Rhythm Masterclass with Jamiroquai

Jamiroquai have always walked their own path, keeping the funk sound staunchly in the mainstream of British music. As we know funk is all about the rhythm section and Jamiroquai have one of the tightest in the business.

Following on from the huge success of the ‘Day of Vocals’ last term with the Jamiroquai band, Paul, Derrick and Rob were back at BIMM to get stuck in to some teaching! They very graciously accepted our gauntlet not only to give feedback to our BA3 Ensemble Performance students, but to get stuck into some playing, helping to develop the drum, bass and guitar parts for the students’ original tracks. They finished off the sessions by treating us to a a funk groove jam, in a demonstration of how to ensure a great arrangement by listening to each other. They’ve been playing together for twelve years so you can imagine how tight that was!

The following day they were back in college to give tutorials, with six lucky students from each discipline getting one to one attention – actually not just lucky, these were the students with the highest attendance for the year, a righteous reward from their Head of Department for those who’ve demonstrated consistent studentship. One of the gems of advice offered by Paul, Derrick and Rob was ‘if you want to play fast you have to start by playing slow’ How true!

Thanks to Paul, Derrick and Rob for passing on their knowledge to our students and we can’t wait to see you all again.