Ellington Study Group Los Angeles

The Ellington Study Group is a led by composer and pianist Scott Healy, and is open to all music professionals.

The group is open to all professional composers, arrangers and performers, and will feature hands-on and in-depth study of jazz composition, orchestration, arranging, jazz music theory and formal analysis using classic and modern scores and recordings. The music of Duke Ellington is a point of departure – the class will cover many influential jazz composers and bandleaders, from Bennie Moten, Bob Brookmeyer, Thad Jones and Gil Evans to Sun Ra, George Russell and Ornette Coleman.

In May, 2017, the ESG expanded its format to include guest speakers. Please join the e-mail list and check back for upcoming classes. Generally the ESG LA meets once every two months depending on artist scheduling.

Many thanks to the Academy of Scoring Arts for underwriting the ESG LA.

The Ellington Study Group classes are held at Vitello's E-Spot Lounge in Studio City, CA, from 10am - 12:30. Tickets are $15 - includes continental breakfast.

12/8/18 – Harmonic Superpowers and Guest Jeff Babko
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8TH, 2018 – 10am – 12:30pm CLICK FOR TICKETS Hone your harmonic superpowers while hanging with your cool LA colleagues and ingesting large quantities of caffeine! On […]
10/20/18 – Voicing Boot Camp and Drummer Bernie Dresel
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20TH 2018 – 10am – 12:30pm CLICK FOR TICKETS Saturday the 20th is going to be a jam-packed class. I want to spend an hour talking about how to voice a big band horn […]
6/30/18 – Birth of the Cool and Duke with Guest Paul Peress
On Saturday, June 30th at 10am we’ll start delving into Miles Davis’ revolutionary “Birth of the Cool”. This influential and enduring work has it all: inspired arranging, […]
5/5/18 – Concert Jazz and Extended Form – and Mervyn Magic
Ellington’s auspicious Carnegie Hall debut in 1943 gave us the masterpiece “Black, Brown and Beige”, arguably the first long form, extended “legit” concert jazz […]
3/24/18 – THREE GREAT WORKS, GRANT GEISSMAN
SATURDAY, MARCH 24TH, 2018 – 10am – 12:30pm On March 24th I want to start talking about a composer’s intent – how a writer’s vision is carried forward and realized. This will be the first […]
8/25/17 Quantum Meter and Tim Davies
On the 25th I’ll open up the topic of meter and time in jazz composition. We’ll talk about how a composer can engage meter, ways to work within a grid of time, or to work expressively […]
5/6/17 – Harmonic Rhythm and Special Guest Brent Fischer
PLEASE NOTE NEW SATURDAY TIME and EXTENDED FORMAT HARMONIC RHYTHM AND SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER BRENT FISCHER On Saturday May 6th at 10am we’ll continue our exploration of harmonic rhythm, focusing […]
2/25/17 – Hello and Goodbye
Saturday Feb. 25th, 2017 at Vitello’s E-Spot Lounge, Studio City, 10am – noon On Saturday: Geek alert! I want to spend some time talking about what some call “harmonic rhythm”, […]
11/11/16 – Thad, Duke, and some College Chords
On Friday we will dive back into large ensemble voicing, first by revisiting “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” by Duke Ellington. Duke’s work in the mid 1930’s predicted […]
9/23/2016 – More Gil, more Thad
At the September 23rd meeting we will start off by taking a quick listen to “Maids of Cadiz” by Gil Evans and Miles Davis. We’ll talk about some of the broad strokes: form, pace, and how Gil […]
6/24/16 – Clear and Transparent Voicing Technique (that still grooves!)
On the 24th we’ll delve in to Ellington’s “Such Sweet Thunder”. This piece is a great example of the use of riffs, space, harmony, layering, groove, and economical jazz writing. There’s so much […]
3/25/16: From “Ko-Ko” to KC
On March 25th we will start an in-depth analysis of the iconic “Ko-Ko” by Duke Ellington, using as a reference an excellent transcription by David Berger. This is another great […]

Class Materials 12/8/2018
World is Waiting – 3 Exs Black Bottom Stomp Corrected Score Black Bottom Stomp Harmony 1 Black Bottom Stomp TRANS 1 – Part 2 Principles of Linear Harmony
Class Materials 10/20/18
GOT GROOVE? BBB SCORE ESG 10_2018 – Score Got Groove? Voicing Examples 1 – Ens Ex’s Got Groove? Voicing Examples 2 Got Groove? FULL REDUCTION – FULL REDUCTION GOT GROOVE? BBB FINAL – DRUMS
Class Materials 6/30/18
Paul Peress Charts: I Just Can’t (CD Version) Sugar_City_FINAL2 Show Me
Class Materials 5/5/18
Class Materials 5/5/18 “Black Brown and Beige” Orchestral Suite arranged by Maurice Peress “Spanish Key” Miles Davis – SH Transc-Arr “A LOVE SUPREME” sketch (is this authentic?):
Class Materials – 3/24/18
DIM and CRESC- Improv as Comp – Katherine Williams VCFA-Ellington-Lecture-Andy-Jaffe-Feb-2017-5 Hey! Great news…er…”Black Brown and Beige” full score of the full suite as performed in 1943 is now available on […]
Class Materials – 8/25/17
SCOTT HEALY MUSICAL EXAMPLES, 8/25/17 "DIm and Cresc in Blue" -full score RHYTHM EX #1 "I Ain't Got Nothin but the Blues" Arr Healy Score "DYHANA" - m1-29 Leads_Bass_Chords "DHYANA" m1-14 - Horn Reduction w_BS TIM DAVIES MUSICAL EXAMPLES […]
Class Materials – 5/6/17 – Brent Fischer
SCOTT HEALY PDF SCORES AND MATERIALS: CIRCLES The Clothed Woman SH TRANSCRIPTION The Clothed Woman EXAMPLES The Clothed Woman- TRIO CHART There are at least four recordings of Ellington playing "The Clothed Woman". Below is the first […]
Protected: Class Materials – 2/25/17
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Protected: Class Materials – 9/23/16, 11/11/16
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Ellington Live Concert – 1958
Just had to post this. What the hell was in the water in 1958–Miles, Ornette, Bill Evans, rock n roll, folk, etc…wow.