Though jazz piano has had legions of practitioners, the number of first-class jazz singers is small, due to the difficulty of turning melody and lyrics into true improvisation.
Adapting her talents to the demand of her customers, Judi reshaped her class and incorporated jazz technique into easy-to-follow routines that focused more on getting students active and losing weight than on learning complex dance moves.
Those are among the challenges addressed by the second class of the three-year-old Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute, which connects composers working primarily in jazz with symphony orchestras to seek a deepened context for such collaboration.