I hope this letter finds you all well and having a successful and musically fulfilling semester. It was great to see so many of you at the Winter Conference this year! The Conference is a fantastic opportunity not only to hone and expand your skills as musicians and music educators; it is also an opportunity to network with colleagues and strengthen the bonds you have with your fellow teachers.

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the clinicians who presented jazz clinics at this year’s conference: Paul Tynan, St. Francis Xavier University; Bob Athayde, Stanley Middle School; and Steve Tyler, DeAnza College. It is through the dedication and expertise of these fine clinicians that our conference is and continues to be one of the highlights of my year. Thank you, gentlemen!

At the writing of this letter, we have concluded all of the jazz festivals for this year. Another round of thanks is due to the site hosts for running all of the jazz festivals this year: Steve Hendee, Julie Bounds, Kevin Klemenok, and Larry Colon. I would also like to thank Gus Kambeitz for the use of the facilities at West Valley College in Saratoga for the Jazz South festival. These educators help make the CMEA Bay Section festivals successful and educational for all those involved. I have heard positive feedback from many of the judges about the level of the groups this year and I would like to congratulate all of the dedicated jazz directors in Bay Section. Keep up the good work!

While judging sight-reading at De La Salle High School for Jazz East/Valley, I was pleasantly surprised at the overall high level of sight-reading ability demonstrated by the groups who elected to attempt the sight-reading portion of the festival. After listening to many of the groups sight-read, I asked the students the following question, “Why is sight-reading important?” I received a number of answers ranging from the importance of this skill as a professional jazz musician to the fact that it is important at CMEA jazz festivals (I though this last response was very insightful!). I responded to the students’ answers with my own: sight-reading is important because it allows us to get past the technical aspects of the music quickly and allows us to make music sooner. It is for this reason that I encourage you to have your jazz ensembles sight-read as often as possible, not just in preparation for competition in jazz festivals. Additionally, have your students sight-read during their individual practice time to build confidence that will bolster their skills as sight-readers within an ensemble. The best way to have students develop individual sight-reading skills is by having them read through etude books they have never practiced out of before – have them set a metronome a bit slower than the marked tempo and read through the entire etude without stopping. They should not stop to correct mistakes, and they should not go back to address mistakes after making it to the end of the etude. Have your students read the etude in its entirety and then turn the page to the next etude. It is in this way students will develop confidence in sight-reading and will learn to recognize patterns at sight and immediately realize the patterns on their instrument. A great series of etude books with which your students can practice individual sight-reading is the Jazz Conception series by New York alto saxophonist Jim Snidero. This series is published by Advance Music.

I would like to wish you all a wonderful semester and please drop me a line sometime!