Course summary

Upon joining Trinity Laban’s Jazz Department, you will enter a vibrant and dynamic community of improvisers. Though grounded in the jazz tradition, we are constantly looking forward and we invite you to draw on a wealth of diverse influences within these traditions, and reinterpret them in new ways as you find your individual voice. We will support you as you develop as a musician, an improviser and an innovative performing artist, enabling you to reach your full creative potential. Jazz is fundamentally a collaborative music-making process, and as well as developing your individual musicianship through a generous number of one-to-one lessons, you will learn to interact and collaborate with your fellow musicians through playing in a range of ensembles and combos. Classes are practice-based, with focus on jazz harmony, rhythm, jazz history, arranging and composition, and coaching rhythm and horn sections. We celebrate the origins of jazz, with opportunities to study African, Brazilian and Cuban music, and we focus on shaping the jazz of the future by nurturing creative composition, and collaborative projects and concepts. Our staff, drawn from London’s exhilarating jazz scene, play and perform with students, replicating the feel of the wider jazz community. Performance is the heartbeat which pulses through our Department. At Trinity Laban, you will gain extensive experience in large ensembles, whether you’re playing classic jazz compositions in the Big Band (led by Winston Rollins) or showcasing work by contemporary composers and Trinity Laban students in the Jazz Orchestra, led by Mark Lockheart and Laura Jurd. London is buzzing with jazz venues, and we take full advantage of this. With Oliver’s Jazz Club on our doorstep in Greenwich, our regular Beats in the Bar series at Blackheath Halls, and performances at the London Jazz Festival, there is always somewhere for you to display your talents. Our relationships with jazz clubs across the city result in regular performance opportunities at exciting venues, such as Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Southbank Centre, the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Dean Street and the Vortex Jazz Club. Our success in supporting students to develop their creative voices is reflected in the professional accomplishments of our graduates, who include many of London’s finest emerging jazz musicians.

• Moses Boyd graduated in 2016. He won the MOBO Best Jazz Act in 2015 and 2017, and releases music under his own label Exodus Records.

• Nubya Garcia graduated in 2016. She is a member of Nérija septet and she recently won 2018 Breakthrough Act of the Year at the Jazz FM Awards. Read about her journey on the Evening Standard website, and The Guardian.

• Elliot Galvin graduated in 2014. He performs with many different ensembles including the Elliot Galvin Trio and Dinosaur. He released a critically acclaimed debut album ‘Dreamland’ in 2014 and was awarded European Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2014.

• Laura Jurd graduated in 2013. She was a BBC New Generation Artist for 2015–17 and founded the Chaos Collective. She was awarded a 2015 Parlimentary Jazz Award for Jazz Instumentalist of the Year. Her Mercury-nominated band Dinosaur received a rare 5-star review in The Guardian and have extensively toured Europe.

• Emilia Mårtensson graduated in 2007. She has released three albums and recently won Vocalist of the Year at the 2016 Parliamentary Jazz awards.

• London five-piece, Ezra Collective, featuring four Trinity Laban alumni and one current student, have released two EP's and toured them across the UK and Europe. Their second EP won Best Jazz Album at Giles Peterson's Worldwide Awards 2018 and they were named Jazz Act of the Year in the 2018 JazzFM Awards.