The Jazz Conception Company

 Interactive Jazz educational products have come a long way since the first Jamey Aebersold play-alongs. Do any of you remember putting pennies on top of the record player stylus to get the pitch lower? That shows how old I am. I have reviewed several different online and DVD products on this blog in the past and each year more high tech educational products are released. I have used Jim Snidero's play-along etudes and Walt Weiskopf's books with my students for years so I was excited to see that the two of them had collaborated on a multi-media product.

 The Jazz Conception Company has put together two series of video lessons that feature Snidero and Weiskopf that you can use with an iPad or a desktop. The first is a 10 lesson Jazz improvisation series (with 19 play-alongs) for all instruments and the second is an 8 lesson Jazz saxophone series (with 8 play-alongs). The production values are top notch and the price point is much lower than many other interactive products, with a year subscription for the improvisation lessons running $49.99 and the saxophone lessons at $39.95. That for about 4 hours of improvisation lessons and two and a half hours of saxophone lessons, plus all of the play-alongs.

 I was a hoping that the lessons were aimed at towards advanced players, but they are more for beginning and beg-intermediate level players. The play-alongs aren't as challenging as Snidero's play-along books and you won't get the advanced level material that you might see in Weiskopf's improv books. That said, the lessons are very good and the presentation is excellent for a beg-intermediate level player. I have done a lot of video and DVD production in my time and I can say that the production quality is fantastic. You really get a lot for your money compared to other multi-media products and the use of mobile technology is groundbreaking. It looks like the company is planning more lesson series in the future so I really look forward to seeing what direction these more advanced lessons will take, since both Snidero and Weiskopf have a track record of creating some of the best Jazz educational materials on the market.

The Jazz Conception Company