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The March 2011 issue of JAZZed magazine.
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MAR
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T H E J A Z Z E D U C A T O R ' S M A G A Z I N E
The Official Publication of
JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK
21 Highland Cir. Ste. 1Needham, MA 02494Change Service Requested
Basic Training: Yoruban Game
Focus Session: Principles of Twelve-Tone Writing
Delfeayo MarsalisA Responsibility to the Music…
JAZ_COV1 COV1 3/14/11 9:56:12 AM
When we say music is central at North Central College, it means that 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.
Our location, in downtown Naperville, is only 40 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 30 N. Brainard Street Naperville, IL 630-637-5800
Performing Opportunities at North
Central CollegeConcert Choir
Women’s ChoraleWomen’s Chamber Ensemble
Opera WorkshopMusic Theatre Productions
Vocal Jazz EnsembleGospel Choir
North Central College Express Show Choir
Concert WindsChamber Winds
Percussion EnsembleBrass Quintet
Big BandJazz Combos
Chamber JazzPep Band
Naperville Chorus
Music Scholarship Audition Day:Saturday, March 5, 2011
For more information visit, northcentralcollege.edu/audition.
Jazz FacultyJanice Borla - VoiceMitch Paliga - SaxophoneDoug Scharf - TrumpetJoel Adams - TromboneJohn McLean - GuitarFrank Caruso - PianoJim Cox - BassJack Mouse - Drum Set/
Program Coordinator
At North Central College, being well-rounded doesn’t mean losing your musical edge.
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2 JAZZed March 2011
STAN KENTON ALUMNI BAND 22We check in with one of the last touring big bands, celebrating it’s 20th anniversary in 2011, under the capable leadership of Mike Vax.
REPORT: APAP/NYC 30JAZZed contributor Eugene Marlow, Ph.D. summarizes the vibe and events at the gathering in NYC presented by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, held this past January.
BASIC TRAINING: RHYTHMIC HARMONY 34Acclaimed percussionist and music education advocate Billy Martin, of Medeski Martin & Wood, explains “Yoruban Game” – a rhythmic exercise he uses, himself, when teaching at Camp MMW.
DELFEAYO MARSALIS – A RESPONSIBILITY TO THE MUSIC 36JAZZed speaks with acclaimed producer, writer, and performer, Delfeayo Marsalis about effec-tive teaching techniques, trends in students’ approach to understanding jazz, and his thoughts on being a member of one of the most distinguished families in popular music.
WPI’S JAZZ HISTORY DATABASE 44Worcester Polytechnic Institute is neither a large school, nor one typically known for its jazz program – however, with the guidance of Richard Falco, director of Jazz Studies, WPI is doing its part to keep alive the rich history and legacy of jazz.
FOCUS SESSION: PRINCIPLES OF TWELVE-TONE WRITING 50In this issue of JAZZed, Lee Evans shares his thoughts on twelve-tone technique – using all twelve tones of one octave of the chromatic scale as the melodic theme of a composition.
ROUNDTABLE: SUMMER CAMPS & WORKSHOPS 54We get some feedback from three experienced instructors on the ins and outs of sending students to jazz camps and workshops…
™
contentsM A R C H 2 0 1 1
DELFEAYO MARSALIS “That, to me, is jazz at its finest – when you don’t know what’s written and what’s improvised.”
JAZ_2 2 3/14/11 10:14:40 AM
PUBLISHER’S LETTER 4NOTEWORTHY 6GORDON GOODWIN:WHAT’S ON YOUR PLAYLIST 10
departments54
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 of ces. 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. © 2011 by Symphony Publishing, LLC. Printed in the U.S.A.
™
MARCH 2011Volume 6, Number 2
GROUP PUBLISHER Sidney L. [email protected]
PUBLISHER Richard E. [email protected]
Editorial StaffEDITOR Christian Wissmuller
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Eliahu [email protected]
Art StaffPRODUCTION MANAGER Laurie Guptill
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Corporate Headquarters
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Member 2011
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JAZZed March 2011 3
Cover photograph: Keith Major.
JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK SECTION 15• PRESIDENT’S LETTER• JEN CONFERENCE REPORT• JOIN THE CONVERSATION!• SAVE THE DATE: JEN CONFERENCE 2012
GEARCHECK 57CD SHOWCASE 60CLINICIANS CORNER 61
CLASSIFIEDS 62AD INDEX 63BACKBEAT: GEORGE SHEARING 64
JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK
RPMDA
JAZ_3 3 3/14/11 10:14:48 AM
The history of jazz is a subject that many accom-plished writers and producers have tackled, some with signifi cantly greater success than others. Be-sides actual recorded performances, there have been numerous methods of documenting this art, from books, periodicals, and essays, to movies and documentaries. Some of the great efforts in this area have included Ted Gioa’s seminal book, Roy Carr’s A Century of JAZZ, Paul F. Berliner, Thinking in Jazz: The Infi nite Art of Improvisation, The History of Jazz, and of course, Ken Burns’s quintessential 10-part, 19-hour documentary, Jazz. Go-ing beyond these formats, one of the greatest successes is the Smith-sonian’s oral history project which features recorded interviews of over one hundred jazz legends in order to “document a generation of jazz musicians, performers, relative, and business associates” according their website. They’ve done an extraordi-nary job at interviewing some of the most seminal fi gures in the history of jazz, much of which is available for free on the Smithsonian web site. However, a great amount of jazz history re-sides in the towns and cities where musicians plied their trade and toiled in small clubs, restaurants, and studios that couldn’t possibly be covered by any single organization.
Richard Falco, the directory of jazz studies at WPI an engineering college in the mid-size New England city of Worcester, Massachusetts, launched a project in 2001 to look below the sur-face of the jazz world and delve into the history of the local jazz community, its roots, perform-
ers, clubs, and the “second tier people, the one who actually helped create a scene in a town or region.” Falco hit upon an idea of documenting interviews, with players, family members, and others related to the which can be expanded upon around the country, and perhaps around the world that will help to preserve and provide greater understanding of the various styles of jazz that formed in different regions which added to the great diversity of this music. The site, which is
known as the Interactive Jazz His-tory Multimedia Museum (www.jazzhistorydatabase.com) is a multi-media database of recordings, vid-eos, photographs and much more. But, it is the concept that Falco has initiated that is an idea that can be duplicated and replicated in regions across the USA that would bring to life the grassroots level artists and their contributions to the jazz idi-om. You’ll fi nd an insightful article about this essential database in this edition of JAZZed.
On another very exciting note, kudos to the Grammy awards for
honoring former JAZZed cover-subject Espe-ranza Spaulding as the Best New Artist of the Year. She sums it up on her website with great clarity : “Jazz artists aren’t typically nominated in this category, so that alone is special about the award this year. Bur, mainly I hope this will illuminate more than just an edge of the HUGE breadth of all that is happening in jazz music as a whole right now.” The potential for this award to infl uence a new generation of jazz listeners is extraordinary…
publisher’s letter R I C K K E S S E L
Making History
“A great amount of jazz history
resides in the towns and cities where musicians plied their trade
and toiled in small clubs, restaurants,
and studios.”
4 JAZZed March 2011
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JAZZJuilliard
Summer 2011 WorkshopsFlorida • Georgia • Utah • Melbourne, Australia
Jazz camps for students who are dedicated, disciplined, and passionate about jazz.
June 13-17 Grades 6-12Bak Middle School of the ArtsWest Palm Beach, FL • (561) 882-3870
June 13-17 10-18 years of ageGeorgia Academy for the Blind (GAB)for visually impaired students onlyMacon, GA • (478) 751-6085
June 20-24 Grades: 6-12 North Atlanta High School, Atlanta, GA(212) 799-5000 ext. 365
June 27-July1 Florida School for the Deaf and the Blindfor hearing and visually impaired students who are residents of FloridaSaint Augustine, FL 8 (904) 827-2200
July 1-9 High School students, ages 15-18Juilliard Winter Jazz School, AustraliaTrinity College, University of Melbourne Parkville, Victoria • 61 (3) 9348 7486 • [email protected]
July 10-16 High School and CollegeSnow CollegeEphraim, UT • (435) 283-7472
Applications dates vary • Information at www.juilliard.edu/summerjazz Phot
os:
Bren
t C
line
JAZ_5 5 3/14/11 9:57:43 AM
6 JAZZed March 2011
noteworthyTurkish Embassy partners with JALC for Ertegün Jazz Series
n late Janary, the Embassy of Turkey was joined by representatives from Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Boeing Company to announce their partnership in the “Ertegün Jazz Series,” a six concert series created in honor of the late Ahmet Ertegün, founder of Atlantic Records, member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Board of Directors, son of the second Turkish Ambassador to the United States, and
staunch music advocate. The invitation-only concert series will be curated by Jazz at Lincoln Center and sponsored by the Boeing Company. The fi rst concert, featur-ing Grammy nominated pianist Orrin Evans, is scheduled for March 1, 2011. Pianist Helen Sung performs with her quartet on April 12, 2011.
During their father’s tenure as the Turkish Ambassador (1934-1944), Ahmet and his older brother Nesuhi hosted jam sessions in the music room of the Turkish Embassy Residence – the same site that will host the Ertegün Jazz Series more than seventy years later. Current Turkish Ambassador Namik Tan stated, “Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegün established deep roots with the jazz community of Washington, DC. Though Washington was segregated at that time the Ertegün brothers brought cultures together with one common objective, celebrating music.”
I
Harlem Jazz ShrinesThis spring a new jazz festi-
val “Harlem Jazz Shrines” will shine the light on local talent, as well as Harlem’s historic clubs and venues.
Jazzmobile, Harlem Stage and The Apollo Theater are presenting “The Harlem Jazz Shrines festival” May 9th through the 15th with a lineup of talent at historic Harlem locations including the Apollo.
The festival takes place at seven locations with dozens of different performers. The cost of admission is $10 for every single event. For more information visit www.harlemjazzshrines.org.
Cape Town Intl. Jazz Fest Lineup Announced
roducers ESP Afrika recently announced during the festival’s launch in Rosebank, north of Johannesburg, that DSTV’s Mzansi
Magic had been secured as the broadcaster of the March 25 and 26 festival in the mother city.
South African Tourism’s Jermaine Craig said the festival “has earned its stripes” and compared it to other interna-tional festivals like the New Orleans Jazz, Heritage Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival.
The launch was attended by artists like legendary trumpeter Hugh Maseke-la, singers Naima McLean, Simphiwe Dana, Tumi Molekane from Hip-hop band Tumi and the Volume and Botswana’s Citie, who will all perform.
Other performers confirmed for the festival include Christian Scott (USA), Hanjin (China), Lisa Bauer, Dave Koz (USA), Gang of Instrumen-tals, Patricia Barber (USA), Ivan Mazuze (Mozambique/South Africa), Monique Bingham (USA), Sandra Cordeiro (Angola), Esperanza Spald-ing (USA), Youssou N’Dour (Senegal), Earth Wind & Fire (USA), Don Laka, Bebe Winans (USA), Feya Faku, Tortured Soul and Cindy Black-man (USA).
P
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noteworthy
8 JAZZed March 2011
noteworthyThe Jazz 100Jazz24.org has released their list of “One Hun-dred Quintessential Jazz Songs,” as chosen by listeners and staff. To view and comment on the results, visit www.jazz24.org.
Spalding on Bieber, Grammy Win… At this year’s Grammy awards, former JAZZed cover subeject Esperanza Spalding shocked most by beating pop star Justin Bieber in the
category of Best New Artist.In the immediate aftermath, everyone not familiar with one of jazz’ brightest young talents was online, trying to fi gure out who Esper-
anza Spalding was: the next morning, her name was the top search on Google.Spalding told CBS’ “Early Show” co-anchor Erica Hill in early March, “For a split second, I thought maybe [the award presenter]
was kidding. I thought it was a joke. I was just totally shocked. Nobody really expected that. We were, like ‘What?’ And then, excited, of course.”
As to whether it’s all sunk in yet, Spalding said, “I think so. I mean, I don’t know what it is yet, exactly. I’ve never been there before. But you know, we’re doing our daily sort of playing, practicing, touring, and my mind is more focused on that. Every once in awhile, someone goes ‘What does it feel like?’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, I don’t know, I hadn’t thought about it. Yeah. It’s great.”’
As for Bieber? Spalding said, “He was very gracious, and we met right after the show and exchanged hair touches. He was very sweet and gracious and he didn’t seem upset. Very kind young man.”
“Jazz is neither specifi c repertoire, nor academic
exercise... but a way of life.”—Lester Bowie
Say What?
SEPT
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T H E J A Z Z E D U C A T O R ' S M A G A Z I N E
The Official Publication of
JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK
SEPT
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10 •
$5.
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The Official Publication of
JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK
21 Highland Cir. Ste. 1Needham, MA 02494Change Service Requested
This Music Should be Known
EsperanzaSpalding
Educator Roundtable: Saxophone Mouthpieces
Focus Session: Characteristic Mode Tone
2 GREAT WEEKS OF JAZZ!July 3rd - July 8th OR July 10th - July 15th
JAMEY AEBERSOLD’s 2011SUMMER WORKSHOPSJAZZ
2-DAY WORKSHOP PRIMERS
GUITAR/BASS/DRUMSJuly 2nd & 3rd
July 9th & 10th
SEMINAR W/JAMEY!July 2nd & 3rd
ALSO
University ofLouisvilleLou., KY
JAZ_8 8 3/14/11 10:16:02 AM
10 JAZZed March 2011
1. John Williams – Catch Me if You Can, SoundtrackJohn Williams leaves them all behind. He is still writing music at a prolifi c rate, and this score is a great example of his jazz chops. Maybe you can argue that other composers could have written “Star Wars,” but to have the skill set to write dramatic orchestral music and a score like this one? Only J.W.
2. Take 6 – So Much to SayThey have learned the lessons of the Hi-Los and The Singers Unlimited but also of Earth, Wind and Fire. They are still at the top of their game, singing complex vocal arrangements with impeccable pitch, time and feel. Got to love my guys in Take 6.
3. Thad Jones Mel Lewis – “TipToe”This might be my all-time favorite big band arrangement. It is simply sublime, with the great Snooky Young playing that awesome plunger solo. And I love that sax section, lead by Jerome Richardson. Thad was an original, one of my biggest infl uences as a writer.
4. Pat Williams – AuroraSo great to see Pat get this record out there. His ability to combine orchestral and jazz infl uences in an organic way is impressive, and the band is clearly having a blast playing his great charts.
5. Earth, Wind & Fire – “In the Stone”Man, back in the day pop music had melodies as well as some serious grooves! I went to school taking those grooves apart and checking them out. That band had such a sense of joy in their tunes, too, and was totally infectious! Still is.
6. Sinatra at the Sands with the Count Basie Orchestra – “Luck Be A Lady”One of our greatest singers and our greatest big bands, both at their prime, man I would have loved to be there back at these concerts! Just completely swinging stuff, with Marshall Royal and his great alto sound leading the saxes with great charts by Quincy and Billy Byers. Love that Basie band!
If Gordon Goodwin never wrote, performed, or ar-
ranged music again, he’d already have made his mark.
As a successful Hollywood composer, Goodwin has
racked up eleven Grammy nominations (winning
an award in 2006 for his Instrumental Arrangement
of “Incredits” from the fi lm, “The Incredibles”) and
three Emmy Awards. As a performer (keyboards,
woodwinds) he’s collaborated with the likes of Sarah
Vaughan, Mel Torme, Quincy Jones, John Williams,
and Christina Aguilera, to name just a few.
Happily, he’s not one to rest on past achievements
and with the 18-member Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat
Band, Gordon is bringing large ensemble jazz to whole
new audiences by infusing the music with his wide-
ranging tastes.
What’s on Your Playlist?
Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band’s newest album, How We Roll (Telarc International) comes out April 12, 2011. www.gordongoodwin.com
JAZ_10 10 3/14/11 10:17:21 AM
12 JAZZed March 2011
7. Hiromi – “I’ve Got Rhythm” Simply astonishing playing. And a really cool arrangement, too. Hiromi’s great technique is obvious enough to hear, but she also has great stylistic range and is wonderfully spontaneous as an improviser, open to any direction the music might go. Her joy in playing music is a pleasure to behold.
8. Victor Wooten – “U Can’t Hold No Groove” Victor is an infectious talent and has a pocket that won’t quit, along with an instantly identifi able sound and style. The guy plays like crazy, writes music, novels, you get the feeling he could do pretty much whatever he wanted to.
9. William Walton – “Variations on a Theme by Hindemith” This piece is so totally happening, and I’ve loved it for years. It’s very hip rhythmically, essentially tonal, but with some unexpected harmonic moves and a playful sense of fun throughout. I’ve learned a great deal over the years from studying the score.
10. Cannonball Adderley – “Who Cares?” Here I am at the end of this thing and am reminded why I hate lists like this – I haven’t gotten to Steve Wonder or Oscar Peterson or Michael Brecker or well, any-way, let’s just close out with my favorite alto player, playing with Bill Evans, also a big infl uence for me. Cannonball’s sound is full of life, his time rock solid, his sense of soul and groove, unsurpassed.
JAZ_12 12 3/14/11 10:17:25 AM
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JAZ_14 14 3/14/11 10:18:43 AM
JAZZed March 2011 15
JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK
Our network is growing
A MESSAGE FROM JEN PRESIDENT LOU FISCHER
JEN Board of Directors (2010-11): Ruben Alvarez, Paul Bangser, John Clayton-Vice President, Orbert Davis, Jose Diaz-Secretary, Dr. Lou Fischer-President, Monika Herzig, Willard Jenkins, Rick Kessel-Treasurer, Mary Jo Papich-Past President, Paris Rutherford, Bruce Silva, Bob Sinicrope, Terell Stafford, Andrew Surmani-President Elect. Offi ce Manager: Larry Green; Bookkeeper: Mindy MuckWebmaster: AudioWorks Group, Ltd./JazzCorner.com
“Man is so made that when anything fi res his soul, impossibilities vanish.” – Jean de La Fontaine
As I write to you today, I have to say how much FUN I had at the 2nd Annual JEN Conference recently in New Orleans! It was great to see the family come together for such a happening. Old friends, new friends, long time business acquaintances, long lost college buddies… all in the same house sharing our collective stories and jazz understanding with each other and enjoying the fruits of everyone’s labors. From the youngest school group to the oldest pro group, and all in between, every concert and clinic was truly representative of the BEST of the BEST as we hoped! The following pages are just a snapshot of some events and hopefully will allow those of you that could not join us this year to read a bit about what you missed!
As we look forward to the 3rd Annual Jazz Education Network Conference January 4-7, 2012, we will be Developing Tomorrow’s Jazz Audiences Today in the vibrant community of Louisville, KY! However you pronounce it, whether it is Looaville, Louavul, Luhvul, Loueville, Loueyville…Louisville IS the Possibility City! This conference, again ALL UNDER ONE ROOF!...all within a days drive of 24 major U.S. cities, promises to be another fi rst rate presentation by the organization and it will be held at the wonderful Galt
House Hotel on Fourth Street in the heart of the city. Louisville affords our JEN membership an opportunity to visit the heartland of America, home of the Kentucky bluegrass, the Kentucky Derby, the Louisville Slugger, 4th St. Live! The Urban Bourbon Trail…and much much more.
It is important to realize that JEN is not just a once per year conference. JEN is people working in your interest ALL YEAR ROUND! We are exploring more initiatives now than ever before during our brief history, as the nuts and bolts of the organizational structure are now in place and we are in what I call Stage Two of JEN’s organizational development.
On the horizon, new initiatives include launching a K-8 web page that will be geared toward providing specifi c links for helping those interested in teaching jazz at that level. And speaking of the website, as of February 1, we
rolled over to a dedicated server, which will speed up the site. Further, we have hired the expert team at AudioWorks Group Ltd./JazzCorner.com as our new webmasters. We hope to unveil a new, user and social friendly template by the end of March.
We are working on a partnership to present technology interest clinics, and are formulating ideas for a research interest area of the organization, along with a mentoring program we hope to be able to announce soon. We are in the third year of a Strategic Partnership with Music For All, co-presenting the
Summer Jazz Camp and the National Honors Jazz Band of America, and also in the third year with Symphony Publishing, publisher of JAZZed magazine as the Offi cial magazine of JEN. We unveiled the new Jazz Composition Showcase at the recent conference, and will continue the Conference Program Book Cover Design contest to include those interested in the Visual aspect of Jazz.
We are interested in your ideas, your concerns, and building membership involvement as the organization matures, and if you have spe-cifi c skills you wish to Volunteer to JEN, please DO contact us via the CONTACT JEN button online or by telephone at the number listed.
In closing, please remember to vote in the upcoming JEN Board of Directors election in April. The voice of the membership IS important to us as we forge ahead.
Bass-ically Yours;Dr. Lou Fischer
JEN Co-Founder, Presidentlfi [email protected]
“Stop thinking in terms of limita-tions and start thinking in terms of possibilities.” – Terry Josephson
JAZ_15 15 3/14/11 10:18:48 AM
Jazz Education Conference Grows and Evolves
The second annual JEN Conference, held January 2011 in New Or-leans, grew more than 50% in attendance over the inaugural event held less than eight months prior. Plentiful in attendance were musicians, both student and educators, worldwide jazz media and fans, along with record label executives and even Congressman John Conyers from Michigan. With over four times the exhibitors from the initial event, the conference quickly sold out exhibit space and tabletops to instrument manufacturers, higher learning institutions and publishers.
Actual attendance is not the only area of growth for the 2nd Annual JEN Conference. According to JEN President and Co-Founder Dr. Lou Fischer, the event grew in “submissions for clinics / performances, ac-companied by professional and school / community groups. Therefore, offerings at the conference grew; (New Orleans) attendance reached upwards of 2,300 versus 1,300 in St. Louis (during 2010).”
Suffi ce it to say, the annual JEN Conference is becoming well-known within its industry. Response to the event continues to expand in both domestic and international markets as far reaching as South Africa and Japan. To date there’s been exciting coverage in Asia’s ATN and Brass-Tribe, JAZZed Magazine, AllAboutJazz.com, Downbeat, Jazz Times and the Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) News, etc. In the Crescent City, WWOZ broadcast interviews and streamed select Blue Room concerts “live” from the Roosevelt Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Additional jazz media (broadcast, print and online) took notice with pre and post conference coverage, sending representatives to report on the trade gathering that brings together everyone in the jazz music community.
f you thought the evolution and growth of the JEN Conference was an impos-sible notion, then think again.I
JEN Board Members Orbert Davis, Lou Fischer.
Bassist Gene Perla entertaining at the piano/President’s Reception.
Trumpeter Mike Vax.
Jim Widner, JEN Past President Mary Jo Papich.
JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK
JEN Board Member Ruben Alvarez, NEA Jazz Master David Baker.
16 JAZZed March 2011
JAZ_16 16 3/14/11 10:18:53 AM
From hashtags to videos, links and twitpics gone by, a social media frenzy en-sued on JEN’s Facebook and Twitter locations during the NOLA conference. This new media was key for up-to-date coverage in rooms where S.R.O. audiences were not uncommon. The “Jazz Video Guy” Bret Primak shared videos on Louis Arm-strong Jazz Camp All Stars, while Basin Street Records executive posted informa-tion referencing his involvement.
A resourceful organization, JEN has done an excellent job leveraging its con-stituents of board members, volunteers and musicians after only 2.5 years. “As long as we focus on our mission of advancing education, promoting performance and developing new audiences, there is unlimited growth potential,” said Andrew Surmani, JEN President-Elect. Current JEN President and Co-Founder Dr. Lou Fischer says, “we are just continuing to do what we believe the membership has requested of the organization, through the various surveys we have ran and com-ments heard.” The Jazz Studies Chair at Capital University in Ohio said, “I’m excited we are in stage two of JEN’s development (working now on “initiatives” rather than so many governance nuts and bolts).” Mary Jo Papich plans to focus on student programs – throughout the year – for the organization in her role as JEN Past President and Co-Founder.
As the JEN Conference continues to evolve, watch for a theme of “developing tomorrow’s jazz audiences today,” at the third annual JEN Conference in Louisville, KY from January 4-7, 2012. Not only will JEN develop into a complex network of educators and industry types, but also more jazz fans and enthusiasts. In effect, the 2012 conference will be the third in a three prong approach, where each annual conference focuses on one aspect of the network’s mission.
About the Author: Dawn DeBlaze is an active JEN member who manages entertainment me-dia campaigns at DeBlaze and Associates with an emphasis on jazz. The errand girl for rhythm and media matchmaker edits “Jazz News” and remains busy with the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Jazz Journalists Association (JJA),) and Advancement of Jazz Study & Perfor-mance Advisory Council. Visit www.deblaze.com to learn more.
JAZZed March 2011 17
Congressman John Conyers. MIke Tomaro & John Wilson Arranging Clinic.
Rusty Scarberry, Emily Fischer, Mary Ann Fischer.
Gary Armstrong, Frank Alkyer, Roseanna Vitro.
John Clayton leads a group discussion.
Lee Mergner, Eulis Cathey.
Caleb Chapman and Christian Wissmuller. Jim Widner entertains in the sponsor area.
JAZ_17 17 3/14/11 10:18:59 AM
18 JAZZed March 2011
JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK
The JEN conference had many highlights for me. Performances day and night by students and pros; clinics that showed you specifi c instrument, vocal and jazz techniques; eye-opening presentations for musicians about what’s going on in the busi-ness end of the jazz business. It seemed endless at times, just because you couldn’t take in enough of the offerings. But the thing that permeated the conference for me was witnessing and hearing the bonding of so many people involved in the music I love. It’s almost as if our Jazz Village is becoming whole again.
– John Claytonjohnclaytonjazz.com
“”
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JAZZed March 2011 19
JEN would like to thank all of the musicians who performed during the conference.
Congratulations to all!
Selected List of School/Community Ensembles• American River College Vocal Group• Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp All Stars with special guests
Jonathan Batiste, Edward “Kidd” Jordan, and Bobby Sanabria• Bellevue College Vocal Jazz Ensemble “Celebration”• Berklee Global Jazz Institute Combo• Booker T. Washington High School Combo I• Caleb Chapman’s Little Big Band• Caliente! - Latin Jazz/Salsa Big Band• EastBaton Rouge All Parish Middle School Jazz Band• Fountainebleau HS Jazz Band• HBCU Honors Alumni Big Band• Louisiana All State Jazz Band, Rick Condit-director• Loyola Jazz Band 1• The Thelonious Monk Institute Instrumental Combo• Mt. Hood Community College”Genesis” Vocal Jazz Ensemble• New Collection Community Vocal Jazz Acappella Ensemble• New England Conservatory Combo - Ro Sham Beaux• New Trier High SchoolJazz Ensemble & Swing Choir• Northwestern High School Combo• Pensacola State College Jazz Ensemble• San Francisco JAZZ High School All-Stars• The Louisville Leopard Percussionists• The Mid Atlantic Collegiate Jazz Orchestra• The University of Memphis Southern Comfort Jazz Orchestra• The University of Miami Frost Concert Jazz Band• The University of Miami Jazz Vocal Group• The University of North Texas One O’Clock Lab Band• The University of New Orleans Jazz Guitar Ensemble• The University of Southern California Thornton School of
Music Jazz Honors Combo
Selected List of Professional Ensembles/Soloists• Rubén Alvarez Latin Jazz Pro Jam• Lynne Arriale Highlights of Nuance & Convergence• Jonathon Batiste• Alan Baylock Big Band• Andrew Bishop Group• Randy Brecker• Topsy Chapman with Solid Harmony• Jeff Coffi n and The Mu’tet• Evan Christopher• Tony Dagradi and Astral Project• Clockwork• Dirty Dozen Brass Band• Donald Harrison Jr. Group with a special appearance by Congo Square• Doreen’s Jazz New Orleans• HighTIME featuring Ndugu Chancler• John Fedchock• John Fedchock Sextet• Aaron Goldberg Trio• Aaron Jensen Vocal Group• Aubrey Johnson Combo• Dave Liebman• John Mahoney Big Band• Junior Mance Quintet• Matt Marantz Quartet• Thomas Marriott Jazz Quintet• Delfeayo Marsalis’ and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra• Kerry Marsh Vocal Jazz Quartet• Chuck Owen & the Jazz Surge• Ali Ryerson Jazz Quartet• Bobby Sanabria• Cindy Scott• Mark Shilansky Sextet• Terell Stafford• University of North Florida Faculty & Alumni Jazz Group• University of Southern California Thornton School of Music
Faculty Jazz Quartet• U.S.Air Force Airmen of Note• U.S. Army Blues Swamp Romp• Don Vappie and the Creole Jazz Serenaders• Dr. Michael White Quartet• The Buffet Crampon Saxophone Section
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20 JAZZed March 2011
Presenting JEN in New Orleans was a perfect choice. All the history and the vibe made this year a memorable experience for all that attend-ed. Walking through the quarter and seeing tap dancers and hearing wailing blues made me feel at home. There were many great teachers and acts performing for the convention.
-Roseanna Vitro
@CarriBugbee RT @kirkhamilton: cool to hear a congressman talk so passionately about jazz. Right on, Rep. Conyers. #nolajen < YES!!
@alfredmusic Goodbye, Louie Armstrong! See you soon! http://twitpic.com/3ogxoz#nolajen
GREAT CONFERENCE EVERYONE...Even though we changed our name...I was very
happy to be part of the “family reunion”...Here’s to Louisville!
– Sherrie Maricle
Join the conversation! Find the Jazz Education Network on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Jazzednet.org
@k1mothy Lost thought from a crazy week: What is it about some artists that makes them identi -able from just a handful of notes? #NOLAJEN #PDesmond
@kirkhamilton Amazing to see Jose Diaz pause to teach his kids even as they tear into this sala stuff. Ndugu just came onstage too! #nolajen
@thomasjwest: Great ideas at JEN on online teacher resources from, Caleb Chapman #nolajen
I enjoyed my time at the JEN conference last month. Without being too hectic or overwhelming, there was
a lot of interesting music and ideas to digest. The locations - not only New Or-leans but the hotel itself- were ideal. I had a lot of fun meeting old and new friends in and
around the conference. As the Jazz Education Network grows and expands its mission, I hope it retains the intimate and accessible vibe. Except for the one hour when the 26 piece afro cuban ensemble rehearsed in the room adjoining my voice and bass master class, I had a brilliant time : ).
– Sachal VasandaniNew CD, Hi-Fly will be released on Mack Avenue Records
June 21. www.svjazz.com
“
”
@SAVSwingCentral RT @RicardoOchoa: Compose your own solos in order to learn structure. G.goodwin #nolajen
@k1mothy Wow. The conference is already over? What a week. How long until the next one? Goodbye New Oleans #NOLAJEN #PDesmond
JAZ_20 20 3/14/11 10:19:24 AM
• EARLY-BIRD REGISTRATION - $125 Individual Members. A savings of $50 off of regular registration - available through October 15th. Spouse/Partner, and Student rates are also posted.
• PERFORMER/CLINIC/PRESENTER APPLICATIONS: Available online March 1st -May 15th Midnight EST.• VOLUNTEER APPLICATIONS: JEN needs YOUR special skills! If you would like to volunteer, log on today and complete the
Volunteer Application...a must to be considered. Volunteers will be selected based on unique skill sets and needs and are being asked to work a minimum four hours per day, during each day of the conference. Each volunteer will receive credentials for the entire conference.
• MEDIA: If you are a member of the Press and wish to attend and cover the 2012 Conference, visit out Online Newsroom for the most up to date conference information and complete the Media Application. You will notifi ed of your acceptance in the near future.
• CONFERENCE HOUSING: The Galt House, located in downtown Louisville has been selected as the host for the 2012 Confer-ence. 1300 rooms at reasonable rates, and event space to accommodate all we can produce!
• EXHIBITING: The Galt House Exhibit Hall and Grand Ballroom include noisy, semi-noisy and quiet locations for your promotional needs. Exhibiting is open to universities, instrument manufacturers, music publishers, record labels, tour companies, military bands, music dealers, individual artists, arts organizations, jazz festivals and more. We have a space to fi t your needs and budget.
• STUDENT COMPOSITION PROJECT SHOWCASE: JEN announces a new initiative that is a Student Composition Showcase and your talented students will want to be involved! Open to instrumentalists and vocalists, and in two age brackets.
• JOHN LaPORTA AWARD: Berklee and JEN are collaborating together to present the John LaPorta Educator of the Year Award to a deserving elementary or secondary education jazz teacher. Make your recommendation online today.
• COVER DESIGN COMPETITION: Get your students to show us their artistic fl air! Enter the JEN Program Cover Design Contest and have their artwork grace the cover of the Third Annual Conference! Open to ages 12-18.
• HOSTING A SPECIAL MEETING OR RECEPTION? If you are in need of a location to hold your own Special Event meeting or Reception during the 2011 JEN Conference, we are able to pass on special low rates on a per hour basis to you as a JEN member benefi t. Want to bring your alumni together? Want to bring your constituency group together? Reserve your space soon.
• SPONSORSHIPS: Want to become a JEN sponsor? Various levels of sponsorship for the 2011 Conference are currently available to you and/or your organization.
• SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Several scholarship opportunities are available to deserving students. Visit the JEN web-site for details.
Visit www.JazzEdNet.org
SAVE THE DATEJanuary 4-7, 2012
3rd Annual JEN Conference • Louisville, KYVisit www.JazzEdNet.org for Information and Application Details
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22 JAZZed March 2011
“EVERYBODY IN THE BAND IS REALLY COMMITTED TO JAZZ EDUCATION.”
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JAZZed March 2011 23
20 YEARS AND STILL GOING STRONG…
Stan KentonAlumni Band2011 marks the 20th anniversary of one the last touring
big bands. “It was originally started as the Mike Vax Big
Band featuring alumni of the Stan Kenton Band,” says
the group’s leader, Mike Vax. “Stan actually put in his will
that he didn’t want a ghost band traveling around play-
ing the hits of the ‘40s. But, twenty years ago was the
50th anniversary of the Kenton Band and De Anza Col-
lege in Cupertino, California wanted to do something
special for it, so they had me put together an
alumni band to play a concert for their fes-
tival.”
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24 JAZZed March 2011
The guys in the band realized that Stan’s name was starting to fade from public consciousness and wanted to do something to keep it alive. “We thought, ‘What can we do to try to keep it going and still stay within his wishes about not having a ghost band playing all the old hits,’” says Vax. “We ended up de-ciding that if we had a band of alumni that could play all those old things but we also started writing new music in the Kenton style, it would be more in line with what his wishes would have been so that’s what we started doing.” In 2010, with the knowledge and good wishes of the Kenton family, the name of the band was changed to “The Stan Kenton Alumni Band directed by Mike Vax.”
Friends of Big Band JazzAt fi rst, the group did just a few
dates here and there, but after a few years the band members started to sug-gest the idea of going on tour for a few weeks. “I started working on booking tours a little over ten years ago and now we all get on the bus and do some tour-ing almost every year,” says Vax. “Each year we pick an area of the country, I fl y everybody in – the alumni come in from all over the place – and get on a bus for two to three weeks.”
To offset the costs associated with hiring a full big band, Vax founded a non-profi t. The undertaking is fund-ed by the non-profi t called Friends of Big Band Jazz. (www.bigbandjazz.net) “Many of the schools we play at could not afford to bring the band in,” Mike explains. “So we actually raise money through donations and grants and we’ve raised enough money to the point where we can lower the price for all of the schools that we perform at.” In addition to funding The Stan Ken-ton Alumni Band, Friends of Big Band Jazz has given scholarships for students to attend summer jazz camps, donated funds to youth orchestras, donated money to school music programs, and provided fi nancial support for the Prescott Jazz Summit – a festival in Arizona that includes students as well
Kim Richmond and Alex Morzyn during a saxophone clinic.
JAZ_24 24 3/14/11 10:20:20 AM
JAZZed March 2011 25
Register at CSUSummerMusicCamp.com
July 10 - 15, 2011Advanced Jazz Track
Develop your jazz performance skills in a week-long mentoring environment. Work directly with CSU Jazz Faculty in both combo and big band performance settings, as well as jazz-related masterclasses; private lessons are available.
JAZ_25 25 3/14/11 10:20:26 AM
26 JAZZed March 2011
as pro musicians. FBBJ also supports the Al “Jazzbeaux” Collins Memorial Scholarship Fund with proceeds from its CDs.
Anniversary Year2011 is the 100th anniversary of
Stan’s birthday and incidentally it is also the 70th anniversary of his or-chestra, and the 20th anniversary of the Kenton Alumni Band, so it’s a very
important year and the band will be doing more touring this year than ever before. “The road beckons! In April we will be touring in Kansas, Okla-homa and Texas, then in the fall we will be touring on the East Coast. We have also been invited to perform at the new Musical Instrument Museum in Scottsdale, Arizona, as well as some other things that are in the works. We are hoping to perform in Los Angeles
around the actual date of Stan’s birth-day in December.” Everything the band does in 2011 will be in celebration of Stan Kenton’s Centennial.
Have Band Will Travel – Recording on the Road
In addition to touring, The Stan Kenton Alumni Band has released fi ve albums. It’s most recent album, Have Band Will Travel, was released in 2010 on Summit Records. “What we do is sort of interesting,” says Vax. “We re-cord each night and at the end of the tour we listen back and see what cuts would be good. On some cuts the band’s playing great and the hall sounds horrible and sometimes it’s vice versa. Our 5th CD is by far the best one we’ve ever done.”
Although a lot of the tunes are from the Kenton band’s hey-day, The Stan Kenton Alumni Band is constantly writing and arranging new music. “We have a great arranging staff that has been doing stuff for us over the years,” says Vax. “Lenny Niehaus, Kim Rich-mond, Dale Devoe, Joel Kaye, Scott Whitfi eld – a lot of the arrangements come from within the band. The only guy that isn’t actually playing in the band who has done arrangements is Lenny Niehaus but most of the other arrangements are all coming from guys that are playing with the band and most of them at one time or another wrote charts for Stan.”
The band will always do some of the old tunes. One of Stan’s biggest
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JAZ_26 26 3/14/11 10:20:33 AM
JAZZed March 2011 27
hits back in the day was “Intermission Riff.” “On the new CD, Kim Richmond did a chart where it’s basically the old chart of Intermission Riff, but in the middle he voiced out Carl Fontana’s trombone solo from ‘Kenton in Hi Fi’ for the whole band,” explains Vax. “The band also did Johnny Richards ‘Artemis and Apollo’ from the Adven-tures in Time album, an arrangenment by Lenny Niehaus on the old standard ‘Long Ago and Far Away,’ and Mike had Dale Devoe do an arrangement of ‘Softly as I Leave You.’ We’re defi nitely staying in the Kenton style but we do some original things too.” One of the originals off their latest record is “El Viento Caliente,” which is a piece that Paul Baker wrote to feature Vax’s trum-pet playing. “There are some things that are really from the old book, some things that are new but are really in the style of Stan and some of them are completely new tunes,” says Vax. One of their more interesting selections is a tune called “Five and Dime” which was written by a trombone player who is an heir to the Woolworth fortune. “They ran all of the old fi ve and dime stores from many years ago. So he wrote us a tune in 5/4 for us – ‘Five and Dime’ – and the tune is actually partly in fi ve and partly in ten. The new CD is a re-ally nice combination of arrangements of standards and brand new composi-tions, but everything is pretty much done in the Kenton style.”
Keeping the Flame Alive“About 95 percent of our jobs are at
high schools and colleges,” Vax notes. “Stan was really the father of jazz edu-cation and he really believed in hav-ing the band play in schools and do clinics, so a majority of our jobs are in educational institutions. Anytime we do a concert at a high school or college we do a free afternoon clinic for all the young people in that area. We’re really trying to keep the jazz education part of what Stan believed in alive, as well as his music.”
Vax continues, “The big band has been such an important idiom in the his-tory of American music and even today there are thousands of big bands in junior highs, high schools, colleges and even rehearsal bands all over the country. The
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28 JAZZed March 2011
idiom is still there but the traveling bands are almost completely gone and the only way that young people get a chance to hear what the music was like is through CDs or maybe YouTube. We feel that get-ting on the bus – which very few bands do anymore – and actually traveling and playing live concerts, gives the kids an op-portunity to hear the real deal. When we play these concerts the kids just go wild, because they’ve never heard anything like what we do in a live situation before. We feel that not only are we keeping Stan Ken-ton’s name from dying, but we’re helping to keep the big band idiom alive.
“A couple years ago we did a tour of the Midwest and at one of our stops the school band, had done an arrangement of Malagueña for their fall football show,” continues Vax. “When they found out we were com-ing one of the questions was ‘Can you guys play Malagueña?’ Well, that’s our closing tune of every concert because it’s just one of the greatest charts ever written for the Kenton band. It’s a real killer arrangement and of course the average age of our band is about 64 so they’re not young kids. All these guys really played with Stan or Woody or Count Basie or Maynard when those leaders were alive! So we ended with Malagueña and the band director came up afterwards shaking his head and said, ‘How do nine-teen old guys play louder than my two-hundred-piece marching band?’ When the young people hear the en-ergy that comes out of the band and they’re looking at the stage and a
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JAZZed March 2011 29
lot of the guys in the band are old enough to be their grandfathers, they just can’t believe it,” says Vax. “What we’re trying to do is really an impor-tant cog in the wheel of keeping jazz music and the big band idiom alive. One of the real challenges is getting young people turned onto the music so that the idiom will continue to survive.”
To help turn on the younger gen-eration, Vax & the Orchestra do free clinics at every high school and col-lege where they perform. “The clinics are a little bit of everything,” he ex-plains. “Typically, we’ll play a couple of tunes for the kids so they can hear what the band sounds like and then we break off into individual rooms for sectionals. All the trumpet players will go with our trumpet section, all the bone players with the bone sec-tion, all the reed players go together and then the rhythm section. So we end up breaking it up into four sepa-rate rooms and we really get into the nuts and bolts of not only jazz play-ing, but also how to play their indi-vidual instruments. At the end, we’ll sometimes go to the main room and talk about jazz history, or let them ask questions. The guys in the band are really good about letting the kids ask questions and often many of the kids come up after the clinic or the show asking for pointers. The guys are happy to spend the extra time with these young people. Everybody in the band is really committed to jazz education.” With hope, Vax’s model
of education, performance, and jazz stewardship will bring the music of Kenton, and the big band idiom to many generations to come.
If any educators are interested in booking the band during their 2011 tours (or beyond), please contact Mike Vax at [email protected] or (925) 872-1942. Information on the band can be obtained at www.bigbandjazz.net.
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ce.umsl.edu/jazzcamps
� June 19-24, 2011 �Omaha Jazz Workshop Summer Camp –
University of Nebraska, OmahaFor information contact Dr. Pete Madsen
at 402-554-2297 or [email protected]
www.unojazzcamp.com
� July 10-15, 2011 �San Jose State University –
Jazz CampFor information contact Dr. Aaron Lington
at 408.924-4636 [email protected]
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JAZ_29 29 3/14/11 12:26:41 PM
30 JAZZed March 2011
report APAP/NYC
A
Jazz: Not Just Another Four-Letter Word At APAP/NYC
BY EUGENE MARLOW, PH.D.
t APAP/NYC 2011 – a global conference presented by
the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP),
January 7-11, 2011 at the Hilton New York, and themed
“Vision 2021”– jazz, “America’s classical music,” as the
late Dr. Billy Taylor coined it, was very present: among
jazz journalists and APAP members at several sessions,
with jazz agents/exhibitors in the three-tiered exhibit
hall, and by hundreds of jazz musicians at a pletho-
ra of performance venues in downtown New York at-
tended by thousands of people. For five days in New
York City, at least, jazz achieved a meaningful, cultural
critical mass. For educators this is encouraging news.
For those not familiar with APAP, here’s a little background:• Almost 4,000 performing arts pro-
fessionals and artists from 49 states in the U.S. and 30 countries attend APAP|NYC, making it the largest performing arts industry event.
• Attendees represent the entire breadth and depth of the field worldwide – including presenters, producers, agents, managers, art-ists, educators, consultants, ven-dors, funders, donors, foreign gov-ernment and cultural institution representatives, volunteer leaders and more.
• 49 percent of attendees are leading decision makers or performing arts programming specialists and 54 percent of attendees are in senior management.Organized and produced by the
Association of Performing Arts Pre-senters, the Washington, D.C.-based industry association for the perform-ing arts presenting field with nearly 2,000 members worldwide, APAP/NYC is the annual conference for the APAP membership and the gath-ering place for emerging to estab-lished field leaders to contemplate the issues, the opportunities, and the future for this industry. More succinctly, APAP/NYC is a place for soliciting business, creating busi-ness, and making business.
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JAZZed March 2011 31
Jazz JournalismSimultaneous with APAP-member sessions, the Jazz Jour-
nalists Association (JJA), under the ongoing and able leader-ship of its founding president Howard Mandel, organized several discussions dealing with the state of jazz journalism, particularly in light of the so-called new media, or social media. Several sessions involved discussions between JJA and APAP members. Another session, this one organized by APAP on the last day of the conference was a jazz forum that brought together artists, agents, managers, and present-ers. All were lively conversations. Clearly, jazz journalists are dealing with the advent of new media, particularly blogs and tweets, and the response has been several. But one theme emerged consistently: reporting on jazz still requires the ba-sic journalistic skills as before, but what has changed is the speed with which it can now be reported, the tools avail-able (such as flip cameras, laptops, and the Internet), and the impact these electronic media have on the structure and compactness of the reporting.
The impact of so-called new electronic media on jazz journalism, let alone journalism in general, was paralleled by APAP CEO Sandra L. Gibson. At the conclusion of an APAP-organized session for new colleagues and international members, I asked her what she felt was the most pressing issue facing the “live performing arts” presentation business. Her immediate response was directed at new media. For her the issue was not about whether it was good or bad, but how to deal with it. Similar to the tone of discussions among jazz journalists, Ms. Gibson expressed a concern that new media are changing the live performing arts landscape. She was concerned audiences could now access the performing arts in new ways, and that implies audiences not necessar-ily sitting in a venue to experience the performance. On the other hand, new media also means new ways of reaching extant and potential audiences to bring them to the live per-formance. For jazz journalists and APAP executives alike the “new media” situation is clearly formative.
Jazz Agents/ExhibitorsThe three-tiered exhibit hall at the Hilton provided
ample space for the seemingly never-ending array of “live performance” agent representatives and booking agents. All manner of the performing arts exhibited their wares: dance, music, musical theatre, comedy, the circus, lecturers/speak-ers, magicians, mime, poetry, and puppetry – around 400 exhibitors in all.
The music category was broad and included: jazz, classical (new music), classical (symphonic), classical (western), con-temporary folk, country, electronica/techno, gospel, hip-hop, instrumental, jam band, lounge, musical theatre, pop, rock, singer/songwriter, vocal recital, and world music (Afro-Pop, Celtic, Flamenco, Gypsy, Indian, Latin, Reggae, Taiko Drum).
In this category jazz, by far, had the largest listing, not only in terms of representation, but also in terms of showcas-es: 120+ in all; some groups showcased at the Hilton, many others presented their talents at the various Winter JazzFest venues (see below). Numerous names were familiar, others up-and-coming. Yes, jazz was well represented.
Jazz Performers and Performance VenuesThe headline of Ben Ratliff’s New York Times in-print and
online article of January 10, 2011 said it all: “Jammed Ses-sions Abound at a Village Jazz Festival.” The “festival” orga-nized in conjunction with the APAP conference was titled New York Winter Jazzfest. Five jazz venues—Le Poisson Rouge, The Bitter End, Sullivan Hall, Zinc Bar, and Kenny’s Castaways, all within a few blocks of each other—hosted a smorgasbord of jazz performers over a period of several eve-nings starting at 6 p.m. and concluding at 3 a.m. The multi-evening event boasted dozens of bands that attracted not a few hundred, but thousands of people. Ratliff described it as a “Wall of Backs.” An apt description. One event I attended was Anat Cohen and her quartet at Le Poisson Rouge. I ar-rived perhaps 10 minutes into the performance. As I entered the main room I was awed by the fact that it was packed: it was S&SRO – Standing and Sitting Room Only. In prepara-tion for the performances, they had removed all the tables and chairs. People were sitting on the floor in rapt attention listening to the performance. The atmosphere was more like the Monterey or Newport Jazz Festivals than a sophisticated New York jazz club scene.
A Blip or a Trend?Was this a very well organized and publicized anomaly? Per-
haps. Yet an observation out of the APAP context provides a tell-ing picture. The December 2010 issue of All About Jazz, New York lists over 150+ jazz clubs in its multi-borough directory. All of them are booked with performers every month.
report
JAZ_31 31 3/14/11 10:23:42 AM
32 JAZZed March 2011
It could be argued, “Well, yes, of course, this is New York City. It is expected that there should be dozens of jazz clubs here!” The counter-argument is that regardless of locale, mo-tivated performers will find a venue to play in, whether it’s an “official” jazz club, or a non-traditional venue, such as a religious institution, a medical facility, a school, a library, a street corner, a park, a retirement home, the subway, even a
prison. There’s more of this happening. In fact, several grant-making organizations are encouraging this. This is just more evidence that jazz has not disappeared. It has just diffused into our cultural and social ecology.
A Vision of the Present and the Future for Jazz Creators
For several years now the American jazz scene has been funky, and not in a good way. The dramatic demise in April 2008 when the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) filed for bankruptcy alone was a blow to an industry seemingly in a downward spiral. Jazz, as a genre with respect to physical CD sales, lags behind even classical music, not to mention rock, country, and rap. The shrinking number of jazz radio stations nationally gives the impression of dimin-ishing impact. The number of jazz clubs nationally “seems” to be falling. Overall, before the end of World War II jazz was America’s mainstream music. Since the end of World War II, jazz appears to have gone underground, vanished.
On the other hand, the number of high schools and col-leges offering jazz as a course of study has risen. However,
report
JAZ_32 32 3/14/11 10:23:48 AM
for many years numerous jazz journalists and educators have bemoaned the fact that while they are turning out better-schooled, highly skilled players, there are fewer places for them to play and perform. To quote Dr. Billy Taylor once more, he said, “We all know who the good players are.” While there are thousands of jazz players coming out of the several hundred schools that offer jazz programs, not all these players have the chops to perform at the highest level. Not all these players should have a top venue in which to perform. But it doesn’t matter really. What matters is that these students went through a program that exposed them to America’s classical music. It’s not just a matter of performance. It’s also a mat-ter of understanding the culture in which you are born and brought up. You cannot talk about jazz, or compose it, or play it, without bumping into the history of American culture and all that implies. And these days you cannot talk about jazz without dealing with world music and all that implies.
Fact is, while it “appears” jazz has been diminished as a cultural presence in the United States since the end of World War II, jazz is actually everywhere: in radio and television commercials, in film scores, in television soundtracks, in classical music, in musical theatre, in rock and rap, in dance, paintings, photography, and in our language.
From the ashes of the now defunct IAJE has risen the Jazz Education Network (JEN), which boasted over 3,000 attend-ees at its January 2011 conference in New Orleans. It can also be argued that, globally, jazz is an expression of democracy at work, and where there is jazz in some form, there is also the hint of a democratic process at work, as Kabir Sehgal so articulately argued in his 2008 book, Jazzocracy.
From discussions and information sharing between jazz journalists and APAP members, from the enthusiasm (albeit somewhat biased) expressed by the many exhibitors repre-senting jazz artists of various stripes, and from the several nights of performances by jazz musicians attended by thou-sands of people, you could not participate in the 2011 APAP/NYC conference without coming away with a more positive view of jazz’s presence and its potential future. For jazz edu-cators and students alike this is good news going forward.
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. Under the MEII Enterprises label, he has produced six CDs of original compositions and arrangements. His big band chart, “El Aché de Sanabria (en Moder-ación),” appears on Bobby Sanabria’s Grammy-nominated album Big Band Urban Folktales (2007 Jazzheads). 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 19th season, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in media and culture.
reportRONDI
CHARLESTONWho Knows Where the Time Goes
Rondi Charleston writes and sings with full engagement and zero pretense on transfi xing originals, brilliantly re-invented Brazilian and pop classics with an All Star band that includes SNL bassist James Genus, Dave Stryker, Lynne Arriale and Clar-ence Penn. Her Motéma Music debut, Who Knows Where The Time Goes, is marked by honest words, skillfull writing and wonderfully accessible jazz inspired songs. Spend some time with Rondi Charleston and you’ll know why she’s creating such a powerful connection with audiences everywhere.
See Rondi at: JOE’S PUB NY MAY 26, 7:30pm
visit rondicharleston.com for SPRING TOUR DATES
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34 JAZZed March 2011
basic training R H Y T H M I C H A R M O N Y
TYoruban Game
BY BILLY MARTIN
his is a topic I discuss often at Camp MMW and on my latest educational DVD, LIFE ON DRUMS (Vongole Films). Not only do we (Medeski Martin & Wood) stress this as a practice method in our music workshops, but we also use “Yoruban Game” for composing and improvising as a band.
Conceptually: when two or more complimentary rhythmic patterns are playing together we call this “rhythmic harmony.” More common terms used are “counterpoint” and “polyrhythm.” This idea of two rhythms sounding together suggests a feeling. When we change one of the rhythms the perception and feeling changes with it. This is similar to the concept in tonal har-monic movement. So, if we have three or four rhythms at once the feeling is more complex and changing up the single lines within the combination creates a myriad of perception and feeling. This is much more musical and “conversational” in approach to performing, practicing, im-provising or composing. All musicians need to be aware of this in order to have a deeper inter-play and connection with one another whether improvising or just accompanying each other.
Yoruban Game is one of my “Stridulation” composi-tions for percussion, but can be applied to any instru-ment or ensemble as a rhythmic guide or study. Yoruban culture has it roots in West Africa and has infl uenced many other cultures, especially Cuba, Haiti, Brazil and most African American musical traditions. My book Rid-dim: Claves of African Origin (Music in Motion) explores this concept for drummers or any musician interested in deepening their rhythmic sophistication.
The graphic notation for Yoruban Game consists of two symbols: x (= sound) and . (= rest/space). Both symbols have equal time value. I created this notation so any person can participate and there is no emphasis on time signatures. Initially, we have all instrumentalists play woodblocks or bottles – each with a slightly differ-ent tone. Later, we apply Yoruban Game to our instru-ment of choice in an ensemble and work out the tonality in a collective manner.
This is a collective effort. There is no leader, per se. Sometimes, you may need a prompter as initial guid-ance but the ensemble should govern itself collectively.
JAZ_34 34 3/14/11 10:24:30 AM
JAZZed March 2011 35
basic training
Here is a list of the rules and defi ni-tions:
X = sound. = space
‘locked’ mode = everyone plays one tempo, share the same downbeat.
‘trading’ = players can jump from one pattern to another in any order or combination.
‘master clave’ = the key rhythm that defi nes tempo and dictates where the beginning of the phrase is. This part is usually the fi rst pattern (clave) listed on the page.
‘master clave performer’ enters fi rst with top line and determines tem-po for the entire performance of this composition.
Each instrument uses one unique pitch within the ensemble. The ensem-ble may also collectively decide on a mode or tonal concept adding another level of tonal expression. Most West Af-rican musicians hear patterns like these as multiple timelines and each rhythm listed may suggest timelines pulsating in 2, 3, 4, 6, et cetera.
Players should not use dynamics in order to focus on this counter-rhythmic dynamic. The group acts as one organ-ism and complements each other by choosing the pattern that compliments the whole. Don’t forget to leave some space. Everyone does not have to play constantly. Space is the place!
For video examples of the percus-sion class using Yoruban Game, visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxaLzUVvDdo
For more about Billy’s book, Riddim: Claves of African Origin, checkout:
www.billymartin.nnet/Riddim/Rid-dim_book.html and www.youtubecom/watch?v=lANpWdO5rmE
In addition to his acclaimed work with Medeski, Martin, & Wood, Billy Martin has also performed with Pe De Boi, Bob Moses, John Zorn, Iggy Pop, John Scofield, and Maceo Parker, among many others. He is a staunch advocate of music education and takes an ac-tive roll in Camp MMW: www.mmw.net/campmmw.
Yoruban Game by Billy Martin
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JAZ_35 35 3/14/11 10:24:35 AM
“That, to me, is jazz at its fi nest – when you don’t know what’s written and what’s improvised.”
JAZ_36 36 3/14/11 10:25:08 AM
JAZZed March 2011 37
eing driven around the neighborhoods of the Crescent City, discussing jazz with one of the Marsalis clan for an hour or so
– not a bad way to spend an afternoon, right? This past January, while at the JEN Conference, that’s the situation I was lucky enough to fi nd myself in.
Delfeayo Marsalis (www.dmarsalis.com) doesn’t (yet) have
the name recognition of his older brothers, but he’s already
earned a stellar reputation as a musician and producer, and cur-
rent undertakings (the recent Sweet Thunder, for one) suggest
even greater things to come. A stellar J.J. Johnson-inspired
trombonist, Marsalis has performed with the likes of Art Blakey’s
Jazz Messengers, Ray Charles, and Abdullah Ibrahim, as well
as touring and recording as a bandleader. He’s also maintained
an active role as a powerful advocate for music education and
the perpetuation of jazz – the music and the culture.
Along with his father and brothers, Delfeayo recently was
honored as a recipient of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award.
Delfeayo Marsalis
By Christian Wissmuller
A Responsibility to the Music…
B
JAZ_37 37 3/14/11 10:25:16 AM
38 JAZZed March 2011
Here are some thoughts that Marsalis shared during that afternoon in New Orleans on the importance of lis-tening, keeping an open mind, hard work, and respecting the responsibility that jazz scholars have to the music, it-self…
JAZZed: First off, thanks for taking the time to speak with me – and thanks for the impromptu tour of New Orleans!
Delfeayo Marsalis: My pleasure!
JAZZed: Let’s dive right in: I know you are very dedicated to spreading the word of jazz and are a strong advocate for music education. In your dealings with younger students, what are some trends that you’ve noticed?
DM: A lot of what concerns me about students today is there seems to be a trend towards not really checking out the entire history of the music. It feels like a lot of the es-sence, the phrasing, the nuance, the meat of the music is being glossed over.
JAZZed: Is it a lack of exposure, or more of a “willful ignorance” type of thing?
DM: I think it’s impossible to know everything, obviously. But, as an example, I recently worked with a young lady who played tenor saxophone and I was suggesting to her, “You should be able to use vibrato, you should know how to play like Coleman Hawkins” and she replied, “Well, I like the more modern guys like Michael Brecker.” I was trying to get her to understand, I’m not trying to suggest you shouldn’t like Michael Brecker – I’m saying you should know the styles that came before. There’s a big difference between being able to use vibrato and choosing not to use it, and not knowing how to do it. Having that knowledge, that skill – it’s not go-ing to ruin your sound.
JAZZed: When discussing some more modern, contemporary artists, do you fi nd yourself getting roped into the “What is jazz?” conversation?
DM: We know what it is [laughs]. Come on. If I play Ken-ny G. and Charlie Parker – if I play those two individuals for
anybody on the street, they’re going to know which is jazz. So for me to have to say, “This is jazz and this isn’t jazz” – that’s not important to me. I think that jazz is so wide-ranging and, for me, the ideal group has an older school musi-cian, maybe a guy who’s not a heavy reader but only improvises, a guy who likes Coltrane, a guy who likes Ben Webster, another guy who’s infl uenced
by Maria Schneider’s group – you know? Another important element is the avant-garde musicians
of the ’60s weren’t just infl uenced by themselves – they were infl uenced by Ellington and Basie. Nowadays people who don’t play straight-up traditional jazz are not only not well versed in the traditions of the music, but it’s almost frowned upon.
I think the funny trend in music is we’re going higher and faster and louder. The meat and potatoes of the tenor saxo-phone is the lower register, you know? It’s not just a clever name – it’s a tenor saxophone. That’s why when it hits those higher notes, it has emotional impact, it’s captivating. It’s the same thing with a lot of trombone players – they really want to play trumpet.
JAZZed: It’s a good point – the need to have an awareness of your own specifi c role within a group.
DM: You really need to understand what your instrument sounds like. A musician should have as much technique and be able to play as fast as possible and have as much range as possible, but you have to understand the role of your instru-ment and be able to create spontaneous polyphony. That’s what’s so special about New Orleans music and jazz. That, to me, is jazz at its fi nest – when you don’t know what’s written and what’s improvised.
“You run across these students who, at age 16, already think they know what’s worth listening to and what isn’t.”
JAZ_38 38 3/14/11 10:25:23 AM
JAZZed March 2011 39
JAZZed: You’re a big proponent of understanding improv and hearing the music that’s being made, in real time. Any successful methods you’ve em-ployed that help students embrace that approach?
DM: I’ll tell you – we recently worked with about 300 kids in the Da-vis/Sacramento area in California. The students were provided with a six-song CD they were allowed to learn as many tracks as they wanted, but the stipula-tion was that they had to do it with-out writing it out. They had to learn by ear. The interesting thing was, the “top school” in the region didn’t re-ally follow the assignment. You know immediately whether a performer has written out the material. It was the kids who understood how to play in a re-laxed fashion, with nuance, who really got it.
JAZZed: Societal shifts and emerg-ing technologies all play roles in how younger people attack music, though.
DM: No question. We’re less com-fortable, now, talking about race rela-tions than maybe we were in the past. Branford and Winton kind of came from that fi rst generation where you had true access to as much information as possible. Back then, it was really less about the music and more about get-ting all the opportunities as possible and developing a work ethic. That’s certainly changed.
JAZZed: Other than your family, who were some early infl uences on your playing?
DM: I studied with the sym-phonic players in my developing years. Greg Miller – who’s with the Louisiana Philharmonic now – was a huge influence on me. Also I studied with Ron Barron who’s in Boston at Tanglewood.
JAZZed: It’s always bizarre to me when people – players or otherwise – just assume either that jazzers don’t know the classical canon, or don’t need to have any awareness of it.
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40 JAZZed March 2011
DM: No, no, no – it’s so important to understand all of that stuff. The irony of Wynton and Branford’s first band was that these jazz players were all classically, conservatory trained.
JAZZed: Talk a little about the musical dynamic within your family. I think there’s a suspicion that when you and your brothers get together at Thanksgiving or whenever, you have epic jam sessions.
DM: Not really, no [laughs]. And when we do, to me, it’s not even that good! I mean, Branford and Wynton have “the thing.” They’re like different sides of the same brain, they spent so much time together growing up, they lived in the same room...
“It can be dangerous when students are only playing for competitions… The music
doesn’t really have a function.”
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JAZZed March 2011 41
The role of the trumpet in jazz, es-pecially New Orleans jazz, is to take the lead, really. The role of the trum-pet is actually to have no regard for the other instruments, so Wynton is perfectly suited to that [laughs]. The role of the saxophone or the clarinet is to make the trumpet sound good and Branford’s scope of musical un-derstanding is so great – that’s why he’s able to collaborate with so many different artists and enhance their music. The role of the trombone is to connect all of it. The trombone is really the bridge between the rhythm section and the horns. While the trumpet and the sax are going through their thing, we’re smoothing it out.
JAZZed: When did you really make the shift in focus and zero in on jazz?
DM: For me it was when I got to Berklee. So many musicians were famil-iar with Branford and Wynton by that point, so there were a lot of assump-tions about music that all these people fi gured I knew. I wound up spending a lot of time in the library checking out all these older artists. Scott Robertson, a great teacher, was another guy who opened my ears and my eyes. I realized I kind of had a responsibility to know all this music. That’s what we call, to me, “good peer pressure.”
JAZZed: How was it you wound up at Berklee?
DM: I was originally going to go to Boston University. I was in the Mc-Donald’s All American band and Chris Holliday’s brother Rich was like, “You don’t want to go do that classical thing. Come to Berklee!” I called Branford and asked him what he thought and he said, “Yeah, go to Berklee. Why not?” And I literally made the choice in Au-gust prior to freshman year.
JAZZed: You and I both went to Berklee for Music Production & Engineering and you went on to produce a number of projects, notably for your brothers. When did you fi rst get interested in that side of the process?
DM: That’s so crazy, because you also went to BU, didn’t you?
JAZZed: Our resumes are really similar – except that I’m not an award winning, in demand jazz musician. Otherwise, we’re pretty much the same.
DM: [Laughs] Exactly. Well, with recording, it started early on, making demo tapes and recording recitals.
Branford was really into technology, so I learned a lot from him. He really had a sense of production and gave me the first sense of actually being able to produce something. Wynton contributed because he wanted his audition tapes to sound like Maurice Andres records. Here I am in 6th grade, 7th grade and I don’t know anything about reverb or consoles and he’s saying, “Man, why doesn’t
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42 JAZZed March 2011
it sound right?” [laughs] But it was great, because I wound up learning a lot about acoustics and physics and recording through trial and error.
JAZZed: You also recorded Connick, right?
DM: I worked with Harry Connick early on, it’s true. What I realized very quickly was that there wasn’t really anyone of my generation who really wanted to record jazz. People wanted to go into pop – it made sense, it’s a more lucrative path.
JAZZed: What’s your preferred method for instructing: masterclass, one-on-one, lectures?
DM: I think larger ensemble teaching or a masterclass format is most enjoyable for me. One session, we had two big bands and they were set up opposite one another and that felt really effective. We set up a competition of sorts between the two groups and I really feel you gain the most from competition. You have to have some sort of competi-tion, even if it’s only with yourself. It becomes more real than just look-ing at a sheet of music.
Again, we’re trying to hopefully get more students to not be afraid of using their ears. The benefits are so great. It’s like anything else – if you’re on the football team, the coach doesn’t say, “Well, look – you can’t run laps well, so we all just won’t run laps anymore.” If you’re dealing with a student who really doesn’t hear well, who just doesn’t discern the language as quickly as others – well, he or she is going to have to work harder, but there’s still benefit.
“I realized I kind of had a responsibil-
ity to know all this music.”
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JAZZed March 2011 43
JAZZed: Similar benefi ts to actually playing gigs, instead of just going to class.
DM: Oh, yeah and I also try and encourage the students to get out there and gig because you learn so much about the function of the music. It can be dangerous when students are only playing for com-petitions, because then you either win or come in second or whatever, but then that’s it. The music doesn’t really have a function. Whereas, when you’re playing for someone’s party or a wedding, these are things where the music has a function. The requirements of a gig are very dif-ferent then just the proficiency. So many kids who are in jazz ensem-bles aren’t really taught to love this music. They’re taught to learn the music and play in the competition and that’s it. But jazz is so fun, it’s playful, it’s cool – we really need to share that more effectively. People always ask what it is about New Or-leans and that is what it is. We’re out there playing for the people.
JAZZed: What are your current teaching affi liations?
DM: I’m adjunct at University of New Orleans, as well as Tulane. I work with the private trombone students or I’ll sit in on a couple of full classes a couple times a semester.
JAZZed: What’s the best part of being a teacher?
DM: It would be when the student makes that breakthrough and really understands. There was a guitar stu-dent at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts where I was teaching one semester and he really got it, because he actually listened to what I was in-structing the students to do. Moments like that are great.
JAZZed: What’s the most frustrating part?
DM: When [the students] are close-minded. You run across these students
who, at age 16, already think they know what’s worth listening to and what isn’t.
JAZZed: Any words of advice to instruc-tors out there?
DM: You should spend some time dedicated to listening and learning directly from the CD. You should
take these older recordings and have the students really listen, sing along – it really makes a big difference. And don’t be afraid because the stu-dents aren’t going to learn it, or ap-preciate it right away. It’ll be hard, but it’s worth it.
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44 JAZZed March 2011
WPI’s Jazz History Database: AN ACTIVE AND GROWING LIBRARY
BY CHAIM BURSTEIN
Pulling up to Worcester Polytechnic Institute, I wasn’t quite sure what a small tech school
had to offer in terms of jazz education. Two days ago I wasn’t even aware that WPI had a
jazz program at all. It might not be the biggest jazz program – there is only one professor
– but in terms of passion for the music, the students and faculty at WPI have it going on.
Within the first five minutes of meeting Richard Falco, the director of Jazz Studies and his
students, I realized that they had something extraordinary happening.
JAZ_44 44 3/14/11 10:46:25 AM
Falco, who has been teaching jazz history since the early 1980s, started bringing in internationally acclaimed artists to campus for concerts, lectures and master classes. “The students were really inspired by the contact with these artists,” says Falco. “Of course, the questions would always be the same. ‘How did you learn this lan-guage of jazz?’ ‘What inspired you to get going and how did you first enter into this whole jazz scene?’ They were the same questions I always had. As a result, I became interested in getting to know how people first learn the lan-guage and then how it gets dissemi-nated in specific geographic areas. So, I put together a group of students and we went out into the field. The first thing we tried to do was to determine how this city of Worcester, Massachu-setts got started with jazz and we actu-ally worked our way back to the very first jazz ensemble in the city - Mamie Moffitt and her Five Jazz Hounds.
“By going into the field, my students were able to meet with her grandchildren, we found hand-written family histories, we got photographs of her birthplace, her death certificate, and audio inter-views as well. The band didn’t record – which is often the case in the twen-ties, of course – but we did get a lot of her family members to talk to us.” From Mamie’s band, Falco and his students were able to trace the history of jazz in Worcester. “One of the musicians in the Five Jazz Hounds was John Byard – Jaki Byard’s father,” says Falco. “We began to see how one led to the next – Jaki Byard was part of a little co-op here in Worces-ter called the Saxtrum Club. When the big traveling bands would finish their gigs at night, they’d go and do jam ses-sions at the Saxtrum Club. So here’s little Jaki Byard, 16 years old, learning from these masters who were coming in to town and they would jam all night long in this little store front.”. The knowledge that Jaki Byard gained while jamming at the Saxtrum club was put to good use when Mamie Moffitt retired. “She started
her band in 1922 and by 28 or 29, she had pretty much had it. But, she passed it on to others in the group including Byard and so the second generation took off. The fact that we were actually able to trace all the way back to that ances-try was very hip,” Falco continues. “My students were extremely excited about it and I wanted to share this information with others. So, we decided the best way to do that was to create an online museum. We edited all of the audio in-terviews, compiled photos and put it all up on a website. My students love the fact that they get to meet the artists, they get data that no one has – it’s completely unique to our site – and they’re creat-ing this Web where there’s this ability to understand how the language gets dis-seminated.”
Humble Beginnings“The project started in 2001,” says
Falco. “I actually presented this data-base for IAJE at the New York inter-national conference and they were absolutely astounded – right down to the very last person. They were think-ing that this is the wave of the future. This is the new library. This is the new museum. This is how to do things as opposed to having to go to an institute. How many folks from Europe can fly into Rutgers? God bless them – they have a wonderful collection. However, I’m more interested in making it com-pletely available to everyone online.”
Falco’s original vision involved an online library or museum of sorts. “If you want to see video you can get it here, if you want the see audio and so forth you could get it here too,” he says. “We still kind of had that format but the technology wasn’t catching up quickly enough and it was incredibly cumber-some. Even today, if we edit a television show, it could be anywhere from ten to fourteen hours of legwork by the time we rip it, edit it, and digitize it. I have boxes of old television shows in various formats so it’s a lot of work just getting these things digitized.”
JAZZed March 2011 45
JAZ_45 45 3/14/11 1:21:12 PM
46 JAZZed March 2011
While the work is tedious, Falco sees this as an opportunity to save the legacy of some of jazz’s unsung heroes. “The preservation is fabulous. We’ve preserved things that would have been gone forever and they’re archived in high resolution so that we’ve got them available for people doing research and the like.”
Today the website has evolved from a pet project of Falco’s to an entire course at WPI. “This is actually a course that we of-fer here as a seminar and students get aca-demic credit for doing this,” he explains. While WPI might not be the first school that comes to mind with respect to jazz education, Falco points out that his stu-dents’ technology background has really helped get the project to where it is today. “Our technological ability is something that we can bring to the table. Our stu-dents are required to have hands-on proj-ects – it’s built right into the curriculum – and they love that. They’re tech savvy but they’re also really into jazz as well.”
One of Falco’s students, Mike Drnek a WPI alumnus and curent Webmaster and designer for the database chimes in. “We started with limited technology and essentially had a raw database which was based on the ground work that was
laid from the original code,” says Drnek. Unfortunately, jazzers are not always the most tech-savvy individuals. “The big hurdle was in the user interface. The people that are interested in the mate-rials themselves were not necessarily as hip to computers so we had to make a site that was able to present video, audio, photographs, and articles, efficiently and in a way that was easy to access and fun to use too. Converting it from its original incarnation of a raw database to a media rich website that’s very accessible to any-one has been a huge undertaking.”
“The website is very unique,” adds Falco. “We have jazz poetry, paint-ings, over ninety television shows, in-terviews, photographs, hand written manuscripts – you name it, we got it. And, these are all regionally based art-ists. If you look out there, you’ll find that there’s a lot on the first tier people. You’d be able to find tons on Duke El-lington or Dizzy Gillespie but I’m not necessarily interested in those folks. I want the second tier people. I want the ones who actually helped create a scene in a town or region.” Falco’s point is not lost on us here at JAZZed. All too often, researchers can focus on the bigger art-ists without looking into the people who helped shape the growth of that artist. Jaki Byard is a prime example. With Falco and his students’ footwork, the world is a little bit better informed about one of the Jazz greats. “Jaki’s dad played in Mamie’s group and learned the jazz language through her,” says Falco. “You can really see that whole lineage which is very cool. Those are the people that I’m most interested in and those are the people that you’ll find on the website.”
“Currently, we have teams of ten to twelve students go out under fac-ulty supervision and actually collect the material right there,” says Drnek. So there’s a lot of hands on stuff, a lot of grunt work and a lot physical labor that needs to go into processing and that’s something that we’ve been doing inside here and why it’s primarily New
“MY STUDENTS ARE EXTREMELY EXCITED ABOUT THE FACT THAT THEY GET
THE CHANCE TO MEET JAZZ MUSICIANS, AND THE
MUSICIANS THEMSELVES ARE EXCITED BECAUSE
THEY KNOW THAT THEIR PERSONAL HISTORY IS NOT
LOST FOREVER.”
Richard Falco and students.
JAZ_46 46 3/14/11 10:46:54 AM
JAZZed March 2011 47
England based. The heart of this proj-ect is going out into the field and mak-ing that connection with the musician or with the families of the musicians. It’s an exciting feeling – becoming part of the history of it. It definitely has an impact on the local music community. You get to see the network and the con-nection between now and then – the past and present which creates a con-text for the language of jazz music.”
Evolution of a DreamAlthough their initial interest was
New England based, Falco and his students hope with the launch of the new site, they’ll be able to accept con-tributions from anywhere in the world. “What it would amount to is having satellite institutions set up,” explains Falco. “That way, they become actively engaged by getting their students – or if it’s a jazz society, their membership – go out and collect materials and then bring them into this fold without hav-ing to have the technical savvy. We get contacted by folks from other ar-eas of the country who would like to contribute – even Europeans.” Drnek informed JAZZed that out of the thou-sands of hits that the website receives each month, about a quarter of them are outside of the U.S. “Even though we’re focused on New England based artists, there’s a lot of international in-terest just for the materials on the site,” he notes.
Although the site is currently live, Falco told us that within the next cou-ple of months, they intend to relaunch the site so that others can contribute as well. “The first part of the site is a model,” says Falco. “That’s why were so psyched. Look what we’ve done! A little tech school going out with one – I’m the director of jazz studies – one jazzer on campus. Look what we’re able to do. If we can do this, cer-tainly folks that have a department in a conservatory or music school that’s dedicated to jazz or African American studies or music in general can go out
Prof. Rich FalcoMAJE Jazz HistorianDirector of Jazz Studies, WPI
Rich Falco joined the music faculty of Worcester Polytechnic Insti-tute in 1979 where he currently holds the full time position of Director of Jazz Studies. He has also served for a number of years on the jazz faculty of Clark University where he re-established their jazz program and taught jazz guitar.
With the Worcester Public Schools and Mechanics Hall Associa-tion, Rich helped create the annual “Conversations in Jazz: Brown Bags for Kids” for which he was author, narrator and music director. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who Among America’s
Teachers and was the co-founder and artistic director of the Jazz Worcester Music Festival and a past president of the Jazz Worcester Society.
Ensembles under Rich Falco’s direction have performed in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Russia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Austria, Egypt, Spain, Greece, Canada, Italy, Poland, Hungary and the United States. As a guitarist, he has performed in concerts, on television, radio, recordings and festivals with the Rich Falco Quartet, the Jim Allard Quintet, Ten String Swing and other New England based jazz ensembles.
Rich has produced and presented over 50 internationally acclaimed artists on the WPI campus for clinics, workshops and concerts, including such luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Lovano, Clark Terry, Sun Ra, Cyrus Chestnut, Marcus Roberts, Delfeayo Marsalis, and guitarists such as Larry Coryell, Mark Whitfield, John Abercrombie, Ralph Towner, Emily Remler, Mick Goodrick and Joe Pass.
Rich remains a popular festival adjudicator, clinician and music lecturer. He has present-ed at the annual MMEA (Massachusetts Music Educators Association) All State Conference on jazz guitar, big band directing techniques and jazz improvisation, the New England Jazz Alliance (NEJA) Annual Conference on the collection and preservation of historical data and, the IAJE Annual International Conference in NYC for the African American Caucus. He is a frequent adjudicator for the Rhode Island Music Educators Association (RIMEA) and was invited to be the All State Jazz Ensemble Conductor for RIMEA.
In 1989, he was the recipient of the Henry “Boots” Mussulli Jazz Educator of the Year award. He was the 2004 recipient of the Jazz at Sunset Festival Award for “creative jazz per-formances of consistent excellence, artistic integrity, and the generous sharing of knowledge and understanding of music”. In April, 2006 Falco became the twelfth recipient of the presti-gious Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association for Jazz Education.
PRE-COLLEGE PROGRAMS:CELLOCLARINET DOUBLE REEDFLUTEFRENCH HORN MUSICAL THEATREORGANPERCUSSIONPIANOSAXOPHONETROMBONETRUMPETVIOLA VIOLIN
ENSEMBLES:CONCERT BANDCHORUSJAZZ COMBOS AND BANDSORCHESTRAWORLD MUSIC
JAZ_47 47 3/14/11 10:47:00 AM
48 JAZZed March 2011
into the field and collect records. Last April we launched the site, and we have this enormous amount of contri-bution capability so you can send us your photos and they’ll be automati-cally uploaded.”
“As Falco mentioned, it’s pretty te-dious work to process all of that and put it on the Web site,” says Drnek. “So, rather than distributing the site as a model for other people to do all the legwork, we’ve created a framework where over the next few months, we could have people do some basic orga-nization and collecting of materials and then just upload it and have everything automatically processed. It’s a real pivot point for the functionality of the site. It’s changed from something that we do all in house to something that can be readily scaleable for anybody and we have a lot of partnerships in the works with other schools in the area. Not only just music schools, but schools that are interested in African American studies or even American history. Essentially, any school where they go out and have research teams is a target. But, instead of having to do all of the technical pro-cessing, we now have the ability to have that automated. Now that we’re scale-able with this technology, it essentially reduces the amount of work that goes into processing and formatting for the web and it’s really taking off in a whole new direction.”
“Everyone does jazz historical re-search but here we’ve got this hardcore tech background,” says Falco. “If we can
make it easy for others to collect and preserve that’s really what I’m most inter-ested in. If we could just get a humani-ties department with maybe one histo-rian that wants to take students out into the field for an oral history project – they don’t even need to be jazzers – what a way to engage students! What could be more exciting to have your students re-ally hands on? The problem is – what do they do with the material and how do they process it? That’s the big deal. “The next area is getting others to contribute and make it as simple as possible for them to do so. This academic year, my primary area of focus is to set up these other organizations that will actively en-gage in research projects, go out into the field with their students, get them excited and we’ll take care of a lot of the process-ing problems. Hopefully, this is going to be really easy for people to access and be able to contribute and each satellite will have its own regional flavor.”
“It will be under the same umbrella, and the site will be set up differently than it is currently,” notes Drnek. “The site’s been public for seven years but we’ve been building up material over this past class and now that we’ve got the momentum going in a few months we’ll essentially have a redesign and a re-launch which will add to the expand-ability and scalability of these satellite organizations that could be contribut-ing through their own research projects but would also operate under the same umbrella as the current project.”
“We also have a eb resource area on
Mike DrnekPrinciple Design ArchitectWPI Alumni 2002-2007Biomechanical Engineering
While at WPI, Rich stressed the importance that his stu-dents, both past and present have had on the project. Mike Drnek, a WPI alumni who worked on the project as an un-dergrad, is the current Webmaster for the database. “I’ve been at the helm of this project for over 8 years, and I’m excited to see it’s continued growth that’s fueled by enthu-siastic students at WPI.” The Jazz History Database is at a pivotal point in it’s development, as we’re on the cusp of launching a new design with the powerful ability for people
around the world to contribute seamlessly. It’s my hope that the project serves as a creative conduit for historical jazz research that benefits the jazz com-munity as a whole.”
SUMMER ATEASTMAN 2011
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Summer Jazz StudiesFor high school students in grades 9-12HAROLD DANKO, JEFF CAMPBELL, DIRECTORS
JUNE 26 – JULY 8This intensive, performance-based program is ideal for students considering collegiate jazz studies. Work directly with Eastman’s renowned jazz faculty, and enhance your improvisational and ensemble skills.
Housing and meals available for this program only
Middle School Instrumental JazzFor students entering grades 7-10HOWARD POTTER, PAUL HOFMANN, BILL TIBERIO
JULY 25-AUGUST 5
Introduction to Jazz HistoryPresented during the Rochester
PAUL HOFMANN
NEW THIS YEAR!
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our web site with links to jazz schools, jazz societies, and jazz libraries,” says Falco. “We ask for reciprocating links as well, so we’re trying to drive traf-fic, but we’re really just getting off the ground.”
Preserve or Perish Falco’s passion for preservation is
one of necessity. “It’s kind of fallen to my generation to either document or lose,” he says. “By the time it gets to my students’ generation this stuff will be gone.” Falco recently received over ninety TV shows that were oth-erwise headed for the landfill. “We literally got a call saying ‘You want any of these tapes, cause we’re just going to toss them out, they’re just jazz shows.’ So part of it is that this stuff is just disintegrating, which is awful. If we don’t get our students engaged and interested in collecting and preserving, it’s not going to hap-pen.”
In addition to the need to pre-serve the rich history of jazz, part of the draw for Falco is how pumped his students are to help him with his cause. Several of the students who have taken the course now volunteer their time towards the project. “My students are extremely excited about the fact that they get the chance to meet jazz musicians, and the musi-cians themselves are excited because they know that their personal his-tory is not lost forever. Maybe their family members will remember but there are some cats who were really heavy hitters who had an enormous impact on the region in which they live. Why not document these folks? Who were their students? What kind of an impact did they have? That’s what I’ve been doing.
“These are people who have a very rich background and we have people do these kind of interviews all the time, so why not put it out there? I try to get as close to the primary source as I can. I’ve got a hundred and something telephone interviews that were conducted, and I just let it run. Why type it out or edit it? You don’t get to hear the artist’s voice, their accent, where they’re really
placing emphasis,” explains Falco. The city of Worcester serves as the host to several festivals throughout the course of a year and not being one to miss out on an opportunity, Falco brings his students to record every jazz artist they can. “Let’s see the cats in action,” he says. “This is how they played on the bandstand. You can’t get that in a sterile environ-ment like a recording studio – you dig? I had Sun Ra here on campus, and he gave us permission to tape the entire thing. It’s on the Web site soup to nuts. He came on stage with his cape, sat down, played, sang – I’m not going to edit it! Cat gave it to me first hand and that’s as close to the primary stuff as you can get.”
He continues, “This is just a labor of love on my part because initially, this was not something that was really school affiliated. My jazz history class really influenced all of this. Bringing jazzers on campus and having the stu-dents ask the right questions and be engaged and excited – that’s one thing. But to really go out and collect and to be able to say that you were a part of this preservation project, that’s a whole other story. Then, when they see it up online – that’s the buzz. They see it up online and say, ‘I did that and it’s preserved forever now and we’re not going to lose it’ – that’s a good thing. I find that my students become so pas-sionate about this because they realize – as jazz musicians – the importance of preserving this history. They want to do preservation and they have the tech ‘know-how’ to do it and if we can make it easy for everyone else, imagine the possibilities!”
For more on the Jazz History Database, visit www.jazzhistorydatabase.com. For Questions on how to become a contributing member to the database, or to become a satel-lite institution, please contact:
Professor Richard Falco Director of Jazz StudiesWPI 100 Institute RoadWorcester, Mass. 01609(508) [email protected]
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focus session T W E LV E - T O N E W R I T I N G
Another Color for Your Musical PalettePRINCIPLES OF TWELVE-TONE WRITING
BY LEE EVANS
What these musicians did was compose music that utilized all twelve tones - once each - of one octave of the chromatic scale, as the principal me-lodic theme of a musical work.
Around 1910-1920, Schoenberg codifi ed a sys-tem, called twelve-tone technique, also known as se-rial technique and dodecaphonic technique, in which those twelve tones were to be employed in a mu-sical work in such a way as to prevent any one of them from sounding more prominent than any other. This music was said to be atonal, music not possessing a sense of key. (By contrast, music of-fering a sense of key, with one central fundamental tone acting as the musical focus, or center of musi-cal gravity, is known as tonal music.)
Schoenberg’s two genius students, Berg and We-bern, adhered to his precepts to varying degrees of fi delity to his system, Berg somewhat less so, resulting in music that was sometimes less forbid-ding; Webern to a more extreme degree in certain respects, resulting in music that was sometimes even more abstract than Schoenberg’s. All three of these composers, collectively, composed a body of unusually infl uential atonal music.
Incidentally, I have heard it said that Schoen-berg’s preferred term was pantonality (all tonalities) rather than atonality (without tonality). Pantonal-ity suggests the existence of all tonalities, music in which all tones are equal to one another (the
prefi x “pan” meaning “all”); whereas atonality sug-gests the absence of any tonality at all (the prefi x “a” meaning” “without”). But the term “atonality” was the one that caught on with musicologists and educators, and came to describe that entire genre of music.
Jazz critic/composer/record producer Leonard Feather published an atonal composition in the 1960s, called “Twelve Tone Blues”, in an attempt to apply Schoenberg’s 12-tone composing method to a jazz context. But the work’s complexity proved that this compositional approach was too daunt-ing to enable most other jazz composers and im-provisers to follow in his footsteps. Nevertheless, jazz pianist/composer Bill Evans was inspired to compose “Twelve Tone Tune.” However, he har-monized the twelve tones in such a way as to make the piece sound tonal, which was the opposite of what Schoenberg had intended to accomplish with his compositional system.
While not actually employing 12-tone tech-nique, Algerian jazz pianist/composer Martial Solal’s jazz playing is replete with a high degree of unresolved dissonance ordinarily associated with 12-tone music. To this listener, Solal’s playing is often highly suggestive of Arnold Schoenberg’s expressionist compositional approach. Solal’s fall 2007 solo appearance at New York City’s Village Vanguard, where I last heard him, received high
With a tip of the hat to Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It” (“Birds do it, bees do it”, etc.), Bird (Charlie
Parker) never did it, nor did the B’s (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms) ever do it.
Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern did it many times. And believe it or
not, jazzmen Leonard Feather and Bill Evans each did it once.
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acclaim in the press. His playing, to me, is the jazz embodiment of the Schoenbergian ideal; undoubtedly for many an extremely challenging listen, but always fascinating, arresting and compelling.
Why Employ 12-tone Technique?
A principal advantage of employing 12-tone compositional technique is to make one’s music sound contempo-rary. I have for quite a few years been an adjudicator of student original com-positions, and have often been keenly disappointed by students who have written in a manner suggestive of 18th century musical infl uences, such as Mozart and Haydn, than of more mod-ern ones. Employment of Schoenberg’s 12-tone system of composition would assure that one’s creative efforts would sound like the music of today, rather than the music of past eras – surely a goal worth aiming for.
In his NY Times column on Sunday, January 9, 2011, speculating on which classical composers belong among the top ten of all time, chief music critic Anthony Tommasini states: “Schoen-berg was arguably the most infl uential composer of the 20th century. That he pushed tonality past the brink and devised a technique to supersede it completely shook up the music of the era. Every composer in his wake had to come to terms with Schoenberg.”
Let’s now examine the nuts and bolts of his compositional system. It will then quickly become apparent how accessible that approach truly is, and how successfully composition students will be able to compose with a musical sensibility refl ective of con-temporary rather than past times.
How The Twelve-tone System Works
Schoenberg’s extremely novel idea was to create a 12-tone melody, called a tone row in 12-tone music, using
each pitch of one octave of the chromatic scale once each, but organizing their order in such a way as to prevent the suggestion of a tonal, or key, center. The tone row pitches could be played melodically (one at a time), or chordally (several at a time). Pitch equality was to be achieved by not playing any note a second time until the other eleven had been sounded. Each composition would be character-ized by the exclusive use of one set of twelve different notes.
The following 12-tone development treatments are based upon the tone row of my original piano solo Half-A-Minute Waltz (from my Hal Leonard book Three 12-Tone Waltzes plus Student 12-Tone Composing Outlines) which appears on the fol-lowing pages in this issue.
Tone Row – A twelve-tone melody using each pitch only once.
Retrograde – The pitches of the tone row appear in backwards order.
Inversion – The intervals between the pitches of the tone row move the same dis-tance in the opposite direction; in other words, in mirror image to the intervals from pitch to pitch of the tone row.
Retrograde Inversion – Intervals from pitch to pitch of the retrograde are played in inversion.
All four of the above – tone row, retrograde, inversion, retrograde inversion – may be transposed to any chromatic scale step, thus creating 48 (12x4) differ-ent possibilities. Registers and octave position of any tone row pitch may also be changed.
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52 JAZZed March 2011
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Lee Evans, Ed.D., is professor of music at NYC’s Pace University. His most recent solo-piano publications for the FJH Music Company are the late-beginner level Color Me Jazz, Books 1 and 2, and the intermediate/upper intermediate level Ole! Original Latin American Dance Music.
JAZ_53 53 3/14/11 10:28:26 AM
As we head into winter’s
home stretch, JAZZed de-
cided to speak with a few ex-
perienced instructors about
the potential benefits for
students who attend sum-
mer jazz camps. For those
of you who haven’t yet done
much with such programs,
consider this roundtable
(imagine a very small “table”
– we limited ourselves to
speaking with three teach-
ers) a brief introduction to
the topic; those of you who
are seasoned vets when it
comes to summer work-
shops and the like – please
get in touch! We’d love to
hear from you.
Are You Ready for the Summer...?
54 JAZZed March 2011
roundtable J A Z Z C A M P S & W O R K S H O P S
Dave Sternerpart-time facultyCuyahoga Community College Jazz Studieswww.davesterner.com
Wade BeachWade Beach Music. Professor, George Mason University School of Music
Gunnar MossbladDirector of Jazz Studies, The University of ToledoMusical Director the Dave Liebman Big Band & Manhattan Saxophone Ensemble
JAZ_54 54 3/14/11 10:29:04 AM
JAZZed March 2011 55
roundtable
From an administrative standpoint, are there any diffi culties or challenges in “partnering” a school or independent teaching program with jazz camps or workshops?
Gunnar Mossblad: I have found very few problems. The biggest chal-lenges are usually addressed early on in the process, and can include coordi-nating the schedule and facility needs with the partnering group.
How do you go about encouraging a stu-dent to consider participating in a jazz camp or workshop?
Wade Beach: If the student has set a goal that the camp could help him or her reach, I simply point this out, and the rest usually falls into place. I don’t suggest it unless I can see that there is
a good match between the student and the camp.
GM: If I hear a student that I be-lieve would benefi t from a camp or workshop, I try to communicate those things about the camp that will reso-nate with him or her. In some cases it might be the personal musical growth that the student can achieve. In other cases it might be the value of study-ing with a great jazz artist. For older students I might emphasize the chance to develop their playing quickly. And I always emphasize the fun they will have.
Dave Sterner: It depends on what the goals of the student are. Some stu-dents are motivated by the social expe-rience (chance to get away from home, et cetera), but others are motivated by
the musical experience. I encourage the latter. Usually I try to encourage students who already show some suc-cess and would be further inspired by the opportunity. I am fortunate that I co-direct a local jazz festival that has 23+ high schools participate and I have the opportunity to recognize these stu-dents. Outstanding soloists/perform-ers receive “citations” and in some cases summer camp scholarships. The Berklee School of Music sponsors fi ve scholarships to their summer camps each year and Lakeland Community College (host for the event) sponsors eight scholarships for various activi-ties. The citations and scholarships al-low us to contact the students at a later date to encourage their participation in summer camps.
It’s a great way to keep track of some of the area’s most promising young mu-
www.interlochen.org
Jazz at Interlochen offers an all-encompassing experience where students rehearse, preform, develop improvisational skills and broaden their understanding of jazz.
SUMMER ARTS CAMP Grades 9-12 • June – August
FINE ARTS BOARDING HIGH SCHOOLGrades 9-12 • September – May
For more information and to register onlinevisit www.stanfordjazz.org
or call 650-736-0324
jazz campAges 12-17Week 1, July 17-22Week 2, July 24-29
jazz residencyAges 18 and up Week 3July 31-August 6
2011 SUMMER JAZZ IMMERSION PROGRAMS
Eigsti, Julian Lage, Madeline Eastman,
the Heath Bros., and more
JAZ_55 55 3/14/11 10:29:10 AM
56 JAZZed March 2011
sicians. Some of the success stories in this process have been musicians such as Sean Jones and Dominick Farinacci. Certainly we can’t take credit for their huge success, but hopefully in some small way we’ve contributed to their story.
What do you feel are the biggest benefi ts for students?
DS: For some, not much more than the courage to try a blues scale solo in next year’s jazz band and maybe meet some new friends, but for others, may-
be the inspiration to practice harder, more diligently and with a purpose... to listen to the music they are trying to emulate... the realization that nothing will come out of your horn that you don’t put in it. These things can be very sobering to the aspiring musician, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Better they fi nd out now rather than freshman year in college.
WB: The main one is making music with like-minded people. In other words, “group participation.” Also hopefully they can be inspired by the instructors.
GM: Most middle and high school teachers are not qualifi ed to teach jazz, but a camp offers experts presenting the music in a proper manner, also of-fers the time to spend time on aspects of the jazz music that are normally hard to integrate in a jazz band class setting... like improvisation. It also fos-ters personal creative growth.
Any potential drawbacks?
DS: They fi nd out that they are not [as good as they thought they were], after all. There’s no magic scale that will make them solo better. Playing time is important.
GM: None that I can think of.
WB: If a student comes to a camp with unrealistic expectations, or for the wrong reason, they could go away unhappy.
Additional thoughts?
DS: Quite frankly, I wonder if there are simply too many camps? Maybe not. Or if camps need to be more “cur-rent.” I understand we’re trying to promote jazz, (and I’m sure they exist) but rock or pop camps I’m sure would fi ll up in a heartbeat. Even the mighty “high school” jazz isn’t cool anymore. It’s just the closest thing to a school sanctioned music activity that kids can “almost” identify with. Berklee has certainly fi gured that out. If schools put together “high school rock/pop” bands: Look out...
July 11 - 15, 2011
Great Basinwww.greatbasinjazzcamp.com
COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN IDAHO • Twin Falls, IdahoProfessional Instructors for All Instruments
You gotta be there!
Jazz Week 2011!
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• Jazz Theory & Ear-training
• No Auditions Required!
July 17-23
JAZ_56 56 3/14/11 10:29:15 AM
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The Evolution of Jazz Drumming from Hudson
Hudson Music’s The Evolution of Jazz Drumming by Danny Gottlieb is an edu-cational book/DVD package for drum-mers. The product presents the most complete and comprehensive historical analysis of the drummers who created and defi ned modern jazz drumming in print.
Designed as a guide and workbook for the high school, college-level, and professional drummer, it is meant to be studied based on a typical 16-week col-lege semester. A legendary and infl uen-tial jazz drummer is studied during each of these weeks. Author Danny Gottlieb, known himself as a world-renowned jazz drummer with Pat Metheny, Stan Getz, Randy Brecker, and others, brings to bear his unique expertise as a profes-sor of Jazz Studies at the University of North Florida.
The Evolution of Jazz Drumming by Danny Gottlieb. Book (220 pages)/DVD Multimedia Package (1 DVD and 1 MP3 disc)sells for $29.99.
www.hudsonmusic.com
T-Rex PedalsT-Rex Engineering’s has added new pedals
of its growing line of boutique effects pedals. The new pedals include: Reptile 2, Twister 2, and Tonebug Sustainer.
www.t-rex-effects.com
Jazz Port Townsend
Workshop & FestivalJuly 24 – July 31, 2011
Workshops, ensemble coaching, and public performances featuring Paquito D’Rivera, Terell Stafford, Jeff Hamilton, Bill Holman,and many more!
Make plans now to experience Jazz Port Townsend.Visit www.centrum.org/jazz
Fort Worden State Park Port Townsend, WA
John Clayton, Artistic Director
JAZ_57 57 3/14/11 10:29:44 AM
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58 JAZZed March 2011
St. Louis Music’s Regent Series from Alvarez
Alvarez’s new Regent Series is made up of 23 models in a range of price points, colors, and body shapes. Each guitar features an electrostatic fi nish, spruce top, and a choice of mahogany or rosewood back and sides. Other ap-pointments include a rosewood, bi-level bridge, rosewood fi ngerboard, and pre-mium tuners. The Regent Series comes in dreadnought, folk, and classical body shapes, with electric/acoustic versions of each body style also available. The guitars retail for $169.99.
www.stlouismusic.com
Fret-King’s Self-Tuning Guitar
The Fret-King Super-matic self-tuning guitar features Wilkinson ATD HT440 self-tuning hard tail guitar bridge. Beginning in standard E tuning, the Super-matic can switch to open G, DADGAD, or open D, or even cre-ate up to fi ve personal tunings. The Wilkinson ATD self-tuning bridge is a
low profi le, real time electromechanical device utilizing hi-tech micro gearboxes, with a micro hex pickup, controls small enough not to notice, and an intuitive one-touch button controlling all the functions and features.
Invisibly incorporating the micro-processor control circuitry, the ATD bridge allows the player, with just one touch of the function button to automatically tune the Super-matic to standard E-tuning. Tuning status is confi rmed in the hi-visibility display, designed to be viewed while playing, and overall tuning is assured with the built in chromatic tuner.
Press the function button again, strum, and let the ATD change the guitar’s tuning from standard E to open G, or change to DADGAD, then to open D – all in the space of just a few seconds, or recalibrate to fi ve additional user created tuning presets in just a few seconds more.
The 25 1/5” scale length, 24 fret, hard rock maple neck, with its classic ‘shallow C’ profi le has been matched to a premium, close grain Indian rosewood fi ngerboard with a 10” radius. This has been topped off with a fret job using single cut, hand crowned medium jumbo nickel silver frets. The Super-ma-
AER’s Pocket ToolsAER’s Pocket Tools – editing tools for acoustic instruments – is a collection of
three stomp box-sized units and includes two preamps and one EQ. Designed for sound optimization, these tools feature signal-to-noise ratio and boast the dynamic headroom found in all AER products.
The collection includes: the Colourizer two-channel preamp/DI-box for mic or line signals with volume, gain, and DI level controls, plus three sound-shaping control sections; Dual Mix, a two-channel preamp/DI-box for mic or line signals, with four digital effect presets (short & long reverb, chorus, and fl anger); and Dual Para EQ a dual-band parametric EQ with switchable frequency ranges. Each Pocket Tool includes a 24V DC power supply and convenient carrying case.
www.musiquip.com
JAZ_58 58 3/14/11 10:29:51 AM
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tic features a Hum-Single-Hum pickup confi guration, with Wilkinson WHH-BZ33 offset pole piece Zebra humbuck-ers, wound to a Wilkinson WHSM vin-tage-voiced single coil middle pickup.
www.fret-king.com
Aguilar’s Tone Hammer 500Aguilar Amplifi cation has created the
Tone Hammer 500 - a 500 watt, ver-satile, bass amp that weighs only four pounds and easily fi ts into the accessory pouch of most gig bags.
The sound in the Tone Hammer 500 is full-sized and is produced by the Tone Hammer preamp, the same preamp used in the Tone Hammer D.I./preamp pedal. The Tone Hammer 500 features bass, treble, and fully sweepable mid-range controls. The Drive control uti-lizes Aguilar’s proprietary AGS circuit.
The retail price is $699www.aguilaramp.com
PRS SE Guitar ModelsPRS’s SE Tim Mahoney model fea-
tures an all mahogany body, a 24 fret 25” maple neck, rosewood fi ngerboard
with bird inlays, stoptail bridge, nickel hardware, and SE HFS Treble and SE Vintage Bass pickups. The SE 245 offers a thicker single cutaway body for
increased resonance, the PRS-de-signed stoptail, and four-knob lay-out offering more tonal options.
The SE Custom 24 is now be-ing offered in orange and tri-color sunburst. As follow-up to the 25th Anniversary version which debuted in 2010, the SE Custom now comes standard with birds as well. Offering
the same mahogany body, maple top, and fl ame maple veneer as the SE Singlecut,
the newest version of the SE Singlecut Trem features a
PRS designed Tremolo Bridge and is now offered in scarlet red and black with bird inlays.
www.prsguitars.com
Burns’ Sonic Limited Edition
The Burns guitar line’s Sonic Limited Edition electric guitar is now available in the U.S. market. The new Sonic features a slim design, a highly fl amed Canadian maple neck, and Indian rosewood fi ngerboard. The neck also in-corporates the Burns Gear-o-Matik truss rod for neck alignment. The alder body is contoured, and the two high output Burns Tri-Sonic pickups are controlled by one volume, one tone control, and a three-way pickup selector switch. The bridge is the Burns Rez-o-Tube style. Saga Musical Instruments is the exclu-sive USA distributor of Burns electric guitars and basses.
www.sagamusic.com
ZT Amplifi ers’ GhostZT Amplifi ers’ Ghost guitar ampli-
fi er is compact and features a custom-designed 6.5” driver in a solid MDF cabinet less than 7” high and 8” wide. The fi nish is gloss white.
Despite the diminutive size, the Ghost is said to produce impressive out-put and tone. The Tone control offers a wide sweep, and the Volume and Gain controls allow the user to dial in clean output at high volumes or overdrive at low volumes. The retail price is $199.
www.ztamplifi ers.com
Dean Markley CD Se-ries Amplifi ers Reissue
Dean Markley is reissuing two mod-els: the CD30 and CD60 all-tube lead amplifi ers. Features include two inputs; Channel Switching; Volume; Gain; Drive; Treble; Middle; Bass; Master Vol-ume; Reverb; Presence; Overdrive Voic-ing; Drive; Mid-Boost switches; variable effects loop, Pre Amp Out, Power Amp In; and a specially designed 12” Celes-tion speaker.
www.deanmarkleyamps.com
North Central College
Jazz Studies Program
presents the
JANICE BORLA
VOCAL JAZZ CAMP
July 17-22, 2011
JANICE BORLA
Blujazz recording artist
Instructor at North Central College
JAY CLAYTON
Sunnyside recording artist
Instructor at the New School
ROSANA ECKERT
GEM Records Recording Artist
Instructor at the University of North
Texas
23rd
ANNUAL
WITH
Dan Haerle, piano
Bob Bowman, bass
Jack Mouse, drums
Art Davis, trumpet
CURRICULUM / ACTIVITIES
Solo jazz Performance
Vocal Improvisation
Vocal Jazz History
Music Theory for the Jazz Vocalist
Nightly Faculty Concerts
Student Jam Sessions
Final Student Concert
INFORMATION / REGISTRATION
www.janiceborlavocaljazzcamp.org
630-416-3911
JANICE BORLA VOCAL JAZZ CAMP
NORTH CENTRAL COLLEGE
30 N. Brainard
Naperville, IL 60540
JAZ_59 59 3/14/11 10:29:58 AM
60 JAZZed January 2011
CDShowcase
Don’t let the name mislead you. The only thing small about the Rick Hol-land/Evan Dobbins Band is its numbers. Everything else is super-size.
– Jack Bowers, All About Jazz, NY
www.rickhollandproductions.com
Available at all MP3 outlets, including ITunes, Amazon, DigStation and many more!
“The broad repertoire his groups encompass and the care with which he deals with musical details are a welcome exception in this age of super specializa-tion and an obsession with quick results at the expense of real quality.
– Bill Dobbins, The Eastman School of Music
⤠⤚⤙⤟
⤠⤚⤙⤟
MATTHEW FRIES KEITH HALL
PHIL PALOMBI
TRI-FI
TRI-FI.COM
NOW BOOKING CONCERTS & CLINICS
SAXOPHONES: Mary Fettig, Paul Contos, Paul Tarantino, Bennett Friedman, Charlie McCarthy, Mike Young TRUMPETS: Rich Bice, Louis Fasman, Steve Campos, Erik Jekobsen, Don BeckTROMBONES: John Gove, Dave Eshelman, Dave Gregoric, Dave Martell, Derek James,Steve Barnhill RHYTHM: Steve Brown guitar,Eddie Mendenhall piano, John Shifflett bass,Steve Houghton drums, Gail Dobson vocals
KAYAK: a brand new release of jazz
tunes and standards, all arranged by
Ray Brown.
“…truly a great big band.”
available on CD BABY
RAY BROWN’S GREAT BIG BAND
MIKE VAX AND THE STAN KENTON ALUMNI BAND
continue their series of superb recordings with
HAVE BAND WILL TRAVEL.On Summit Records.
This one captures the excitement and the incredible musicianship of this stellar group of musicians
and arrangers
www.bigbandjazz.net
JAZ_60 60 3/14/11 10:30:39 AM
JAZZed January 2011 61
CliniciansCorner
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN IN JAZZ
WOMEN IN JAZZ FESTIVAL 2011SATURDAY, APRIL 92 PM – 9:30 PM
SAINT PETER’S CHURCH 54th ST. AT LEXINGTON AVE. NYC
FEATURINGANTOINETTE MONTAGUEWITH TAMMY HALL & BILL EASLEY
PERFORMANCES BY:TAEKO FUKAOANDREAWOLPER
LINDA PRESGRAVE TRIOLIL PHILLIPS TRIO
IWJ HONOREES:PAUL ASH
RHONDA HAMILTONREMEMBERING TRUDY PITTS
SEMINARS, JAM SESSIONS &MORE!
ALL DAY PASS - $20 CHILDREN UNDER 12 - $15
SUPPORT THEMUSICSPONSORS AND ADVERTISERS WELCOME
Info: 212 560-7553 www.internationalwomeninjazz.com
Sidney Davis x13Richard E. Kessel x14Maureen Johan x34Iris Fox 954-973-3555
Feature Your CD on CD Showcase
For Maximum Exposure!
Call: 1800-964-5150
JAZ_61 61 3/14/11 10:30:49 AM
62 JAZZed March 2011
ClassifiedsBooks
JAZZ SAXOPHONE ETUDES & DUETSBOOK & CD PLAY-ALONG SETS BY
GREG FISHMANEndorsed by Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman,Jerry Coker, James Moody, Mark Colby, Bob Sheppard, & Jamey Aebersold.
Visit: WWW.GREGFISHMANJAZZSTUDIOS.COM
for free sample etudes and duets.
Available on the App Store, or go to http://ihearit.net for more info.
iHearitSlow Down, Loop, and Transcribe
Music on your iPhone for
$4.99.
Accessories
DVDs
www.JAZZedmagazine.com
Merchandise
Instruments
www.JAZZedmagazine.com
SchoolsLEARN HOW TO PLAY BRAZILIANMUSIC WITH ANTONIO ADOLFO
Author of Brazilian Music Workshop andPhrasing in Brazilian Music, published
By Advance Music.
www.antonioadolfo.net
For SaleESTATE MUSIC SALE
Arrangements (Dedrick, Leeds, Stocks, Combo).
Music for piano, guitar, band instru-ments, Karaoke tapes and CD’s.
List available(402) 729-5418
Merchandise
JAZ_62 62 3/14/11 10:39:34 AM
JAZZed March 2011 63
AdIndex Company Email/Web Page #
American Classic Festivals www.amclass.com 11J.J. Babbitt Co. Inc. www.jjbabbitt.com 41Bari Woodwinds www.bariwoodwinds.com 35BluJazz Productions www.blujazzbooking.com 61Cannonball Music Instruments www.cannonballmusic.com 12Centrum www.centrum.org 57Colorado State University www.CSUSchooloftheArts.com 25Daniel Smith www.danielsmithbassoon.com 60Eastman School Of Music www.esm.rochester.edu 48Five Towns College www.ftc.edu 42Great Basin Jazz Camp www.greatbasinjazzcamp.com 56Guitar Intensives www.sambameetsjazz.com 24Interlochen Arts Camp www.interlochen.org 55International Music Camp www.internationalmusiccamp.com 56International Women in Jazz www.internationalwomeninjazz.com 61Interplay Jazz www.interplayjazz.com 32Jamey Aebersold Jazz Aids www.jazz.books.com 8Jazz at Lincoln Center www.jalc.org 40Jody Jazz www.JodyJazz.com 1John Brown www.jbjazz.com 32John Brown www.jbjazz.com 25Juilliard School of Music www.juilliard.edu 5MacSax www.macsax.com 45Maryland Summer Jazz www.marylandsummerjazz.com 39McNally Smith College of Music www.mcnallysmith.edu 29Mel Martin www.melmartin.com 61Mike Vax www.mikevax.com 60North Central College www.northcentralcollege.edu cov2North Central College www.northcentralcollege.edu 59Pearl Corp. www.pearldrum.com cov4PJLA Music Products www.pjlamusc.com 26Randy Klein www.randyklein.com 61Rick Holland www.rickhollandproductions.com 60Sher Music Co. www.shermusic.com 42Stanford Jazz Workshop www.stanfordjazz.org 55Suzi Reynolds & Associates www.rondicharleston.com 33Texas Christian University www.usc.edu/music 27The Jazz Drama Program www.thejazzdramaprogram.orgom 60The Roberto Ocasio Foundation www.robertoocasiofoundation.org 49TRI-FI www.KeithHallMusic.com 60U.S. Band & Orchestra Supplies www.usbandsupplies.com 13University of Illinois - Urbana www.uiuc.edu 47University of Michigan www.music.umich.edu 57University of Missouri/St.Louis www.jimwidnerbigband.com 29University of North Texas www.music.unt.edu/jazz 28University of the Arts - Continuing www.uarts.edu 43Unoversity of Toledo www.utoledo.edu 58Vandoren www.dansr.com 9Vermont Jazz Center www.vtjazz.org. 27Avedis Zildjian Co. www.zildjian.com 7
JAZ_63 63 3/14/11 10:39:40 AM
64 JAZZed March 2011
George Shearing, who died of heart failure on February 14th at age 91, was the fi rst signif-
cant postwar British jazz musician to move permanently to the U.S. and build a successful
career.
By 1949, he found worldwide fame, forming his quintet, later a sextet, with its trade-
mark “Shearing sound.” Along the way he crafted at least one iconic standard, “Lullaby
of Birdland.” One of the hottest jazz acts of its day, Shearing’s quintet toured endlessly,
recorded prolifi cally, and played the best clubs in every major American city. Beauty and the
Beat (1959), his album with the singer Peggy Lee, was another signifi cant success.
Shearing returned regularly to Britain, once with the ex-Count Basie singer Joe Williams,
another time with the vocalist Carmen McRae and latterly in a duo with the bassist Neil
Swainson, appearing with Mel Tormé and the BBC Big Band for a special 80th birthday
show in 1999. He performed for three US presidents and for a royal command perfor-
mance, and was honored when the George Shearing Centre, providing facilities for disabled
people in Battersea, was named after him (Shearing was blind from birth).
Following a fall in 2004, Shearing largely retired from public performance. He is sur-
vived by his wife Ellie, and his daughter, Wendy, from his fi rst marriage, which ended in
divorce in 1973.
Backbeat
George Shearing1919-2011
JAZ_64 64 3/14/11 10:40:24 AM
The Jazz Education Networkis dedicated to building the jazz arts community by advancing
education, promoting performance, and developing new audiences.
JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK
Call it what you want, but by chance, through karma, serendipity, destiny, fate, providence, or luck…we are proud to announce the Third Annual JEN Conference in yet another city with LOUIS in the title... LOUISville, Kentucky… We think Three’s a CHARM! Come experience all Louisville has to offer, as we will be collectively…
Developing Tomorrow’s Jazz Audiences Today!Louisville, KentuckyJanuary 4-7, 2012
Save The Date!In the immortal words of one of jazz’ most notable innovators, LOUIS Satchmo Armstrong…
To Jazz or not to Jazz… There is no question!
For complete membership information/benefits please visit us at: www.JazzEdNet.org
JAZ_COV3 COV3 3/14/11 9:57:21 AM
Adams instruments are proudly distributed in the U.S. by Pearl.
ROLANDOmorales-matos
Feel.LIKE NO OTHER
The Adams Vibraphone family offers feel like no other
instrument. Our advanced damper mechanism allows
easy access to spring tension control for feather-
like pedal feel and finesse. This feature is standard
thoughout our line from the student level Soloist Series
to our professional Artist Series.
The choice of international recording
artist Rolando Morales Matos
whether playing in the orchestra pit
in the Broadway production of The
Lion King or the intimate setting of
a jazz quartet at Birdland.
See them all at pearldrum.com Artist Series AV-1
The nucleus of feel. Our feather touch
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JAZ_COV4 COV4 3/14/11 9:57:25 AM
