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 against it. We’ll get into techniques like plastic meter, hemiola and cross-rhythms, tuplets and more. I’ve got musical examples cued up from all eras of large ensemble jazz…perhaps time and meter in jazz music is a bit like quantum physics…flexible, dependent upon your point of view…there are a lot of ways we can go with this, let’s see where it takes us!

Then after a short break I’ll bring to the stage the world-renowned composer, orchestrator, educator and conductor Tim Davies. I know Tim as a prolific and inspiring jazz composer and educator, but he also has done tremendous work in the studio and on the stage, including hundreds of credits in TV, film, symphonic music, as well as arranging for pop artists. And BTW, he’s a great drummer. We will have scores and musical examples posted online for viewing in class, as well as full projection and sound system. Check out Tim’s full bio below, and I’ll see you there! Scott

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Tim Davies is one of the busiest conductors and orchestrators in Hollywood. His film and TV credits include La La Land, Trolls, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Minions, Ant-Man, Empire, CHiPs and Frozen. He is the most prolific orchestrator and conductor in the world of video games having worked on the God of War,Infamous and Batman: Arkham series.

Davies is an active arranger as well. Recent highlights include arranging and playing drums for the twentieth anniversary concert of NAS’ Illmatic and being lead arranger for Kendrick Lamar’s performance of To Pimp a Butterfly, both featuring the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. He has arranged for albums by chart-topping artists Amy Winehouse, Akon, Miguel, Cee Lo Green and for orchestras all over the world from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to the Metropol Orkest in the Netherlands. He plays drums and writes for his own group, the 18-piece Tim Davies Big Band, and has received two Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Composition, in 2010 and 2016.

Recently Davies has been in demand as a composer, having worked with two-time Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla on the score to the Fox animated film The Book of Life. This was also the beginning of a partnership with producer/director Guillermo del Toro, which led to writing additional music for Crimson Peak and now creating the Annie-nominated score for his new TV show, Trollhunters, produced by Dreamworks Animation for Netflix.

In 2013 he launched his orchestration blog www.debreved.com, which has since become an important resource for composers and orchestrators all over the world. Daviesis on the board of Education Through Music Los Angeles, helping provide music education for underprivileged children.