Jamming an the East End

Musician Joseph Cunliffe, who grew up in Hampton Bays but now lives in Maryland, is relocating by stages back to the East End and bringing with him a summer music camp that he hopes will inspire students to get out and jam.

“I’ve been thinking about it for years,” Mr. Cunliffe said of starting the East End summer camp, Summer Jamm Session 2010. “I’ve always wanted to bring some of my experiences back to the Hamptons. I’m a Long Island boy.”

He remembers growing up playing at local clubs like The Woodshed in Bridgehampton, but said that many of his students don’t play outside of the classroom.

“Their musical world is created by listening to ear buds,” Mr. Cunliffe said. “They aren’t living the music.”

“What we try to do is open up that world.”

The camp will be taught in two week-long sessions at the Immaculate Conception Parish Center in Westhampton Beach.

Week one, from Monday, July 19, through Friday, July 23, is open to students in grades four through 12 and will focus on the standard concert band repertoire, with pieces ranging anywhere from classical music to themes from movies and television to rock.

The week will also include breathing exercises, scales and ensemble rehearsal techniques. “The first week is the way of true education,” Mr. Cunliffe said.

The second week will focus more on the lyrical notes of jazz and the riffs of rock and roll, which, coincidentally, were both born out of blues music.

Week two, from Monday, July 26, through Friday, July 30, is open to students in grades six through 12, and could have students playing anything in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s rock repertoire or tunes recorded by Miles Davis and Duke Ellington.

“Harmonically, rock music is born out of swing music,” Mr. Cunliffe said. “The jazz of the ’30s and ’40s, harmonically speaking there’s some similarities. The joining factor that brings it together is blues.”

Both the roots of rock and early jazz can be traced to the melodies of blues music.

The camp is open to students with one year of experience and all instruments are welcome.

Mr. Cunliffe is co-founder of the Landon Summer Music Camps, now in its 26th year, offered at the Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland. He has served as director of band programs at the National Cathedral School, Saint Albans School and Concordia Lutheran School and has toured internationally as a classical, jazz, rock, folk and world music artist.

Mr. Cunliffe plays all the woodwind instruments and the piano and also sings. In 1980, he created the two-person group Flutar with guitarist Giorgia Cavallaro. The group released its fourth CD, “Encantada,” in 2008. Flutar will perform on Sunday, July 18, at 7 p.m. at the Church of St. Rosalie on Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays as part of the Sundays at 7 concert series.

Ms. Cavallaro will also teach at the camp.

“The way that it’s going to be structured is to be able to teach several levels,” she said “We have intermediate and beginners in the same class, so my goal is to be able to teach them at the same time, but targeting their levels and sort of expanding on what they already know.”

Ms. Cavallaro wrote Flutar’s song “Journey’s Crossing,” which has been featured on National Public Radio and in a documentary for Brazilian television.

Since this is the first year of the East End camp, the instructors are open to reworking the agenda as the week progresses.

“It’s kind of spontaneous and that’s exciting in a way,” Ms. Cavallaro said. “We’re going to let the students lead us to kind of structure the camp.”

Mr. Cunliffe already has future plans for a few guest instructors: “Eventually I want to bring in jazz legends,” he said.

Summer Jamm Session 2010 will be held in the Immaculate Conception Parish Center at 580 Main Street in Westhampton Beach. Week one will be held Monday, July 19, through Friday, July 23. Week two will be held Monday, July 26, through Friday, July 30. No audition is required. Enrollment is $575 per week. Students can sign up for either week or sign up for both. For more information, call (877) 646-5266 or visit www.ijamms.com.