MAESTRA BAILEY: A NATIONAL MUSICAL GEM

Photo: Beth Marles and SB at the 2004 World Guitar Congress, Baltimore

Her second record was “Reunion of Souls”. It was  a live, jazz guitar date, and a collaboration of sorts with guitarist Chris Bergson, bassist Ashley Turner, and drummer Sunny Jam, Sheryl explains. She adds: " I’ve always loved playing guitar duo and quartet, and all of us had been playing together at different points since we moved to the city, so it was really a celebration of all that creativity. I think it’s a different kind of jazz guitar recording, because it’s about the group interplay and compositions more than two guitarists trying to outdo each other. Chris and I are both unique and different, and I think our styles complement each other and search out the music, not just the chops. Frank Forte wrote a really accurate and beautiful review of the disc for JJG. " But the best of her recordings is the most recent one "BULL'S EYE", a jazz masterpiece, a musical virtuosity which enriches the world of contemporary American music. In addition to composing, performing and recording, Professor Bailey teaches at Berklee school of music. In 1992, she began teaching jazz at Townson University in Baltimore, Maryland. Then, Berklee snitched her. Her alliance with Garzone did help her get the job. At Berklee, Sheryl the "professor" commenced to develop her own curriculum. And that’s how “Chord Rules” evolved.  Sheryl could  identify herself with "the student’s academic head-space, but being a working/traveling artist, I try to cut through the non-practical swirl and get down to the fundamentals—what it’s REALLY like to play jazz professionally. We focus on the basics of the instrument and of jazz improvisation. " as she told the media.

Photo: Live from Down Under! Drummer, Andrew Dickeson, Sher and V in Sydney at the Side On Cafe after a gig.
 

From a little dreamer at the age of 13, to a band trumpeter in her high school band, and from recording artist to a jazz teacher at college, Sheryl Bailey had to walk an extra mile, maybe two, three or more. She had to put in print the vast knowledge, experience and virtuosity she developed in the form of training manuals. She had to write some books. The overwhelmingly productive guitar diva came to the rescue. She wrote a magnificent book "“The Chord Rules.” And Sheryl shed some light on the book, "The “Chord Rules” deals with navigating LI-V-I’s, drop—2 voicings, applications for the Jazz Melodic Minor Scale, and other assorted pet topics of mine. The underlying theme of everything is that playing jazz is about creating melodies from harmony. To be able to play changes means melodically interpreting arpeggios. That’s why Charlie Christian changed the jazz line; he created melodies from harmonic shapes. No one really played vertically before him. " This American genius lives and breath jazz.