"Seeing Jazz" at Morpeth Secondary School, Tower Hamlets.
Set up by the Barbican Centre to explore new and exciting ways of working with textiles in response to the rhythm, colour and expression of jazz music.
Year 10 pupils from Morpeth Secondary School, Tower Hamlets, worked with Tony Minnion and Gina Southgate and a live jazz trio to produce over 40 metres of printed banners which was their response to "Seeing Jazz".
Inspired by Gina's jazz collages they used similar techniques to describe what they saw and heard. They then spent four session transferring their ideas onto fabric using screen printing, mono printing and painting directly onto the cloth.
Pupils' comments:
"The last few weeks I had really a great time. I like jazz music because it's the kind of music that you can relax to and it is very easy on your ears. But to hear jazz played live is something that I will always remember. Listening to CDs and listening to jazz live are something completely different. Live you can hear every tiny sound."
"Our art lesson last week was very good because we could express our own feelings on our drawings."
"I felt as if it was a chance of a lifetime and I thought to myself that I should enjoy it while I can. I wish that day could come back alive again. I want to do it over and over again."
"We didn't have to draw anything, we had to draw what we heard, so we had to concentrate on listening and drawing. It was a good lesson with the bands and paintings. I really enjoyed it - mostly when painting. It was great fun splashing paints around. Because we were drawing anything. What we heard was fun and good. I would like to do this again when the bands are here again. This wasn't just an ordinary lesson, it was FUN."
An Exhibition at the Barbican Center
The banners were hung in the foyer of the Barbican Centre for a performance given by the Morpeth School Brass Band to celebrate the Duke Ellington Centenary. The children had been working with the London based jazz composer Orphy Robertson and played various Duke Ellington compositions that they had worked on as well as original compositions that had been developed with the composer.
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