[Dixielandjazz] Listening to Jazz - was Jazz Goes to College

[Steve barbone]

Part of the problem with teaching jazz is that we jazz musicians do not do
it as well as we could.

"Listening" as Don Ingle and Larry Walton have said, is a key element in
teaching any subject, much less jazz. How can young people hear this music
if we jazz musicians do not make it available to them?

DAMN IT, PLAY WHERE THE KIDS ARE. Or if you are teaching jazz, teach the
kids how to hear.

Case in point, Clifford Brown's first mentor/teacher Robert "Boysie" Lowery.
Clifford Brown was a student at Howard High in Wilmington DE when he started
as student of Lowery. "I didn't start him in a book" said Lowery, "I taught
him how to hear." Lowery also encouraged students to record their practice
session. In the 1940's wire spool recorders existed. Clifford Brown became
one of the first jazz players to use these devices.

Speaking of Brownie, and Howard High, Barbone Street is playing at Howard
High School in Wilmington this coming Monday Afternoon. The Phila/Wilmington
Educational TV Channel (12) is producing a half hour TV segment about
Brownie and using Barbone Street as the "living history" portion of the
segment. Especially relevant as 3 of us in the band knew Brownie and Ace
Tesone, our Bass Player, gigged and recorded with him.

We are excited about it, the kids are excited about it and Wilmington's
Department of Cultural Affairs is excited about it. We expect the TV segment
to air here shortly before the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival in early June.
It will include OKOM live in front of the kids, and interviews with those of
us who knew and/or played with Clifford Brown.

And tomorrow we are playing for a high school graduation party, 160 kids, at
the Hartefeld Country Club in Avondale PA. These are some of the graduates
of Dickinson High School in Wilmington this month.

And next month? Hillendale Elementary School.

Bottom line? How the hell do we expect the kids to respond to jazz if they
never get the chance to hear it? Why the hell isn't every damn band
associated with this chat list, and/or jazz doing these kinds of gigs? And
getting the same response we are from the kids, throughout all grade levels
in the schools and at the restaurant/club level?

Oops, I forgot, we're too damn busy bitching about Wynton, or faulting the
kids for not liking music they never get a chance to hear.

There are some bands/leaders, like Mike Vax who go on out there and do it.
Imagine how relevant jazz would become if the rest of us just WENT OUT AND
PLAYED WHERE THE KIDS ARE.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone