Much has happened since posting the last Cadenzas, the most important event being those of September 11 and the subsequent events that have followed. These events will, in many ways, change how we conduct our lives. But we all hope that in the greater picture, these changes will not alter our being unafraid to live our lives as a free people, free to believe as we wish and free to express what we feel.

It is also important that now more than ever, we not let the prejudices which have plagued this country for generations come forth and overpower our ability to reason and distinguish between those who have done us wrong and those who have not. Tolerance and forbearance must be the bywords of the day.

Since these recent tragedies that have occurred, there have been many insightful articles written and sent to us by email. Usually, in situations as this, I would write an article speaking to my own feelings about what has transpired, but I recently received Dave Liebman's online newsletter, Intervals, in which Dave speaks quite eloquently of what has affected all of us so deeply. With Dave's permission, I am displaying this link which will take you directly to this special issue of Intervals if you so choose. While there, you might navigate through the rest of Dave's site wherein I am sure you will find much more of interest. I'm sure you all know that Dave Liebman is one of the premiere Jazz musicians and educators in the field today.

I have written many times here about the “business” of Jazz. Most every musician I have met has a terrible frustration with the business surrounding this wonderful music. As an example, I cite the following.

Overheard recently in a conversation with one of the well-known manager/bookers of Jazz talent were remarks to the extent that one’s music or talent doesn’t matter as much as the artist having a “hook.” It seems that to sell a Jazz artist or group today, the artist must possess some kind of societal issue in order to have their talents successfully represented to the public. Some of these issues may include the race, gender or age of the musician or whether he or she is a recovering substance abuser or been incarcerated for some crime in the past. And while this might seem strange to many of you, it nonetheless is a reality in our business.

The problems mentioned above are not to be ignored or scoffed at. They are serious issues within our society today, and we are not dealing with many of them very well. But to use these issues as a “hook” or a marketing ploy in booking an artist  and that transcending the validity of one’s music is ridiculous to my way of thinking - and to the minds of most the musicians I know.

I thought, with the help of Ed Soph, to create a humorously “serious” ad spoofing the use of these issues, one that might hypothetically be used to represent or sell my group if we were to use these marketing techniques. It is, after all, sadly humorous (or humorously sad if you prefer). But alas, everything we wrote seemed to not be so humorous and could possibly be construed as ridiculing the musicians not the marketers, making us seem as stupid as those employing the tactics mentioned above.

 Hoping not to sound immodest (I apologize in advance if it does), we came up with an ad that I believe would represent our group if we were in reality going to create one. I believe any of you who know any or all the members of this group would agree that the qualities cited fit these gentlemen. But, isn’t it amazing that musicians fitting the description below are thought of as “unmarketable” because of not possessing the so-called “hook?”

The four gentlemen in this group - Marvin Stamm, trumpet; Bill Mays, piano; Rufus Reid, bass; Ed Soph, drums - each have over thirty years of performance experience that they bring to the stage. Their music reflects the intense, joyful and intuitive musical rapport that these four artists share between themselves and with their audiences. Their music connects and communicates. Respected by their peers as musicians of quality, they have – among them - worked with the “greatest of the great.”

This communication is also in the classroom and the rehearsal hall, where the experience of those years of personal learning, mentoring and teaching are shared and discussed with the same openness, imagination and sincerity as the performance of the music itself. With obvious delight, they extend great music and engaging human communication to their audiences.

Four masterful musicians who are as eloquent in their words as they are in their music. There’s more to this quartet than the great music it creates.

For more information, contact …

Hmm …  nothing to hang your hat on there!!!

Many of the articles on this site are concerned with music and the artists and their particular conflicts with different segments of the music business and how it functions. A great deal of this relates to record companies, critics, or the industry as a whole, this usually in regard to its working to the great disadvantage of the artists.  But one of the issues I am most concerned with is that of music education, what it does as opposed to what it is supposed to do, and how the system functions in regard to the training of its teachers and how it views the students. How do we as musicians who also work within this system in one capacity or another, relating to and working with these teachers and students? I believe what is going on in music education today presents a very negative outlook for both the music and the musicians and doesn’t bode well for the future.

I have spoken often of my disappointment in our education system, the preservation of the status quo by the bureaucracy and a further lack of concern over the welfare of the students. I am told by quite a few educators that students many times are looked upon by the powers-that-be mostly as a source of funds, a "tuition", so to speak. They prefer to "get 'em in, and get 'em out" in many of our educational institutions. This attitude by administrators filters down to the classroom where the instructors and professors feel the pressure to do just that. Combined with semester-end student evaluations that may jeopardize their bid for tenure or a possible promotion and/or raise, they are under great pressure to "go with the flow". Where disciplining or failing a student because he/she will not comply with a teacher's standard of excellence is looked down upon by the administration, the teacher has little choice but to comply. If they do not, they may be penalized by the administration above them because many administrators feel that it might reflect badly on them. Sad, eh? But true, nevertheless.

In my opinion, our youth are our most valuable resource, and their education should be one of the most important subjects upon which to focus our attentions. And though most people think that Jazz musicians are concerned by little other than fulfilling their own selfish and desultory needs, the truth is that this view is entirely a distorted one. Many artists, like myself, have built careers and made their livelihoods as full-time performers. Yet, as artist/clinicians, we continually try to make and find time to work with teachers and students in schools as part of our work in music. We are also concerned and involved members of our own communities. We have children of our own, and their education is a matter of primary concern to us as it is with other parents. For those of us involved in music and music education, these are topics to which we seem to devote a great deal of our attention and conversation.

We are all aware of the outside influences that seem to constantly whittle away the importance of education while still paying much lip service to it! Government cuts to funds for education, especially on the state and local level, are great culprits as are the attitudes of our senators and congressman in Washington. But in the arts, our local administrators play a particularly damaging role, seeing these programs as no more than frivolous indulgences. Also, our elected officials in the capitol who see no value in the only communications entities promoting culture, i.e. PBS and NPR, set negative examples for the lower levels of government to follow by further undermining the value of that culture. What these people fail to recognize is that the arts, all of them, are the only things that teach us of things of the heart, beauty and feelings, both the pain and joy, the turmoil of human emotions and feelings, that which raises us above the animals!  And, of course, our radio and TV feed the public nothing but pap, thinking that they must always direct their programming to the lowest common denominator of humanity to survive. If we direct every level of our social fabric to the lowest level of that society then we give our society nothing to reach up for!

Have drastic changes taken place in music and music education over the last 25 or 30 years, and, if so, what has been the impact? Does the blame for the demise of the arts in the schools rest only on the shoulders of the administrators and non-music people who reside outside the field, but who control the circumstances? I certainly don’t know if I have any answers, but I think it is time we all asked some very hard questions in order to identify the problems and then present real and workable solutions to these problems that are infecting and destroying our quality music today. We need to talk about them and not be afraid to take to task those who are to blame.

I owe my career of some 40 years to the musical training primarily provided by my two public school band directors and the private teacher from whom I studied at my local music store in Memphis. Several things stand out in my mind about that period. One was that when I went to the music store for my lessons each Saturday, a large group of the local band directors would be there looking at new music, talking and exchanging ideas with each other and helping each other to solve problems. It was a community of people who had a real bond together, and they were as involved in their teaching as any of us who have followed the path to performing. As well, many of them still performed in local dance bands and other professional groups because they remained interested in playing. So, while involved with their students, and firmly established in their careers, they nevertheless continued to study and grow in both the teaching and playing areas. This wasn’t something they felt they must do; they did it because they loved what they were doing! And teaching wasn’t a just a job for them; it was a way of life.

We are all aware of the many social issues that influence music and cultural arts, but I would rather focus on issues closer to home. For this, we need only look at the many music students we certify for teaching every year without their having mastered on their instruments something as simple as major scales much less delving into any of the more complex areas of music. Most of the music education courses they take through school are a joke and completely useless. Courses that could provide students with practical experiences for teaching, such as methods courses, are woefully abbreviated. And courses dealing with public relations and community outreach in order to develop public support for their programs as well as apprising them of some of the situations they may face dealing with administrators, school boards and the like, are non-existent.

In many schools across the country, performance situations for wind players are limited only to concert band programs. And, even today, one hears of numbers of classically trained students who are discouraged by the classical faculty from being involved in their school’s Jazz programs. But, in many cases, they will have a Jazz program to direct in their high schools, and, possibly even some middle schools as well. I also increasingly hear stories of students who have given up working on their instruments stating, "I don't need to practice any more because I'm going to be a band director!" If they stop playing and are finished with learning now, what kind of growth can we expect of this kind of music educator in the future? What kind of imagination will they develop, how can they be an inspiration to the young people in front of which they stand?

As I travel widely, working with many young people and experiencing the leadership at a number of schools, I see that this is not uncommon. Often, one finds music directors who have had little performance experience themselves, who plan to study no further, who just want to do what is expected and no more. Many teach because they don't know what else to do, and teaching is not a hard profession to join. And, if you achieve tenure, not a difficult thing to do, one is fairly assured of a full career in most communities barring unforeseen circumstances.

Should not such a profession as teaching be regulated stringently since they are to be such a great force behind the development of the youth of our communities? Who is responsible for the lack of regulation of the certification of such teachers?  The blame lies in many places, among which are the universities and colleges who see the students only as tuition to support the status quo. Also to blame are those professors interested only in their own selfish concerns and a system that values an advanced degree such as a PHD over the gifts of an experienced teacher who loves to teach and inspire others. One who brings to his students the joy of learning, but who does not possess that advanced degree. This type of thinking has served to undermine our educational system.

Of course, there are those teachers who inspire and create an environment that makes a young person want to learn, but the number of these teachers decreases each year as the numbers of the opposite group grow. Our expectations both of ourselves in our family environment and in that of the school aren't high enough. Parents tend to pass the responsibility to the school, but when the school tries to have high expectations of the students, parents rush to the school crying, "Foul" and "I'll sue"! The administrations do not administrate the students, but the teachers who, in turn, are prevented from having any expectations of their students. In many cases, their main task is maintaining the decorum in their classrooms rather than that of teaching. The inmates are running the asylum!

So as artists, what can we do to change some of this? The most valuable gift we can give to teachers and students is inspiration. It is very easy in a school situation for both entities to become enmeshed in the day to day routine of just getting through the material. Maybe, if we can come forward with new and fresh ideas of how to involve ourselves as part of their programs, this might help. If we develop ideas that go beyond the normal “rehearsal, clinic and concert” concept and try to get to some of the real issues in teaching and/or performing that confront both groups, we can make our efforts and involvement with the students and teachers more meaningful. But we need to excite their imaginations. Many of us too are caught up in the narcissism that encompasses our lives and don’t think outwardly. We accept the “norm” and the same old things continue. While we are imaginative in our musical lives, we don’t transfer that when working in the educational realm. And as individual as we are in our performing, so should we be in our work with teachers and students. That is the gift we all possess.

Granted, in many cases, a new and individual approach to old entities such as the music “festival” that schools present will be met with skepticism and resistance by those who want to take the “easy way out”. But we still must try to persist and bring forth new ideas and concepts because, if we don’t renew young peoples’ interest in meaningful music, there will be little future for it. We must encourage those we are able to reach and who are amenable to new ideas to “go for it”! The price will be greater efforts and involvement on the part of both the artist and the teacher, but, if inspiring to the students, will pay off for everyone.  For the artist, it may mean being at a school longer, spending more time working with individual students and groups and involving themselves more with the educator in order to try to open new doors. For the teacher, it means more work organizing new and different programs designed to create more interest and inspiration for the students. It also involves devising more creative ways to raise funds as well as reaching out to a larger portion of the community to publicize and make them aware of your program. A new and creative relationship between artist and teacher also will mean that the teacher must also open up his/her mind to new ideas as well as admitting ignorance in areas where it exists in order to educate oneself in those areas. It is time to let all that go. Ignorance in so many things is something every human suffers from…that is no sin. But to be afraid to try and dispel that ignorance certainly is…especially where there are others involved!

I'm afraid the blame really belongs to us, the parents who refuse to be involved, to take part in the PTO’s or school board meetings, those who are afraid to raise their voices to protest the things which we constantly bemoan. Education and teaching is a process in which we must all participate. If we leave it to others, we have no right to complain. We must have high expectations in our home, in the classrooms and schools, of our local, state and federal officials because when our expectations are high, we give all in our communities something to reach up for!  And we need to be unafraid to make our voices and our demands heard. The silent voice is NO voice!

Lastly, teaching, like performing is not only a profession it is a calling! We need to honor those teachers who so willingly involve themselves with our young people, helping them to raise themselves up while feeding their hunger for learning. Those who inspire them to strive for more; those teachers who feel that same deep need for more knowledge and the fulfillment that comes with the difficult work they must do to achieve their own dreams and goals.