Who is Dave?
David DeJesus is a Grammy Award Winning Multi-Instrumentalist specializing in Jazz and Latin Jazz. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, David’s musical journey started in Norwalk, CT and he has been passionate about bringing high quality Jazz education back to Fairfield County. He has performed with numerous legends including Ron Carter, Mulgrew Miller and Jimmy Heath as well as famous large ensembles including the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, The Mingus Big Band, Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars. David is currently the Director of the Birdland Big Band, a featured member of Bobby Sanabria’s Big Band, and the Music Director for Ron Carter’s Great Big Band. On top of his busy performing career David has long been involved in education, having taught at Manhattan School of Music, the New School, and NYU and served as a full-time faculty member at Purchase College in Westchester, NY for 15 years.
Where are we located?
Dave’s Music Room is located in Norwalk, CT near exit 38 of the Merritt Parkway and exit 15 off of I-95.
What do we offer?
DMR JAZZ PRE-COLLEGE PROGRAM
The DMR Jazz Pre-College Program serves to help students acquire Jazz skills beyond what most school band programs can offer such as Jazz Theory, Improvisation, Ear Training, Sight-Reading, Jazz History and Jazz Repertoire. Students that want to excel in Jazz at a high level should highly consider a Pre-College program. They will have fun being surrounded by like-minded serious students who want to grow as musicians and they will sound better and better as a result. For those students interested in pursuing music at the College level, the DMR Jazz Pre-College Program will give students the skills to have very successful auditions resulting in acceptance to major conservatories, scholarship offers, and the ability to pass out of some first year courses and accelerate their Jazz college experience. David, having taught at the Manhattan School of Music, the New School, NYU, and Purchase College, knows what these major conservatories are looking for and how to have successful experiences auditioning for these and other programs.
DMR JAZZ PRE-COLLEGE SCHEDULE
The DMR Jazz Pre-College Program meets on Saturdays from Noon to 4pm September 6th through the end of May
Rhythmic Analysis – 12:00pm to 12:45pm
Students will learn how to count rhythms in simple meters such as 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 progressing to complex meters such as 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8, and advancing to odd meters including 5/4, 7/4, 5/8, 7/8, 11/8, 3/2, etc. Students will gain the ability to sight reading most music they will encounter.
Jazz Theory – 12:45pm to 1:45pm
Students will learn scales necessary for Jazz including Major and Minor, progressing to Major Scale Modes, and advancing to Melodic Minor Modes. Students will learn how to analyze and build Jazz chords, learn the most common Jazz progressions starting with 2-5-1s, and learn how to quickly analyze a lead sheet in order to improvise in a sophisticated way.
Ear Training – 1:45pm to 2:30pm
This 45min class will be spent making sure students can correctly identify intervals, triads, chords, and chord progressions. We will also practice melodic dictation which will give students the ability to transcribe music from any genre.
Jazz History and Repertoire – 2:30pm to 4:00pm
Each week we will learn about a different Master Jazz musician, both learning about their lives and by performing essential music from their repertoire.
Performances
Throughout the year DMR Jazz Pre-College students will have the opportunity to perform in public in Norwalk.
TUITION
Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard’s Pre-College programs meet for 30 Saturdays per year with the cost of tuition being $11,250 for MSM and $15,940 for Juilliard.
To fulfill Dave’s Music Room’s mission of providing high quality Jazz education at affordable prices, tuition for the DMR Jazz Pre-College Program is as follows
Core Program – $4,500
The Core Program includes the 30 Saturday Pre-College sessions from September to May, all materials and recordings, and all performance fees.
Core Program Plus – $6,750
The Core Program Plus includes the 30 Saturday Pre-College sessions from September to May, all materials and recordings, and all performance fees plus a 60 minute private lesson for each week of the Pre-College (30 lessons in total)
DMR BIG BAND SUMMER CAMP
The DMR Big Band Summer Camp is a weeklong day camp experience where the best students from Fairfield County come together to work on classic and modern Big Band repertoire from legends such as Count Basie, Benny Carter, Bill Holman, Oliver Nelson, Thad Jones, and more, in preparation for a public performance in Norwalk, CT and a trip to meet and sit in with the Birdland Big Band at the world-famous Birdland Jazz Club in NYC.
AUDITION DEADLINE APRIL 15th
DMR BIG BAND SUMMER CAMP DATES
Monday August 11th – 9am to 4pm
Tuesday August 12th – 9am to 4pm
Wednesday August 13th – 9am to 4pm
Thursday August 14th – 9am to 4pm, 6pm to 7pm Performance
Friday August 15th – 9am to 12pm, 12pm to 9pm Trip to Birdland Jazz Club
SMALL ENSEMBLES
Jazz Lab
The Jazz Lab is our introductory ensemble aimed at students just getting started with Jazz Improvisation. Each week we will learn famous Jazz Standards and learn how to improvise on them in an authentic manner. Each 10 week semester is followed with a recital where students can demonstrate what they have learned.
Jazz Lab meets on Tuesdays from 4pm to 5pm. Recital on Sunday April 6th
Jazz Ensemble
The Jazz Ensemble is our more advanced group aimed at students with experience playing in Jazz Big Bands or Combos. Each week we will play custom arrangements of famous Jazz Compositions and get deep into learning how to improvise over them. Each 10 week semester is followed with a recital.
Jazz Ensemble meets on Sundays from 5:30pm to 7:30pm
JAZZ ENSEMBLE SEMESTER DATES
Fall Semester Dates
9/8, 9/15, 9/22, 9/29, 10/6, 10/13, 10/20, 10/27, 11/3, 11/10.
Recital on Sunday November 17th
Spring Semester Dates
1/12, 1/19, 1/26, 2/2, 2/9, 3/2, 3/9, 3/16, 3/23, 3/30, and 4/6
Recital Performances on 2/9 and 4/6
PRIVATE LESSONS
Weekly private lessons are the fastest way to grow as a musician and progress to the next level. Each student is assessed and provided with weekly lesson plans designed to help develop tone quality and gain technical facility. Students will study Jazz Standards and learn how to improvise over chord changes as well as work on sight-reading and preparation of audition music. Beginners to Adults are welcome. Subject to Availability.
DAVE’S MUSIC ROOM SPRING SCHOLARSHIP
Here is your opportunity to take classes at Dave’s Music Room for FREE!
10 Middle School and 10 High School music students will be selected to participate in 2 separate weekly classes where they will learn Jazz Theory, Improvisation, Jazz History and learn famous Jazz standard repertoire from Grammy-Award winning multi-instrumentalist David DeJesus. Classes will meet once per week on Saturdays from April 26th to June 7th from 4pm to 5pm or 5pm to 6pm.
If selected, all classes will be completely FREE!
OPEN TO ALL INSTRUMENTS
To apply, submit a video to daviddejesusmusic@gmail.com of you answering the following questions and performing the following tasks. Please include everything in one short video. Phone video is good, no preference will be made for higher quality video.
- What is your name, what school do you attend, and how long have you been playing?
- Why do you want to learn Jazz?
- Do you have a favorite Jazz musician and who is that person? If not, do you have a favorite musician who is not a Jazz Musician?
- Play as many scales as you can from memory.
- Perform something that will demonstrate your musical abilities, ideally a Jazz composition if you know one. You can play along to a Jazz recording as well.
APPLICATION DEADLINE IS APRIL 7TH.
Good luck!