Angie Coyle

It’s been an insane week, but I’m finally on the other side! ✨ First of all, thanks so much to everyone who came out to my quartet’s show at Schwartz’s Point last night! We played three whole sets of all originals that I’ve written, and we had a great turnout of people who were really digging the music! Musically, it’s my favorite thing to play music that I’ve written, especially when people are resonating with that music ✨ Music can effect positive change on people and the world, and when I play my music it’s always my goal to encourage people to feel their emotions and open up their hearts - and I think we accomplished that last night ❤️ This week I also had the opportunity to teach for the CCM/CPS Summer Jazz Academy camp - which is the main reason why my week was so insane! And although I am exhausted from long days of combo rehearsals, sax masterclasses, and teaching jazz history and improv, it was a good week. It’s always so cool to see kids that are excited about jazz music and eager to learn. And to see their progression in just one week! Most of my combo didn’t even know what chord changes were when we started, and by the end of the week I had all of them soloing using the chord tones on a blues form and on Watermelon Man, and not getting lost in the form! (I refuse to be lazy and use the “just use the blues scale on the whole form” approach). I also had one student go from never having taken a solo in her life to volunteering to solo just about every time I asked! Even if these students don’t continue with this music, it’s so valuable to teach them that they can do hard/scary things and that it’s okay to take risks! So now that the super busy part of my summer is over, I’m really excited for some time to recharge, and also to dig into my own projects! I’m planning on a writing as much new music this summer as I can, so I’m excited to get started on that. Also, I do have one more show coming up in the near future! This Thursday 6/20 I will be playing alto sax with the Stephen Phillip Harvey Octet at the Liberty Exhibition Hall in Cincinnati, 8:30-10pm. Stephen is a fantastic saxophonist and composer/arranger - so definitely come check it out!