All that jazz

The University of South Florida's Jazz Ensemble 1 will cut a wide swath through the art form at its concert Wednesday.

By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Correspondent

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 21, 2000

If it's Monday afternoon, that acoustic blast ricocheting around the courtyard of the University of South Florida's Fine Arts Building is no boombox guitar army.

The mighty wall of sound instead is the handiwork of 18 young instrumentalists, all conspiring to make a richly textured noise as classic as the work of New Orleans innovator Jelly Roll Morton and as contemporary as the compositions of celebrated New York composer Maria Schneider.

Inside the band room, the instrumentalists are being encouraged and only occasionally scolded by Chuck Owen, USF's resident guru of jazz composition, a talented pianist and the tireless educator who built the jazz studies program from scratch.

"The whole thing needs to swell up, like someone taking a knob and turning up the whole ensemble," Owen tells the brass and woodwind players, making a point about the sonic contrast called for during one particular passage. And later, to the rhythm section: "Watch the time. It's dragging."

The members of Jazz Ensemble 1, the program's top big band, on Wednesday will show off the results of a semester's worth of thrice-weekly rehearsals. The group's spring concert, at Theatre 1 on the Tampa campus, will feature performances of Morton's Black Jelly Stomp and Schneider's Green Piece, as well as Jim McNeely's Empty House, John Fedchock's Grove City Groover, Duke Ellington's Star-Crossed Lovers, Rob McConnell's T.O. Two and compositions taken from the books of Count Basie, Art Blakey and the Mingus Big Band.

"We're doing a huge, wide swath of jazz material, kind of something for everybody," Owen says later. "In some ways, that differentiates our program from many throughout the country. We've done quite a bit of the classic jazz repertoire. We've probably done 50 charts of Ellington's, a fair number of Fletcher Henderson charts and charts from Benny Goodman.

"This is the first time we've gone back and done Jelly Roll Morton. It kind of fortifies the roots of where it all came from in jazz. At the same time, I like doing absolutely cutting-edge stuff. A lot of university-level big bands across the country take a fairly narrow approach. Some of them don't go much beyond (before) the (Stan) Kenton band, and then they go to the '70s and stop there. That's only about a 20-year time period, whereas actually we've had almost 80 years of this kind of music."

Owen's resume includes work arranging and writing for the Tonight Show, the Cincinnati Symphony, Roger Williams and, more recently, his own Jazz Surge (Southeastern Repertory Jazz Ensemble) big band and Resurgence octet.

Jazz Ensemble 1, one of two such groups at USF, is among the most visible symbols of a program that has grown in strength, number and stature since Owen, 46, arrived in 1981. He immediately began developing a well-defined curriculum that now leads to undergraduate and graduate degrees in jazz studies, with students choosing tracks in either performance or composition. The program is one of the most highly regarded in the Southeast, along with the University of Miami and the University of North Florida.

About 35 undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled in the USF program, part of the College of Fine Arts. Most find their way into the four to six small groups organized during the fall and spring semesters, with some doing double duty in the big bands.

In 1998, the Jazztet, the top combo, played the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy and additional concerts in South Africa. This year's incarnation, a quintet with saxophonist Ryan Janus and trumpeter Cameron Perret, recently documented their progress with a recording session at the Springs Theater in Sulphur Springs.

During a recent afternoon rehearsal, the Jazztet worked through a set of music, including Antonio Carlos Jobim's Groovy Samba, Manfredo Fest's Arigo, Ralph Moore's Freeway and Hopscotch and an original composition. The atmosphere was relaxed, with Jack Wilkins, named jazz studies director last fall, serving as coach and facilitating a dialogue among the players.

"It would be good if there was some kind of communication happening rather than three different ideas of what's going on with the A-section," he suggests to bassist Wolfgang Wein, pianist Per Danielsson and drummer Brian McLaughlin. This particular discussion of the American-bred music has an international flavor. Wein and Danielsson were born in Austria and Sweden, respectively, and Perret hails from Vancouver, British Columbia. All the group's members auditioned for spots in the Jazztet.

"We've been pushing the Jazztet as being the premiere group in the jazz department, featuring the best players here," says Wilkins, 42. "The combo program is at the heart of the jazz studies program. That's where we work on all the skills learned in the classes. All the improv practice goes on in the combos."

Owen, with the help of longtime bass instructor Mark Neuenschwander and adjunct faculty members including drummer David Via and guitarist Corey Christiansen, has overseen a program that has attracted attention nationally. USF jazz groups have released eight recordings over the years, participated in the Clearwater Jazz Holiday and appeared at several of the annual conferences organized by the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE). In 1990, the big band traveled to Helsinki, Finland, to play the International Society of Music Educators conference.

"I've always been an admirer of what they've built and have enjoyed seeing it grow," says Bob Seymour, jazz director at WUSF-FM 89.7, who started at the station the same year Owen was hired. "I think the program's grown in about every way that you can measure those things. From going to IAJE conventions, I've seen the great respect that they get from their peers, as individuals and for the program here on its own."

Wilkins, who joined the faculty in 1993, brought talents that seemed to complement Owen's. The accomplished saxophonist, a solo artist and veteran of concert and recording work with everyone from trombonist J.J. Johnson and trumpeter Bobby Shew to rocker John Mellencamp, is a highly regarded expert on the art of improvisation. He teaches improvisation, coordinates the combos and serves as a faculty member with Jamey Aebersold's summer jazz workshops.

"Jack has a really organized system," says Janus, 24, a graduate student from Michigan. "By the time you come out, you're very much familiar with the jazz language, how to create logical, nice-sounding solos."

Adds Perret, a 20-year-old sophomore: "It's really about learning the jazz vocabulary, and becoming fluent in the language. There's a balance between playing emotionally, and getting a foundation."

Jazz studies majors, besides taking lessons and completing basic theory courses, spend their days learning the music's core repertoire, transcribing solos, performing in ensembles and taking courses in jazz theory, composition, improvisation and history. Evenings and weekends, for the most dedicated students, are given over to even more practice and, in some cases, gigs informally lined up by faculty members.

The course work is augmented with a little real-life exposure through seminars, clinics, master classes and concerts given by a variety of name artists. John Abercrombie, Nat Adderley, Louis Bellson, Art Blakey, Paquito D'Rivera, Peter Erskine, Benny Golson, Lionel Hampton, Joe Henderson, Max Roach, Red Rodney, Mike Stern, Billy Taylor, Clark Terry and Phil Woods are among the internationally known jazzers who have participated in the residency series over the years. Trombonist Fedchock visited earlier this month, trumpeter Tim Hagans and saxophonist Mike Smith (with the Surge big band) in March and pianist Frank Kimbrough in February. Those four musicians also appeared on the Monday night jazz series, open to the public and slated to continue this fall.

The program, faculty members say, is designed to offer students the experience and knowledge needed to get a jump-start on careers in music.

The success of the curriculum might be measured by the resumes of its graduates. A long list of those who earned jazz studies degrees or participated in the program have become active participants on the Tampa Bay area's music scene. Several have landed highly prized posts as music instructors at universities around the country. A few, including drummers Rick Craig (Rare Silk) and Jason Harnell (Maynard Ferguson), and guitarist Paul Buzin (Blood, Sweat and Tears) have toured and record with nationally known artists. Others are producers, recording engineers and music publishers.

Guitarist LaRue Nickelson, 25, has parlayed his educational experience into a busy schedule playing a variety of area hotels, nightclubs, bookstores, festivals and special events. Nickelson, also a private teacher and head of the guitar department at the Players School of Music in Clearwater, notched 25 gigs on recent month.

"It's a real meat-and-potatoes kind of school," he says. "There were no frills like, "We're going to show you how to be the baddest cat around.' What I learned from there was how to build on the traditions of what jazz was, and make my own contributions, to build on the foundation they gave you.

"It's really up to each person. Some guys never move beyond those basics, but other guys have really gone on to do unique things. It's up to you what you do with it."

Philip Booth is a Tampa freelance writer and musician who fills in on WUSF-FM's jazz program and has performed with several of the musicians mentioned in this story. He can be reached at (813) 832-4439 or bassbooth@yahoo.com.

At a glance

• WHAT: USF Jazz Ensemble 1
• WHERE: University of South Florida, Tampa campus, in Theatre 1
• WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday
• TICKETS: $4; $3 USF students
• CALL: (813) 974-2323