Alamo Colleges faculty member saxophonist Brian Christensen accompanied student Fernando Munoz to the annual international jazz meeting, the "pearl beyond price" that is the capstone event of the A-JAM mentorship program. The 2019 meeting was held in Zagreb, Croatia.
Below, Brian shares his thoughts about the experience, from which he returned "inspired to reach for a higher level of performance, not only as a jazz musician, but as a teacher as well." Auditions for the A-JAM program in 2020 are coming up in November 2019. Be sure to let your students and colleagues know about the program. It could be you taking part next year!
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The IASJ Jazz Meeting was an eye-opening experience for me. The meeting brought talented jazz students and faculty from music schools in the United States, Europe, and South America to Zagreb, Croatia for an intense week of jazz performance and discussion. While the players were from diverse locations, and while they may have spoken many different languages, all of them could get together and communicate using the language of jazz.
The morning of the first day of the meeting was full of student auditions. Students were called up on stage to perform with each other on a piece of their choosing. Based on these performances, students were put into six different combos that would perform on last two nights of the week. Interestingly, the combo selection wasn’t necessarily made based on who the strongest players were on each instrument. They were chosen based on who the faculty felt would play the best with each other.
Once
the combos were made, the students went off to different rooms to work on their
music along with faculty members who would serve as coaches. They spent about
three hours a day working on their material, most of which was original works
composed by the students, in preparation for two nights of concerts at the end
of the week.
While I had anticipated that the students would all be
very good improvisers, the level of their composing skills was a bit surprising
to me. There were several fantastic student compositions played on the last two
nights of concerts. A major difference
between this conference and the music in the South Texas region is that there
was more focus on playing with modal music with more open forms, and even free
improvisation at this meeting. The South Texas jazz scene is more geared
towards the performance of jazz standards from the first half of the twentieth
century, and there are few places where you would hear modal music and free
improvisation, so the focus of jazz education is usually on learning those
standard jazz tunes. Hearing these young players who are already working on
creating their own compositions makes me think that some of my jazz
improvisation lessons should involve encouraging my students to start composing
their own music as well.
The nightly jam sessions Zagreb’s Jazz and Cabaret
Club allowed the students and teachers to interact by playing jazz standards as
well as giving them the opportunity to talk and get to know one another. In general, the players on stage were
welcoming and open to each other, and the level of playing was very high with
many great solos each night. There was also plenty of inspiring conversation that
went late into the evening. Not surprisingly, we all had to be reminded to
leave at “closing time” to allow the staff at the night club to go home.
To me some of the most memorable parts of the meeting
were the “Ongoing Dialogues” that were held each day. There were interesting presentations on the
musical history of Croatia and introducing Serbia-based jazz trumpet player and
composer Dusko Goykovich. Two presentations were focused on jazz/rock fusion
and improvisation in rock and roll, and these were followed by interesting
discussions with Dave Liebman, who was intimately involved with jazz/rock fusion
along with Miles Davis. There was also a
very informative presentation analyzing jazz “Real Books” to drive home the
point that there are many inaccuracies in these fake books and that students
and teachers should go to original sources, listen to recordings, and figure
out what the correct changes and melodies are for each song. It’s ok for a
performer to choose to play a piece in their own way, but they should at least
be aware of the how the original music was played before they make the piece
their own.
There was also
plenty of discussion around the many issues that are being faced by jazz
schools today. It was interesting to
hear that many of the issues facing larger and more prestigious jazz schools
are similar to the ones faced by smaller schools. Recognizing young players who may not have
traditional musical skills but who have great musical talent and desire to
learn and making sure they are included in the system is an issue that we all
face. Many young players today are used to processing music differently from
older performers, yet many institutions keep their focus on ways of performing
that go back centuries. Hearing how other music schools are dealing with issues
like the inability of many students to read music well made me aware of the fact
that we need to adjust our expectations and change our approach to teaching
students who are talented, but may be weak sight-readers or have no prior
knowledge of music theory.
The morning masterclasses were a treat for me.
Teachers and students spent some time working on being better performers on
their own instruments, and for Fernando and me, our masterclass teacher was
none other than Dave Liebman! We did lots of work on sound, breathing, and
embouchure, and our last lesson was on time and rhythm. These are aspects that
we can all continue to improve, and it was great to hear the information on
sound and embouchure coming directly from a student of Joe Allard as well as
thoughts from all of the other saxophonists in attendance.
Another
highlight for me was the teacher’s concert, which took place on the second
night of the week. It was great to hear all of the teachers perform, and the
combo that I played in chose to perform one of my original pieces! They played
it so well that I wish there had been a recording of it. I won’t forget the
feeling of having such a fantastic group performing one of my songs!
I would like to thank Dr Cartwright, Alamo Colleges,
and the A-JAM Jazz Mentorship program for giving Fernando Munoz and me the
incredible opportunity to attend the IASJ Jazz Meeting in Zagreb. The week was
intense, with many great performances and discussions on jazz. After meeting,
hearing, and playing with so many great jazz players, I have come back inspired
to reach for a higher level of performance, not only as a jazz musician, but as
a teacher as well. - Brian Christensen
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