Sometimes jazz musicians will only give you part of a familiar rhythm—they want you to fill in the blanks. They’ll play bits and pieces of a melody. You’ll remember how the rest of it goes and smile at the parody. They’ll lead you to an obvious ending and hand you a surprise exit through a hidden door. Your inner eye will open. In an ideal world, a well placed note will set off a chain reaction in you that will get you dancing to the sound of what they didn’t play.

Most of the musicians that we write about in dig! magazine can evoke those images. Many of those people live right here in River City.

Part of the beauty of a jazz performance lies in the fact that the musicians are asking you to become involved in the music-making as a listener. Unfortunately, this concept isn’t supported by current trends in our modern society. In this Web 2.0 society, no one ever has to do much thinking any more. Computers can do all the thinking for us while television leaves nothing for the imagination to do.

I confess that I like to watch a little trashy TV occasionally. I’ll just lay back and drool while the TV takes total control. I just have to remember to struggle with it a little every now and then.

I have the same relationship with rock, R&B or rap—it’s great that they leave nothing to the imagination. (I don’t really want to take the responsibility for imagining the types of things they’re singing about anyway. They’re much too explicit!) Playing, teaching and listening to jazz music resonate more fully with me, however. Doing those things is my way of pushing back against total mind control.

Probing and provoking a listener or band-mate musically requires a great deal of wit and presence. That wit is fed largely by the diversity of our cultural experience. One of the perks of living in a major metropolis like Winnipeg is that so many different cultures thrive here. When those little enclaves send out their emissaries to explore each other musically, cultural cross-pollination can happen. The tools of jazz can facilitate that process.

I look forward to the day when inner city kids can get their hands on those tools—music may never be the same again. I can’t wait to hear what they create. Imagine the sound of someone who didn’t even know that they had a voice or that someone wants to hear it. Imagine a sound that is unique to Winnipeg.

Jazz on Wheels is inching us toward that goal but dig! magazine will keep us posted every step of the way. It’s our way of tracking what’s happening in jazz in this city, and who is emerging, making those new sounds. We provide the road map—and it’s available now in that high-tech virtual world at www.digmagazine.ca.

dig! magazine is laying down markers in an important part of Winnipeg’s cultural history. We’re sharing the wealth at home and abroad!

One day this past year, our jazz history class was studying Horace Silver, one of the great jazz pianists and composers. Our guest lecturer laid out about what you’d expect from a good, informative lecture, and then he began recalling things he learned when he played with Horace…

With the faculty appointment of saxophonist Jimmy Greene, the Jazz Studies Program at the U of M has landed a top performer, composer, and educator. Greene is no stranger to Winnipeg, having spent nine weeks here over the past year as an Artist in Residence. Throughout that time, he taught lessons and classes and coached ensembles, leaving no doubt in the students’ minds that this man can teach. The fact that he is also a world-class saxophone player and an award-winning composer makes it just that much better for the students at his new school.

Growing up in Hartford, Connecticut, Greene started on alto saxophone when he was six years old, later moving to tenor. Through his high school years, he was invited to play in many all-state jazz ensembles and symphonic bands, including the 1993 Grammy All-American High School Jazz Band, conducted by Branford Marsalis. While still in high school, Greene was introduced to legendary alto saxophonist, Jackie McLean. McLean was intrigued by his eager student and went on to teach him through his years at the Hartt School (University of Hartford). Greene was named runner-up in the 1996 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Jazz Saxophone Competition.

After graduating from the Hartt School, Greene moved to New York and joined the Horace Silver Quintet. He was soon hailed by Downbeat as one of “25 Young Rising Stars in Jazz” (1999), and began to work and record with many artists like Avishai Cohen, Harry Connick Jr., and Chick Corea. Besides recording as a sideman on over 50 albums, Greene has recorded eight albums of his own, including Mission Statement, released this past April (Razdaz Recordz).

Mission Statement features top musicians on mostly original compositions by Greene himself. His quartet with Xavier Davis (piano), Reuben Rogers (bass), and Eric Harland (drums) is joined by newcomer Lage Lund on guitar, and a favourite of Winnipeg audiences, Stefon Harris, on vibraphone for one track. You can really hear who has influenced Greene’s approach to the saxophone, from the rhythmic intensity of Sonny Rollins to the harmonic language of John Coltrane. But no matter who came before him, he still has a clear intent for the music he puts forth. In his liner notes, he speaks of how it “represents my story, as it can be told today. The music is, if nothing else, extremely personal. It deals with the most precious things in my life: love, faith, family, relationships, childhood and dreams.”

The appointment of Jimmy Greene is something special for the university and for the Winnipeg music scene as a whole. With the addition of Terreon Gully a year ago, Winnipeggers were exposed to a musician of unparalleled skill, experience, and knowledge of the music and the industry. Adding Jimmy to the mix will push that transformation even further. He brings a plethora of experience on the bandstand and a comfort and ease in the classroom that is rare to find in such a high calibre performer.

If you haven’t yet encountered his fluent and inventive playing and infectious warmth, he’s one of this year’s U of M Jazz Camp faculty, and will be warming up the stage at the Summer Night Jazz Fest. After that, watch for him at the Cool Monday Night Hang, and on stages and clubs around the city. Take a moment to say hello and welcome him to his new home…

Shannon Kristjanson studies saxophone, flute, and voice in the Jazz Studies program, and will play with the Street Corner Symphony this summer.

Marcus Printup is one of the most accomplished trumpet players on the scene right now—he’s Wynton Marsalis’ right-hand man, and an in-demand player in his own right. He’s also a fantastic educator who truly cares for the students he teaches, which will make him a great addition to the guest faculty at this summer’s U of M Jazz Camp. On top of all that, he’s one of the warmest and most sincere individuals I have ever talked with. I’ve met him on a couple of occasions now when he’s performed in Winnipeg, and recently tracked him down by phone at his home just outside New York City.

Marcus grew up in Georgia where he regularly attended the Peek Chapel Baptist Church. This is where he developed his deep passion for gospel music. Even though Marcus made all-state on trumpet during his high school years, his first true love was football. A defining moment during university changed his path, and surprisingly, it happened while working at the Holiday Inn. “Every time someone had a birthday, all the wait staff would sing Happy Birthday. One particular day, I had my flugelhorn with me, and I broke it out and I played it. And just playing Happy Birthday at that restaurant, on that day, made me feel so special. I was 19 or 20 years old, and I just really knew from that point that I wanted to perform for people—I wanted to do something to make people feel good.”

During his third year at Georgia State studying classical trumpet, he had another life-changing experience. A group from the University of North Florida, which had recently started a jazz program led by Rich Matteson, came to do a concert. “I remember going to that concert and seeing what was happening on the stage. All these kids were really into learning more about the music and everyone on the stage had aspirations to becoming great jazz musicians. And that’s when I knew I had to go.”

So in the fall of 1988 Marcus enrolled in the University of North Florida. It was in this thriving environment that everything started to come together. “They had such a great jazz series and everyone was practicing and everyone was like-minded; we all wanted to be great jazz musicians.”

In January of 1991, the great pianist Marcus Roberts came as an artist-in-residence. Roberts heard Marcus playing in a small group and asked to speak with him. “Marcus basically told me something that no one else ever had told me about my music. He said, ‘Hey man, I heard you playing the other day and you know you sound okay.’ I was shocked because I was used to people saying I sounded great. But Marcus said, ‘You sound okay but I can tell that you don’t practice.’ So he was the one that really shaped me and taught me how to have a strong work ethic. He challenged me to not be just a great college player but to take in the history of the music’s trumpet players, and learn how to become the best that you can be.”

Marcus met Wynton Marsalis that same weekend at a gig in south Florida. He sat backstage for the whole concert and at the end he was given the opportunity to sit in with the band. A year and a half later he was asked to join the acclaimed Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and has been there ever since. It’s a great fit, and has allowed him to develop as both a player and a teacher.

I asked Marcus what he enjoys most about being a musician. He said “It’s just getting a chance to play for people. It’s the same reason I got into it at from that moment at the Holiday Inn—just playing and making people feel good. I haven’t done my job if I go to a concert and just play and don’t touch anybody.”

I also asked him what his advice to young musicians is. “Here’s some advice I got from the great Bucky Green at North Florida. He said, ‘Marcus, you have got to look outside of where you are. You have to look at all the other people who are doing what you want to do and aim your focus on trying to get to that level.’ Also be patient and learn everything about your horn. Then learn how to make your horn a part of you—turn the inanimate object into a part of your soul. Be diligent and practice every day. It is important to take it very seriously if this is what you want to do. It takes going beyond that level where most people stop if you really want to be great.”

Simon Christie is studying jazz trumpet at the U of M. He’ll be soaking up Printup’s instruction at the U of M Summer Jazz Camp.

This August, the University of Manitoba is welcoming one of North America’s leading music educators to present his unique and innovative ideas about teaching jazz to young people. “The Jazz Course with Doug Goodkin” takes place from August 16 to 20, overlapping with the highly respected U of M Jazz Camp so that participants and instructors from both programs can benefit from the opportunity to interact.

In the introduction to his book, Now’s the Time: Teaching Jazz to All Ages, Goodkin identifies his two loves as Orff Schulwerk and jazz. The Orff approach has been the centre of Goodkin’s life for the past 28 years of teaching music to children. Jazz has been his passion even longer, informing his listening, practicing and performing. Music educators signing up for the course will see how he brings those two worlds together, and how they can do the same for their students.

What is Orff? Most kindergarten to grade six music educators in Manitoba schools are very familiar with the Orff Schulwerk as a dynamic and innovative approach to teaching children music. The method emphasizes joy and creativity through the use of speech, singing, movement, playing instruments and listening. Developed by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman in pre- and post-war Germany, the Orff Schulwerk has spread to all corners of the globe. It was brought to North America by Canadian educator Doreen Hall in the mid-1950s, and has a particularly strong presence in Winnipeg and Manitoba schools.

Goodkin has established a reputation as an extraordinary teacher. He’s also a perpetual student, avid reader, prolific writer, performing musician, social activist, jazz aficionado and piano player, Zen Buddhist practitioner and world traveler. One of his students describes his work as “a long, earnest and continuing struggle to present music of integrity in a way that affirms our collective humanity.”

The Marcel A Desautels Faculty of Music is a leading centre for training teachers in the Orff approach as well as a leading centre for jazz education in Canada, so Goodkin’s course is a natural fit. No previous experience or knowledge of jazz is required. As Goodkin says, the only prerequisite is unbridled enthusiasm! Enrolment is limited, so don’t delay.  Joan Linklater

Joan Linklater is the Associate Dean of the Marcel A Desautels Faculty of Music, and a leading Orff educator in Canada.

Will Bonness has been tearing up the keyboard for a lot of years now. He was touring with Maynard Ferguson’s band when he was still in his teens, playing all over North America, as well as in Europe and Asia. Not yet 24, he has now performed on stages here and afar with some of the most respected jazz musicians in the business—Jon Faddis, Regina Carter, David “Fathead” Newman, Avishai Cohen, Victor Goines, the list goes on. Having just completed the Jazz Studies program at the U of M, he’s spent the past couple of months studying in New York City. I caught up with him there…

How did you get started at the piano?

We had a Steinway in the living room and I was noodling on it at a young age. By the time I was 6 or 7 I wanted to take piano lessons. I started playing jazz in about grade 8. My best friend was a bass player in the school jazz band, and he was wise enough to tell me that I needed to listen to jazz and study it if I wanted to play it well. I ended up buying a few CDs—Diana Krall, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans—and getting into it. He and I and another friend formed a trio and started rehearsing together every week. We actually made a demo tape and went around to various restaurants and bars and asked them if they wanted to hire a jazz group. Our first gig was at the old Bluenote—I think we were still 13 or 14!

What players are really firing you up now?

At the moment, I’m listening to a lot of the younger generation musicians—Aaron Goldberg, Robert Glasper, Aaron Parks. I’ve been into Brad Meldau for ages. I really love Kurt Rosenwinkel, and I’m always into Herbie Hancock. I listen to a lot of older stuff too. And classical music. I’m not too rigid—I just like good music. I listen to a variety of things and try to figure out what I like and what I don’t like.

Tell me about New York City.

Obviously the music scene here is amazing. On any given night, you can go out and see something good. And because there’re so many great musicians living here, you can get lessons and ask questions very easily—it’s easy to get information.

In spite of that, you’re eager to get back to Winnipeg?

Winnipeg is my home town, and my family and friends and musical associates live there, so I have an emotional connection to it. Also, I don’t know if I like this mentality of having to live in New York to make good music. I think you should be able to make world-class music wherever you live or wherever you’re from.

You’ve recently received a couple of major grants to kick-start your career.

I’m in New York through a Canada Council grant for professional musicians. I wanted to study with several pianists here, and I’ve done that and more. It’s been a really important experience.

I also received a grant from Manitoba Film and Sound to put together a piano trio recording with Steve Kirby on bass and Terreon Gully on drums. Larry Roy will be the recording engineer. The piano trio is a classic format for pianists, and I really work well with these guys. We’re doing mostly original compositions, and a couple of standards. Actually, I feel I’ve been sitting on this repertoire for awhile now—it’ll be nice to get all of this music out of my system. I’m ready to get back to composing, figuring out new concepts.

I think I am on the slower end of the spectrum career-wise—I tend to wait and plot and take action in a calculated manner. But when I get there, it’s the right time. I’m happy.

He sang, he talked, he coached—and he inspired. On a Sunday morning at the end of May, musicians and music-lovers had a chance to watch Kurt Elling at work. We got a glimpse of the musical philosophy underpinning his phenomenally successful career, and we all took home lessons from his astute and supportive instruction of the singers who got up to sing for him. A lot happened in those short two hours, but here are a few highlights…

As a person who didn’t come up through a conservatory or “get discovered” by somebody in the business, he has a practical appreciation for persistence—he got his start by taking his package from restaurants to clubs, bugging owners for little gigs. At the same time, he also places a high value on taking music seriously. Once you’ve reached a certain level of proficiency, the real distinguishing feature amongst successful musicians is their determination to put in actual hours of practice. “It’s not what you’ve been given,” he said, “but what you are making with what you’ve been given.”

Singers have an advantage, he says, because they can skip a few steps that instrumentalists can’t—you can start early and develop your talent more naturally. Unfortunately, that can produce singers who don’t put in the effort when it’s time to get serious. They can fake a lot of stuff, and often don’t really respect the talent in their bands. His advice? Know something about all the instruments on the bandstand, and take the music seriously enough so that you know what your musicians are contributing. “Definitely always hire people smarter than you, that can play better than you. I do not wanna be the best player on the bandstand.”

Elling talked about the singer’s position in two interconnected circles: the singer is the connection point for the audience, and at the same time the singer is part of the band. A lot of his coaching focused on the very practical considerations of each of those circles. The audience wants eye contact, a relaxed body, and a feeling of connection—how you position the microphone, how you move on the stage, how you think about the flow of the lyrics all help achieve that goal. The band wants to support the singer’s ideas and contribute to the audience’s experience—how you cue them for tempo, intensity, and shifts in emotion, and how you respond to their ideas are part of that dynamic.

It’s a lot to master—and a master makes it look easy. As each singer worked to refine their communication in both those circles, all of us gained a fuller appreciation for the subtleties that make a strong ensemble click.

Elling’s offerings weren’t only technical, though. His observations about music as a gestural art form opened some new ways of thinking about phrasing and expression. When a song is understood less as a series of notes and more as a movement through time and space, the lyrics are suddenly supported by a fuller realization of the information in the music itself, and the singer’s body can take a more natural and vital role in making a song musical.

There’s a deep passion in Elling—he loves to sing, and he’s determined to share that love. For him, the path is clear: “Start wherever you are, hook up with the best people you can, and desire music enough to work harder and be more disciplined than anybody you know. When you fall in love with it, you want to give your life to it.”

Even in the current economic crisis? “I don’t worry so much about jazz people in this climate,” he says, “because we’re the innovators. We figure things out all the time, it’s what we do. We look at a puzzle and figure out the most interesting way to get through the maze—and get the cheese!”

Charlene Diehl is a self-confessed masterclass addict.

Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver [b. 1928] was exposed to lots of different music from a very early age. His Portuguese father and American mother listened to Portuguese and Cape Verdean folk music, and at church he heard the gospel music his mother sang. Later, he listened to blues records from the 1930s and 19r0s at home, and in the clubs he heard Latin music. In time, these influences found their way into many of his compositions.

There are two important moments in Silver’s evolution as a musician. The first was as a teenager, when an older player gave him the “fake book,” a collection of sheet music of popular songs with the chord changes at the top of the page that musicians rely on when playing live. The book gave Silver a much stronger understanding of how to play music. The second was when he heard Groovin’ High by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It was the first bebop record Silver heard, and it helped him understand the level of playing that would be required to make it as a musician.

Silver was hugely influenced by the music of Bird, Dizzy, and others, but he remained concerned that they were taking the music down the path of musical snobbery to a place that few could understand. In his own compositions, Silver kept the bop feel but added melodies loaded with fun, gospel, and blues.

Silver’s music was an important force in jazz around the world. Of the many artists signed to the Blue Note label, he was one of the most valuable, and it was his successful sales that helped to solidify Blue Note as a commercial enterprise. Silver was an extremely prolific composer and one of the few jazz musicians to record albums of almost entirely original material. Many of those songs have become jazz standards.

Horace Silver Retrospective [Blue Note #95576] is a four-CD, forty-five-song box set that covers his time with Blue Note from 1952 to 1978. Disc one begins with Silver’s first release for the label, with his trio featuring Art Blakey on drums. Of particular note is “Opus De Funk,” a great blues tune that mixes elements of bebop, swing, and gospel. The disc also documents the work he did as a member of the Jazz Messengers between 1953 and 1955. Silver’s slinky blues, “Doodlin’” and “The Preacher,” with a gospel backbeat, are classics. Both the instrumental and vocal versions of the Latin-feeling “Señor Blues” are also included.

The second disc contains three songs from Silver’s 1959 classic album Blowin’ the Blues Away: the title song, the finger poppin’ “Sister Sadie,” and one of Silver’s prettiest melodies, “Peace.” From 1960 is the Latin-tinged “Nica’s Dream,” a tribute to the jazz patron Baroness Pannonica “Nica” de Koenigswarter. “Filthy McNasty” is a funky blues with a great beat that Silver wrote after seeing the 1940 W.C. Fields film, The Bank Dick, with the character of that name. Featured prominently on many of the recordings on this disc is trumpet player Blue Mitchell, who brought a great, soulful element to the Silver sound.

The first song on disc three picks upon the Silver’s father’s suggestion that he incorporate some of the Portuguese music he heard as a child. “Song for My Father” is Silver’s response. It features a beautiful tenor solo by sax player Joe Henderson. “The Cape Verdean Blues” was based on Portuguese folk music. The energetic, hard bop blues “Psychedelic Sally” features a blistering sax solo by Stanley Turrentine.

I should warn you that there are low points on discs three and four. The least impressive tracks are vocal sessions from the 1970s, when Silver started writing lyrics and using vocalists. As stylish a singer as Andy Bey is, nothing can dig him out of the song about organic food called “Old Mother Nature Calls.”

To date Retrospective is the only extensive compilation to include all of Silver’s celebrated songs. In his salad days, Horace Silver was one of the great jazz composers and created a body of work that is now part of the standard jazz repertoire. Retrospective is a fitting testament. Just ignore its drawbacks, as most of the songs included are essential to have.

Every issue, choice cuts features a CD from Ross Porter’s The Essential Jazz Recordings (McClelland & Stewart, 2006).

The summer of 2009 is another chance to roll out the Street Corner Symphony. I continue to reach for the original ideal which is a band where every musician knows how to feature themselves, and how to talk about their instrument in a very entertaining and engaging way. It’s important to have a lot of different instruments, not so much for the orchestration but because I want the people we play for to see them and get to know what those sounds are.

The idea for Jazz on Wheels is to engage audiences, but it’s also to absorb some of the culture of the neighborhoods we visit. This year’s band is young and spirited, and open to that kind of challenge. Turns out that everybody in the band is on the dean’s honor list—we even have this year’s gold medalist!

We’ve been out a few times now, and it’s clear that all of the band members really like kids. I see some of the more quiet ones like Simon Christie stepping up, making dance moves on the stage, coordinating kids to do it with him. Shannon Kristjanson is warm and open and friendly. Jared Castels-Rees is probably the most shy, but when I put him in situations where he could instruct young players, he took to it like a duck to water. Bert Johnson is one of the warmest hearts in the band and fast becoming a sensation on the piano. Curtis Nowosad is the confident professional anchoring the band, but at the same time, he’s the biggest kid. Then there’s Amber Epp—Amber was born to engage children.

We’ve also had a couple of chances to feature Jessica McMann. She’s a young flute player in the jazz program, but she’s also a nationally recognized hoop dancer, and has brought her amazing traditional aboriginal dances to our shows. She’s dancing in Europe for a chunk of the summer, but will be back with us when we’re on stage in September.

The Jazz on Wheels goal is to help the kids we play for to see themselves in the music. When this band visited some middle schools and high schools, we called up players from the audience and put them up there beside our guys. With a little instruction, they could really enter the musical conversation, and everybody—these young players, their teachers, their peers in the audience—got hooked by how exciting it is, and see that they can actually succeed.

The Street Corner Symphony players have been learning the ropes, and they’re really beginning to understand what it is we want to do. They’re getting inspired to research their own instruments, to learn some funny stuff—kids love funny stuff!—and then really tell stories with their horns. We’re building a “talking band” that combines a lot of seriousness with a playful attitude. I want a bunch of crackerjacks out there, like the Harlem Globetrotters!

Produced by Jazz Winnipeg, with support from Maxim Truck & Trailer, TD Canada Trust, the Winnipeg Foundation, and various levels of government.

One of the joys of my life as the Director of a writers festival is discovering new books by new writers. This year, the sleeper for me has been a graphic novel called Tyranny, by a Toronto artist named Lesley Fairfield.

Tyranny is a book about a young woman who is wrestling with an acute eating disorder. Tyranny is also a character in its own right—a wheedling, judgmental, ever-present companion who undermines her at every turn. In the course of the book, Anna makes friends and loses them, she makes resolutions and breaks them, and she struggles to hold onto shreds of herself even as she watches that self disappear.

It’s a powerful book: spare, probing, tough-minded. The text is lean, and the narrative is enriched and textured by the exquisite drawings. It’s a harrowing story—one of Anna’s friends in rehab dies of heart failure as a result of the disease—but it’s also a hopeful one. Ultimately Anna realizes that while Tyranny might be determined to control her, it’s also an expression of her own character. To be powerful enough to create Tyranny means being powerful enough to face it down and refute it.

How Fairfield handles that sequence of dawning awareness is extraordinary, and it has me thinking about all of us involved in the arts. Anna begins to comprehend the monster of her own making when she finds a way to express it—she writes and draws, while others of us might make music or movies. In the compelling visual shorthand of this book, Tyranny itself begins to lose definition, eventually collapsing into the fluid lines of a pen on paper. The artist assumes her responsibility as a creative force, making the image rather than being made by it.

I think this is one of the bravest books I’ve encountered. It moved me, it moved my 9-year-old daughter, it will move the many people who meet Lesley this September at THIN AIR 2009.

It’s a conundrum that exposing a profound weakness can be an act of courage, and yet surely that is at the center of almost all artistic expression. Vulnerability is one of our most pesky human characteristics—it leaves us feeling insecure and cautious, a long way from the nerve we need if we’re going to commit ourselves on paper, on stage, on film. Yet refusing to make room for our vulnerability costs us our energy, clarity, and determination. It interrupts the full development of our character, which requires the empowerment of dealing with what we can’t control as well as what we can.

Anna is nearly destroyed, but as she finds ways to express her demons, she transforms Tyranny into a resource. She becomes an adult, and reminds us all that gaining maturity is an exercise we have to commit ourselves to over and over and over. The artists are always there ahead of us, provoking, challenging, and attending to us as we learn.

Tyranny is slated for a fall release from Tundra, and Lesley Fairfield will be at THIN AIR this September. Charlene Diehl muses on the arts in every issue.