Jazz Camp July 10, 2018

Copyright © 2018                               John F. Oyler 

July 10, 2018

Jazz Camp

I have been a jazz fan since my college years, and even longer, if you acknowledge the fact that “Swing” was a very important component of popular music in the late 1930s and 1940s. Consequently I was very excited when I learned that my sixteen-year old grandson, Ian McCance, was signed up for Jazz Camp at Duquesne University and would be staying with me for a week. 

Ian lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. He started playing trumpet in Middle School and quickly became interested in their Jazz Band, much to my pleasure. I have been out to see and hear them perform and am impressed that a group of teenagers in that area are interested in jazz and especially that they play so well.

The camp was held at the Mary Pappert School of Music on the Duquesne campus under the leadership of Mike Tomaro, the Director of Duquesne’s Jazz Studies Program. He specializes in composing and arranging, and instruction with the reed instruments.

The other instructors were Duquesne Adjunct Professors -- Joe Badaczewski (Trumpet),Jeff Bush(Trombone), Eric Susoeff(Guitar), Max Leake(Piano), Paul Thompson (Bass), and Tom Wendt (Drums).  A bonus for me was being permitted to listen to a concert at the end of class each day. The first three days the faculty formed a septet that played a full set for the benefit of the students, supplemented by relevant comments regarding concepts that had been covered in class.

Individually these were outstanding musicians; together they made up a very impressive jazz band. They are staples of the local jazz scene. I had actually seen four of the seven performing in different venues within the last year. It is unfortunate there is not a big enough local audience to support them as a full-time group. I certainly would have been happy for the chance to hear them anytime.

The lesson plan for the camp was particularly interesting. I anticipated it would emphasize technique, in the form of Master Classes. Apparently the faculty assumed that anyone interested in music at this level was at least adequately proficient with his instrument. Instead they focused on intellectual skills – harmony, ear training, and improvisation – and working together in small and large ensembles. I had to look up “ear training”, the ability to hear several notes played together, to recognize them, and then to be able to replicate them.

Improvisation, of course, is fundamental to jazz. The Thursday afternoon concert had the students performing in small groups, with each one playing an improvised solo. Ian’s written “music” for his solo was merely a series of empty bars of music with key changes noted. I am not sufficiently familiar with music to understand what was going on, but I was quite impressed when I heard him play his solo.

The subject of improvisation got me wondering if the current, “Generation Z”, group of young musicians is as innovative as those preceding them. It is my impression that today’s crop of engineering students lack this characteristic, primarily because the ready access of information on the Internet has made it easier for them to look things up rather than think them through. I wish I had posed this question to Mike Tomaro.

There is a common belief that our preferences are determined by the culture existing when we are adolescents and young adults and that explains why each generation believes the music popular when it was growing up is superior to anything before or after. In my case Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, etc. were my musical heroes and my preferences still are dominated by the Swing Era.

Bebop we considered to be a passing fad. Louis Armstrong’s version of the Whiffenpoof Song makes fun of the boppers and announces “They will pass and be forgotten with the rest”. The Jazz Camp faculty proved that Louis (and most of my generation) was wrong. The Bop and Hardbop pieces they taught and performed are indeed jazz classics and possibly superior to the Swing classics.

The students ranged from one seventh grader to a trio of college students, plus “Dixie Doc”. Dr. Richard Paul is a retired pediatrician who founded, in 1993, theThree Rivers Dixieland and Swing Jazz Association, an organization dedicated to the preservation and proliferation of Dixieland and Swing music. As Dixie Doc he is leader and cornetist of the Pittsburgh Dixieland All-Stars. Needless to say, he was a great favorite of all the students. 

Friday afternoon they performed their large ensemble concert in front of a fairly large audience, families of the performers. The faculty sat in with the students, plus a couple of ringers (there was only one trombone student, so they imported two trombonists). The resulting performance was fine, certainly one that would be well accepted in any venue.

Their first selection was “The Red Door”, composed by Gerry Mulligan and Zoot Sims. It was familiar to me, as one of Zoot’s standards. Next came a real classic, “Our Love is Here to Stay”, George Gershwin’s very last composition. I was able to record the full version of on my I-phone. Listening to it on my brand new “Ultimate Ears” speaker (Father’s Day gift from the McCances), I am even more impressed than I was hearing it live.

Next they played “Cubano Chant”, acknowledging the influence of Afro-Cuban music on the evolution of jazz. Each day the students had a session on “Jazz History” led by drummer Tom Wendt. I wish I could have eavesdropped on those sessions. The fourth piece was “One for Daddy-O”, which I knew from Cannonball Adderley’s wonderful “Something Else” album. It was composed by Adderley’s brother Nat and dedicated to a Chicago disc jockey, Daddy-O Daylie, whose radio shows I remember well.

They then played Gerry Mulligan’s “Out Back of the Barn”, providing a student baritone saxophone player an opportunity to perform a solid solo. The band concluded with a spritely version of Cannonball Adderley’s well-known “Jive Samba”. Also written by Nat Adderley, this song is an excellent example of the continued Latin American contribution to the jazz songbook. 

Vicariously, Jazz Camp was a wonderful experience for me, and I am sure Ian also benefited greatly from it. I am thrilled that these perceptive young people are interested in keeping this art form alive, especially in contrast with what passes as popular music today.