Jeffrey Agrell

Jeffrey Agrell is the blogger talked about in the previous post. He clicked over to here from my comment on his post, and left a comment a number of posts down. I'm pasting it in here so it's easier to get to. My interests seem less tangential to his than to most of the other blogs I follow. He has what looks to be an interesting book on improv for classically trained folks, and a CD of improvs with a piano player. Plus he plays the banjo, so there you go.

Here's that comment he made on my "More Sandow" post:

>>I didn't know about your blog until your comment on mine today, and I'm enjoying reading your back posts very much. I think we may have a lot of common interests, including horn, Zen, banjo, and possibly improvisation. I played guitar for many years (folk, classical, and finally jazz), but haven't done much since I got tendinitis in the late 80's. I also played some 5 string banjo, mandolin, and e-bass. One thing that might interested you that is related to this post is my book, Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians. I agree with Greg Sandow that what classical music needs is a lot more people who are acquainted with music beyond listening to their iPods. But if you are traditionally trained and don't have a band or orchestra after school, what do you do? My book is a compilation of 5 years of my course in the subject at the University of Iowa, and gives any classical player the ways and means to begin improvisation without having to be a jazz player. The book is especially useful for music therapists, who have to relate musically to many clients (it makes a good complement to Tony Wigram's book on improv for therapists). It's published by GIA Music (www.giamusic.com).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts.<<