for several years at the SF School of the Arts. Clark is on the faculty of the John Adams Young Composers Program. He is the director of the Berkeley Jazz Workshops, a forum for jazz education in the Bay Area.
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