UBC Summer Music Institue 2010 - Week 2
The students attending the senior week of the UBC Summer Music Institute ranged from about 14 to 70 years old. For this years senior jazz band, aged 14 to 20, we ended up with 7 saxes, 4 trombones, 5 trumpets, 2 drummers, 3 basses, 2 guitars and 1 piano.
Given that this is a summer camp I tried to have all the kids playing as much as possible. This did mean, as horrible as it sounds, that I had all 3 bass players reading through the charts at once, but with only one of them running through an amp. Both guitar players, each running through his own amp, played at the same time, with the more experienced student playing sustained chords and single note lines while the other played in the Freddy Green style. Multiple drummers always presents a problem. While I’m not big on adding extra percussion, such as shakers and tambourines, on swing tunes, there were a few charts where I had one of the drummers playing congas. For the last 3 days I added a second drum set and 2 more bass amps. To show the students how it can work with multiple drummers I played them some Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland recordings, which featured both drummers, Kenny Clarke and Kenny Clare, playing at the same time. The big thing to avoid when doing this is duplicating the cymbal work. The best combination is for one drummer to play with brushes with no hi hat pedal work and the other as normal.
For the first day and a half I simply handed out charts, reading them down and making comments as we went. Sight reading seems to be a big problem for many high school students and I tried to help them with this essential skill. I feel there are several components to successful reading skills, which I constantly pointed out:
- Feel the pulse, like it becomes a part of you, or allow the pulse to make you feel like moving, nodding or dancing.
- Always know where beat one is.
- Play with confidence. This means to not hide behind soft, inefficient playing. It is always better to play out and loudly step in a hole, or miss read a pitch or rhythm, than to hide and try to follow someone else. Strong confident playing is easier to correct than weak playing.
- The more reading you do the better you get. I’m sure that if I were to hand out the same charts at the end of the week the students would fair much better.
Besides helping the students learn to play large ensemble jazz I also want them to experience music that they probably do not play in their school program. In addition to the charts we performed we also read through: Lullaby of the Leaves - arranged by Francy Boland, Chunga’s Revenge - arranged by Fred Stride, Sax-Accord - Fred Stride (we had a very nice sax section), Old Man River - arranged by Bill Holman, Michelle - arranged by Chico O’Farrill, Stereoso - Bill Holman, Ring of Fire - Fred Sturm, Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue - Duke Ellington, Waka Jawaka - arranged by Fred Stride, Perdido - arranged by Duke Ellington and Opus In Pastels - Stan Kenton.
For the last 3 days of the camp I had the band playing the Clark Terry/Jimmy Hamilton Perdido Line as an ensemble warmup. This was a great way to get the horn players playing with the proper jazz/swing articulation, as well as helping them learn to play together. I would sometimes have the rhythm section stop and have the horns continue on. It is interesting how a horn section quickly begins to focus as a single unit when you take away their rhythm section crutch.
As the week went on I had the bass players and drummers pick out the charts they might like to play, and we went down to a single bass player and drummer for most charts. For the Saturday afternoon concert I knew I had to do at least 2 charts for each bass player and one with all 3. I also had to do a similar thing with the drummers. Since the guitar players were working very well I left them alone to play together on every tune.
On the last day of the “camp” we were given from 40 to 45 minutes to perform the music we had been working on. Beginning the concert program was a concert band, directed by John Van Deursen, made up of very young students from Taiwan. We followed with our set and the Senior Concert Band directed by my colleague at UBC, Robert Taylor, ended the program. All three groups were excellent.
Here is a rundown of the charts we performed on the final day.
Don’t Get Sassy - Thad Jones; adapted/arranged by Mike Carubia
This is a wonderful simplified version, for young jazz players, of the Thad Jones classic. Like the original, this chart in Bb instead of the original Db, includes some challenging ensemble work. The tutti melody includes broad gestures as well as a little figure that requires the horns to play lightly, almost catlike. The solo section is fairly loose in structure and allowed a fair degree of latitude to include several soloists. While a Bb blues scale can be used throughout the solo section, a couple of our soloists worked on playing through the changes. Keep in mind that the summer institute is not an honour band so for many of the students it is their first foray into more advanced literature and solo work. Some soloists had never played an improvised solo before. For me, given the very short time frame, I prefer to encourage the students to play out, or speak up, be pleased with their playing and to not feel that a good jazz solo is measured by the number of notes per bar or displays of virtuosity.
Dragonwyck - Gene Roland; transcribed/adapted by Fred Stride
I’ve always enjoyed Stan Kenton’s Adventures in Blues recording. The entire disc was written by multi-instrumentalist/composer/arranger Gene Roland, who is also featured on both soprano saxophone and mellophonium. Several of the charts had always seemed like they would adapt easily to younger players. Dragonwyck is one of my favourites so I started with that one. The A sections of the tune are quite simple and are great for the beginner soloist. The bridge however, requires use of the diminished-whole tone scale [aka the altered scale]. I did spend some time explaining this particular scale, to more than a few glassy-eyed students.
Malaguena - Ernesto Lecuona; arranged by Bill Holman; adapted by Fred Stride
I wrote this version of this Stan Kenton/Bill Holman classic, which is down a fourth from the original, in 2003 or 2004. I’ve used it with many ensembles since. The kids love playing this high energy chart. We had strong leads in the trumpets and the trombones, as well as a fine rhythm section, so it seemed like a no- brainer. I also had both drummers playing on this one. Drummer #1 played the part as normal while #2 played with felt mallets during the inro and added cascara-type playing throughout the latin section. The 2nd drummer did not play during the swing section. I also had all 3 bass players playing, except for the swing section where we went down to a single player. Multiple players on a walking bass line is not a good idea.
The Shortest Dissonance Between Two Points - Les Hooper
This one doesn’t seem to be particularly popular, but is, nevertheless, a typically excellent Les Hooper chart. I’ve never played or heard a bad, or even mediocre, Hooper chart. Les is a consistently first rate writer. This chart features bass throughout and so was a natural as a “bass section feature.” All three bass players played on this one, both melody and improvised solos. The horn parts are not hard to play, but do require work with blend, tuning and especially releases.
One Big Happy Family - Les Hooper
I did not intend to feature a Les Hooper set. But as I went looking through my library for a fairly easy-to-play blues, I ended up with this one in my hands. I always like to include something that I can get multiple soloists playing on, especially something that is harmonically straightforward, like a blues. I also wanted something that I could put together quickly and that would be relatively easy for the band, something they could relax on, as many of the other charts were tough on the face and brain. This chart fit the bill perfectly. This also seemed like the perfect choice to have my rehearsal assistant, Adam Gough, get his feet wet directing. He did well and the kids obviously liked him, he has a bright future ahead of him as a music educator. One of the enjoyable experiences during the week was watching one of the kids in band do an impersonation of me helping Adam with his directing.
After Six - Fred Stride
For roughly the past 10 years, of the 18 years the UBC Summer Music Institute has been in existence, I have been writing originals and arrangements for the camp. The main reason is write things that high school students will not have not played before and for me to deal with the challenge of writing with the limitations of your average high school student in mind. This year I thought I would write something in 7/4, not fast, using straight 8ths (latin?) and somewhat modal. I also wanted to have the horns start the piece playing a groove on a single pitch (G), which would become a pedal point against which I could set a melody, then eventually add the rhythm section. The resulting sound for this section of the chart is one of a somewhat busy and rhythmic texture. It then struck me that a contrasting section would be most welcome and should feature a single horn section, possibly voiced, over a simple groove. I then played with these ideas throughout the chart.
Harmonically this piece is quite different from your average high school jazz chart. The first chord that is heard is a C/Ab. These types of chords have quite a dark colour, which appeals to me. With this dark hue happening along with the rhythmic texture I felt the B section should at least start with a lighter, or sunnier, harmony, something from a major key source. I ended up with Fmaj7/G. Of course I’m never one to stay too long in a single harmonic territory, so I made my way back to the darker sounds of the A section, giving the chart an AAB form of 12,12 and 22. To help tie it all together the end of the B section uses the final 6 bars of A.
The solo section, which is not based on A and B, uses a combination of chords from both A and B. I also decided that since these chords are unusual for high school students I should spend a little longer on each one. I also felt I should not use the C/Ab types of chords, that I should restrict myself to using those chords that involve familiar scales and modes, Bb natural minor for the Bbmin7(b6) chord, D dorian for Fmaj7/G, B natural minor for Bmin7(b6) and F lydian for Cmaj7/F.
After Six - Solo changes
To be honest I didn’t think we would get too far the first time through, but the kids really surprised me, especially the drummer. They got the overall concept of the alternating bars of 4/4 and 3/4 quite quickly which allowed us to work on phrasing and the overall feeling of the piece.
Finally, I’ve never felt that great coming up with titles so After Six seemed convenient as a working title. So, on the last day of the camp I asked the students if they could think of anything better and one of them suggested Before 8, which I thought was quite funny. But, after some discussion they all seemed to agree that After 6 was a good title, as you could read other things into it.
Black Friday - Walter Becker, Donald Fagen; arranged by Fred Sturm
I simply love Fred Sturm’s writing, whether it is for pros or young students. A number of years ago I acquired a disc of Fred’s arrangements of Steely Dan tunes for the HR Big Band in Germany. Black Friday was a perfect vehicle for our 2 guitar players. There is a significant amount of written lines for them to deal with and the solo section is over an E pedal, giving them quite a bit of room for solo work. The first few times we went through the chart both guitarists were playing their favourite rock/blues licks for their solos, but I put a challenge before them of forbidding any such licks and for them to play a little more freely, to go for harmonic colour. They were encouraged to think of E only as a home base and as a place of resolution, not as a chord. They were set free to journey anywhere in their solos and solo exchanges. They were both wonderful and rose to the challenge, of course I let them use their distortion and delay pedals. Another challenge in this excellent chart is the first trumpet part which presents several high F#s and one high G# above high C. It’s amazing, that when a piece of music is this well written, that playing those notes down the octave did not harm the energy level of the chart at all.
For the 18th time I had a great time working with the kids at the summer institute. It was obvious they really wanted to play challenging music in a great band. Pushing them hard and not allowing them to settle for anything less than their absolute best never seems to be a turn off for them. They definitely came through on the final concert. The energy on stage was exhilarating. I’m already looking forward to next year.
For more information about the UBC Summer Music Institute click here
After Six - Score - page 1
Tags: arranging, Bill Holman, Fred Sturm, Jazz education, UBC Summer Music Institute