As always, the Victoria BC Ska Society is proud to present FREE and interactive musical workshops during Ska Fest at Long and McQuade Music Education Centre.

The workshops are a great opportunity for you musicians out there to meet some of the Festival's artists and hear them talk about their craft.

You just need to e-mail Colin McTaggart at Long & McQuade to sign up and confirm attendance in advance:
E-mail: [email protected]

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This workshop features the The Pietasters Horn Section: Alan Makranczy, Jeremy Roberts and Carlos Linares

Since the early 1960s with the birth of ska music in Jamaica horns have always been key instruments in what many people recognize as the definitive signature of the genre.

Traditionally ska bands have always had horns as a part of their arrangements even though the guitar took a greater role in many bands' sound in the second and third waves of ska. This is not the case when one looks at cousin genres rooted in ska, such as rocksteady and reggae, although these genres also use horns.

The Pietasters Horn Section will address the origins and influences of ska as a base going back to Cuban music, American jazz and mento. They will talk about contributing factors as to why horn sections were so predominant in the early wave of ska music and how the role of horns is still so important in identifying the ska genre today.