Nick Reynolds is the head of jazz at Chichester Conservatoire where he has worked for the past 30 years. His research interests include autodidactic teaching methods in jazz education, the shifting identity of jazz as an artform, the role of the spiritual in jazz performance and developing approaches to overcoming musical performance anxiety / stage fright for all musicians. He is an electric bassist (influences include Steve Swallow / Jaco Pastorius and Charles Mingus amongst others) and jazz pianist (favourites include Bill Evans / Thelonious Monk / Hampton Hawes / Stan Tracey / Erroll Garner and Lennie Tristano). Nick has worked as a professional musician in a wide variety of contexts and currently performs with the Integer Trio as a bassist. He is also a children’s book illustrator.
The Integer Trio
youtube.com/@theintegertrio4348
University of Chichester page
www.chi.ac.uk/people/nick-reynolds/
Nick Reynolds Jazz
Hi, the next set of uploads will be from a concert I recently did called ‘The Labyrinth’ (following on from ‘The Maze’) with Becky Westwood on vocals and Rob Westwood on piano.
It features twelve more original compositions that have root movements based on randomly generated twelve tone rows (inspired by Arnold Schoenberg as well as jazz pianist Bill Evans who wrote one piece based on this principle and the lesser known ‘Spud’ Murphy who developed his own system of jazz related twelve tone compositions).
I hope you enjoy them…
Cheers, Nick
3 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 5
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Nick Reynolds Jazz
Hello and thanks everyone for your support so far.
The next set of pieces I will be uploading are seven original compositions based on the novels of Iris Murdoch. I have called this collection ‘The Iris Murdoch Suite’ and there will be accompanying descriptions of each piece and how they relate to particular novels for those interested. The performances feature Molly Cartmell on cello and myself on piano.
I hope you enjoy them.
4 months ago | [YT] | 16
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Nick Reynolds Jazz
Thanks for all of your support and helpful comments so far!
The next uploads are from a recent concert of my own compositions featuring Rich Carter on drums and Alex Ayling-Moores on guitar. Blurb below…
The Maze – Nick Reynolds
During lockdown I decided to write 12 compositions, each composition based on a randomly generated 12 tone row (12 notes of the chromatic scale arranged in a specific order). I then sat down and played each tone row repeatedly until an idea for a discrete composition emerged. Some of the tone rows quickly led to rhythmic ideas, others formed into harmonic progressions, and a few seemed to evoke a particular style (the compositions move through a fusion of genres from jazz to baroque to punk). Once the pieces took form, I wrote the melodies last. I then asked my son (who was 9 at the time) to say 12 random words which he did on the spot, and these became the titles of the songs (examples range from ‘Jugatinc’ to ‘Zeepo’ to ‘Takachacha’). He had also drawn a picture of a maze which I thought was an interesting image to hold together this collection of compositions.
After sitting in a drawer for several years gathering dust (the compositions, not me), I decided it was time to bring the compositions to life so the final step was to find the right musicians who could interpret and develop these short pieces into engaging and inventive improvisations. Originally this was to be with drums, bass and saxophone but after initial rehearsals this was changed to drums, bass and guitar since the guitar opened more harmonic possibility and the use of multiple effects.
Dr Nick Reynolds (Head of Jazz, University of Chichester conservatoire)
Also upcoming…
- More tutorials on how to play jazz
- Jazz piano trio recordings / jazz vocal trio recording (not me on vocals)
- More bass and piano tutorials
- I’m also working on two online courses on how to play solo bass guitar and how I approach jazz in general
10 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 14
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Nick Reynolds Jazz
Thank you for 1000 Subscribers and all the positive feedback so far. Future plans for this channel will involve further bass and piano tutorials and a concert of my own compositions in March. In the meantime, there will be more piano performances and an upcoming project involving bass, a drum machine, looping pedals and frogs....
1 year ago | [YT] | 32
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