{"id":4681,"date":"2014-09-04T16:07:16","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T16:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=4681"},"modified":"2014-09-07T02:38:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-07T02:38:12","slug":"jazz-education-is-swinging-hard-across-milwaukee-and-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=4681","title":{"rendered":"Jazz education is swinging hard across Milwaukee and America"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Fb-Button\"\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
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\"Brian<\/p>\n

Artist-in-residence and Grammy-winning trumpeter Brian Lynch (left) works with the Wisconsin Conservatory Music Jazz Institute’s award-winning students saxophonist Lenard Simpson and student pianist Peter Garofalo.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jazz ain\u2019t the music that made Milwaukee famous. However, like beer, the music\u2019s innate effervescence is part of this city\u2019s cultural DNA. Improv and swing are rising locally, and reflect the creative brewing of musicians \u2013 like sax and brass players \u2013 who literally blow life into their instruments.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been extremely impressed by the young-musician generation since returning to Milwaukee, two decades after extensively covering the jazz scene here.<\/p>\n

\u201cA difference today is a very strong crop of young players in town,\u201d says trumpeter Jamie Breiwick.<\/p>\n

For a serious art form, jazz education is essential for performers and to cultivate audiences, unlike more innately popular folk- or mass media-based arts. Education\u00a0 creates musician\u2019s work, as it has for decades with an art form that commingles sophistication and soulful grittiness. Down Beat<\/em> magazine extensive annual October jazz education guide provides a documentation of the art form’s ongoing growth at the roots of youth nationwide, and is considered so important that Jazz Times <\/em>has begun offering an annual jazz guide as well.<\/p>\n

\"UWM<\/p>\n

UW-Milwaukee offers a bachelor’s degree in jazz studies, begun in 1990.\u00a0Photo courtesy of The Peck School of the Arts.<\/em><\/p>\n

UW-Milwaukee’s jazz studies degree program, begun in the wake of the city’s 1980s jazz revival, is directed by noted veteran reed player Curt Hanrahan, and signifies the music’s growth and demand, as does the ambitious Jazz Institute at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, which holds concerts, summer camps and annual residencies by Milwaukee-born trumpeter Brian Lynch, a Grammy-winning former Jazz Messenger with Art Blakey. Plus, The West End Conservatory opened on Vliet Street a few years ago with a strong faculty of young professional jazz musicians.<\/p>\n

A highlight of the jazz education year will be the second annual Music Education Day at Summerfest on Wednesday, September 17 (with a free lunch) featuring nationally known clinicians, including New Orleans drummer-bandleader Adonis Rose, who leads his own quintet and has worked with Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton and other jazz luminaries. Jazz Institute director Mark Davis will also lead a group. Last year\u2019s event drew 600 school-age music students.<\/p>\n

The Conservatory\u2019s accredited jazz degree program, launched in 1971, crucially sparked that era\u2019s early 1980’s jazz renaissance. The Jazz Institute, underwritten by the Batterman Foundation, also selects top high school players for scholarships in private lessons, theory classes and concerts. In addition to the Prospect Avenue Conservatory home, The\u00a0Institute now also has branch locations in Fox Point and Brookfield.<\/p>\n

For the third consecutive year, the program\u2019s Batterman Ensemble placed as a finalist in the International Charles Mingus Jazz Competition, and in 2013 won the competition\u2019s \u201cMingus Spirit\u201d award and the group’s trumpeter Travis Drow won an outstanding soloist award. The current ensemble took first place for best high school ensemble in 2014 at the Eau Claire Jazz Festival. In 2012, the Batterman\u2019s 17-year-old saxophonist Lenard Simpson won the Mingus event\u2019s \u201coutstanding soloist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"conservatory<\/p>\n

The Jazz Institute’s\u00a0Batterman Ensemble recently won the award for best jazz high school Jazz Ensemble at the Eau Claire Jazz Festival. The ensemble includes (L-R)\u00a0Jordan Rattner on guitar, Gervis\u00a0Myles on bass,\u00a0Amy Clapp on tenor sax, Hannah Johnson on drums and Travis\u00a0Drow on trumpet<\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This sounds like a dynamic art form in town, yet an old saw endures: \u201cJazz is dying.\u201d \u201cCompared to what? For the last story about that, we had a joke: All the jazz musicians were unavailable for comment,\u201d responds\u00a0the\u00a0Conservatory’s pianist Davis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the musicians I know are constantly working,\u201d concurs Breiwick, also a professor at the UWM program.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really need to work at it, but it pays off,\u201d adds Jeff Hamann, the city\u2019s \u201cfirst-call\u201d bassist, a Conservatory instructor and house bassist in Michael Feldman\u2019s nationally-syndicated radio program \u201cWhad D\u2019ya Know?\u201d \u201cMy peers seem to keep busy.\u201d However, Hamann has noticed less work for some veteran players. \u201cEveryone\u2019s path to success is a little different.\u201d<\/p>\n

“The value of jazz education is that you can play just about any type of music with it,” Davis says. And yet, he adds, \u201csome music programs are dwindling, especially in the inner city.\u201d But WCM and other higher-ed programs provide scholarships — and the Conservatory faculty ensemble, We Six, does residencies and performances — at these schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cMilwaukee seems on a real upswing, with numerous incredible Conservatory-trained high school and college players coming up: Lenard Simpson, trumpeter Alec Aldred, guitarist Tommy Antonic, saxophonist Robert Larry (from UWM) and percussionist Jake Richter — now on full scholarship to Indiana University.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir success comes from education, the jazz community and musicians acting as mentors, if only through their playing. Guys like Jamie Breiwick. Last night, Jordan Rattner, a great high school guitarist and trumpeter Cody Longreen sat in with us. You can\u2019t just teach jazz in classroom. You gotta be out in the real world,\u201d Davis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hear criticisms that academia creates musical clones, who all sound the same. I think it\u2019s a reaction to more jazz education and less playing opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jazz still fights against American anti-intellectualism, and it lacks the funding base classical music enjoys. Yet jazz persists.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to learn how to hear those harmonies to really understand it,\u201d Davis concludes. \u201cMost jazz musicians recognize the need to give something back, to educate people to create an audience for tomorrow. Most people I taught 20 years ago are adults and hopefully it\u2019s part of their culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

We Six Concert Season Will Tribute the Late Horace Silver, and a Classic Wayne Shorter Album<\/strong><\/div>\n
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\"we<\/div>\n
We Six\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s faculty jazz ensemble We Six is probably Southeast Wisconsin’s premier straight-ahead jazz ensemble. The group includes Eric Jacobson, trumpet; Eric Schoor, tenor sax, Paul Silbergleit, guitar, Mark Davis, piano; Jeff Hamann, bass; and Dave Bayles, drums.
\nThe 2014-15 We Six concert season will honor the passing of the great hard-bop pianist, composer and bandleader Horace Silver, as well as a concert that will reproduce all the music from Wayne Shorter’s 1964 Blue Note album Speak No Evil<\/em>, one the most brilliant and influential recordings of modern jazz. This season also includes a concert of original compositions by the ensemble’s members.<\/div>\n
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The Music of Horace Silver —\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>October 9, 2014. We\u00a0Six\u00a0performs “Nica\u2019s\u00a0Dream,\u201d\u00a0“Strollin\u2019,\u201d\u00a0“Se\u00f1or\u00a0Blues,\u201d\u00a0and other\u00a0classics\u00a0by this\u00a0highly\u00a0influential composer and\u00a0pianist.<\/p>\n

“Speak No Evil”<\/em><\/strong> — November\u00a013, 2014. To commemorate\u00a0the 50th\u00a0anniversary of Wayne\u00a0Shorter\u2019s\u00a0iconic album\u00a0Speak No Evil<\/span>, We\u00a0Six performs \u201cWitch Hunt,\u201d\u00a0\u201cFee-Fi-Fo-Fum,\u201d\u00a0\u201cInfant Eyes,\u201d\u00a0and other selections.<\/p>\n

All Our Own<\/em> <\/strong>— March 19, 2015. An\u00a0annual showcase, this concert features new\u00a0original compositions and arrangements\u00a0by members of\u00a0We\u00a0Six.<\/p>\n

Sounds of Brazil<\/em><\/strong> — April 16, 2015. We\u00a0Six\u00a0draws upon the musical traditions of Brazil,\u00a0<\/a>performing works by Antonio Carlos\u00a0Jobim, Ivan\u00a0Lins, Luiz\u00a0Bonf\u00e1,\u00a0and\u00a0others.<\/p>\n

______________<\/p>\n

Unless otherwise noted, all photos are courtesy of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music Jazz Institute.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A shorter version of this article was published in The Shepherd Express.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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  Artist-in-residence and Grammy-winning trumpeter Brian Lynch (left) works with the Wisconsin Conservatory Music Jazz Institute’s award-winning students saxophonist Lenard Simpson and student pianist Peter Garofalo. Jazz ain\u2019t the music that made Milwaukee famous. However, like beer, the music\u2019s innate … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-1dv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4681"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4738,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4681\/revisions\/4738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}