Rory Stuart | jazz guitarist | composer

New School Teaching

Around 1990-1991, my close friend Keith Copeland (who was drummer in my Quartet) was teaching a rhythm class in the Jazz department of the New School in New York City, and began to have a few class sessions for which he asked me to substitute because he was scheduled to be away on the road (in Europe and Japan). I had never been interested in teaching, but I found that filling in for Keith in these classes was surprisingly enjoyable. The department was excellent, with fellow faculty members such as Billy Harper, Jim Hall, Reggie Workman, Joe Chambers, Armen Donelian, Buster Williams, Dave Liebman, JoAnne Brackeen, Andrew Cyrille, Cecil McBee, Gary Dial, Jamey Haddad, Chico Hamilton, Jimmy Owens, George Garzone, Cecil Bridgewater, Junior Mance...the list goes on and on(!). And the students, who came from all over the world, were talented and enthusiastic. I began to think about different ways to teach rhythmic concepts I had been working on and, in 1992, when Keith decided to move to Germany and the department, led by Martin Mueller, invited me to take over the rhythm class, I eagerly accepted.

I have taught at the New School since then, and it has been a great pleasure. I currently lead the rhythm curriculum, teaching several classes in "Advanced Rhythmic Analysis," and also teach individual guitar students. I also offer an Advanced Rhythm Ensemble at least one semester per year for students who have been through my classes and want more help and feedback in applying the concepts we covered. Other sections of the Advanced Rhythmic Analysis class have been taught by Jimmy Cobb (in the *old* days!), drummer John Riley, trumpeter Jimmy Owens, and talented alto saxophonist (and former student) Arun Luthra, who currently teaches them; Chico Hamilton teaches a basic rhythm class as well. Among the guests I have brought in to work with my classes have been Billy Harper, Tim Berne, Vijay Iyer, David Gilmore, Jason Lindner, and Ronan Guilfoyle. Even when I have to miss a class because of a gig out of town, the subs I have been fortunate enough to get have been amazing (example: when I was in Italy for a week in Spring 2006, Ari Hoenig, Dafnis Prieto, and Ralph Alessi each took some of my classes). I have had a remarkably international student body, with students from England, Korea, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Germany, France, Portugal, Brazil, Israel, Ireland, Switzerland, Wales, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, South Africa, Russia, Cuba, Iceland, Greece, Canada, and the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii). Many of my former students have already gone on to do impressive things (for example, former students have played with bands such as Roy Haynes, Kenny Garrett, Elvin Jones, Pat Metheny, Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Haden, Charlie Hunter, Eliane Elias, Lonnie Plaxico ... the list goes on!), and I look forward to hearing of their continued progress. Here is but a small sampling of the students who have been in my classes (many excellent players are not included here! —these are just a small subset, and I need to update this list):

Drummers:
E.J. Strickland, Darren Beckett, Otis Brown III, Roland Schneider, Jeremy Blynn, Ali Jackson, Tommy Crane, Martin Roth, Jaz Sawyer, David Mason, Arei Sekiguchi, Chad Royce, Marlon Browden, Tommasso Capellato, Qasim Naqvi, Carola Grey, Kenny Grohowski, Gustavo Borchert, Ken Yamazacki, Jay Lepley, Renaud Penant, Seb Voegler, Geoff Mann, Brandon Lewis, Chris Higginbottom, Chris Berry, Karsten Bagge, Amir Ziv, Tim Monaghan, Adam Jackson, Lamont Taylor, Jamire Williams, Steve Lyman, Daisuke Kurata;

Bassists:
Brandon Owens, Matt Penman, Chris Tordini, Jim Robertson, Wayne Batchelor, Tim Givens, Carlos Henriquez, Ben Shapiro, Hans Ermel, Catherine Stambach, Enud Guy, Antony Eagle, Ann Mette Iverson, Ian Riggs, Magnus Nilsson, Alan Hampton, Renee Cruz, Dave Robaire;

Saxophonists:
John Ellis, Marcus Strickland, Arun Luthra, John Beaty, Til Behler, Pedro Moreira, Charles Owens, Tsuyoshi Niwa, Sonia Jacobson, Bernard Ullrich, Masahiro Shigeno, Dmitri Baevsky, Klas Lindquist, Peter Poulsen, Kris Baumann, Matthew Foster, Glen Manby, Chris Farling, Michel Huguet, Ben McIver, Ian Russell, Dan Ribet, Charles Gurke, Ivan Renta, Andrew Gross, Patrick Breiner, Matteo Sabattini, Evan Herring, Tomo Takemoto, Logan Richardson, Loren Stillman, Lenart Krecic, Jason Marshall, Gary Pickard, Andreas Rapp, Wataru Uchida, Tal Varon, Andrew Carrico, Jamaal Sawyer, Curtis Macdonald, Andrew Hadro, Masahiro Yamamoto;

Guitarists:
Mike Moreno, Gregg Fine, Greg Tuouy, David Plate, Nuno Ferreira, Satoshi Inoue, Fred Favarel, Hendrik Helmer, Dan Nadel, Morton Faerestrand, Tom Spiker, Dan Baker, Michele Locatelli, Keigo Mizutani, Matt Richelson, Christian Dennery, Kevin Worrell, Torsten Gutknecht, Kazu Ikeda, Gustavo Saiani, Matt Hageman, Sun Chung, Devin Brown, Jared Winzelberg, Tom Cumming, Tom Guarna, Beto Jordao, Frederik Leroux-Roels, Braden Palmer, Ben Greenberg, Collin Bay, Rafal Sarnecki, Gilad Hekselman;

Pianists:
Robert Glasper, Aaron Goldberg, Yayoi Ikawa, Eri Tanaka, Pedro Guedes, Shedrick Mitchell, Leo Tardin, Andy Bemke, Oliver Kuster, Carl Orrje, Emanuel Rueffler, Misha Schumann, Richard Fairhurst, Adam Butler, Livi Phahle, Michael Hannigan, Peter Lyster, Tino Derado, Jesse Chandler, Cyrill Bavier, Nick Rolfe, Ave Carrillo, John Stenger, David Feldman, Ed Price, Dinah Vero, Neil Podgurski, Kazuko Baba, Frank LoCrasto, Eunmi Shin, Peter Rodriquez, Won Kyung Yoon, Vladimir Katz, Bo Hyun Hwang, Noam Szwergold, Jarod Kashkin, Morgan Wiley, Manuel Valera, Ayako Sato, Alex Hills, Warren Fields;

Trumpeters:
Kenyatta Beasley, Joao Moreira, Mike Rodriguez, Tatum Greenblatt, Michio Imazato, Keyon Harrold, Jacob Varmus, Donvontae McCoy, Ian Carey, Joshua Wittenburg, Johan Lassnig-Walder, Nick Roseboro, Jonathan Finlayson, Taku Kuroda, Poul Weiss, Daniel Barnidge;

Trombonists:
Nils Wogram, Joe Beaty, Sam Griffin, Barry Cooper, Adrian Weber, Dion Tucker, Rick Helf;

Singers:
Jean Rohe, Becca Stevens, Joana Machado, Maja Sidebaeck, Ken Wood, Cat Henry, Karina Braunstein, Eliane Amherd, Jenn Jade Ledesna, Mimi Barkmann, Haruna Takeuchi, Eriko Miyake, Lindsey Stormo, Emily Day, Yeahwon Shin;

Harmonica:
Gregoire Maret;

Lap Steel guitar:
Myk Freedman;

Flute:
Kelly Watson, Nick Cowles;

Violin:
Tobias Preisig, Rose Bartu, Loren Leventer;

Vibraphonists:
Nicholas Maret, Mike Shepherd, Chase Jordan, Omar Alvarado;

Percussionists:
Tomar Tzur, Nick Halley, Eric Mendez, Nassim Zerriffi;

I highly recommend the jazz program at the New School. I intend to do more recording and performing with some of my former students, and I recommend you keep an ear open for all of them — they are some talented musicians! for more about the New School Jazz program click here.