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 in advance, $20 at the door, includes continental breakfast.

 

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Classes, Past and Future

  • 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 (including pre-2015 classes)

 
 

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