Recently, my quartet – Bill Mays, Rufus Reid, Ed Soph and I - was invited to perform a concert and master class at a high school Jazz festival at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill, SC. The Jazz ensemble director, Mark Yost, a highly motivated musician and educator, organized a very professional festival with first-rate adjudicator/performers in addition to my quartet. Mark is an excellent musician and teacher who strives to inspire his students. He has a very fine program, and he worked very hard to bring this - his first - festival to fruition. He really did it right - the organization was perfect right to the last item, though it took a tremendous amount of time and effort on his part to make it happen.

Arriving on Friday afternoon, I attended a rehearsal of Mark’s high school band and the Winthrop University (WU) Jazz Ensemble led by saxophonist Phil Thompson. Though a late flight arrival cut short my time spent with Mark’s band, I enjoyed listening and offering musical suggestions to them because they were responsive and obviously possessed a great deal of interest and desire. The band's responsiveness showed real leadership on the part of Mark and his associates at Northwestern H.S. Phil Thompson’s band displayed that same interest and, though a young group, played really well. At this juncture they are not well known outside of the Carolinas, but this youthful band nevertheless is one to be reckoned with as it gains more experience. Phil has done an excellent job with them.

Saturday afternoon, the quartet presented a master class on making music, improvisation, and what one needs to do to excel in these and other areas of music and education. All the members of the quartet are well versed in jazz education; they know how to communicate honestly with students and educators and are not hesitant in reaching out to both groups. Communication certainly was the case here as we played and then talked, answering students' questions, all of which were incisive, not the usual questions about mouthpieces and high notes and such, but about music and our approach to learning to master the instruments and improvisation. This was a very enjoyable session because the students were interested and really “into it!” Open communication makes all the difference in the world. We closed the master class with a final tune, setting the stage for what was to come that evening.

The evening’s concert was opened by Phil Thompson’s WU Jazz Ensemble featuring saxophonist Pete BarenBregge and trombonist Rick Simerly. Many of you will remember Pete as the leader of the Airmen of Note for a number of years. Rick, a fine trombonist in all respects, is a teacher in east Tennessee. Demonstrating the true professionals they are, Rick and Pete inspired the band to play very well.

The quartet came onstage, and from the first note we all knew that this concert was electric. After all these years and many performances, it still amazes me that a group can tell right from the initial notes that a performance is going to be special. The mystery of music and creativity! All musicians should have that feeling once in their lives, and we are so fortunate that we experience it many times over. We opened the concert with a loping Bill Mays original, “Judy”, a composition dedicated to his wife, that put everyone in a very relaxed mood and set the pace for the program. Sigmund Romberg’s classic, “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise” followed. Beginning with my very open, free soliloquy, the piece developed into an up-tempo swinger that had Bill and me improvising together before evolving into a solo vehicle for everyone. Because we always want our programming to build organically to its climax, we vary styles, tempos and time signatures to produce tension and release; in that way, the program breathes and develops naturally.  To this end we followed “Softly” with another Mays original, this time a waltz, “Gemma’s Eyes”. This piece has an extremely interesting structure that always proves very thought provoking, inspiring us to reach beyond ourselves. We next performed my ballad “Two As One,” always a quiet and thoughtful showcase for Bill and me that evokes our softer side. It also allows for the audience to experience the sensitive foundation that Ed and Rufus produce from which Bill and I can just sing.  Rufus opened Miles Davis' “Nardis” with an extended cadenza before he and Ed developed a 12/8 Afro-Cuban feel, which morphed into Miles’ beautiful melody. This is one of those compositions wherein we always seem to "take it to the limit." It is always a fun and musical journey for the four of us. We closed the concert with my original composition, “Samba du Nancy,” an up-tempo piece dedicated to my wife, that featured an exciting and melodic solo by Ed Soph. Ed is a very lyrical player, a rare quality in drummers today.

The audience showed great appreciation, giving us a standing ovation, all the more remarkable because many of the people were high school students who usually enjoy the more techno-bombastic type of Jazz, something this concert was not! From the first note, this was a totally musical and creative evening, one that found the four of us most inspired and at our best. This is what we live for!

The year 2003 continues to be very busy, a quite musically rewarding period for me, and since this is a rather long Cadenzas, I will only touch on the highlights. From the end of March through May, I was more deeply involved in educational projects than the period from the first of the year to late March.

March concluded with a concert and workshops at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). Kevin Eisensmith, professor of trumpet and leader of the IUP Jazz Ensemble, and Keith Young, professor of saxophone and leader of the IUP Jazz Band, had both groups beautifully prepared. All the young people in these two groups, whether music majors or not, were inspired and excited to play! I find lately that this level of student involvement many times is not the case, but Kevin and Keith are both very fine teachers and know how to inspire the young people under their tutelage. Kevin and I have worked together in the past, and I always know to expect the best from his students. We all had a great time playing together, and it was for me a wonderful weekend of music and dialogue with these young people.

The quartet - this time with Bill Mays, piano; Martin Wind, bass; John Riley, drums - performed a benefit concert for the Outreach program at St. James Church in my town of North Salem, NY. It was a lovely affair in the sanctuary of this two hundred-seat church that dates back to the 1700s, and while it is always satisfying to feel the appreciation of your music, it is even more so when coming from your friends and neighbors and from the knowledge that you are helping people in your own town.

Bill Mays and I flew to Texas two days later for a whirlwind four days that included a rehearsal and concert with Sparky Koerner’s band at College of the Mainland and our annual day at Houston’s High School for Performing and Visual Arts sponsored by my old friend Bill Habern. Bill gives this gift to these young people each year in a program begun by former director Bob Morgan and carried on by his successor, saxophonist Warren Sneed. As always, our visits to both these programs and working with Sparky and Warren are a pleasure.

The weekend also included the quartet – with Bill Mays, Ed Soph, and John Adams on bass - playing in Cezanne, the intimate Houston Jazz club managed by pianist Ken Ward. Cezanne is always a fun place to play because of the quiet and interested audience that always comes out for our visits there.

While Bill flew home, I went to Austin for three days to perform workshops at the University of Texas (UT) for trumpet professor Ray Sasaki and to Southwest Texas University to do the same with the Jazz students under the leadership of Freddie Mendoza, a great trombonist in the Austin area. Ray Sasaki, who took over the trumpet studio at UT from my dear friend Ray Crisara, is one of the finest musicians I know, one of incredible depth and broad experience from Jazz to chamber music to performing some of the most difficult modern solo compositions. I also performed an evening with pianist Jeff Helmer’s trio at the Elephant Room, Austin’s longtime Jazz venue. And most important, I also had the opportunity to spend time with my daughter, Teal, who lives and works in Austin.

In late April I spent two days in Russellville, AR, with Dr. Will Kimball, a fine trombonist, and his Jazz Ensemble at Arkansas Tech. The band was very good, and we had a great concert. I met a wonderful young trombonist, Marques Young, who at age 19 has been awarded a scholarship to study with Joe Alessi at Julliard. The Arkansas trip was followed by a three-day residency in Hampden, ME, just outside of Bangor with Pat Michaud, an impressive band director there. While there, I worked with two middle school groups, three high school groups and Pat’s fine professional big band, presenting one concert performing with the school groups and a second one with the professional group.

These educational engagements were immediately followed by a performance closer to home in Connecticut with the Norwalk Symphony conducted by maestra Diane Wittry. This was a concert we had performed the year before with the Allentown Symphony that also featured my long-time friend Jimmy Simmons on tenor saxophone and Houston (TX) vocalist Sharon Montgomery. They are both dynamite musicians and, as last year, we had a great time performing together with Diane and the orchestra.

After a week off I was a guest with the Bill Mays Trio (with bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson) in concert at a beautiful old theater in Narrowsburg, NY. These guys are “somethin’ else,” and I love working with them! Just standing there listening to them is as much fun as playing with them!

The International Trumpet Guild Conference (ITG) followed May 20-24, and Bill and I were invited to present a duo recital and perform a master class. The ITG Conference, a prodigious gathering of many marvelous performers and teachers, is always an exciting event, especially if one is performing there. And, of course, playing in duo with Bill is something I always greatly anticipate because it is one of the two most creative formats in which we perform, the quartet being the other. An enthusiastic audience of listeners beautifully received the recital, something that always warms a performer's heart. From the stage I made the statement that I felt Bill was certainly among the greatest pianists in Jazz today; throughout the Conference person after person came up to me to tell me that upon hearing our recital, they concur most heartily. The master class was fun, too, as we played and then talked about what we do, leaving a great part of the time for questions and speaking on subjects about which the audience is interested. These master classes usually run about one and one-quarter hours, but no one wanted to leave so we went almost two hours before adjourning the master class.

The ITG this year also honored my teacher and mentor, John Haynie. John produced more than two thousand students over a period of forty years at the University of North Texas, among who are many professional performers, university and college teachers, and band directors spread over the whole of the country. He has left a lasting legacy through all of us who emanated from our working with him.  A marvelous presentation of “The Haynie Legacy” by Dale Olson was attended by a host of former students and others who were interested to learn more of this most important teacher of the trumpet of the last half of the twentieth century. Dale’s presentation was beautifully done, taking us through John’s life and career. John truly deserved this tribute, and we were all so happy to see this come to fruition. Only Dale Olson could have put this tribute together and – for future reference – he is planning to put out a book of the same title.

As a side note: I was in Texas last November and prevailed upon John, now retired, to give me a lesson. He’s still got it, folks! And he took me to task on a number of issues upon which I have since been studiously working! My visit with John was so enjoyable that I am going to try to get down to Denton at least twice a year to study with him again.

The ITG also honored a most esteemed colleague - and also one of my mentors from my studio period - Ray Crisara, as well as former North Texas trumpet professor Dr. Leonard Candelaria. My feelings about Ray Crisara, as my feelings toward John Haynie, are quite well known to the readers of Cadenzas. All three of these gentlemen deserved to be honored by the ITG, and I congratulate ITG for doing so.

May closed with a Salon Concert by a sextet drawn from the newly-formed Westchester Jazz Orchestra. This group is comprised of musicians living in Westchester County, the area where I also reside, and is a non-profit organization led by two fine musicians, Joey Berkley and Peter Hand, and Executive Director Emily Tabin. I will talk more about this group after we begin the first season in the fall.

As you can see by this Cadenzas and the last, it has been a busy four months, a period that I have enjoyed immensely. The summer holds many more interesting projects, including the International Women’s Brass Conference in June, two trips to England in July to perform two of the Miles Davis/Gil Evans suites – Miles Ahead and Porgy and Bess – and another journey in August with Bill Mays to teach and perform at a festival in Kalavrita, Greece. I will write more about these in the next edition of Cadenzas. And if you are interested, I have posted my current schedule of “firm” dates for the rest of 2003. I hope this year will prove a busy and productive one for all of my colleagues who, like me, are out there performing this music that we so dearly love.

I know I am extremely judgmental about what goes on in music and education; both have been extremely meaningful entities in my life since I first began playing at age twelve. But I do try most times to look at things from other peoples’ perspectives to get some idea of their thoughts and actions toward achieving what they believe to be desired goals. Let me expand on my own thoughts so you can get a clearer picture of how I feel about the subject.

A director who shall remain nameless approached me about bringing the quartet to his school for a high school Jazz festival. This was to be their first, and he wanted to make it a special event for the students, the directors and the community. The idea was to bring in a top professional group comprised of people also involved and dedicated to education, and build the festival around them. Two other performer/clinicians would – along with one of our members – listen to the various guest groups and critique them. These performers would perform on the concert with a fine university group in the area prior to our set.

This non-competitive event was intended to broaden the experiences of both young musicians from the surrounding area and their directors. The organizer hoped that this festival would prove an inspiration to his colleagues in music education, motivating them to be more proactive in regard to the Jazz area of their programs. He wanted to do things correctly from the “get-go,” so he consulted with me regularly regarding all that we would be involved in. This consulting process ran the gamut from the details for travel arrangements and my musicians' dietary concerns to our stage set-up and sound, piano tuning, a drum set for Ed, an amp for Rufus’ bass, bringing CDs to sell, listening lists and handouts – the whole nine yards. He consulted with me numerous times because he wanted everything down to the last detail to be done professionally with nothing left to chance. This is not the way things are usually handled; most times the situation is just the opposite. But this person wanted to show the respect that the musicians, the music, the students and all his community deserved, and he accomplished it all! It was perfect

This was not a simple task. He initially had to have the “go-ahead” from his administration as well as the approval and agreement of his associates on the music faculty who also would be involved, because this was going to be a group effort. The band boosters club had to be on board, as did several musicians from the community who work with the students in the area, and also the director of the Jazz ensemble from the university. And that was just for starters. Funding had to be procured – funding from the community, a grant from the state, support from Boosey & Hawkes (now The Music Group) for me, and from Yamaha and Zildjian for Ed Soph. The logistics to make this the first-class event that the director envisioned were complex and myriad; it was an enormous undertaking requiring others to share his vision and be willing to help bring it to life. They did just that! The festival, the concert and the workshops that all their efforts produced say it all.

But it might be interesting to hear more about this experience from the gentleman himself, in his own words:

"I enjoyed planning the festival, and I learned a great deal from the experience.  I was especially impressed with how friendly and helpful all the musicians were.  I felt that each individual possessed a strong desire to share his or her music with others and was dedicated to educating the next generation of musicians and jazz enthusiasts.  I found this cooperative spirit refreshing, as education and music were truly their primary focus.  I was also pleasantly surprised with the local business community’s willingness to provide funding for the festival.  When I explained I was planning a noncompetitive, educational event and that world-class musicians would perform for the students and the community, nearly all the businesses I contacted came forward with some sort of funding or donation of services.

"As I planned for the festival, I had hoped more directors and ensembles would participate.  I think the lack of participation was due, in part, with the paucity of jazz pedagogy in most education degrees, most directors’ limited experience in performing jazz, and the lack of understanding of what attending such a festival could do for the overall music education of the students.  A noncompetitive festival can be an ideal opportunity for inexperienced directors and ensembles to gain more knowledge and understanding, in addition to helping the students become more excited about music.  Another unexpected dilemma was some directors’ concerns regarding the lack of sufficient time and/or resources to participate in a jazz festival, or even have a jazz ensemble in their program.  What surprised me was that several of the directors who expressed this concern spend thousands of dollars and countless hours on elements of the marching band during the winter months. I question why there seems to be an increasing disparity between the amount of time and money that is spent on these indoor marching ensembles, in comparison to what is available for the other music ensembles in the school.  I feel that there needs to be a better effort made to balance the marching activities with the rest of the ensembles in the band program.  Certainly all the students in our music programs deserve an opportunity to enhance their music education beyond what is offered during the school day, which, in turn, will elevate the performance level of the entire band program.

"On a more positive note, I was very encouraged to hear how motivated the directors and students were that attended the entire festival.  The students from one ensemble were so excited several of them took the time to write essays.  Comments from the students include: 'After listening to the Marvin Stamm Quartet I want to listen to more jazz.' Another wrote, 'My interest in playing and listening to jazz was increased'; and another summed it up by stating, 'We loaded the buses and headed home with a new and better respect for jazz.' A director from another ensemble wrote, 'The students and I felt like it was one of the best experiences we’ve had in a while.'

"This is the kind of excitement that will generate a greater interest in the jazz band, and in all our ensembles, as these experiences create a life-long love and appreciation for music.  I greatly appreciate the efforts you made at our festival to demonstrate that music is about emotion and communication and that music should be performed at the highest possible level, not merely for a panel of judges, but because that is where the true meaning and benefit of music is realized.  Your performance touched my students and me in a very special way that will never be forgotten.”

This gentleman’s words reveal much about music education today. Though the festival was a success in the long run, a discussion with the director regarding the process he experienced elicited a great deal of conversation about the subject between the him and the members of the quartet – all of whom are deeply involved in Jazz Education.

Our host stated that many directors are more interested in stressing the marching band area of their programs. His statement prompted the question as to why so many educators seem to be uninterested in emphasizing the deeper elements of their programs such as the concert band, Jazz ensemble or, where applicable, the orchestra. The principal response is that the marching band brings home trophies, tokens that prove success in the eyes of principals and music superintendents.

This fact raises the more significant question in the minds of many of my colleagues who share my profound interest in music education – what, of any meaningful substance, are we teaching the students about music? While I am not ignorant of the significant pressures put upon band directors to bring home trophies, is there not some place that we “draw a line in the sand”? Where is the MENC in all this? Where are the organizations that supposedly represent the highest standards of what we are all about? Or is this really what we are all about?

I have been involved in Jazz and music education since 1962, but my experiences with many teachers over the past fifteen or so years find the level of their quality diminishing. Frankly, I find the level of many of the music education majors we are graduating with teaching certificates nowadays sadly lacking, especially in the area of their musical abilities and experiences, those being extremely limited. This feeling of disappointment in teachers and teaching standards leaves me to wonder if this situation is occurring primarily from the fact that these new “teachers” are truly uneducated in more serious music.

As a student, I played in marching bands from junior high school through my junior year in college, most performances being at football games or parades. But the major emphasis by my band directors was the concert band, and I marched only because this was required in order to play in the concert band, the organization to which everyone strived to be a member.

Almost all my interest before age thirty-three was in classical music, Jazz and the Blues. These were the fields of music to which I had been exposed – classical music through my schooling and my listening, and Jazz and Blues through my environment. I later broadened my taste in music due to my wife’s educating me to a variety of the more creative Rock ‘n Roll groups, most of which I had limited prior knowledge, but a number with whom I would later record. And though I have never sought them out, I have been “knocked out” by a number of the marching bands I have seen perform, both musically and for their precision drills.

But for Rock ‘n Roll or - perhaps more apropos to this discussion - marching band to be the only emphasis or the complete array of music to which our youth are exposed, especially in our educational institutions, is truly a travesty.  A good analogy here would be a person reading only romance novels, never delving into literature of any depth. Or enjoying only Pop Art, but never going to see works of the Impressionists or the Classicists or the many other great schools of painting or sculpture.

A music program should be directed by someone having extensive performance experience in many kinds of music from marching band to classical music and Jazz, and being able to instruct his or her students in all these formats of music. Is this not what a teacher should do? In this way, students become familiar with and learn to enjoy a broad spectrum of music. As adults then, they will be more inclined to support it all – the school musical organizations, chamber music groups, the symphony orchestra and the Jazz community in their town. This focus on a broad range of music may then lead to their expanding interest and involvement with the other arts as well - their support for theater groups, the local opera, libraries and museums in their communities, serving to raise the level of and involvement in our culture.

We all know that most of our young people naturally gravitate to the base, more easily understandable things in life. But we as adults should strive to expose them to more complex and sophisticated things as well, entities residing on a higher plane. The goal - the hope - is that having a background in some of the finer things life has to offer supports and produces thinkers, writers, artists and performers, all of whom enrich and expand the cultural environment. At the same time, those people with a well-rounded foundation in the arts will help our society grow and continue to spawn persons who will be creative and resourceful in many areas.

This is what a culture is about and can only lead to a better, more enriched life for all of us.