[Dixielandjazz] Jazz 101 -UCLA Music Student Philosopy

[Steve Barbone]

Just the thing to read on a slow Sunday night. An example of current
generational thinking about the world of jazz and/or music. From the
University of California in Los Angeles "Daily Bruin", a campus blog. Some
thoughts of graduating students who majored in music.

OKOM, anyone? Apparently not.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

New school jazz - By Ross Rinehart - UCLA DAILY BRUIN Monday, June 11, 2007

Common conceptions of jazz music typically evoke images of time-tested,
weary performers in small, dimly-lit bars of the 1950s and ¹60s. The
opulence and spectacle of classical music seems to be frozen in centuries
past. At some point, at least to the perfunctory music fan, these became
your parents¹ ­ or worse, your grandparents¹ ­ genre of music. So, the class
of students graduating this year from the departments of music and
ethnomusicology seem to be fighting an uphill battle to create something
unique and individual.

³The biggest problem in both classical music and jazz music is that it¹s
viewed as a historical thing and not as a thing that¹s going on right now,²
graduating jazz and classical composition student Nick DePinna said. ³The
classical world right now is 90 percent old music by composers who are dead,
and maybe 10 percent living composers. The same thing applies to jazz ...
maybe 75 percent old music, 25 percent new music.²

In four years as undergraduates in the UCLA music and ethnomusicology
departments, DePinna, trombonist and composer, along with fellow graduating
jazz student Noah Garabedian, bassist, attempted to reinvigorate the lineage
of jazz and classical music into something new and compelling.

³(Jazz is) quickly disintegrating in terms of genre, but not in terms of its
existence,² DePinna said. ³I mean, you can¹t really tell the difference
anymore between a lot of jazz and a lot of pop, and a lot of jazz and a lot
of classical music, and a lot of jazz and a lot of rock music. In a lot of
sense, it¹s not dying or falling away, it¹s just losing the definite
boundaries.²

In composing original pieces, DePinna looks to this amalgamation of styles
as a sign of the contemporary era he occupies.

³In my opinion, no one in the right mind born when we were born, which is
the mid-eighties, can in the right consciousness write straight-ahead
¹50s-style jazz. It doesn¹t work,² he said. ³So naturally the music we grew
up with, which was pop and rock and maybe oldies on the radio station ... we
write music that is who we are, which is unavoidably a hybrid of a lot
things.²

Additionally, the placement of modern recording technology ­ such as digital
recording, sound modulators and synthesizers ­ within jazz and classical
music has drastically altered the playing field for young performers and
composers. The electric modification of sound and timbre imbues the music of
the two genres with new colors and textures.

³It¹s part of the sound of your instrument and it¹s linked to the music
that¹s coming out of your amp, and it¹s linked to the music that¹s coming
out of your horn,² DePinna said. ³And you need to practice with it, you
can¹t practice without it. It¹s not just something you can add on, like
another layer of paint, it¹s like a new instrument.²

Classically trained flutist and senior music student Pénélope Turgeon also
recognizes the importance of electronics within the jazz and classical
idioms. Yet, she still stresses the maintenance of solid fundamentals before
indulging in electronic manipulation.

³It¹s part of what¹s happening (in) music and you have to learn to live with
it,² Turgeon said. ³It¹s important to be able to do everything: to have a
good classical fundamentals, to know the history and know where it¹s coming
from. And then you have the choice to pick and choose what you want to apply
into the new stuff.²

The modern digital era also offers composers a chance to self-record with
greater ease and utility. Self-production has become increasingly necessary
as the record industry continues to decline and jazz and classical music
fall to the peripheries of contemporary music.

³Nowadays with self-production you¹re not going to get signed to a label,
you need to create your own label,² DePinna said. ³You really don¹t have to
find your niche, as much as you have to make it, which is a big difference
from music 20 years ago. You can create it from the start instead of
searching endlessly for something you fit into.²

Looking at their relation to the future in jazz and classical music, the
graduating seniors find invaluable lessons gained within their experience at
the music and ethnomusicology departments at UCLA.

³If you¹re a musician, it can be a very frustrating major to be in, because
a lot of networking is done by yourself; the school can only do so much for
you,² graduating music student and clarinetist Denexxel Domingo said. ³But
you¹re going to be the one performing and you¹re going to be the one that
has to be able to present these works at a specific level of playing.²

Applying the improvisational frame of mind that is essential to the jazz
ethos allows the performers the flexibility to enter the fickle world of
music.

³You learn just to work what¹s thrown at you,² Garabedian said. ³It is a
do-it-yourself program. ... That might not work out so well for some people,
because if the faculty¹s letting you do your own thing and if you¹re not
doing anything, sooner or later you¹re going to realize you¹re not a great
musician, and you have a degree in ethnomusicology, and I¹m not sure what
you do with that.²

³I have no clue what is going to happen when setting out on this,² DePinna
said. ³And it won¹t be what I expect, but I guess that¹s the fun in it. We
are artists because it¹s what we need to do, it¹s what we love to do. We¹re
not going to get rich off it, so for God¹s sake, we have to love it.²