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We’ve had an amazing roster of clinicians and judges over the past 15 years. Read profiles below to get an “inside look” at how EE has impacted them.
Year(s) with EE 1996–present
Current Occupation Coordinator of Jazz Studies, University of Northern Illinois (NIU); Director, NIU Jazz Ensemble
How were/are you involved with EE?
Clinician, Educational Consultant, Judge, Tape Screener
What kind of “life lessons” does EE teach?
It teaches the students personal dedication. It gets them outside of just the “competition” side of things and actually starts dealing with the humanity of the music...the depth of the music...the reason to respond to music this way, not just with jazz, but with any kind of music. It opens their eyes to be willing to study music because, being in a concert band, you need to study it even more. It allows students to start thinking more personally about things and allows them to start listening and investigating the music more from the inside rather than just outside.
What is your best EE memory?
To see all the students—their glowing eyes and how they feel so special even when they’re being introduced, and not as a winner or loser. I’ve participated in a lot of other competitions over 35 years and I’ve played at all the major jazz festivals in Europe and none of them even come close to the level of organization and the level of respect given to students. They’re treated as artists at EE. Every year is always something special.
The EE program, with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s standards, has sparked a new generation of creators and innovators in jazz. Even though EE is based on the music of Ellington and others from the past, they’re standing on the shoulders of the past and looking towards the future. Without the foundation of the past, the future has no direction.
Advice for students learning to play jazz
You can’t separate the leaders from the culture. There are so many problems going on in the world, and to really, truly become part of the jazz tradition you have to put all those things aside, and you have to look at where the culture of the music came from—ultimately respect the music. One thing Ellington was able to do was pull people together even though they were different. The heart and soul of the music is what pulls people together.
Year(s) with EE 1995–2009
Current Occupation
Assistant Dean, Jazz Division, Manhattan School of Music—New York, NY
How were/are you involved with EE?
I was there from the beginning. Wynton had recommended me to Laura Johnson, who had just taken over as Director of Education. They wanted to start this Essentially Ellington program. Wynton told Laura to call me because I had experience in doing this, so I helped establish the program. Through the years, I’ve been a traveling clinician, going to the finalists’ schools and working with them, preparing them for the competition. And I’ve also been doing the tape comments at the EE Festival. You have the adjudicators who are deciding who the winners are, and I’ve been making tape comments to help the students as well as the band directors in having a higher performance of Ellington’s music.
What is your favorite part about working with EE?
Working with the bands to help them to swing, groove and interpret the music on its highest artistic level. Some bands take to it quicker than others and it really depends on how well they’ve been rehearsed, and the understanding and ability of the band director to communicate those ideas to the students. It also depends on the level and the ability of the students to be able to understand and to be able to perform the music. And how much they listen to the music is important. To play jazz, you must listen to jazz. To play Duke Ellington’s music, you must listen to it. Some of the answers to the questions are in the music—by listening.
What is your best EE memory?
For me, the special moment or best memory is working with the finalists to teach them to interpret the music on its highest artistic level. How to swing…how to groove. That’s always my greatest memory and my greatest challenge. And then hearing them afterwards. Working with them and hearing them rise to the occasion.
I don’t recall what year it was, but Hall High School in West Hartford, Connecticut, really impressed me. They’re a great band with great teaching and great skills. The band directors there are terrific. They really understood the music, but the band had a hard time swinging and grooving in the true jazz sense. It was just so wonderful to hear them after I worked with them. They also videotaped my commentary from one of the clinic sessions that I did with them and they must’ve studied that and reviewed it. That was the biggest impact I made on them—how to swing and groove. And I saw it at the finals that year! Essentially Ellington is just inspiring in every way.
Advice for students learning to play jazz
Remember the spirit of Duke and always carry it with you through life! That’s the key.
Year(s) with EE 1995–present
Current Occupation Executive Director, The Jazz Museum of Harlem—New York, NY
How were/are you involved with EE?
I was a judge the very first year along with John Lewis, Joe Temperley and Illinois Jacquet. And I was also, in the early years, the only tape screener. As the tapes came in, I would make comments and they would return the comments to the students. Then when the amount of bands began to multiply, they started having Ron Carter and other people do screenings. I was there from the very beginning and even before the beginning just hearing about it from Laura Johnson and Wynton, so I go back many years. And I’m still doing the screenings now after all these years.
A large part of the initial creation and success of the program had to do and still has to do with the tremendous enthusiasm of the Education Department at Jazz at Lincoln Center. I’ve never really encountered an education department in my life that has that kind of 24-7 enthusiasm and love for a project. I mean, this goes way beyond 9 to 5 and way beyond the job description. And I think that Laura Johnson and Erika Floreska really gave birth to an incredible program. And, of course, now Joanna Massey is carrying it on.
What is your favorite part about working with EE?
There are two things I enjoy the most. I enjoy doing the workshops very, very much because I’m a band-leader kind of guy and it’s a lot of fun to get to rehearse a great band. However, I would say that my favorite part is writing the comment sheets for the bands that don’t get in. I think that the program can be of its greatest help to the bands that don’t get in and the bands that need support and don’t have either a lot of financial or institutional backing. When you hear a band that is really trying their best and just hasn’t gotten to the point yet where they’re one of the top bands, that’s my favorite part—trying to figure out how to make my comments constructive and knowing that the impact of a program like EE is really told in the many, many bands that don’t get in. Ultimately what we’re talking about here is education, young people, people playing instruments, and people understanding the larger context of American history through Ellington’s music or Benny Carter’s music or Mary Lou’s music. It’s especially fun for me, too, because I worked with Benny Carter for many years and to be listening to music, some of which I recorded with him, and listening to these bands playing it has a special association for me. I also worked with many people in the Ellington band, so it’s a very personal thing.
What is your best EE memory?
I think this must be one of the only events in the world where teenage contestants cheer for each other. It’s amazing to watch when a really good band is playing and seeing the faces of the other bands and how they morph from surprised and shocked to admiration when they hear someone do what they’re trying to do better…and then to hear them when they all cheer for each other. I mean, that really doesn’t happen in sports very much and doesn’t happen many times in the academic realm either or a spelling bee or something like that. It’s a wonderful thing.
I remember when Wynton said that he wanted to include the piece “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,” which is one of Ellington’s most difficult compositions. I’ve played in many major jazz orchestras that have stepped all over themselves trying to play that thing. It’s very difficult. And so I remember when Wynton said he wanted to include it in the EE music for the next year and several people—myself included—said that it’s too difficult and you’ll just wind up either discouraging the kids or they’ll blow their lips our trying to play it. Well, wouldn’t you know not only did they play it, but now it’s become a standard piece of the repertoire in many high school jazz bands. And I think in many ways that’s a representative anecdote that really stands for what the program has done. When I came up in the 70’s in high school, we only had the most “cheesy” kind of jazz music, for the most part, available to play. Back then the good stuff was good but it was no Ellington. Ellington is our greatest composer. Ultimately one of the greatest accomplishments of this program, beyond the effect on the kids and the raising of the general level of musical competence that comes with playing Ellington’s music, is the fact that so much of the music has been disseminated, and that’s a tremendous accomplishment. Imagine school libraries not having Mark Twain and that’s what it was like without Ellington in their music libraries. Jazz at Lincoln Center is the organization that made that possible and it’s a huge addition to American cultural literacy.
Advice for students learning to play jazz:
I’ve always thought that the best window into American history is Louis Armstrong. I think that by wanting to be a jazz musician in 2010, learning the vocabulary of Louis Armstrong and then marrying that to an understanding of Duke Ellington and then adding all that up and seeing how that fits within the frame of the second decade of this century is key. And, above all, having fun.
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