MARCH 2013 • $5.00
THE JAZZ EDUCATOR'S MAGAZINE
Dr. Willis Kirk
A Sacred Jazz Life Survey: Saxophones Focus Session:
Harmonic Analysis of “Moment’s Notice”
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DR. WILLIS KIRK
"I feel like this country has really let the arts down. ."
contents
MARCH 2013
LESSONS LEARNED: WHERE SHOULD JAZZ GO FROM HERE? 16 Frequent JAZZed contributor Lee Evans advocates for making jazz more “accessible” to the masses by returning to its melodically-based improvisational roots.
GUEST EDITORIAL: HISTORY – BLACK-JEWISH JAZZ FAMILY IN ACTION 18 Nat Hentoff examines the often little-known connections between traditional Jewish musical culture and the evolution of the jazz form in America.
DR. WILLIS KIRK: A SACRED JAZZ LIFE 30 Dr. Willis Kirk lived through some of the worst examples of segregation and discrimination in 20th Century America, but emerged as a highly regarded educator, performer, composer and advocate for jazz. We recently spoke with Dr. Kirk about his early years, his teaching approach, and his thoughts on the current state of jazz education in America.
SURVEY: SUMMER MUSIC CAMPS 38 REMEMBRANCE: BOB BROOKMEYER 41
Respected performer, composer, and educator Ken Schaphorst shares his thoughts of former colleague and friend Bob Brookmeyer’s profound influence on a generation of composers and performers whom he taught.
THE ART OF THE BIG BAND JAZZ CAMP 46 Jim Widner marks 25 years of Stan Kenton-Style Band Camp Programs.
SURVEY: SAXOPHONES 48 We reach out to over 500 readers to get the low-down on trends in the world of saxophone culture…
FOCUS SESSION: HARMONIC ANALYSIS 51 ™
Pianist, music teacher, and writer Scott Dailey closely examines John Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice.”
Q&A: MARIO GARCIA DURHAM 57 2 JAZZed March 2013
™
March 2013
Volume 8, Number 2 GROUP PUBLISHER Sidney L. Davis sdavis@symphonypublishing.com PUBLISHER Richard E. Kessel rkessel@symphonypublishing.com Editorial Staff EDITOR Christian Wissmuller cwissmuller@symphonypublishing.com
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ASSOCIATE EDITOR Eliahu Sussman esussman@symphonypublishing.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Matt Parish mparish@symphonypublishing.com Contributing Writers Chaim Burstein, Dennis Carver, Kevin Mitchell, Dick Weissman Art Staff PRODUCTION MANAGER Laurie Guptill lguptill@symphonypublishing.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Andrew P. Ross aross@symphonypublishing.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Laurie Chesna lchesna@symphonypublishing.com
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departments PUBLISHER’S LETTER 4 LETERS 6 NOTEWORTHY 8 SARA SERPA: WHAT’S ON YOUR PLAYLIST? 14 JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK SECTION 22 • 2013 JEN CONFERENCE RECAP • CONCERTS • CLINICS • EXHIBITS • JENERATIONS EVENTS
JAZZ FORUM 55 GEARCHECK 59 CD SHOWCASE 61 CLINICIANS CORNER 61
• SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS • KEYNOTE ADDRESS • LEJENDS GALA • PRESIDENT’S RECEPTION • JEN NEWS
CLASSIFIEDS 62 AD INDEX 63 BACKBEAT: DONALD BYRD 64
Cover photograph: Jaymes Ramirez. JAZZed™ is published six times annually by Symphony Publishing, LLC, 21 Highland Circle, Suite 1, Needham, MA 02494, (781) 453-9310. Publisher of Choral Director, School Band and Orchestra, Music Parents America, and Musical Merchandise Review. Subscription rates $30 one year; $60 two years. Rates outside U.S. available upon request. Single issues $5. Resource Guide $15. Standard postage paid at Boston, MA and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send address changes to JAZZed, 21 Highland Circle, Suite 1, Needham, MA 02494. The publishers of this magazine do not accept responsibility for statements made by their advertisers in business competition. No portion of this issue may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. © 2013 by Symphony Publishing, LLC. Printed in the U.S.A.
Advertising Staff ADVERTISING MANAGER Iris Fox ifox@symphonypublishing.com ADVERTISING SALES Matt King mking@symphonypublishing.com CLASSIFIED & DISPLAY Steven Hemingway shemingway@symphonypublishing.com Business Staff CIRCULATION MANAGER Melanie A. Prescott mprescott@symphonypublishing.com Symphony Publishing, LLC CHAIRMAN Xen Zapis PRESIDENT Lee Zapis lzapis@symphonypublishing.com CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Rich Bongorno rbongorno@symphonypublishing.com Corporate Headquarters 26202 Detroit Road, Suite 300 Westlake, Ohio 44145 (440) 871-1300 www.symphonypublishing.com Publishing, Sales, & Editorial Office 21 Highland Circle, Suite 1 Needham, MA 02494 (781) 453-9310 FAX (781) 453-9389 1-800-964-5150 www.jazzedmagazine.com
Member 2013
RPMDA JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK
JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK
JAZZed March 2013 3
publisher’s letter
RICK KESSEL
Roots of Jazz
I
had the honor of attending the annual meeting of forward with his life and give back to the greater the AAJC (African American Jazz Caucus) at the re- community of jazz and education, regardless of the cent JEN Conference in Atlanta this past January. color of people’s faces. He performed extensively During that meeting, I was privileged to meet Dr. throughout his career, taught many levels of school, Willis Kirk, albeit briefly, and that was the catalyst wrote books, became a college president, and even wrote an uplifting jazz oratorio called “Rejoice! Refor this month’s cover story. Dr. Kirk recounted some of the terrible struggles joice!” There are few who have accomplished so with racism that he and his fellow musicians had to much, which is why Willis was presented with the endure during his early career while traveling the Second Annual Meade Legacy Jazz Griot Award in 2013. crossroads of America. The stories Our country has come a long he told were vivid, violent, and sad “Jazz has been emway with race relations, notably and there was not a dry eye in the braced by many people exemplified by the ascent of Presiaudience. The offenses that were dent Barack Obama. However, thrust upon these human beings around the world now, the USA still has a long way to are nearly beyond comprehension but it is vitally important go towards becoming tolerant to by those living in today’s (mostly) that we remember and people of all different ethnic, remore tolerant society. However, ligious, and personal backgrounds. it is essential that the enormous honor its roots.” Jazz has been embraced by many strife and challenges that were people around the world now, but encountered by African American jazz musicians in the 20th century who gave us this it is vitally important that we remember and honor gift of jazz be recounted, lest we forget and allow its roots regardless of how much it has evolved, expanded and changed over the years. It’s also essenhistory to repeat itself. So many students today train and learn this won- tial to understand the enormous distress that was derful language of jazz in schools and institutions encountered by musicians who were simply trying where they, thank goodness, feel safe and are able to ply their craft and open people’s minds to jazz to learn without constraints. However, when asked, music. Where would we be today without people like many of them are simply unaware of the historic challenges the previous generations of musicians Dr. Kirk who helped break down barriers that alencountered – they are often only exposed to the low us now to indulge in this fabulous music we call magnificence of the music. Despite the enormous jazz? We thank Dr. Kirk for all that he has done and difficulties that he faced, Dr. Kirk was able to move hope you enjoy reading his story…
rkessel@symphonypublishing.com
4 JAZZed March 2013
Tony Dagradi
Mike Vax
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• Clinic Performances On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday • Public Performances In The French Quarter On Friday, Saturday and Sunday • Attend a Special Performance at Preservation Hall • Awards For Outstanding Soloists • Souvenir T-Shirts and Director’s Gift • Professionally Mastered CD of Clinic Performance • Jazz Ed Network Founding Member
Three and Four Night Packages Available Starting at $469 per person - Quad Occupancy Special Reduced Air Rates Available
One Free Director’s Ground Package for Each Twenty-five (25) Paid Participants Audition Recording Required for Acceptance
For More Information Contact American Classic Tours & Music Festivals
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4243 E. Piedras Dr., Suite 155 • San Antonio, TX 78228
Prefer an International Jazz Festival? Check out our Puerto Vallarta Jazz Festival -
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letters
June 30–July 12, 2013
Summer Jazz Studies Harold danko, Jeff Campbell, direCtors
For highly motivated students currently in grades 9–12 Enhance your improvisational and ensemble skills: • Instrumental master classes • Jazz Combos • Large Jazz Ensembles • Jazz Forum • Jazz Composition tuition: $1,175/$2,015 with housing and meals faCulty:
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John Nyerges Piano Jeff Campbell Bass Rich Thompson Drums Howard Potter Vibes Dave Rivello Composition
New this year! July 14–26, 2013
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www.esm.rochester.edu/summer 6 JAZZed March 2013 130216_ESM_Jazz_Ed.indd 1
2/12/13 4:16 PM
I am writing to express my extreme wages that does not guarantee that a cerdissatisfaction with Mr. Hentoff’s artain percentage of the proceeds will then ticle on “Justice for Jazz Artists” which be deposited in to their own pension plan was published in the January edition of or an independent retirement account. JAZZed magazine. Furthermore, until musicians accept their In 1986, Blues Alley Jazz was appayment in the form of a check or wire proached by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie transfer instead of cash, then there will be and he encouraged us to produce nonno performance parity between the venprofit jazz educational programming for ue, the artist, and the union. children. Since then, Blues Alley Jazz Mr. Hentoff is not promoting the artist, has been a pioneer in producing a sumbut rather he is promoting union memmer jazz camp, youth orchestra, and an bership by attacking the jazz club ownannual festival for chiler. His Guest Editorial dren on the National seems to me to simply “I would like to ask Mr. Mall. Mr. Hentoff apbe a smoke screen to inHentoff: If he pressures crease union memberpeals to venue owners to become “re-educated ship amongst a certain small nightclub ownin jazz community relanumber of disenfraners to assume a union tions” and yet no other chised jazz musicians. club in America contin- responsibility, and those If a club owner makes ues to promote youth, pension payments, owners go out of busijazz, and education as those payments equate ness as a result, then I do at Blues Alley. Mr. to increased union reveHentoff chooses to paint nues and also increased where are those jazz a most disparaging picincome for union emmusicians to play?” ture that really does not ployees. He also lumps exist in our industry. He the entertainment tax has written so many erroneous remarks abatement into the mix as a panacea for that I do not know where to begin, but I the union pension problems. The truth of do know that I can no longer sit idly by. the matter is that the unions failed to take I believe that Nat Hentoff’s opinions a dignified business approach or to prodo not really reflect our industry and, furduce a memorandum of understanding. thermore: “one size does not fit all.” No This transgression is somehow the fault of two American cities share the exact same the club owners? Besides, sidemen are the cultural similarities. Small venues are employees of the headlining artists and simply low hanging fruit for the unions, not the nightclub owner. but if our venues were so profitable there I would like to ask Mr. Hentoff: If he would be a jazz club on every corner in pressures small nightclub owners to asthis country. He chooses not to pursue the sume a union responsibility, and those major American cultural institutions and owners go out of business as a result, then yet the internationally renowned jazz artwhere are those jazz musicians to play? ists that I know are not union members, I have been a proud member of the nor would they accept scale wages. Only International Association for Jazz Educalocal musicians maintain union membertion and its successor, the Jazz Education ships and they are the backbone of their Network. I assume that Mr. Hentoff chose local chapters. to publish his article in this publication Over the past decade I have similarly because he further understood that no pioneered a partnership with our local small nightclub owner would read it, but American Federation of Musicians chapI did and I am deeply offended. ter 161-710. I created the “DCFM Jazz Respectfully yours, Series” and agreed to pay its members performing at Blues Alley scale wages, Harry Schnipper health and pension payments. UnforBlues Alley Jazz Society tunately, even if I pay musicians union Washington, DC
Third c Edu ation
twork Fo Ne
FEBRUARY 14-17
z
“We had a wonderful time...great music, great food, great culture. We will definitely be back!”
g Me mb din un
Dan Gregerman, Director, Take One Vocal Jazz Group Niles North High School, Skokie, IL
2014
er
“This festival, was great! My students truly enjoyed collaborating with other artists. Can’t wait to do it again!”
Ja z
Randy Morris Crescent Jazz Institute, Orem, UT
“Our kids had the time of their lives” Phil Moore, Director, Southern Nazarene University Jazz Band
An International Jazz Festival Without The International Costs
Friday, February 14 – Monday, February 17, 2014 Mary Jo Papich, Artistic Director Caleb Chapman, Festival Director
(Presidents’ Day Holiday Weekend)
• High School and College/University Jazz Ensembles • Both Vocal and Instrumental Jazz Ensembles • Top Jazz Professionals as Adjudicators & Clinicians • Quality Hotels Overlooking The Beach • Buffet Breakfast Each Day at the Hotel • Whale Watching Cruise with Breakfast and Snacks • Mexican Fiesta Dinner, Awards Ceremony with Live Music • Trophies and Medals for Outstanding Soloists • Souvenir Logo T-shirt & Director’s Gift • Free Director’s Ground Package with 20 Paid Participants • Jazz Ed Network Founding Member
Three, Four, or Five-Night Packages Available (Quad Occupancy)
Starting at $649.00 per person
For More Information Contact: American Classic Tours & Music Festivals 4243 E. Piedras Dr. #155 San Antonio, TX 78228
1(800)733-8384 www.amclass.com
(Competition plus one other performance) SPECIAL REDUCED AIR RATES AVAILABLE
Selected ensembles perform with jazz professionals as soloists, such as Ruben Alvarez - Latin Percussion Artist from Chicago, at the Los Arcos Amphitheater overlooking the beach.
Crescent City Jazz Festival
Can’t Travel Internationally? See Our Website for the Crescent City Jazz Festival in New Orleans - March 6-9, 2014! New Orleans
Presented by American Classic Music Festiva
March 11-14, 2011
noteworthy
Haden Receives Lifetime Achievement Award at Grammys
A
Among the many honors passed out during the 55th Annual Grammy Awards this year was a very special one for the jazz community – 75-year-old bass pioneer Charlie Haden was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award. Haden is well known for his work with Ornette Coleman, but also spent much of his career with such luminaries as Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, Alice Coltrane, Joe Henderson, and Michael Brecker.
Upon accepting the award, Haden explained that he’s been unable to play
Berklee City Music Honors Playwright Will Power Award-winning playwright and performer Will Power was recently honored by the Berklee College of Music as the school’s City Music “Unsung Hero.” The honor came in Boston at the organization’s annual Unsung Heroes breakfast, which recognizes those who have made significant contributions to the local community as educators, artists, and through activism. This year’s “Empowerment Through Art” theme was featured in a discussion about the impact of arts and education as an agent of change, how the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement influences today’s socioeconomic environment, and how Power became civically involved in his community. The forum-style event also included an open question time for guests and a performance from the Berklee Power receives the award from Berklee City Music City Music All Stars. Perdirector J. Curtis Warner (L) and Hebert Labbate (R) formances also included an appearance from poet Abria Smith, the Josue Raymond Ensemble, and student groups from the school’s mentoring program and prep academy. www.berkleecitymusicnetwork.com
8 JAZZed March 2013
since 2010 due to struggles with postpolio syndrome and recovery from a recent surgery. “I believe that music can lead us to think about the deeper things in life,” he said. “To find the beauty in this magnificent universe we are fortunate to inhabit and help us through the difficult path of life. If through my music I’ve been able to bring beauty and peace to my fellow human beings, I feel truly blessed.” www.charliehadenmusic.com
Brubeck Festival Presents “A Tribute To His Legacy” in March University of the Pacific’s Brubeck Institute will present the Twelfth Annual Brubeck Festival, titled Dave Brubeck Across Time, which honors the piano and composing legend’s legacy as a jazz
noteworthy giant with Stockton, California roots. The 2013 Festival is a broad-based tribute to his legacy that covers the spectrum of jazz in its fullest expression: live concert performances ranging from jazz legends to local bands (in civic concert halls and college campuses as well as jazz clubs), a documentary film about jazz history, jazz education talks/symposia, the spiritually inspired works of Dave Brubeck, and street/communitybased jazz events, from Monday, March 18, through Saturday, March 23. Besides three major concerts – by trumpeter Tom Harrell’s quintet at San Joaquin Delta College on Thursday, March 21; by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, under the direction of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, at the Bob Hope Theatre on Friday, March 22; and by the Brubeck Brothers Quartet at the University’s Faye Spanos Concert Hall on Saturday, March 23 – the Festival will feature nightly performances at the Take 5 Jazz Club; talks by Marsalis, jazz composer and historian Gunther Schuller, and his son George Schuller; and a screening of the rarely seen film Music Inn. Pre-festival activities have included outreach to over 7,500 Stockton schoolchildren in the form of concerts and competitions. www.pacific.edu
(Wash.), Sun Prairie High School (Wis.), Tucson Jazz Institute (Ariz.). These schools were among nearly 100 high school jazz bands across the country that entered the competition. Each school submitted recordings of three tunes performed from charts from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington library. The 15 bands will compete for top honors and participate in workshops, jam sessions, and more during the three-day EE competition and festival in New York City. The first half of the final concert on May 12 will feature the three top-placing bands performing with a member of the world renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) as guest soloist. The second half will feature the JLCO - whose members serve as mentors for the finalist bands throughout the weekend - performing a repertoire of tunes made famous by Duke Ellington. The festival concludes with an awards ceremony honoring outstanding soloists, sections and the three topplacing bands. www.jalc.org
New NAMM Foundation “Just Play” Campaign Unveiled At the close of what many are calling the most successful NAMM Show yet, the National Association of Music Merchants’ NAMM Foundation unveiled its new public service announcement campaign, “Just Play.” The spot will air this spring in a multi-media, national campaign that will include ads for television, radio, billboards, bus shelters, airports, malls and anywhere one can hear, think about or play music.
Essentially Ellington Finalists Announced; Festival Coming in May Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 15 finalist bands will compete in the organization’s 18th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival (EE) at Frederick P. Rose Hall. The following finalists will be competing: American Music Program (Ore.), Badger High School (Wis.), Beloit Memorial High School (Wis.), Community Arts Program (Fla.), Dillard Center for the Arts (Fla.), Edmonds-Woodway High School (Wash.), Foxboro High School (Mass.), Garfield High School (Wash.), Jazz House Kids (N.J.), Lexington High School (Mass.), New World School of the Arts (Fla.), Rio Americano High School (Calif.), Roosevelt High School
“I believe that there are two kinds of people in the world, those who play music and those who wish they did,” said Joe Lamond, president and CEO, NAMM. “This PSA is designed for the latter.” A Gallup Poll revealed that 85 percent of Americans who do not play a musical instrument wish that they did. The television spot for the campaign, “Twinkle” opens with a child’s one-fingered version of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” and builds as people of all ages join together, layering on different interpretations of the classic. Showcasing the accessibility of and ease with which one can learn to play music, the spot ends with a compelling imperative to just play. www.nammfoundation.org
JAZZed March 2013 9
noteworthy Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards Announced ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams recently announced the recipients of the 2013 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards. Established by The ASCAP Foundation in 2002 to encourage gifted jazz composers under the age of 30, the program now carries the name of the great trumpeter and ASCAP member Herb Alpert in recognition of The Herb Alpert Foundation’s multi– year financial commitment to support this unique program. Recipients receive
cash awards and range in age from 10 to 30. They’re selected through a juried national competition. The 2013 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award recipients are listed with their age and current residence: Nii Akwei Adoteye, age 26 of South Miami, FL; Quentin Angus, age 25 of New York, NY; Elliot Deutsch, age 29 of Pasadena, CA; Angelo Di Loreto, age 22 of New York, NY; Shaul Einav, age 30 of Queens, New York; Nick Finzer,
age 24 of New York, NY; Addison Frei, age 21 of Denton, TX; Alexander Goodman, age 25 of New York, NY; Aaron Hedenstrom, age 24 of Denton, TX; George Heid III, age 22 of Pittsburgh, PA; Kristopher Johson, age 29 of Ferndale, MI; Daniel Kaneyuki, age 25 of Fountain Valley, CA; Grace Kelly, age 20 of Dover, MA; Paul Krueger, age 25 of Sioux Falls, SD; Pascal Le Boeuf, age 26 of New York, NY; Guy Mintus, age 21 of New York, NY; Aakash
Letter from Willard Jenkins on the JEN Mentor Program Greetings Band Directors, As you may know, in January 2012 the Jazz Education Network launched a Mentor Program unique to the jazz field. This program, which is designed to provide one-on-one consultation between an experienced professional and a jazz student in the student’s desired field of pursuit, was developed as a means of giving students expert advice beyond the classroom from those who have years of practical experience in the field. JEN has assembled a brilliant team of experienced professionals who have made themselves available for consultations in the areas of performance, education, music publishing, studio tech, composition, journalism, music production, conference production, and concert/ festivals presenting. Our consultants have made themselves available to act as advisers, sounding boards, and Mentors for applicable students interested in those areas of professional pursuit. Our JEN Mentors are available to work in concert with your students and your program to assist those students who have shown an aptitude and interest in professional music industry development. The JEN Mentor Program has an open-ended application process which is available at the JEN website (www.jazzednet.org) by going to our Advancing Education icon on the site. We ask that you encourage your students who have shown a proclivity towards serious professional pursuit in the music industry to apply to this free program; their experience working with a JEN Mentor will prove quite successful in providing them with practical advice from first class professionals in the music industry. High School jazz educators are also encouraged to visit our site for our unique, discreet high school component. Thank you for your consideration and student referrals to the JEN Mentor Program. Peace, Willard Jenkins JEN Mentor Program
10 JAZZed March 2013
Mittal, age 27 of Boulder, CO; Robert Perez, age 19 of Chino Hills, CA; Dan Pugach, age 29 of Brooklyn, NY; ArcoIris Sandoval, age 25 of New York, NY; Kavita Shah, age 27 of New York, NY; Camille Thurman, age 26 of New York, NY; Drew Zaremba, age 21 of Southlake, TX; and Zac Zinger, age 24 of Brooklyn, NY. The youngest ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composers, ages 10 to 18 are: Paul Bloom, age 18; Esteban Castro, age 10; Marc Harris, age 17; Albert Newberry, age 13; Adam O’Farrill, age 18; and Tissiana Vallecillo, age 11. Composers receiving Honorable Mention are: Glenda del Monte Escalante, age 29 of Miami, FL; Andrew Linn, age 24 of New York, NY; Curtis Ostle, age 28 of New York, NY; Jonathan Parker, age 26 of Rochester, NY; Andrew Rowan, age 26 of Valencia, CA; and Nathan Parker Smith, age 29 of Brooklyn, NY. The ASCAP composer/judges for the 2013 competition were: Anat Cohen, Wycliffe Gordon and Jay Leonhart. Additional funding for this program is provided by The ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fund. www.ascap.com
At North Central College, being well-rounded doesn’t mean losing your musical edge. When we say music is central at North Central College, it means we expect you to build a full and complete life around your music studies. Students choose from majors in music, music education, musical theatre or jazz studies—but they also dance, act, explore, study abroad, volunteer, mentor, pole vault and pursue countless other passions. Jazz Faculty
Joel Adams - Trombone Janice Borla - Voice Jim Cox - Bass Art Davis - Trumpet John McLean - Guitar Jack Mouse - Drum/Program Coordinator Mitch Paliga - Saxophone Brad Stirtz - Vibraphone Chris White - Piano
Our location, in downtown Naperville, is only 30 minutes by train from Chicago and makes it easy to enjoy, perform and do great works. Call 630-637-5800 to discover more about our programs in music. Or visit us online at northcentralcollege.edu.
northcentralcollege.edu
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Friday, April 19 (for high school juniors)
• Chamber String Ensemble • Big Band • Vocal Jazz Ensemble • Jazz Combos • Chamber Jazz • Percussion, Guitar, Flute, Woodwind, Saxophone and Harp Ensembles
30 N. Brainard Street
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Naperville, IL
Saturday, March 2 Music, Music Education, Theatre, Jazz, Art, Interactive Media Studies
Freshman Visit Day:
Performing Opportunities at North Central College • Concert Choir • Women’s Chorale • Cardinal Chorus • Chamber Singers • Opera Workshop • Naperville Chorus • Gospel Choir • Concert Winds • Pep Band
Scholarship Audition Day:
Transfer Visit Day: Saturday, April 20
To schedule an individual campus visit call 630-637-5800 or visit northcentralcollege.edu/admission/ campus-tour
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630-637-5800
noteworthy
Juilliard
JAZZ
Say What? Do not fear mistakes, there are none. – Miles Davis
MIT Jazz Program Marks 50th with Chick Corea Premiere
Jazz camps for students who are dedicated, disciplined, and passionate about jazz. Oxbridge Academy of the Palm Beaches Two sessions: June 10 –14 • June 17– 21 West Palm Beach, FL
North Atlanta High School Center for the Arts June 17– 21 Atlanta, GA
University of South Carolina-Aiken Campus June 10 –14 Aiken, South Carolina
Juilliard Winter Jazz Workshop, Australia June 29 – July 6 Trinity College • Melbourne, Australia
Valley Christian Schools July 8 –12 San Jose, CA
Snow College July 14 – 20 Ephraim, UT
This year, MIT Music and Theater Arts is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its jazz program. Over the years, the MIT jazz groups included the MIT Dance Orchestra, the MIT Techtonians, and the MIT Jazz Society. On campus performances were presented by MIT student ensembles as well as by professional artists such as Stan Getz and John Coltrane. Under the leadership of Herb Pomeroy, the jazz program at MIT flourished. The Festival Jazz Ensemble (as it was renamed) rose to national prominence with its participation at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and in the Notre Dame and Villanova Jazz Festivals. Chick Corea, NEA Jazz Master and recipient of 18 Grammy awards, is composing a work for the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (Frederick Harris, Jr., director). The commissioned piece, which was funded by the Council for the Arts at MIT, will be premiered on April 27th at Kresge Auditorium, (84 Mass. Ave., Cambridge) in a Gala Concert that will also feature Steve Kuhn. web.mit.edu/fje
Juilliard Jazz Workshop, Japan
July 30 – August 3 Senzoku Gakuen College of Music • Kanagawa, Japan Application dates vary, information at juilliard.edu/summerjazz
12 JAZZed March 2013
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THE
CHOICE OF
LEGENDS. Š2013 Avedis Zildjian Company
Roy Haynes & Terri Lyne Carrington
zildjian.com
What’s on Your Playlist? Vocalist/bandleader/composer Sara Serpa is one of the premier vocalists working today. She has earned wide acclaim for her captivating voice, unadorned vibrato-less delivery, and ability to sing complex vocalese lines on equal footing with instrumentalists. The 33-year-old Serpa first came to the US to study at Berklee and later New England Conservatory. Upon moving to NYC, she gained the attention of many top musicians including saxophonist Greg Osby who asked her to join his band and featured her on his album, 9 Levels. She’s also featured on Danilo Perez’ Grammy nominated Providencia. Serpa has released four discs as a leader: Praia, Mobile and Camera Obscura, the first of two startlingly original duo CDs with iconic pianist/composer Ran Blake. Her 2012 duo CD with Blake, Aurora, has earned praise for its completely new take on the Great American Songbook. 1. “Moreira” – Guillermo Klein y Los Guachos The Argentinean Guillermo Klein
is one of my favorite contemporary composers, and I’ve had the privilege to hear his band Los Guachos several
2013
mpulse summer performing arts institutes for high school students
Jazz Institute
July 14-27, 2013 U-M Faculty Director Andrew Bishop
shine
where excellence comes to
14 JAZZed March 2013
music.umich.edu/mpulse mpulse@umich.edu 866-936-2660
times at the Village Vanguard. All the musicians in his band are amazing and together they create magical moments. After their gigs, I always go home in a state of awe. I love this song; it’s really great to hear Guillermo singing.
2. “Balderrama” – Mercedes Sosa I was in Argentina recently and bought Hasta la Victoria. Mercedes Sosa was an incredible singer. Her sound is clear, tone, timbre is clean and fluid. It sounds so simple, yet so deep and direct. This song is beautiful, and it’s always for inspiring to realize the power of a voice accompanied by a guitar.
3. Sarah Vaughan Sarah Vaughan was one of the first singers I started listening when I entered the jazz world. As Ran Blake says, she is one of the great American voices. It’s hard to explain why I love her so much, there’s so much freshness, swing, and expression. There’s Sara Serpa’s most recent album with pianist Ran Blake, Aurora (Clean Feed), was released in late November of 2012. www.saraserpa.com
gospel, there are emotions, there’s a full commitment to each song. I feel like I can see her mouth and facial expressions when I hear her singing.
4. “Adam’s Lament” – Arvo Part The Estonian composer is also one of my favorites. This composition is on the most recent albums released by ECM. I love his choral work, and on this piece the choir is really powerful. This piece is so dense and extremely emotional. I feel like it is a universal lament for the world’s sorrows.
5. “I Did Crimes for You” – Deerhoof vs. Evil I had the opportunity to catch Deerhoof live in September at the Williamsburg Hall. It was such an amazing concert. I loved their stage presence (they do rock and mostly have so much fun on stage), musicality, creativity, their band sound, and spirit. This song, for some reason, reminds me of good summer times.
6. “Ugly Beauty” – Thelonious Monk
1945-1960, when music was a way of rebelling against the Portuguese colonialists/government. This song is almost like a national hymn; everybody knows and sings it.
9. “No More” – Billie Holiday This is an interesting song by Billie Holiday. When I started listening to jazz I didn’t understand her sound – today she’s one of my favorites. Her phrasing and her delivery of the melody are always so creative and expressive. What once seemed to be an imperfect sound is now, for me, one of the most powerful voices. There’s fragility and vulnerability, but that makes her even more powerful.
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It’s always a pleasure and a moment of discovery to hear Monk, solo or with a band. It comforts my soul to hear him playing this melody and to hear how he comps for it.
7. “Clouds” – Steve Coleman and the Five Elements I love this piece. The combination of voice (the amazing Jen Shyu, one of my favorite vocalists, for her unique sound and ability to interact so naturally within the ensemble), trombone, trumpet, alto sax, bass, and guitar, is perfect. I love their interplay – so fluid and so intricate. I also love the straight sound of the band, without any extra productions.It’s almost like they are in the same room and I am. I always end up listening to this song when I’m on a plane.
8. “Muxima” – N’gola Ritmo I have been researching Angolan music, as my parents were born there, and I want to know what kind of music people were playing and listening back then in 1950. It’s said that the golden period of Angolan music was between
JAZZed January 2013 15
lessons learned
E V O LU T I O N A N D P R E S E R VAT I O N
Where Should Jazz Go from Here? BY LEE EVANS
I
n a previous article written for JAZZed [January 2013], I brought up the glaring fact that in the last few decades there has been a pronounced diminishment in the general public’s interest in jazz, especially when compared to jazz’s enormous popularity during the big-band swing era. That decline may possibly have been due in part to jazz’s increasing abstraction, which at the very least resulted in making the music much harder, if not almost impossible, to dance to. This abstraction began almost overnight, when bebop burst onto the scene in the 1940s, and intensified with the free-jazz movement that started in the 1950s.
Additionally, many avid jazz fans perceived the jazz idiom to have been diluted and distorted by the influence of rock music, a musical genre that many jazz purists consider to be essentially incompatible with jazz, notwithstanding the many examples of jazz-rock fusion that have permeated the airwaves since its inception. In an article in the New York Times on October 15, 1995, jazz critic Peter Watrous said: “[Jazz-pop] fusion... was a mule idiom, a bastardization of jazz and pop. It was a marriage of funk and black music in [Miles] Davis’s hands, and rock and world music in those of others... Fusion was meant to be the great black and white hope, and it enabled its practitioners to make money... Like any mule idiom, [jazz fusion] was barren.” In the same article, Watrous also stated: “Jazz audiences had been growing whiter in an era of intense racial divisions. The vanguard of jazz had abandoned dance-based rhythms and, in doing so, had alienated fans. Early fusion, in its commercialism, was a way to regain jazz’s lost audience, particularly black listeners who had drifted away.”
On June 9, 2006, another jazz critic, Nate Chinen, wrote the following in the New York Times: “Fusion has long been an ugly stepchild in jazz circles; it appears in most histories as the byproduct of compromise and contamination. That critique has serious flaws, starting with the premise that jazz possessed a fundamental purity in the first place. But it’s largely true that fusion, born in the late 1960’s as an intrepid hybrid of jazz, rock and soul, produced a glut of music that was bombastic or bathetic, and sometimes both at once.” Melodic and Tonal Roots
At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, I will confidently state that in order for jazz to regain its popularity, and flourish, instead of merely surviving as a specialty interest for a select few – the same fate that has befallen classical music – its practitioners should consider making the idiom more accessible to the general public. By that I mean that jazz professionals might think about returning jazz to its earlier roots – specifically to its melodic and tonal roots.
“JAZZ PROFESSIONALS MIGHT THINK ABOUT RETURNING JAZZ TO ITS EARLIER ROOTS.”
16 JAZZed March 2013
lessons learned The world of classical music suffered similar public alienation and a gradual but steady decrease in audience interest with the advent of 12-tone, or dodecaphonic, music starting in the 1920s. Composer Arnold Schoenberg’s novel, original, and fascinating approach to atonal musical composition became so influential among composers from that time on, that anyone not composing in this newer manner was deemed to be inconsequential and out of the loop. That viewpoint was especially prevalent among composers who worked as faculty in the hallowed world of higher education. To them, the music of any composer writing tonally rather than atonally was shunned as being anachronistic and therefore without merit. Sergei Rachmaninoff is an example of an incredibly gifted neo-Romantic composer whose gorgeous and appealing music after the turn of the last century was denigrated and judged to be inferior in quality because it was not a product of the then current musical thinking. One of his most well known detractors, in fact, was the famous American modernist composer Aaron Copland. Ironically, however, Rachmaninoff’s music is today performed far more frequently than the music of just about all of the 20th century’s modernist composers, including much of Copland’s. I believe that there may be a valuable message here for today’s jazz musicians! Melodically Based Jazz Improvisation
When jazz first began its long journey forward, improvisations were to a great extent melodically based. That is, they consisted mainly of melodic embellishments, with constant references being made to the underlying melody. In this way, audiences could follow the tune and easily discern the relationship between the improvisations and the songs upon which they were based. However, not long afterwards, starting with Louis Armstrong, jazz improvisations became more chord-based,
and less frequent melodic references were being made. Many listeners then began to find it increasingly challenging to relate the improvisations to the underlying song. Moreover, during the bebop era, many of the songs themselves sounded more like improvisations than like memorable and hummable tunes, thus moving the public even further away from being able to comprehend and appreciate the idiom. I personally love and am intrigued by the sounds of a good deal of contemporary jazz and by the technical expertise demonstrated by those who play it effectively. But I’m not representative of the general public, most of whom have not had more than a sprinkling of music lessons, if any. It is probably not going to be people like me, with my extensive formal musical training and exposure to a wide range of musical genres and experiences, who will allow jazz to thrive in the long run, but it will likely rather be the average musically untrained Jane or Joe Blow whose listening skills may be far less developed or sophisticated, but who might possibly be more receptive to jazz if it were less abstract than it has become. That being the case, it would seem to me that if jazz were to return to its lower temperature, melodically-based improvisational roots, it would stand a better chance of winning over the general public once again. The music of the Cool Jazz era, which followed on the heels of the bebop era, did just that, and as a result certain jazz musicians and groups such as Miles Davis, George Shearing, Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz and The Modern Jazz Quartet flourished, sold tons of recordings, and played to packed houses.
upon the music’s aesthetic merit and inventiveness, and would probably succeed commercially to a greater extent than the anemic condition that jazz is in these days, a condition of relatively narrow and limited audience appeal.
Lee Evans, Ed.D., is a professor of music at NYC’s Pace University. In addition to his many Hal Leonard publications, his solo-piano books for The FJH Music Company include the late beginner/early intermediate levels Color Me Jazz, Books 1 and 2; plus the intermediate level Ole! Original Latin-American Dance Music and Fiesta! Original Latin-American Piano Solos. Also, Dr. Evans is a co-author, along with four other writers include Dr. James Lyke, of Keyboard Fundamentals, 6th Edition (Stipes Publishing), a formerly twovolume but now one-volume beginning level piano method for adult beginners of junior high school age and older.
End Note
The title of this article asks: Where should jazz go from here? To summarize, I’m suggesting a return to more singable and accessible melodies and to more melodically based improvisations. This approach will surely not compromise or have an adverse impact JAZZed March 2013 17
guest editorial
History: Black-Jewish Jazz Family in Action BY NAT HENTOFF
G
rowing up during the so-called “Great Depression” in Boston – then the most antiSemitic city in the country – I felt such an outsider that, for one example, I’d look in the window of a Brooks Brothers clothing store, but would never enter. It was so far outside the Jewish ghetto, I figured they didn’t want a Jew as a customer.
But one night, on a jazz radio program, I suddenly heard the always exuberantly swinging Cab Calloway singing – in Yiddish! – “Ot azoy nyet a shnayder” (this is how the tailor stitches) with his big band rollicking behind him. Gee, I felt a welcome inside this music that had already been lifting my outsider’s spirits. There was more, like trumpeter Ziggy Elman, in the midst of a Benny Goodman concert, playing a jubilant “freilache,” just like one I’d seen people of all ages dancing to at a Jewish synagogue wedding near the corner of my street. After I’d moved to New York, reporting for DownBeat, Billie Holiday, whom I’d gotten to know well, astonished
me by singing, on a private recording in 1956 made in the home of another friend, clarinetist Tony Scott, as she turned “My Yiddish Momme” – in Yiddish! – into a blues. Both came back to me in an indispensable collection, Black Sabbath: The Secret Musical History of Black-Jewish Relations, produced and distributed by the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation (www.idelsohnsociety.com). On the first page of the booklet accompanying Black Sabbath, there is a quotation from Ray Charles whom I interviewed a number of times, but he never told me what he says here: “If somebody besides a Black ever sings the real gut bucket blues, it’ll be a Jew. We both know what it’s like to be someone else’s footstool.” He said that in 1976 at the Beverly Hills Lodge of B’nai Brith. What astonished and thrilled me most in Black Sabbath is Johnny Mathis whom I’d often enjoyed as an enchanting ballad singer, one of the most convincing romanticists in jazz. But here he is singing what I most looked forward to hearing as a child in the Orthodox synagogue at my neighborhood on Boston’s Blue Hill Avenue (classified by the anti-Semites as “Jew Hill Avenue”): “Kol Nidre,” climaxing the Jewish High Holidays in the Yom Kippur prayer service on the Day of Atonement. The cantors’ deeply soul challenging improvising that struck me as arguing with God eventually brought me, as I told my buddy Charles Mingus, to the blues. Dressed as a cantor, Mathis would have been a star of Blue Hill Avenue.
“DRESSED AS A CANTOR, MATHIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A STAR OF BLUE HILL AVENUE.” 18 JAZZed March 2013
guest editorial There are more treasures released by the Idelsohn Society, which describes itself, “as an all-volunteer-run organization. We are a core-team from the music industry and academia who passionately believe Jewish history is best told by the music we have loved and lost. In order to incite a new conversation about the present, we must begin to listen anew to the past.” They not only release evocative longneglected Jewish performances, but also, “curate museum exhibits that showcase the stories behind the music and create concert showcases which bring our 80 and 90 year-old performers back on stage to be re-appreciated by the young audiences they deserve.” For more information on the Idelsohn Society, I’d suggest you contact Roger Bennett, its co-founder, at 845 Third Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10022 or call (646) 731-2309. In my experience as a chronicler of jazz musicians, the most unexpected discovery of the black-Jewish family relationships concerned Willie “The Lion” Smith, the master of Harlem Stride Piano, whom Duke Ellington considered his main mentor. When I first came to New York in 1953, The Lion and I soon became friends and it was a great pleasure to pick up the phone at home and find him calling just to chat. One of the first jazz recordings I produced was of Willie and another key shaper of Harlem piano, Lucky Roberts, in separate sessions – released on what is now the Concord Music Group: Lucky and the Lion – Harlem Piano (also available on Good Time Jazz, Amazon.com).
But I didn’t find out until after Willie’s death that he regarded himself – and proudly – as being Jewish. The British critic Michael Gerber in the path-breaking, extensive Jazz Jews book (fiveleaves.co.uk, 2009), tells of Willie as a boy making deliveries, being especially intrigued by the chanting of a rabbi at one of the customer’s apartments. This led the rabbi to separately
teach Jewish music and culture to this eager learner. Willie was actually bar mitzvahed in a Newark synagogue at 13 and years later became a cantor in a black synagogue in Harlem. If I’d known that, I’d have asked him how I could become a member of the congregation. Jazz Jews quotes Willie: “A lot of people
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JAZZed March 2013 19
The University of North Texas Division of Jazz Studies Presents
Summer Jazz Workshops June 10 - 14, 2013 The Lynn Seaton Jazz Double Bass Workshop The Workshop includes sessions on: -
Upright Technique Soloing Developing Walking Bass Lines Jazz Bass History and Theory Small Group Playing and Rhythm Section Performance Opportunities
North Texas Vocal Jazz Workshop/Camp June 23 - 28, 2013 An intense and enjoyable week of vocal jazz (and ONLY vocal jazz) Classes and coaching, ensemble and soloing, improvisation, pedagogy. Designed for students, educators and young professionals this week-long g workshop is a great experience. This year’s faculty will include: Jennifer Barnes, Rosana Eckert, and Greg Jasperse.
Greg Jasperse
UNT Jazz Winds Workshop
Rosana Eckert
Jennifer Barnes Workshop Director
July 8-13, 2013 The UNT Jazz Winds Workshop provides saxophone, trumpet and trombone players of all levels (minimum age - 14) with a comprehensive and intensive curriculum devoted to jazz. - Big Band and Combo - Technical Development and Equipment - Jazz Style, History and Improvisation UNT Jazz Winds Workshop Faculty : Trumpets - Mike Steinel, Jay Saunders, Rob Parton, Rodney Booth Trombones - Steve Wiest, Tony Baker, John Wasson Saxes - Brad Leali, Shelley Carroll
Mike Steinel Workshop Director
UNT Jazz Combo Workshop July 14-29, 2013 The Jazz Combo Workshop is open to musicians of all levels (minimum age - 14) and provides comprehensive studies in jazz combo playing and improvisation. The curriculum includes: combo, faculty concerts (each evening), jazz history and listening, jazz theory, master class guita piano, instruction on bass, drums, guitar, saxophone, trombone and trumpet, student concerts and student jam sessions. Guitar - Fred Hamilton and Richard McClure Piano - Stefan Karlsson and Dan Haerle Jazz History - John Murphy and Bob Morgan Trumpet - Mike Steinel and Rod Booth Trombone - Steve Wiest and Tony Baker
Alto Saxophone - Jim Riggs, Will Campbell Tenor Saxophone - Chris McGuire and Steve Jones Drums - Ed Soph and Mike Drake Bass - Lynn Seaton and Jeffry Eckels Note: Exact Faculty may be subject to change.
For more information go to: jazz.unt.edu
20 JAZZed March 2013
are unable to understand my wanting to be Jewish. One said, ‘Lion, you stepped up to the plate with one strike against you – and now you take a second one right down the middle.’” But The Lion insisted, “I have a Jewish soul.” As for his jazz impact on Duke Ellington, certainly not Jewish, in an entry on jazz.com (http://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/10/8/ hentoff-on-jazz-the-jewish-soul-of-williethe-lion-smith) I cited Duke’s memory of the first time he heard the Lion: “Everything and everybody seemed to be doing whatever they were doing in the tempo that The Lion’s group was laying down. The walls and furniture seemed to lean understandingly. One of the strangest and greatest sensations I ever had. The waiters served in that tempo; everybody who had to walk in, out, or around the place walked with a beat.” Duke’s description of this black-Jewishjazz beat is from a book, Willie “The Lion” Smith/ 8 Piano Compositions, by Michael Spike Wilner, owner and manager of the by now legendary Smalls Jazz Club in Manhattan and himself a jazz pianist and scholar of stride piano. Finally, I cannot resist a final chorus with a personal story years after Cab Calloway gave me a quick hint of being welcomed into the Black-Jewish jazz family. An especially enduring friendship I had with a jazz musician was with Dizzy Gillespie. Once, when he was rehearsing an all-star band for a concert at the UN, I came to the rehearsal hall and found the musicians there – but not Dizzy. I hadn’t seen him for months, but suddenly there he was, with a friend, coming down the corridor. Seeing me, he quickened his pace, came over and gave me a big hug, saying to his friend: “It’s like seeing an old broad of mine.” That made me feel indeed, however informally, a member of the Black-Jewish jazz family. Nat Hentoff is one of the foremost authorities on jazz culture and history. He joined DownBeat magazine as a columnist in 1952 and served as that publication’s associate editor from 1953-57. Hentoff was a columnist and staff writer with The Village Voice for 51 years, from 1957 until 2008, and has written for The Wall Street Journal, Jazz Times, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker, among many other outlets.
JEFF COFFIN In Pursuit of Excellence
Photo: Rodrigo Simas
“The JodyJazz DV Baritone 8 is the best Bari Sax mouthpiece that I have found. It does everything I need it to...”
2013 JEN CONFERENCE RECAP
Jazz Education Network Conference Recap Special Edition
View an introduction video from JEN President Andrew Surmani.
View a summary video of the entire conference by the Jazz Video Guy. Stream full performances and clinics from the conference at jen.thedigitalstage.com.
Relive the Magic of the 2013 Conference
Every page in this section of JAZZed is enhanced with multimedia content from the 2013 JEN Conference. Experience this unique recap with your smartphone or tablet in three easy steps. No Smartphone? You can also view the interactive recap online at JazzEdNet.org/JAZZed.
Step 1: Download the free app Layar for iPhone, iPad, or Android from your app store or at get.layar.com.
Step 2: Load the app, hold your device steadily over each page, and tap “Scan.”
Step 3: The multimedia content will appear on your screen. Tap each section to view videos, slide shows, and web links.
JEN Board of Directors (2012–13): Rubén Alvarez, Paul Bangser, Bob Breithaupt, Caleb Chapman, John Clayton (Vice President), José Diaz, Dr. Lou Fischer (Immediate Past President), Dr. Darla Hanley, Dr. Monika Herzig (Secretary), Judy Humenick, Willard Jenkins, Rick Kessel (Treasurer), Mary Jo Papich (Past President), Bob Sinicrope (President-Elect), Andrew Surmani (President). Office Manager: Larry Green; Webmaster: Gene Perla; Marketing/Communications: Marina Terteryan; Bookkeeper: Lynda Chavez; Web Hosting: AudioWorks Group, Ltd./ JazzCorner.com
22 JAZZed March 2013
2013 JEN CONFERENCE RECAP
Tap each image for a photo gallery of the concerts.
CONCERTS
Photo: Bob Franz Photo: Chuck Gee
Wycliffe Gordon performs with the Army Blues.
Wayne Bergeron performs with Kris Berg and the Metroplexity Big Band.
Photo: Bob Franz
The Booker T. Washington High School for Performing Arts Jazz Combo (TX) with Bob Mintzer.
Photo: Chuck Gee
Freddy Cole performs.
View a behind-the-scenes interview with Bob Mintzer and the Booker T. Washington students.
JAZZed March 2013 23
2013 JEN CONFERENCE RECAP
Tap each image for a photo gallery of clinics.
CLINICS
Photo: Bob Franz
Photo: Chuck Gee
Fred Hamilton, Shelly Berg, JEN Immediate Past President Dr. Lou Fischer, and Steve Houghton, present their rhythm workshop.
Gordon Goodwin inspires students during the JENerations JENeral session.
Photo: Chuck Gee
Paris Rutherford directs the annual vocal jazz reading session on the Ella Fitzgerald New Voices Stage.
Photo: Chuck Gee
Nilson Matta demonstrates the intersection between jazz and samba.
Watch a preview from Nilson Matta’s presentation.
24 JAZZed March 2013
Watch a preview from Matt Wilson’s presentation.
Photo: Bret Primack
Matt Wilson presents research findings on why jazz audiences might be declining.
2013 JEN CONFERENCE RECAP
EXHIBITS Tap each image for a photo gallery from of exhibit hall.
Photo: Chuck Gee
Representatives from the Brubeck Institute.
Photo: Chuck Gee
Representatives from Georgia State University.
Photo: Chuck Gee
Kellee Webb from Berklee College of Music.
Photo: Chuck Gee
Billy Strayhorn Songs representatives, Galen Demus and Alyce Claerbout with Michael Mackey (center).
Photo: Chuck Gee
Students test out instruments at the Yamaha booth. JAZZed March 2013 25
2013 JEN CONFERENCE RECAP
Tap each image for a photo gallery of JENerations activities.
JENERATIONS EVENTS
Photo: Susan Rosmarin
Jeff Coffin works with students from Emory University (GA).
Photo: Chuck Gee
Melissa Neff from Capital University (OH) performs at the JENerations Jam Session.
Photo: Bob Franz
Students from Grissom High School (AL) perform for JENerations festival adjudicators.
Photo: Chuck Gee
JENerations Committee chair, Ryan Adamsons delivers an inspirational speech to students.
26 JAZZed March 2013
2013 JEN CONFERENCE RECAP
SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS
Photo: Bob Frantz
Gene Perla receives President’s Service Award from JEN President Andrew Surmani. Photo: Bob Franz
Educator Davey Yarborough receives the John LaPorta Educator of the Year award.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Photo: Chuck Gee
Student scholarship recipients Kelly Garner, Josh Roberts, and Caitlan Bryant.
Photo: Chuck Gee
Larry Rosen talks about the future of jazz.
Read the #JEN13 Tweets Tap here to view all the tweets from the conference.
Watch the official Jazz Video Guy interview with Larry Rosen.
JAZZed March 2013 27
2013 JEN CONFERENCE RECAP Tap each image for a photo gallery of these events.
LEJENDS GALA
Photo: Chuck Gee
LeJENds of Jazz Education recipients Rufus Reid and Dave Liebman (Center L-R) with last year’s recipients, David Baker (far left) and Jamey Aebersold (far right).
Photo: Chuck Gee
Bret Primack, also known as the Jazz Video Guy.
Watch exclusive interviews with Rufus Reid and Dave Liebman.
PRESIDENT’S RECEPTION
Photo: Chuck Gee
JEN President Andrew Surmani and First Lady Karen Surmani.
Photo: Chuck Gee
JEN Past Presidents and Co-Founders Mary Jo Papich and Dr. Lou Fischer.
Photo: Chuck Gee
JEN Treasurer Rick Kessel with JEN President-Elect Bob Sinicrope and his wife, Frances Scanlon. 28 JAZZed March 2013
JEN NEWS
JAZZ2U Program Provides Grants for Jazz Speakers
Deadlines Announced for 2014 Conference
Thanks to a generous grant from the Herb Alpert Foundation, we present JEN’s JAZZ2U, a new initiative that is part of our commitment to local jazz Outreach. With JEN’s JAZZ2U, JEN members can apply for a $300 grant to fund a speaker or performer at any event that will bring jazz to the new and existing audiences via schools, community centers, performances, or informances by quality performers and advanced educators.
Take the stage at the 2014 conference in Dallas, TX, with a clinic, concert, or research presentation.
This program is intended to advance the presentation of jazz to young and diverse audiences, to promote the coaching of young musicians in the elements of playing jazz, and to increase paid opportunities for professional jazz musicians. The grant is open to all JEN members with all levels of experience in presenting in-school programs, whether a director, educator, or artist. The JEN Outreach eam is available upon request for assistance in designing content, working with artists in engaging local school audiences, and providing strategies for forming educational partnerships. Find out more and apply for a grant at JazzEdNet.org/JAZZ2U.
JEN’s Virtual Artist Series JEN’s Outreach Committee has teamed up with Allan Molnar of the The ALIVE Project (Accessible Live Internet Video Education) to bring streaming clinics into classrooms and homes. Throughout the year, there will be master class clinics on a variety of topics, available to stream online.
Performer Application March 31, 2013
Clinician Application March 31, 2013
Research Presentation Application March 31, 2013
Applications are available online at JazzEdNet.org on the Conference Central tab.
Board Member Nominations Open Be part of something great by nominating yourself or a colleague to serve on the JEN Board of directors.
Board of Directors Nomination March 15, 2013
Apply online at JazzEdNet.org.
Donation Hub Now Open Do you have a big heart and love supporting jazz? We are now accepting donations that will help fund scholarships, outreach programs, operating costs, and more. Every dollar counts so we encourage you to give. Donate at JazzEdNet.org/SupportUs.
Find out about events as they are available at JazzEdNet.org/VirtualArtistSeries.
Connect with Us Online facebook.com/jazzeducationnetwork
youtube.com/JazzEdNet
twitter.com/JazzEdNet
LinkedIN Group: Jazz Education Network
Tap each social network icon to join our online communities. JAZZed March 2013 29
A Sacred Jazz Life
Dr. Willis Kirk looks back on an incomparable career in jazz education BY MATT PARISH
30 JAZZed March 2013
It was a future that would have been tough to envision from Dr. Willis Kirk’s old home in Indianapolis back in the ‘30s. The renowned drummer and composer of the groundbreaking jazz oratorio “Rejoice! Rejoice!” has hit the bandstand with generations of musicians and developed original teaching techniques, eventually working his way up to serve as president of San Francisco City College. In his early days, though, Indiana was a state just getting out from under the influence of the Ku Klux Klan, whose members at one point included the governor (Edward L. Jackson) and half of the state’s general assembly.
JAZZed March 2013 31
Kirk went on to discover himself as a lifelong jazz educator, musician, and composer, performing in early bands throughout the ‘40s and ‘50s and spending a long career teaching students in the Midwest and in the Bay Area. He used his teaching skills to climb the ladder at the San Francisco Community College while maintaining an active performing career locally and composing “Rejoice! Rejoice!” Kirk grew up in Indianapolis in an era when quite a few jazz greats were emerging in the area. Great local names included Wes Montgomery, J. J. Johnson, Slide Hampton, and Freddie Hubbard. After a young adulthood learning the ropes by watching and performing with bebop legends like Charlie Parker and Art Blakey, Kirk set off on a performing career of his own in the early ‘50s, including a touring stint with the Lionel Hampton band. Not long after, he decided to settle down and pursue music education, exploring early methods of teaching music by rote in his early days at a high school in Indianapolis. At that school, in the underserved “Dogtown” part of the city, nonexistent arts funding led practitioners and students alike to make do with anything they could, including no budget for sheet music. Those students successfully performed for audiences all over the state, and the experience gained Kirk the credentials to write a method book and head to the West Coast. There, he taught at an Oakland junior high before moving on to San Francisco City College, of which he eventually became president. He also published the drumming method book Brush Fire in 1997 (Houston Publishing). Through it all, he’s maintained a love for jazz and continues to play, arrange, and advocate for jazz education for all ages. He’s been focusing on new arrangements of his “Rejoice, Rejoice” piece recently, preparing for performances of it with a full big band and huge choir. JAZZed recently spoke with Dr. Kirk about his incredible career and his steadfast dedication to jazz education. 32 JAZZed March 2013
Dr. Kirk playing with the Montgomery Quartet at Henri’s Bar on Indiana Avenue in the early ‘50s with Monk, Wes, and Buddy Montgomery.
JAZZed: That “Rejoice” project is taking up a good portion of your time these days – where did the idea for that originate? Dr. Willis Kirk: Duke [Ellington] had a religious service at the time and he’d performed it just before I came out here at the Grace Cathedral. And otherwise, there was no precedent for a band and a gospel according to the New Testament. We were just trying express the meaning of that. Duke Dr. Kirk performing at a recent tribute to Max Roach at didn’t do it that way – he San Francisco City College. set up a religious service and he had a tap dancer and the band and just a little narration. JAZZed: When you were writing the piece, It was mostly music. That was the was there a certain tradition in jazz that only thing I looked up to as a way of you were trying to draw from specifically? doing things and it kind of opened WK: When I was growing up, my my eyes that it could be done. We mother used to listen to the radio and got some favorable reviews from the every Sunday morning there was the Evansville student newspaper. Some Golden Gate Quartet. They were a capeople liked it and said it should be pella but they had a jazz feel. They’d done more places. Others said it was perform the story about “Old Moblasphemy to bring a jazz service ses,” and it would be really rhythmic. into a sanctuary. I really liked that. It was more to me than just telling the story – there was rhythm along with the gospel.
the war. When I started up, my friend Dickie Laswell had a snare drum and he’d started taking lessons and I wanted to be just like him, so I started taking lessons from Mr. Brown. We played for the kids marching in and out of school. A teacher named Miss Stephens would play piano. So I thought that was a great time. I came up with a great bunch of guys, meanwhile – Albert Cohen,
Pookie Johnson, a tenor player named Russel West, Reggie Duval. JAZZed: Indianapolis played an important role in so many jazz careers. What do you attribute that to? WK: In 1927, Reggie’s father dedicated the new C.J. Walker Building with his band. That was also the year that Crispus Attucks High School was opened. The KKK wanted all
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JAZZed: Did you have other experiences with jazz-inflected gospel music early on? WK: A group used to set up a revival tent in our neighborhood and that was the only time I’d ever heard a guitar player, drummer, and organ player together. It was a group of Apostolic type of people – they’d talk in tongues. But that was the first time I’d heard an instrumental trio in a church. They were a lot further along – of course, nowadays this has been done in a Catholic church. So it’s all over now, but years ago a lot of people would say it was sacrilegious. We’d peep under the tent to see this stuff and when my mom found out, she gave me holy hell! She belonged to a Methodist church that was quite traditional. JAZZed: When you were growing up and developing your own musical voice, what kind of role did gospel music play in that? WK: It played a large role. The closest thing I heard to that stuff was at those churches. The feel was there – people would get excited by the music and there would be a lift to it – a swing. I came up in the swing era so I remember listening to the Coca-Cola broadcasts during World War II, hearing Duke Ellington’s bands. In the black churches, there was always music. The choirs always got down, but if they got down too far, the preacher would let ‘em know about it. Tommy Dorsey wrote this tune – “Precious Lord, Take my Hand, Lead me on and let me Stand.” He was a Chicago musician who wrote spirituals and he played for Bessie Smith. He’d play in speakeasies and he played the blues and played church music. When they sang his songs in church, you always knew they were his. That had a great influence on me, just getting that kind of feel. JAZZed: Who did you feel were real mentors to you in different phases of your development? WK: My music teacher was Russel Brown at Attucks High School. He was a traveling music teacher during
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looking for people with Ph.D.s who weren’t allowed to teach anywhere else. He stocked that school with the best people he could find. That turned out to be the best high school in the city, thanks to the Ku Klux Klan. [laughs] We had more Ph.Ds at Crispus Attucks than the rest of Indianapolis combined, because they couldn’t teach anywhere else. JAZZed: What do you remember about the band program there?
When they sang his songs in church, you always knew they were his. That had a great influence on me, just getting that kind of feel. the black students out of the white schools, so they built that school. In a way, they did us a favor because we ended up having the best arts pro-
grams. A man named Matthias Norcox was given two years to recruit people to teach there and he went to post offices all over the country
WK: We had a band at Attucks High School and most people remembered us because we didn’t have enough money for real uniforms, so we just used ROTC uniforms. We’d made up our own cadences and practiced them a lot. We were very flashy and had a good sound. During that time I was listening to Charlie Parker. We’d sneak in the back door and I used to put on a mustache so I’d look like I was 21, you know. A lot of guys did that back then. We had a lot of chances to listen
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to those kinds of guys. A lot of times they’d come in and just say they’d need to play somewhere and people would tell them just to head over to Indianapolis Avenue. JAZZed: What kind of stuff did you guys pick up from everyone coming through at that time? WK: Bebop! Carl Perkins and J.J. would come by when they were in town and play with us. Charlie Parker, who I found myself playing with one night because Max Roach and Miles Davis were late to the show. I played with him for two hours and when he saw Max walk in, he called for a break and then gave me $10. I said, “No, that’s okay, Mr. Parker.” But he put it in my coat pocket anyway. We paid $5 to get into that show where we were seeing him. The same thing happened with Duke one time, when his drummer hadn’t shown up. He had an alchohol problem and was falling off the drums. Duke asked if there was any drummers around and my friend Emmet said, “Yeah he’s a drummer right here, Duke!” So I played part of that set with them.
called “Dogtown.” They hadn’t had a high school graduate in 50 years. So I developed this method of teaching music by rote. When I got there, all they had was a bass pedal, a snare drum, a bass drum, a clarinet, and a trumpet. But even though I taught in poor neighborhoods, I was able to get instruments from people in the community. I had to beg, borrow, and so forth. I couldn’t teach Kirk with Rosalyn Kirk and Butler University president Dr. Bobby Fong. out of books. I started what we called the Early Bird Program, before school started School in Oakland. I worked there a each day, which allowed the kids to year and it was a tough assignment behave music every day of the week. cause there were a lot of gangs in the So I learned a lot by doing that. We school. It was hard to get anything would also take them the IMEA to play done. I wrote a book about that rote songs for everyone, even though they system that was full of interesting lescouldn’t read a note a music. sons and all these great stick figures that kids could really relate to. I went JAZZed: When you went to the West on tour with it to Chicago, Detroit, Coast, how did your approach change? Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, Brooklyn, DC, Baltimore. Did all that WK: I got a job right before I came in 12 days and I was a wreck. I would at a school called Elmherst Junior High never try that again ever. The sad part
JAZZed: Was there a point where it seemed like education was going to be one of the more important parts of your career?
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JAZZed: By the time you got to San Francisco, did you feel like you had developed a music teaching philosophy? WK: I knew I always wanted to include jazz wherever I found myself teaching music, because I found that I could teach kids using methods I knew from jazz. I developed a method where I wrote like the Hampton family used to do. They hadn’t had access to all kinds of instruments or anything in the part of the city I taught, which was
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of it was that all the instructors loved it, but had no money to buy it. I didn’t sell one book. I knew I didn’t want to stay at that Junior High because I couldn’t do much music there. So I got a counseling job at City College and from there went to administration. I worked there 23 years. I became assistant to the president. I came back to the college and worked for the president as the assistant for three years. I was the president from 1988 to 1991. JAZZed: As you were coming up through the ranks there, how did your relationship to jazz education change? WK: It became sort of nonexistent as far as my role in the administration went. A lot of the time, I had very little to do with music. I did see that the music education was lacking, compared with what I felt it should be. I knew all the people in music education and they all had a hard time getting funded. It wasn’t very good. But in general, we were able to have very little effect on music education. JAZZed: What was your involvement in the music scene in general then?
WK: I was always playing at that time. I had gigs and played in the San Francisco All-Star Big Band. I was involved in music all the time, just not so much at the college. Though the AllStar band did rehearse at the college. JAZZed: In those bands, were you guys involved in any sort of outreach or educational programs? WK: We would occasionally perform for kids, but not really as much I would have liked to have been able to. It just didn’t seem to be in the cards for us to be able to teach and further jazz education. There’s very little education going on around the Bay Area. JAZZed: Do you find that changing compared to earlier days? WK: It’s worse. I feel like this country has really let the arts down. When I came up in Indianapolis, we had music in all the schools. Music, PE, and Art were things taught by all these various teachers. The music teachers went from school to school, but at least they had them from when I was in fourth grade through high
school back at Crispus Attucks High School. A lot of schools don’t have that anymore. We had excellent teachers. We had instruments. The better schools had more instruments because that’s just the way it is in this country – money begets money. They have the best teachers and more instruments, so it makes it easier on the teachers. JAZZed: With the state of jazz education the way it is, do you find that people are less informed about the culture in general? WK: Things have gotten worse. It’s poorly presented – when it is presented, it’s by people who know very little about jazz. The ones who know about jazz are the ones in the colleges who’ve been trained by people who know what they’re doing, but that’s very few and far between. Very few parents want their kids to get involved, it seems like. They don’t see a future, all over the country. My son just came from Calgary up in Alberta, Canada, where he was for five days, and he says they had 14 community bands. These are people who want to play – they’re doctors, lawyers, teachers, whatever. They can all sound like Basie and they all read. You don’t find that in America. Can you imagine 14 active bands in one town? America’s got all this talent, but very few people know anything about it. JAZZed: What’s the most important thing that students need to learn about jazz? WK: That it’s an oral music. It’s all oral – it can be taught that way. Reading can come at any time, but they need to appreciate the sound, where the rhythms came from and how they got to America, what we do with those rhythms, and how other countries contributed to jazz. It’s the rhythms and the harmonies that you put together and hopefully you’re able to teach that.
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survey
SUMMER MUSIC CAMPS
Trends in Impact:
SUMMER CAMPS AND THE SCHOOL MUSIC PROGRAM
N
o one can deny the potential impacts of a summer music camp. The students involved have the opportunity to spend time on their instruments in a focused and supportive environment, and their respective school programs benefit from both the students’ technical and musicianship advancements, as well as the enthusiasm for the activity that such experiences foster.
38 JAZZed March 2013
Yet, there are many obstacles that stand in the way of reaping these benefits. Camps can be far away or expensive, and even for those kids that may have the means to attend them, there are many other summertime activities that are also vying for students’ attention. So just how do these camps and workshops – which are so chock full off potential benefits – impact school music programs? This latest survey put that question to music directors. While 67 percent of respondents indicate that “a few” or “none” of their students attend music camps and workshops, more than half noted that the impact on their programs was “significant.” A more positive perspective on the following data would be that 90 percent of respondents had at least “a few” students attend, so perhaps having even a couple of students stay involved over the summer can serve to raise the standard for the rest of the school music program all year long? Read on and draw your own conclusions on the latest trends in summer music camps and workshops.
10%
None
survey 21%
How many of your instrumental music students attend independent music workshops or camps over the summer (other than a pre-fall band camp)?
4%
Most
29%
Some
57%
A few
10%
None
“MostMore camp costs have up,than making harder students attendgone camps a fewityears agofor people to afford. Coupled with the many activities students Remain the same: 46%have in the summer, it is very hard to convince students now 57% Thetosame amountor of camps students camps as a few years ago that going workshops is attend a worthwhile activity and worth the cost.” 33% Jan Hare Fewer students attend camps than Delphos a few years agos St. John’ Delphos, Ohio What are the most common reasons more students don’t attend summer workshops and music camps?
49%
Finances 30%
Musicianship
24%
Scheduling 22%
Investment in the activity
13%
Lack of interest 21% Leadership
“Scholarships make it possible for more than a few to attend summer music camps.” 9% Remain the same: Simon Austin 57% Burroughs High School 5% 21% More students attend camps than aRidgecrest, few years Calif. ago 4%
Lack of nearby options 19% Technique Kids need a break, too Social skills 8%
Most
“Most of my students cannot afford summer study, simply 46% 29%a break Some want from study, or of gostudents to summer school.” The same amount attend camps as a few years ago Denise Kuehner Clay High School Fewer students attend camps thanSouth a few Bend, years Ind. ago
33%
57%
A few
10%
None
Over the past few years, how has the number of students from your school attending summer music camps changed?
49%
21%
24%
Finances More students attend camps than a few years ago
Scheduling
46%
13%
The same amount of students attend camps as a few years ago
Lack of interest
33%
9% 5%
Fewer attend camps than a few years ago Lackstudents of nearby options
Kids need a break, too
“Costs for even short duration camps have increased 49% Finances dramatically over the last decade. It becomes more difficult to 24% interest students and parents in spending the amount of Scheduling money necessary to attend a music camp.” 13% Lack of interest David Bean Morrison High School of nearby options 9% Lack Significant 51% Morrison, Ill. 5%
37% 7%
Kids need a break, too
Moderate Minimal
“For our population, which has a 61 percent poverty rate in our school district, it’s almost impossible for most of our kids to even think about a summer music camp.” 30% Musicianship Micheal Carbone Significant 51% Johnson City Central School District 22% Investment in the activity Johnson City, N.Y. Moderate
37% Leadership 21%
“There are a ton of other options in the summer. Time is Minimal 19% 7% Technique valuable. Also, kids [and parents] see price tags that scare them. I know there are grants and assistance, but that comes Social skills 8% NoneThe big dollar figures seem to make the camps after 5% the fact. for the ‘haves’ and exclude the ‘have-nots.’” George Dragoo Stevens High School Rapid City, S.D. “It’s not yet in the community’s ‘culture’ to attend summer music camps.” James Hamontree West Point Elementary School Surprise, Ariz.
JAZZed March 2013 39
13%
Lack of interest
9%
Lack of nearby options
5%
Kids need a break, too
lessons learned How would you gauge the impact that summer camps and workshops – and the students that attend them – have on your music program?
51%
Significant
37%
Moderate
7%
Minimal
5%
None
4%
Most
29%
Some
57% 10%
21%
“Depends on the student and camp experience. Most of the kids come back having an excellent experience. I have had those for whom it really changed their drive to get better for the best.” Daryl Jessen Dakota Valley High School North Sioux City, S.D. “The skills gleaned from these camps are invaluable to my
Remain the same: 57% entire band program! I wish we could send many more to
camp each summer.”
George Edwin Smith Gustine High School Gustine, Calif. Which areas are most directly impacted?
“Those students that make the commitment to attend a summer camp eventually become our section leaders beA few cause of their dedication to wanting to improve their musicianship.” Dennis Eggerling None Sergeant Bluff-Luton High School Sergeant Bluff, Iowa
More students attend camps than a few years ago
30%
Musicianship
22%
Investment in the activity
21%
Leadership
19%
Technique
8%
Social skills
46% The same amount of students attend camps as a few years ago
I am ...
33%
a musician skilled Fewercreative students attend camps than a few years ago driven expressive
... an artist
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49%
A comprehensive jazz curriculum that includes big band and combos, Financesjazz improvisation, jazz history, arranging and jazz forum for grades 9 through 12.
24%
Session 1: June 22-July 13 Scheduling
13% 9% 5%
Bill Sears-Director of Jazz Studies, Saxophone Lack ofLennie interest Foy-Trumpet TBA-Trombone Laura Caviani-Piano Lack ofDavid nearby options Onderdonk-Guitar Kelly Sill-Bass David Hardman-Drums Kids need a break, too
Session 2: July 14-August 5
Bill Sears-Director of Jazz Studies, Saxophone Robbie Smith-Trumpet TBA-Trombone Luke Gillespie-Piano Frank Portolese-Guitar Jeremy Allen-Bass Sean Dobbins-Drums
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Significant
“Those who participate in summer music camps sharpen their skills while having the opportunity to work with excellent faculty and improve their musicianship, awareness, and perception. My participation over the years, both as a student and a conductor has had a powerful impact on my musicianship and knowledge of music and music making.” John Stanley Ross Appalachian State University Boone, N.C. “It is learning for learning sake! No grades and no performance pressures – just an opportunity to make music with their friends.” Skip Quinn Briarcrest Christian Middle School Eads, Tenn. “Traditionally, they tend to be more prepared, dedicated, and advanced than those that do not attend camps or play in a community group.” Sharon Gunder Cottage Grove Elementary Cottage Grove, Minn.
remembrance
BOB BROOKMEYER
It’s All About the Line: THE PEDAGOGY OF BOB BROOKMEYER
W
BY KEN SCHAPHORST hen I started teaching at the New England Conservatory in the Fall of 2001, Bob Brookmeyer had already been there for four years. He continued to teach at NEC for an additional six years, while I was serving as chair of the Jazz Studies and Improvisation Department. Over a 10-year period, Bob had a profound effect on a generation of NEC composers and performers. Since he passed away in December of 2011, I’ve had many opportunities to reflect on the impact and uniqueness of Bob’s teaching. On November 15 we presented a Memorial Concert at NEC featuring Bob’s music along with music by two of his students, Ayn Inserto and Darcy James Argue. We also organized a panel discussion earlier that same day with Ayn and two other former Brookmeyer students, Daniel Henderson and Lefteris Kordis. I’d like to summarize some of our collective memories about Bob’s approach to teaching jazz, particularly jazz composition.
“ALTHOUGH BOB NEVER PUBLISHED A TEXTBOOK, I HEAR THE EFFECTS OF HIS TEACHING EVERYWHERE.” JAZZed March 2013 41
remembrance At one level, Bob Brookmeyer was a very practical musician. He would often tell me that our students needed to practice their scales. When I first heard this, I was a bit baffled, because our students certainly knew their scales. But I gradually came to realize that Bob was referring to something more
profound than going up and down a scale. Rather, Bob wanted our students to play a scale the way that he played it himself. If you know Bob’s playing, you know that he moves from note to note with an effortless, legato phrasing that is unparalleled. Every note is elegantly stitched to the next note. And I think that Bob was disappointed when he heard students struggle to achieve that same seamless flow of ideas. At the root of this concern regarding scales is Bob’s deep commitment to the construction of musical lines: connecting pitches into intelligible phrases, which are then connected into well-organized solos and composi-
tions. In his teaching of improvisation, Bob’s focus was always on following the melodic impulse, as opposed to feeling constrained by harmony. And his teaching of composition started with line writing. In general, Bob felt that most young composers relied too much on harmony and as a result their music didn’t have the sense of structure and momentum that comes from a focus on linear development.
Diatonic Line-writing The first assignment that Bob Brookmeyer gave to his composition students at NEC tended to be what students referred to as the “whitenote” exercise. This involved writing a long melody (filling at least one page of manuscript paper) using only the white notes of the piano. Students were often frustrated by this first as-
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remembrance signment. They were anxious to show Bob their more involved music. And if Bob didn’t like their “white-note” melody, he might ask them to write another, which students found even more frustrating! But Bob was insistent that all of his composition students start by composing strong, purposeful diatonic melodies. In their follow-up lesson, Bob would play through a student’s “white note” melody at the piano. He would often harmonize these melodies as he went along. Many students would comment on how effortlessly and beautifully Bob would spontaneously harmonize their lines. His reaction to the melodies would often revolve around how successfully (or unsuccessfully) a student was able to develop a musical idea or motive. He often referred them to Ernst Toch’s description of a motive in The Shaping Forces of Music: “a germ cell for building purposes . . . by reiteration, modification, combination, grouping and regrouping.” (p. 155). A common response was to ask a student why he or she prematurely stopped the development of a particular idea. One of his students, Daniel Henderson, mentioned Bob’s point that failing to fully develop an idea was tantamount to taking a toy away from a child. Bob encouraged his students to develop their ideas until they were sick of those ideas. Only then could they move on. Many students referred to Bob’s body language and the way he grunted while playing their exercises. There were “positive” grunts and there were “negative” grunts. There were “questioning” grunts. I think that Bob was listening to these lines almost as if he had composed them himself. Bob was one of the most open-minded people I ever met. As he was playing through the exercises, he was listening to the unique logic (or lack of logic) that he heard in each line. This wasn’t an algebra problem that had a specific answer. He was truly interested in the students’ voice, in what each student had to say. Darcy James Argue puts it this way: “He didn’t do anything by rote, and he
judged everyone’s work by the same impossible standards he set for himself.”
Chromatic Line-writing Follow up assignments often involved writing lines in a more chromatic setting. Just as Bob was trying to nudge students towards a more direct, songful expression in the “white note” exercise, he also wanted to push
them beyond their comfort-zone in the chromatic direction. Two chromatic line-writing assignments that Bob often assigned to students at NEC were the “major sevenths” exercise and the “perfect fourths” exercise. Both involved writing a perpetual-motion eighth note line over a series of chromatically descending half-note chords. The major sevenths exercise involved writing an eighth note line over a se-
JAZZed March 2013 43
remembrance
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ries of major sevenths starting with C and B below middle C and going down an octave. The perfect fourth assignment followed the same format over fourth voicings (starting on C-F-B-flat, again, below middle C). Sometimes, the students were asked to avoid doubling pitches included in the voicings. Sometimes, Bob didn’t seem to care about that. All of these exercises changed slightly over the years. As with the “white note” exercise, Bob’s goal was to push students toward writing lines that they wouldn’t have written otherwise. In the case of the “white note” exercise, they were pushed towards writing lines that were more diatonic than they would normally write. In the case of the “major sevenths” and “perfect fourths” exercises, they were pushed to write more chromatically.
Form Bob liked the word, “cell.” And he liked the idea of a large musical form growing out of a simple musical idea. But he didn’t have a preconceived notion of how a particular idea would be developed into a larger form. Again, he often asked students to read Ernst Toch’s book, The Shaping Forces of Music: Every combination of a few tones is apt to become a motif and, as such, to pervade and feed the cellular tissue of a composition, emerging and submerging alternately, giving and receiving support and significance by turns. It revives and animates, and is revived and reanimated, in a continuous cycle of give and take. It lives on repetition and yet on constant metamorphosis... it creates and feeds movement, movement, movement, the very essence of life, and fends off the arch-enemy, stagna-
44 JAZZed March 2013
tion, the very essence of death (p. 200-201). To some degree, Bob was a self-taught composer. He understood jazz harmony at a profound level. Yet he didn’t have any interest in teaching traditional approaches to big band arranging, even though he was a master of that style. Rather than teaching what he knew, Bob taught what he didn’t know. And he challenged his students to take an equally rigorous stance, to unlearn much of what they had previously learned. At one level, I think that he was trying to get them to a sort of ground zero point at which students could start to build a new language that was both unique and strong. His approach to teaching form grew out of the same approach that he used in his “white note” exercise, always pushing students to further develop their ideas, extend their ideas. He was always asking them “What’s next?” Darcy James Ague remembers Bob saying to him “I could see that you were pushing yourself to do something different, something you didn’t exactly know how to do. But the wheels seemed to be turning okay on their own. I didn’t want to stop the bus before you got to wherever it was that you were headed.” There aren’t too many jazz artists of Bob’s stature who were so committed to teaching. His abilities as a player and composer are well known. Yet he developed an approach to teaching that was equally significant. I don’t think that any of us should try to duplicate what Bob did. And I don’t think that anyone could duplicate what he did even if they tried. Bob’s teaching was inextricably linked to his experience, his personality. Maria Schneider puts it this way: “Brookmeyer largely helped me find my own style. He was always asking me why I’d made various choices in my pieces. When I’d ask myself the same
remembrance question, I’d realize that I was doing things largely because I thought there were limited correct choices. I was doing what I thought was ‘right.’ I was just filling in the blanks of a template that never truly existed. Bob made me see there are infinite choices for every aspect of the music. As I started seeing the openness of choices, and started doing things based on my deepest desire for the music, suddenly, my music became my own without me trying to ‘figure out’ who I was. Later when I expressed all of this to Bob, he was quite unaware of what he was doing. He was just naturally that open himself, so he was truly inquisitive about my choices. Conventional choices struck him as odd if they didn’t truly make musical sense.” Although Bob never published a textbook, I hear the effects of his teaching everywhere. I can hear the legacy of teaching in the music of his students: Darcy James Argue, John Hollenbeck, Ayn Inserto, Maria Schneider and Ryan Truesdell, to name a few. And I know that generations of composers and performers who worked with him in academic and non-academic settings will continue to bear the fruit of the lessons that Bob Brookmeyer taught through his playing, his writing and his teaching.
Ken Schaphorst is a composer, performer and educator, who currently serves as chair of New England Conservatory’s widely respected Jazz Studies Department. He has released five critically acclaimed CDs as a leader on the Accurate and Naxos labels and has been awarded Composition Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Wisconsin Arts Board, and Meet the Composer, as well as commissions from a range of organizations including the Jazz Composers Alliance, Boston University, Lawrence University and many others.
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feature
JIM WIDNER
The Art of the Big Band Jazz Camp JIM WIDNER CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF STAN KENTON-STYLE BAND CAMP PROGRAMS
I
f there’s one thing a jazz student needs to understand early on, it’s Count Basie, says Jim Widner. “You’ve got to start with good ensemble writing,” he says over the phone from his home outside of St. Louis. “I make no bones about it. Every jazz program should have some Basie material because if they can get their students playing that, they’ll be able to play any of the new music correctly. It all has that old language in there.”
Photo: Suzy Gorman
THOSE OLD CHARTS CAN PLAY THEMSELVES, BUT YOU DO HAVE TO LEARN THE LANGUAGE 46 JAZZed March 2013
Widner would know a thing or two about ensemble music. A lifetime jazz veteran, he came of age working with Stan Kenton’s legendary Stan Kenton Band Clinics and jazz camps in California and, later, across the country as that program expanded. After Kenton’s passing in 1979, the Clinics stopped but Widner dreamed of a keeping the tradition alive. In 1988, he finally formed the Jim Widner Big Band, designed to run camps around the country in Kenton’s manner, with plenty of hands-on instruction with students of all different levels. The band celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, which included the release of a new album, titled The Beat Goes On. The band itself is full of wonderful musicians and composers including Dave Pietro, Scott Whitfield, Dave Scott and plenty more. Though there are certainly big bands out there playing more dates than this crew (they get to around 20 shows a year), the Jim Widner Big Band is a unique one with a real, lasting dedication to jazz education and a long list beloved players, including the late Bill Perkins (saxophone), Bob Burgess (trombone), and Frank Mantooth (piano). “There’s a history to all of this,” says Widner. “I’m extremely honored to have done things with these icons.” Widner, an extremely accomplished bassist, serves as the director of jazz studies at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Additionally, he’s a founding member of the Jazz Education Net-
feature work and organizes the annual Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival. The key feather in his cap, though, is the Big Band. Widner first warmed to the concept when he began playing and teaching in the late ‘60s with Kenton’s bands, which established the Stan Kenton Band clinic in 1967. That program, at the University of Redlands and San Jose State University, counted Henry Mancini, Shelly Manne, and Bud Shank as faculty. As years went on, Widner noticed increasing numbers of students flying out to California from far flung parts of the country and encouraged Kentonto expand out of the West Coast into new camps throughout the Midwest and East Coast. By 1975, Kenton is said to have been conducting over 100 clinics a year. But it wouldn’t last. “Stan had always expressed that upon his demise, there would be no ‘Kenton Ghost Band,’” says Widner. “I could appreciate that, but I also thought, ‘Why should the concept of having these big band camps have to die?’” After Kenton, Widner did say he waited for someone more qualified than himself to step in and form a new organization, but it never happened. Before he knew it, he found himself doing it. “I called up ex-Kentonites saying what I had in mind,” he says. “I said, ‘I may be crazy, but I really think we can do this and carry on the tradition.’” The years went by as the group saw more and more success, slowly adding camps around the country until Widner was programming eight weeks a year, from California down to the Gulf Coast in Alabama and everywhere in between. The crew has been steady – Widner says the average band member has been on board for 15 years – and has grown into comfortably serving the needs of a variety of levels of musician. For instance, every attendee goes through big band rehearsal as well as sectional masterclasses. “They’ll have a week meeting with these guys on each individual instrument,” says Widner. “Listening to people like Dave Pietro or Chip McNeill or Kim Richmond and folks like that. Trumpet players will have a session with John Harner, who was Kenton’s lead trumpet player, Dave Scott, or Mike Vax. I’ve got Scott Whitfield from L.A. on trombone. Paul McKee.” In fact, the staff of the band is one that Widner is continually proud of. “My first camp band had Marvin Stamm and Steve Wiest, who is now leading the program at North Texas.” Widner has backed off a bit on his scheduling – the band is down to two weeks of clinics a year. But he says not a lot has changed in his approach to students over the years. The key seems to making sure the camps have a variety of skill levels and that the students are getting healthy doses of early swing – both in their curriculum and in the Big Band’s concerts. “I think Duke Ellington said it best,” says Widner. “’It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.’ I mean those old charts can play themselves, but you do have to learn the language. Sometimes when I’m out doing clinics and doing a demonstration with the band, those are the charts that I use. When the students here that phrasing and style, they’ll say, ‘I heard that figure in a Bob Mintzer chart.’ I’ll say, ‘Well, yeah!’”
Widner’s big band members with students at a recent clinic.
JAZZed March 2013 47
survey
SAXAPHONES
Sax Appeal T Remain the same: 57%
In recent years have you noticed interest in saxophones… Remain the same: 57%
he saxophone: It’s one of the defining musical instruments of jazz and has been the weapon of choice for some of the genre’s most iconic figures. These days, more variety – shapes, colors, materials, sizes – is available to sax players than ever before, to the point that it can be overwhelming, even. To try and clear the air, JAZZed recently reached out to just under 500 of our subscribers to get the Increase: 32% real skinny on what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s on the horizon in saxophone culture today…
Decrease: What types of horns/saxophones seem to be11% most popular these days?
Tenor: 34% Increase: 32%
Alto: 60%
Bari: 1% Decrease: 11%
“I’ve seen interest increase. However, we start our stu34% dentsTenor: on clarinet first, which reduces the number [of players] because they have to commit to learning music first.” Kathy McIntosch Troy High School Troy, Ohio Alto: 60% 48 JAZZed March 2013
Soprano: 4%
What trends have you noticed in contemporary Bebop: 19% Other: 23% saxophone design?
“Contemporary saxophone design has made the execution and fingering easier than the older models. However, the metals alloy used are thinner and not as rich-sounding Jazz Blues: 19%
Swing: 14%
Bari: 1%
Soprano: 4%
Ska jazz: 1% Latin: 8%
Fusion: 15%
survey as the older models. The tone/timbre of the older horns are warmer and fuller in the sound, especially in the main body of the instrument.” TK Blue LIU-Post Brookville, N.Y. “Bigger bells. Lots of different types of plating and alloys.” Tim Kochen San Jacinto College Pasadena, Texas “I’m an owner of several vintage saxophones. I love everything about them from their sound to their smell. However, I must admit that this collection is for show only. The newer horns easily trump the vintage in intonation and technique. I play a brand new 400 Series Buffet saxophone. This horn is crafted in a way that makes my style of playing downright easier. And its looks are a sight for sore eyes.” Russell Kirk NYU, Peabody Conservatory, Friends School of Baltimore, BSO OrchKids, Beth Tfiloh Community School Baltimore, Md. “It’s harder to find a good deal on a a student/intermediate model instrument. The lower prices give you ‘iffy’ quality. The ‘standards’ [instrument makers] are getting softer and lower in quality while their prices have gone through the roof.” John Salminen American Community School – Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi, UAE “[The] continuation of different finishes and colors. More interest in aspects of neck design.” David Kay University School/Interlochen Arts Camp Berea, Ohio “I’ve noticed that the Cannonball series incorporates a big bore sound that does not compromise intonation or control.” David Cress Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla, Mo. “Bigger bells, top line models (Selmer especially) are combining classic models with updated keys” Stephen Lombardelli Kenneth R. Olson Middle School Tabrnacle, N.J.
more consistent internal tuning on newer designs, across the board.” Steve Eads Adelaide, Australia “[There is] a lot of experimentation with different finishes. I think designers are realizing all the unique timbres that are possible by tweaking the finish. Sure, some finishes look pretty, but others add a new dimension to the sound. The market has been flooded by a variety of saxophone manufacturers that are sub-par, but try to sell themselves as a professional craftsman. These companies need to focus on their craft and get solid products into customer’s hands.” Dr. Dieter Rice Northwest University Kirkland, Wash. Remain the same: 57% My students “Colors!
think the red saxes are hot!” Increase: 32% Joel Peskin Kokomo High School Kokomo, Ind.
“The quality of the metal is decreasing as the years go by... There are student horns from the ‘30s that resonate better than professional models today. Also, the saxophone is a conical instrument. However modelsDecrease: like Theo Wanne’s 11% Mantra have used a wider bore which adds to the sound of the horn.” Alfredo Colon Fordham High School for the Arts Tenor: 34% Bronx, N.Y. “Cannonball horns… they look ‘cool’ and are and inexpensive alternative to higher end horns.” Alto: 60% Mark Young Boise State University Boise, Idaho Bari: 1% Soprano: 4%
What type of jazz attracts most young sax players today? Bebop: 19%
Other: 23%
Jazz Blues: 19%
Swing: 14%
Ska jazz: 1%
“Lots of ‘flash’ finishes – [which offer] little to add, other than marketing value. However, I am impressed with the
Latin: 8%
Fusion: 15%
JAZZed March 2013 49
survey “Younger players from groups like Kneebody or Snarky Puppy are becoming more accessible to younger players; jazz that is mixing elements of modern pop and rock music, and hip hop and R&B.” Brian Rodesch
University of Northern Colorado Greeley, Colo. “Bebop – young players still like to play a lot of notes.” Sandy MacKay London, Ontario, Canada “Although young players listen to fusion, they are most intrigued by the musical masters… Bird and Coltrane, Getz and Desmond.” Stephen Goacher
Howard Payne University Brownwood, Texas “Many collegiate youth are coming to the table with less an awareness of classic jazz from the ‘20s-‘60s and much more of an interest in modern commercial music: pop, EDM, indie rock, etc. With these influences, they are certainly making some very compelling music! It jut doesn’t swing in the classic sense.” Matt Zebley University of California, Riverside Riverside, Calif.
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50 JAZZed March 2013
focus session
H A R M O N I C A N A LY S I S
Flirting with C A NEW VIEW OF JOHN COLTRANE’S HARMONY IN “MOMENT’S NOTICE”
BY SCOTT DAILEY
N
ominally composed in E♭, “Moment’s Notice” by John Coltrane employs numerous key centers and can be devilishly confusing to hear and play. In this new analysis, we see how Coltrane surreptitiously organizes the piece around the key of C, feinting toward it on many occasions before driving off toward various other tonal destinations.
What makes “Moment’s Notice” so hard to learn, play and even follow as a listener? A bewildered musician who calls himself “James3” on AllAboutJazz.com asks this typical question: “Is there a pattern or analysis to the harmony? Some of the ii – Vs seem very random.” As it turns out, the piece is quite logical, orbiting around ii – V – I progressions that are based on well-established jazz chord substitutions. Even so, the harmony is astonishing. As guitarist John Schott rightly points out, “Until the eight cadential measures in Eb that round out the form, no key center is definitively established.” In place of that reliable key center lies a rapidly shifting series of tonicizations. And that is what gives “Moment’s Notice” its dizzying, “random” feel. But underneath it all rests a surprising constant. A careful look at the harmony reveals a piece that sounds at almost every turn as if it’s headed for the key of C, then veers off in a different direction. In essence, the harmonic push toward C is like a comedian’s straight line that sets up the punch line (in this case, the unexpected new key). Understanding the
piece’s relationship to C makes it easier to understand, learn and improvise over, and offers fresh perspectives to listeners, as well. Before we begin, let’s literally get on the same page. All references to “Moment’s Notice” in this article are to the version in The Real Book, Sixth Edition, published by the Hal Leonard Corporation. The analysis begins at rehearsal letter B (letter A is the introduction). Let’s start at the very beginning of the head, that is, at letter B. Why does a piece that’s nominally written in E♭ begin with an E-7 chord? It’s because it actually starts in the key of C. The opening progression, Em7 – A7 – Fmi7 – B♭7, can be expressed as iii – vi – ii – V, with C as the tonic. The ii – V is not a literal ii – V, which would be D-7 – G7. Instead, it takes place a minor third above. It’s a stock substitution – one that most jazz musicians are familiar with. (In an article called “Coletrane’s Substitution Tunes,” jazz pianist and author Jason Lyon calls it an “embellishing cadence,” and jazz pianist and educator Frank Sumares likes to refer to it as “the old minor-third trick.”) Guitarist Schott, for his part, describes Coltrane’s strategy as an element of chromaticism. In an article titled “We Are Revealing a Hand That Will Later Reveal Us,” he notes
“IN PLACE OF THAT RELIABLE KEY CENTER LIES A RAPIDLY SHIFTING SERIES OF TONICIZATIONS.”
JAZZed March 2013 51
focus session that the half-step relationship of E-7 and F-7 “achieves a higher degree of chromatic saturation than a more conventional progression, such as iii – vi – II – V, which also fits the melody, would have guaranteed.” Indeed, chromaticism is at the core of “the old minor-third trick.” Schott is also absolutely correct when he asserts that the melody would go well over a standard iii – vi – ii – V (E-7 – A7 – D-7 – G7). Its compatibility with that cadence, in fact, is part of what makes it point toward C. However the passage may be viewed, it is indeed all set to resolve to the key of C from B♭7 (the subtonic of C). Try it, and hear how easily it could happen. Example 1.
What does happen, though, is something substantially different. Instead of heading for C, Coltrane uses the F-7 – Bb7 as a pivot to land on E♭MA7, a fifth away from B♭. He then goes to E♭’s minor fourth – A♭-7 – and on to D♭7, establishing another ii – V progression. Here again, he’s potentially headed for C, with the A♭-7 - D♭7 functioning as a tritone substitution for D7 – G7. Here’s how it would sound it if actually landed on C. Example 2.
Tritone substitution for D7 – G7
Minor-third substitution for ii – V (D-7 – G7)
Alternate destination: C (Actual destination: D-7)
Alternate destination: C (Actual destination: E♭)
But instead, Coltrane pulls up short and gives us D-7 – G7, which is the ii – V of C and another common substitution. He uses the D-7 – G7 to start the same harmonic
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focus session pattern as at the beginning, only transposed a whole step down and landing on D♭MA7. From there, Coltrane gently lifts back to D-7 – G7, and once more appears headed for C. Here’s what it would sound like if Coltrane had opted to resolve in C. Example 3.
ii – V in C
of minor-third substitution we’ve seen before, this time for F-7 – B♭7. As before, however, the very brief resolution is to a iii chord (G-7, the third in Eb). Here, Coltrane appears ready to set up a conventional iii – vi – ii – V – I progression to E♭, which he in fact does at the second ending. This time, though, he again gives us the minor-third substitution, which by now has become a familiar harmonic building block. The result is a ii – V progression from A♭-7 to D♭7. Again, it could easily be destined for C, like this: Example 4.
Tritone substation for D-7 – G7
Alternate destination: C (Actual destination: C-7)
This time, however, Coltrane goes to C-7, using it both as a momentary tonic and also another pivot chord – the iii of Ab. That starts us on a further iii – vi – ii – V – I, as follows: C-7 – (F7 - implied) – B♭-7 – E♭7 – A♭. The trip to A♭ lasts for exactly two beats before Coltrane slips to A♭-7 and then heads for D♭7 – the subtonic of E♭. It’s the same type
Alternate destination: C (Actual destination: G♭)
Once more, however, Coltrane opts for a new key, ending the first chorus in Gb (the tritone of C). On the turnaround, he ap-
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pears bound for E♭ when he drops down to a ii – V composed of F-7 and B♭7. But, once again, it’s that same old minor-third substitution, leading us back to C. (The next chord is actually C’s iii chord, E-7, which is a common substitution for the I chord and also begins the head again.)
The second time around, Coltrane actually does go to E♭. He completes the tune with a lengthy B♭7 pedal (dominant fifth) before finally coming to rest on E♭ as the final note. Whew! The musicians and the audience have made it through the dizzying succession of key changes that
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define one of bebop’s signature pieces. Throughout the tune, C has lurked in the shadows, but never stepped into the light. Its presence, however, is felt everywhere, through the constant expectation that it will imminently appear. That supposition, in fact, is a primary element that makes the various ii-V-I destinations so surprising. The piece’s relationship to C has useful ramifications for performers and listeners alike. Both can use C as a reference point – a mental anchor – throughout the piece. It’s a way to organize the tune’s fast-changing chord progressions and understand them as a carefully crafted series of substitutions and pivots. In this way, the piece becomes much easier to comprehend, master and hear. Recorded in 1957 on the album, Blue Train, “Moment’s Notice” stands more than 50 years later as one of the masterworks of a harmonic genius. As much as his “wall of sound” and incredible dexterity as an improviser, it’s his advances in harmony that have secured Coltrane his place in the jazz pantheon. It’s fitting that a half-century after its release, “Moment’s Notice” is still yielding fresh insights into the mind of its tradition-breaking creator.
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Scott Dailey is a jazz pianist, writer, and public-school music teacher in Northern California. He holds a degree in English from Stanford University and degrees in music composition and music education from San Jose State University. Copyright © 2012 by Scott Dailey. All rights reserved.
Works Cited • AllAboutJazz.com. 2009. forums. allaboutjazz.com/showthread. php?t=42684. • Coltrane, John. 1957. “Moment’s Notice.” In The Real Book, sixth edition. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard. Also on Blue Train, track 2. 1957. New York: Blue Note Records. • Lyon, Jason. 2007. “Coltrane’s Substitution Tunes.” www.opus28. co.uk/ tranesubtunes.pdf. • Schott, John. 2000. “We Are Revealing a Hand That Will Later Reveal Us.” In Arcana: Musicians on Music, ed. John Zorn, 345-366. New York: Granary Books / Hips Road.
jazzforum
Dr. Larry Ridley, Executive Director. Bill Myers, President
www.aajc.us
A Celebration of the Life of Poet Jayne Cortez: May 10, 1934 – December 28, 2012
Poet Jayne Cortez – as she was known most of her life – was born to Rance Richardson, a career military person, and Ada Kiser Richardson, a “housewife” (later a secretary) in Arizona on May 10, 1934. Her father was stationed at the Ft. Huachuca, Arizona Army Base. The Richardson family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1942. Jayne, her sister Jewell (Shawn), and her brother Rance grew up in the South Central Los Angeles community of Watts. Her parents collected records by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Nat “King” Cole and Jimmy Rushing. Jayne, a high school art and music student, took piano lessons, learned to play the bass, cello and studied harmony and theory. She was enthralled with the music and art of Black Los Angeles. A high Jayne Cortez school classmate was trumpeter Don Cherry whom she introduced to the avant-garde jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman. In 1954, Jayne and Ornette would marry. To this union was born Denardo, who grew up to become an extraordinary drummer for both his parents in their separate careers. After ten years of marriage, Jayne and Ornette divorced. Growing up, Jayne heard the poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes and quotations by Shakespeare. As a teenager, Sallie Jayne Richardson - who was always known by her middle name, Jayne - wrote “poetic lines” as a gradual evolutionary part of growing up. This process of “free composition” permitted her to approach her expression and her interactions in a manner “organic and free”. She majored in liberal arts at Compton Junior College, which she attended for a year. Assuming her Filipino maternal grandmother’s maiden name, Jayne entered the world of professional poets and spoken word performers as Jayne Cortez. In 1960, Cortez joined the actors’ workshop of Davis Roberts, an ensemble that performed in the Ebony Showcase Theatre of Los Angeles. There, she and other African American artists met, developed their skills, and experimented with acting, designing sets, and directing. During the summers of 1963 and 1964, Jayne ventured into the South with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She surveyed voter registration projects in Mississippi and supported the efforts of community leaders Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry and others. In Los Angeles at SNCC, Jayne organized a support group that included designer Bob Rogers and Maya Angelou, who would become Cortez’s life-long friends. In 1964, she created her one-woman show that premiered at the Los Angeles Civic Playhouse. That same year, she first performed her poetry with music collaborating with pianist Horace Tapscott. Also in 1964, Jayne joined Jim Woods and others in establishing Studio Watts, an African American Arts Center in Los Angeles which included the Watts Repertory Theatre Company founded by Cortez. In 1967, Jayne traveled throughout the world including Africa, Asia and Europe before settling in New York City. During the 1970s, she visited Africa many times immersing herself in the cultures of Ghana, Togo, Angola, the Sudan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Senegal (where she would make her second home). While in Nigeria, Jayne met Oba Akenzua of Benin, Amos Tutuola, Lindsay Barrett, Fela Ransome Kuti, Ruby and E.U. Essien Udom, playwright Wole Soyinka and architect Demas Nwoko.
In 1977, the Second Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC), which was held in Lagos, Nigeria, afforded opportunities for Jayne to read her poetry and to meet for the first time, Chinua Achebe and the Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo, who would become her collaborator in a groundbreaking initiative for women writers of African descent (OWWA). Cortez would go on to perform at Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Modern Art and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City and in many other major American cities. She also participated in jazz, literary and cultural festivals throughout the world including Beijing, China, Berlin, Germany, Johannesburg, South Africa, as well as in England, Finland, Cuba, France and Brazil. In the 1960’s Jayne met artist Melvin Edwards, and on seeing his work, asked him for drawings to be included in her first book of poems in 1969 entitled the “Piss-stained Stairs and the Monkey Man’s Wares”. In 1975, she married the prominent sculptor and artist who illustrated many of her books. They traveled the world together supporting each other’s careers and collaborated on projects of poetry and art. In 1980, with her son, Denardo Coleman, Jayne formed “The Firespitter Band” so that she might experiment and reveal more fully the possibilities of poetry and music. Members have included Denardo Coleman (drums), Bern Nix (guitar), Al MacDowell (bass), Charnett Moffett (bass), T.K. Blue (alto sax), Alex Harding (baritone sax), Charles Moffett (tenor sax), Sam Furnace (alto sax), Frank Lowe (tenor sax), and Bill Cole (reeds) among others. In the late 1970’s, Jayne taught at Rutgers University for five years. During this time she began to create monoprints in Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop. She continued making prints in Asilah, Morocco, and Goree Island, Senegal. In 1972, she started Bola Press “in order to control her own work and publishing rights”. She published twelve books of poetry and pro-
JAZZed March 2013 55
jazzforum “BLUES BOP FOR DIZ”
by Jayne Cortez
In the bebop band at Minton’s there was a very beautiful sounding trumpet player who could walk the cliffs at dawn like a Dogon, put dry clay on mouth of a slow blues groove high & oop bop sha bam a kooka mop in the hot house of Mintons and Monroes, A very beautiful trumpet player with so much confrontational stress, so much cheek inflatiation, so much accelerating concentration, so much chromatisizing in the pistons of the oo blah dee at Mintons / at Monroes, a very fantastic sounding trumpet player with such a torrential outburst of spitballs, such forceful streams of aerophonic breath, such mysterious piercing winds, such an array of terrifying cuts on drum cans of Manteca Manteca Manteca in the rough house at Mintons / at Monroes, a very beautiful sounding trumpet, In the bebop band at Mintons/at Monroes a very beautiful sounding trumpet player, In the bebop band at Mintons/ at Monroes there was this fantastic trumpet player who carried sharp pitches of the path from Goree to South Carolina & back with salt peanuts in Akan of Cubano Bop , salt peanuts in ashe of Tin Tin Deo Oo papa odobo , salt peanuts salt peanuts in the hot house at Mintons / at Monroes, a beautiful trumpet player who could intensify & energize & dynamize the changes, in cool breeze of the caravan, who could transpose clowning into another composition of contrasting sounds, who could elaborate & agitate & illuminate the voltage in Tunesia & oo bop sha bam down round midnight groovin high & bopping the blues in the bebop band at Mintons/ at Monroes, A very fantastic sounding trumpet player named Dizzy Gillespie Dizzy Gillespie Dizzy Gillespie
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duced twelve recordings of her poetry with jazz. Jayne’s poetry has been translated into twenty-eight languages. Jayne Cortez was honored with several awards during her lifetime, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts International, the New York Foundation of the Arts, the New York Council of the Arts Poetry Award, the International African Festival Award, the Langston Hughes Medal, the American Book Award, the Thelma McAndless Distinguished Professorship Award from Eastern Michigan University and the Bellagio (Italy) Residency Award from the Rockefeller Foundation. Believing there ought to be closer relationships between professional women writers of Africa and the African Diaspora, Jayne became co-founder with Ama Ata Aidoo of the Organization of Women Writers of Africa, Inc. (OWWA). Through the auspices of this non-profit literary organization and non-governmental organization associated with the United Nations, Jayne and other members proposed to facilitate “the development and advancement of the literature of women writers from Africa and its Diaspora”. In partnership with New York University, Jayne as president of OWWA organized “Yari Yari” in 1997 and “Yari Yari Pamberi” in 2004, these conferences celebrating black women writers. Also in conjunction with NYU and UNESCO, she organized “Slave Routes: The Long Memory” in 1999 and “Slave Routes: Resistance, Abolition and Creative Progress” in 2008. Jayne was currently working on the third Yari Yari symposium, “Yari Yari Ntoaso: Continuing the Dialogue”. It is to be held in Accra, Ghana, May 2013. In 2001, the Jayne Cortez archival collection was placed in the Manuscripts and Archives Division of the Schomburg Center in New York City. A respected and true icon, Jayne Cortez is survived by her son, Denardo Coleman, her husband, Melvin Edwards, her sister Shawn Smith, three stepdaughters, Ana, Margit and Allma, her daughter-in-law Cheri, her grandson Ali, her granddaughter Keisha Smithwick, extended family and a host of friends throughout the world. She was predeceased by her parents and her brother.
q&a
MARIO GARCIA DURHAM
The Need for Arts Advocacy: AN INTERVIEW WITH MARIO GARCIA DURHAM, PRESIDENT AND CEO ASSOCIATION OF PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTERS
A
BY EUGENE MARLOW, PH.D.
t the January 10, 2013 JazzConnect conference in New York City, Mario Garcia Durham, President and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), introduced the keynote speaker, Michael A. Nutter, Mayor of Philadelphia and President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, at a seminar entitled “Stories of Innovation and Inspiration.”
“YOU CAN’T WAIT FOR THE OUTSIDE WORLD TO RESPOND TO AN ISSUE LIKE THIS.”
I caught up with Mr. Durham a few weeks later to ask him his perspective on the future of jazz in the context of the broader field of the performing arts. After all, Durham is a man in an executive office with a broad view. APAP, based in Washington, D.C., is the national service and advocacy organization with more than 1,400 members worldwide, dedicated to developing and supporting a robust performing arts presenting field and the professionals who work within it. Durham’s background in the performing arts is also broad. Prior to his leadership role with APAP, Mr. Durham was posted at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) where he served as Director of Artist Communities & Presenting from 2004 – 2011. At the NEA, Mr. Durham contributed to programs such as “An Evening of Poetry” hosted by the President and Mrs. Obama, and the NEA Opera Honors. He inaugurated the NEA’s Artist Communities granting program and was the initiator of Live from Your Neighborhood, a groundbreaking study of the impact of outdoor arts festivals in the U.S. After holding numerous management positions and serving as artistic director at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in the 1990s, he founded Yerba Buena Arts & Events in 2000, the producing organization of the annual Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. The outdoor event offers more than 100 free performances by the San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Ballet, and more for an audience of 100,000 attendees. Following are some of the comments Mr. Durham made with regard to jazz and the performing arts during our conversation: JAZZed March 2013 57
q&a Marlow: What is your perspective on the future of the performing arts in the United States? Durham: I’m frankly quite optimistic. The reason is the way young artists coming up have a burning desire to create and present. Although some people are discouraged and dismayed, I see these young artists coming forward to present their work. In the early 2,000s there was great concern that there would be no leaders in our field to take the place of the leaders in their ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s. But since that time there has been a great deal of evidence that arts administration programs around the country are doing quite well with wonderfully gifted, brilliant young students and graduates. These young people are waiting to lead. This gives me great hope. Marlow: How do you feel about what has happened in arts education in the K-12 area in the last 50-60 years? It’s my impression a lot of arts programs have just been done away with? Durham: That’s a completely different issue that has had an impact on our field. When I was at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) the fact that arts education is under-funded was of great concern because that is often the place where young people are exposed to the arts. Some of the NEA’s reports and others show clearly that early exposure to the arts does result in participation later in life. I am concerned about that. I grew up in a time, in Houston, Texas, where every high school, every junior high put on full scale, classic American musicals, like “West Side Story.” That wasn’t anything unusual. It was just part of life. I don’t know if those opportunities still exist as they once did. I think that’s a reality we’re all having to deal with. Marlow: What do you see as the future of jazz in this context? Durham: When I was at the NEA we had a survey on “Public Participation in the Arts” which is done periodically. And the last one which came out when I was there was very alarming with respect to 58 JAZZed March 2013
jazz. Attendance at jazz events was one of the areas indicated as receiving less and less audience attention. That was of great concern. I don’t know how this great art form is re-positioning itself into new areas and taking something unfamiliar to a lot of young people and presenting it to them. It’s a complicated problem. At APAP we’re dedicated to supporting our jazz colleagues, such as the support we gave to the two-day JazzConnect conference at the Hilton in New York City right before APAP’s January 2013 conference. It gave participants an opportunity to assess the state of the field, to look for ways to improve its standing, and to look at issues of audience attendance and jazz at schools – these are critical, critical issues. Marlow: Then the question become – should something be done about the status of jazz in the United States? This is America’s indigenous music. And as I’m sure you know, it’s very prevalent around the world, but a lot less so in America. Can something be done? Durham: It is the way it is right now. I think it’s incumbent on those who are from the field and have a vision of the future of the field to come together and determine what’s the best way to proceed – with respect, for example, to all the areas of education, audience development, arts funding, and presentation of the work. The effective model that is individuals who are passionate about this work, who have a vision for the future, they need to do the work. They need to come together. You can’t wait for the outside world to respond to an issue like this. I know that in other arts fields – like dance, orchestras, classical music –they’ve all been dealing with the changing realities of taste, of audience direction, and how the arts are transmitted. They’re having to deal with that and determine the best way to navigate this reality. So, yes it is a new reality. Yes, it is problematic, and, yes, there are wonderful individuals focused on talking about and tackling these issues. The JazzConnect event earlier this year is the kind of gathering that is important in this regard. In that kind of dynamic I’ve observed it
takes a core group of individuals to carry this work forward. I’ve seen that work in many fields. Marlow: In other words, people in the arts need to be more proactive? Durham: Yes. The question of “assumptions” also resonates for me right now. What I mean is I would caution those who are looking at the above issues not to make assumptions: that their value of something is shared and appreciated on the same level or that there’s even interest by others in these issues. I might be driven (mistakenly) by an assumption that there’s interest in the same issues I’m interested in, that there’s a hue and cry about it, that other people perceive there’s a problem, and that what I’m offering as a solution is something people want. I would just caution people to make sure that all assumptions are checked. Often, I’ve seen work falter because it’s based on a false assumption about interest by others in a certain issue. Marlow: Sounds like good business practice, not to take anything for granted. Thank you for your time and commentary.
Eugene Marlow, Ph.D., is an award-winning composer/arranger, producer, presenter, performer, author, journalist, and educator. He has written over 200 classical and jazz compositions for solo instruments, jazz and classical chamber groups, and jazz big band. Three of his big band charts appear on three Grammynominated albums, including Bobby Sanabria’s recent Multiverse (2012). Under his own MEII Enterprises label, he has produced eight critically acclaimed CDs of original compositions and arrangements. Marlow is senior co-chair of the Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives Concert Series at Baruch College (The City University of New York), now in its 21st season, where he teaches courses in media and culture. He is drafting a book on jazz in China entitled Jazz in the Land of the Dragon.
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Backbeat
Donald Byrd (1932 – 2013)
There was no one quite like Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II. The Detroit native joined up with the Bebop movement after receiving his master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, performing with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and recording with Jackie McLean. At the end of the ‘60s, he became one of the only bebop greats to make the transition to fusion styles and R&B, creating the best-selling electric Black Byrd album in 1973. That album paved the way for a decade of modern work while teamed up with producer/writers the Mizell Brothers, which resulted in classic albums like Street Lady and Stepping Into Tomorrow. Byrd taught at several institutions throughout his career, including Rutgers University, New York University, Howard University, Oberlin College, Cornell University, and the Hampton Institute. He earned two additional master’s degrees from Columbia University, a law degree in 1976, and his doctorate in 1982. Among countless influences Byrd had on generations of jazz musicians and fans were his early interactions with legendary keyboard player Herbie Hancock, who made his recording debut on Byrd’s 1961 album, Royal Flush. That album, along with Byrd’s 1972 record Free Form, included Hancock’s first recorded compositions and gave the young composer invaluable exposure. Hancock has called Byrd “a born educator.”
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