Ruben Fox was born into the Bloco, practically! As his Dad, the late great Mat Fox, was our founder and musical director till 2014, he really had no choice but to become a musician and join us. And the fact that he actually became an excellent musician and is one of our Leaders is a beautiful demonstration of what we are trying to achieve at Bloco. We are delighted that he is delivering a masterclass series as part of our #ShutdownSessions and we wanted to highlight these on our #charitytuesday blog.
Over Kinetika Bloco’s 20 year existence thanks to the incredible investment of public funding, trusts, foundations and individual donations we have been able to create a culture within our charity that fosters creativity, leadership, a family ethos, the opportunity to take risks and all under a banner of respect. Respect for each other, for different cultures, different abilities and different musical styles. We have been able to use these resources to develop a leadership culture that has seen young people join us at 12 or 13 years old and now in their late 20’s or early 30’s take a role in leading the next generation. They know they can do this because they see people who look like them, from the same areas and same background becoming leaders in the UK music scene and so they know they can do it too.
Ruben wanted to share his knowledge and passion in these masterclasses because he understands his responsibility to give back to and support the next generation of young musicians coming through. If you would like to support them too, please consider giving to our #ShutdownSessions campaign on localgiving here so we can keep providing these sessions in the lockdown. Or maybe you could become a monthly supporter by joining our #BFF scheme here
If you want to know more about why you should join the Masterclass series; here is Ruben’s explanation:
“The Great American Songbook is a catalogue of beautiful songs out of the musical theatre tradition in the first half of the 20th century. They blossom as romantic classical music of the late 1800’s meets vaudeville and ragtime in the early 1900’s. They become the basis of popular song in Hollywood in the 30’s, 40’s & 50’s and provide a wealth of material that’s influence can be traced to 2020. Studying composers such as Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rogers, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern and Fats Waller‘s music helped me to understand how to create a melody with direction and structure. They helped me to understand functional harmonic movement and helped me to enjoy good lyrics. An exploration of these songs will help you to connect the dots and inspire your creations to no end!”
TSS: The Great American Songbook: The development of popular song in the 20th century –
We will learn to sing the songs and listen to some versions. I will talk about the structure, harmonies, melodies and context of the songs. It will be great for anyone interested in composition, musical theatre, jazz, music theory, harmony, singing and keyboard skills.
- I Got Rhythm – George Gershwin
- Everytime we say Goodbye – Cole Porter
- All the things you are – Jerome Kern
- Georgia on my Mind – Hoagy Carmichael
- My Favourite Things – Rogers and Hammerstein
Starting Wednesday 13th May 4.30-6pm. Email tamzyn@kinetikabloco.co.uk for log in details
