Public Research Seminar: Ronan Guilfoyle
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire - Workshop 2
200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR
Free - booking required
Seminars are in RBC Workshop 2 and can also be accessed online via Zoom.
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Public Research Seminar: Ronan Guilfoyle
Rhythmic Innovation as Tradition in Jazz
Although jazz itself has always been experimental within its own rhythmic traditions, since the 1950s another strand of experimentation has arisen in which rhythmic techniques and practices from outside the jazz tradition, have been consciously imported into jazz practice.
Currently, If we look at the ubiquity of the various rhythmic techniques in jazz today, an argument can be made that this kind of experimentation has achieved such a critical mass that it has itself become mainstream. This presentation will give an overview of the evolution of this kind of experimentation within jazz, highlight key figures in its development, discuss the controversies surrounding this kind of experimentation, and put forward the case for seeing this kind of work as now being part of the jazz mainstream.
Ronan Guilfoyle is a major figure on the Irish jazz scene and has developed an international reputation as a performer, teacher and composer.
Among the people he has performed with are Dave Liebman, Kenny Werner, Joe Lovano, Kenny Wheeler, John Abercrombie, Jerry Bergonzi, Enrico Pieranunzi, Nguyen Le, Brad Mehldau, and Benny Golson. His groups have toured widely Internationally and he has also recorded extensively, including the award winning Devsirme in 1997.
As a composer he specialises in compositions which feature both improvised and written music, and has now a large body of work that ranges from solo piano pieces, to chamber works, to orchestral compositions.
Renowned for the teaching of advanced rhythmic techniques for jazz improvisation, his book, Creative Rhythmic Concepts for Jazz Improvisation, is now seen as a standard text for this area, and he has lectured at many schools around the world including Berklee College of Music in Boston, The New School in New York, and is an associate Artist of the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Ronan is the Director of The Centre for Jazz Performance Studies at Dublin City University,
Running time approx. one hour and 30 minutes