Ellington Study Group Los Angeles

The Ellington Study Group is sponsored by the Academy of Scoring Arts, and is led by composer and pianist Scott Healy.

The group is open to all professional composers, arrangers and performers, and to anyone else who is interested in a deep dive into a 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.

2/1/2019 – Quantum Harmony, Early Jazz – Special Guest Joshua Moshier
Our next class on February 1st will be jam-packed with a detailed of some of the basic harmony of jazz music. I’ll start with a deep dive into early jazz harmony, focusing on how improvising […]
9/21/2019 More Noir, Linear Harmony and Jeff Beal
On Saturday, Sept. 21st the Academy of Scoring Arts will host the latest installment of my Ellington Study Group. I am excited to have as a guest speaker Jeff Beal (House of Cards, Monk, […]
3/23/2019 The Dark Side: Music of Late 1950’s Film Noir and Marcelo Zarvos from “Ray Donovan”
Saturday, March 23rd 2019 Vitello’s E-Spot Lounge – 10:00 am to 1:00 pm The Dark Side: The Music of Late 1950’s Film Noir, with Special Guest Marcelo Zarvos (HBO’s “Ray Donovan”) […]
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 […]

Protected: Class Materials 2/1/2010
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Class Materials 9/21/19
Class Materials 3/23/2019
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 scoreRHYTHM 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