More than music

October 01, 2006

"We Always Swing”" Jazz Series swings in and out of
classroom setting to introduce music to new audiences.

America began as a land of convergent cultures — without a sense of self, without its own soul. And for a long time in history, America was a land of not only oppression, but also repression, with practices such as slavery and movements including Prohibition.

But toward the end of the 1800s, the pulse of the country began to change, to quicken, as slaves were freed and citizens embraced a livelier sense of independence. And as the country evolved, so did its culture, birthing art forms such as jazz that reflected what would become the foundations of modern America.

With that in mind, Columbia's own "We Always Swing" Jazz Series is preparing to launch a pilot program at Field Elementary known as "Jazz in the Schools," sponsored in part by the school’s partner in education, USbank. The program will consist of a series of presentations and performances that will introduce the children to jazz music.

"They look at it as a very daunting art form that you have to go to school to appreciate," said Greg Aker on a common misconception about jazz music. "If it's emotive, if it's evocative, it's going to draw some sort of emotional response whether you know exactly what the performer's doing or if it just sounds cool and makes your foot tap. I think anybody can get it. If your head bobs, you get it."

For the first of four programs, scheduled for Nov. 13, which Aker has worked with the University of Missouri-Columbia's Department of Jazz Studies to prepare, the performance will include opportunities for the students to interact with the performers by improvising rhymes and rhythms.

"We hope it gives the students a starting point to grasp onto with the music," Aker said. "As they dive deeper into the music and explore more areas of jazz music, they will realize that they don’t have to get it, that they already do."

The workshops were inspired by the National Education of the Arts' program of the same name, which explores jazz as an indigenous American art form and as a means to study American history. Teachers can order tool kits that work in conjunction with a five-unit Web-based curriculum outlined by the NEA, which incorporates jazz into lessons in history, civics, geography and other social studies.

"I think that sense of freshness, spontaneity, innovation is always in front of us," said Wayne Brown, director of music and opera with the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C. "It's all part of America's story that people are able to relate to so easily."

The NEA did better than giving a classroom tool kit to the Jazz Series. Instead, the Jazz Series received the honor of hosting 2005 NEA Jazz Master Paquito D'Rivera, a Cuban saxophonist-clarinetist. The title of jazz master is a lifetime achievement honor for artists who have shown extraordinary accomplishments in or commitment to jazz.

"It's a sort of Pulitzer for jazz," Brown said. The NEA's Jazz Masters Initiative organizes the Jazz Masters on Tour program, which allows jazz masters to tour all 50 states in a circuit of performances, speaking engagements or educational activities. The NEA Jazz Masters organizing committee selects key sites in each state to present a jazz master. The committee gives the site a stipend to put on the production.

In 2005, Columbia's Jazz Series was nominated and selected as Missouri's jazz master site.

"It really says something about this project," said Jon Poses, executive director of the Jazz Series, now in its 12th year. "It's obviously growing, but it's still about educating. It’s still about teaching people who these players are. It's not like selling Springsteen tickets."

As part of his stop in November, D'Rivera will educate Columbia on jazz with a performance at the Missouri Theatre and host a workshop at the University to fulfill the mission of both the Jazz Series and jazz master title.

"Jazz has always been wonderful as both a democratic music and a healing music," Poses said. "And if we can do our little part in all of that, so be it. So much the better."