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| Just Call Me Kelly: Inside Jazz Education with Kelly Rossum By Andrea Canter December 2006 Straddling classical, electronic, and modern jazz idioms, Minneapolis-based trumpeter Kelly Rossum is an accomplished composer, teacher, and bandleader as well as an engaging performer. His first forays into jazz were stimulated by Dizzy Gillespie—whom he heard on an episode of Sesame Street, while his early influences included Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and J. S. Bach. Studies at the University of Nebraska and University of North Texas ultimately led to a doctorate in Baroque trumpet at the University of Minnesota—but don’t call him “Dr. Rossum.” With three acclaimed recordings with his modern jazz quartet and quintet and a spiked Mohawk coif, the head of jazz studies at MacPhail Center for Music defies labels. And that’s the way he likes it. “Just call me Kelly,” he tells his students. While his formal studies have emphasized classical traditions, Rossum notes that “I’ve always played jazz. The recordings that I played along with as a kid were jazz records from the late 70s. The first record I bought was Miles Davis’ ‘Round About Midnight. Even through high school, I was into jazz and arranged pop music for a small pep band.” After earning a Master’s degree at the University of North Texas, Rossum served as the big band director at Busch Gardens in Virginia, moving to Minneapolis in 1996. Since then, he has freelanced in rock, swing, jazz and classical ensembles and performed with the Lyra Consort; he’s headed his own small ensembles, worked with creative jazz groups such as the Jazz Is Now! Orchestra and the Out to Lunch Quintet, and co-founded the electronic rock band, Electropolis. Perhaps most important to the Twin Cities jazz community, Rossum is on the MacPhail Center for Music faculty as trumpet and jazz instructor, and now head of Jazz Studies. This fall, Kelly Rossum took on a new challenge as director of the student ensemble, the Dakota Combo. Sponsored by the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education and MacPhail, the Combo was modeled to some extent after the Peer to Peer Jazz Education program of the Thelonious Monk Institute for Jazz Education in Los Angeles. That program’s inaugural residency was held in Minneapolis in March 2006, bringing an all-star band of high school musicians to the Twin Cities for performances and clinics with area high schools bands and guest artists, Bobby Watson and Lisa Henry. Given the depth of talent and jazz education programs in this area, educators such as Rossum recognized that a similar program could be developed regionally. The first edition of the Dakota Combo, a septet of high school seniors, recently completed a formal schedule of rehearsals and performance at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis. Again, Bobby Watson served as guest artist and conducted a public clinic. With the Dakota Combo fully launched, Kelly Rossum reflected on the program and more generally on the state of jazz education in the Twin Cities, and on his own philosophy as a jazz educator. What is unique or special about the Dakota Combo versus other ensembles you work with? They’re older, it’s my first band of all seniors. I have a different career than most educators as there is no “class” at a school that I work with over and over, so this was a unique opportunity to be with a group of seniors over time. I often do festivals, so I work with great students, but as a one-time shot. This was a lot of fun. How did your approach to this group [as director] differ from your work with other ensembles? It really depends on individual personalities and the age of the students in the ensembles. With younger students, I play the entire rehearsal with them, and sometimes we stop to discuss certain aspects of jazz. These musicians [Dakota Combo], you can treat them like adults, like pros, and they take care of business. They’re used to getting talked down to in other situations; I don’t treat them that way in my rehearsals. Describe the process of bringing this group from the point of the audition to the night of the performance. First, the students have to get to know each other so they become comfortable and get over the unconscious posturing and trying to be cool—the social components. That took us through the first two rehearsals. Musically, I introduced the standards and gave them CDs to listen to and practice with—the actual recordings of the original artists—Clifford Brown playing Clifford Brown, Wayne Shorter playing Wayne Shorter. Then later, when they were comfortable with the standards, we introduced their originals. Each student would run the rehearsal when dealing with their own music. It’s part of the learning process, for them to help other students read their charts and make it happen. I let them present their own material to the band because this is what they will have to do in college and in the real world. That took another couple weeks to get the originals sounding good. Once that happened, their confidence went way up. We did a lot of blowing at the first rehearsal, while working on forms and heads. We focused on soloing at the last rehearsal. That’s how professional musicians work—we don’t constantly practice improvising—we save that for the show! Your approach to working with the Dakota Combo was relatively “hands off.” Is this typical of your work with young musicians? First of all, this was very different from a Big Band. A combo is about spontaneity and improvisation, so the success of the band hinges on the students’ current understanding of jazz improvisation. Because we only had six rehearsals, my challenge was to figure out repertoire, assign homework, and build confidence. They need to know the music, the ideas that are in their heads and how to get those ideas out to the audience. You can’t teach them how to improvise in such a short time. Because of that, I will often let them run their own rehearsals. It’s not that I take a “hands off” approach; I just try to monitor everything they do and if something needs to be corrected or worked on, I’m there. They know I’m in the room with them, so they make choices knowing I’m there. But as for lecturing—they can do it, they’re seniors. These are great students! They proved that Friday night [at the Dakota club performance]. They played two full sets of jazz music—that’s really cool. How did you define Bobby Watson’s role? I asked him what he wanted to do, and plugged him on Friday afternoon [final rehearsal]. He did what a jazz teacher should do. If this had been a regular band rehearsing every week, it would be an appropriate way to teach an ensemble throughout the semester. Bobby may have assumed that this band had been together for a couple years! What a compliment to the students! He had ideas for adjusting some of the songs and then played them with the students, and they learned a lot. The Saturday Clinic was different—there was no concert, no egos to bruise. He didn’t want to upset the students before the Friday night concert, but Saturday was different. He gave them positive encouragement and constructive criticism on Friday. Saturday, he dropped the bomb on them as to what they need to do. He’s very conscious of the students, and did a great job interacting with them at an appropriate level. During the clinic, Bobby strongly emphasized that the student musicians identify one (preferably dead) musician and listen exclusively to that music. Did you agree? Why should students dig deeply into only one or two musicians rather than sample broadly across the instrument and genre? At any age, they need to find somebody on their instrument to listen to. Everyone should have a clue as to what type of sound they like and focus on that sound. For instance—find one CD and listen to it all month. The specific CD depends on the student’s technical level and what they want to play. Bobby says everyone [that students listen to] has to be dead, but I don’t think the Minneapolis scene works like that. I would recommend listening to anyone you dig. If you really like this electronic drummer, listen and then think about how to get that into jazz. You have to know what’s going on with the masters – that’s first and foremost – but you can incorporate your individual style and tastes into your playing. I tell students, “You start a separate shelf, that is an exclusive shelf, the “one month shelf”—each CD on the shelf is one that you listen to exclusively for one month… then that CD has right to sit on the “one month shelf.” Isn’t there some danger of imitation when students get immersed in one musician or one recording? Imitation? I hope so! When we improvise, we don’t really have control over what we play. We aren’t plugging in preconceived phrases or licks. The only time we can consciously choose material is when we plug stuff into our heads. That’s when our choices are made with regards to our individual sound. So what you listen to influences what you play—the choice is not made on the stage. You don’t bring an agenda to the stage. If you make a spontaneous choice at the moment, it comes out differently than if you had planned something ahead of time. Classical music dictates what I have to play, what I practice, but jazz is different. Take the combo performance of “Lead Soldiers” [Rossum’s composition] from Friday night—Bobby was doing his riffs and the students dug it—they were listening intently and making musical choices right there on the stand. Professional musicians decide what to listen to—it’s an important decision. Young students have to get a canon of information into their heads so it becomes easier to make those decisions, those points of choice. This is a problem with academic jazz—they say the choices are made on the stand. [Bandleaders ask] “When you were improvising - what did you do, whose licks, what changes?” These academic instructors evaluate the students’ choices in the wrong place! The true choices are made at home when you immerse yourself in jazz recordings. Has the Dakota Combo project met your expectations (so far)? What would you change? Everything seemed to click and I was happy with it. It went the way that I believed it would. Next time I’d like to have the program continue as a class into the spring. That requires additional administration support and funding. Now I am prepared to take this to the [Dakota Foundation] Board for next year, because we have a success to build on. I am in this for the long haul—this program will be here ten years down the road. This is a long-term thing. Why is the Combo project important to you and to the community? For me, I thought it would be fun working with students, really good students. The partnership between the Dakota Foundation and MacPhail is good for both organizations—hopefully both are not going away any time soon. With the new building for MacPhail, the jazz program keeps ramping up. Having a marquee ensemble that other ensembles feed into is big. MacPhail probably won’t do a big band, those already exist in the schools – the scene needed the combos. It refocuses student participation and instruction on improvisation instead of on big band music. Jazz is truly about improvisation, and we needed a premier group of student improvisers as a healthy jazz community. There was a hole in the scene. What’s your assessment of the status of jazz education in the Twin Cities? It’s very good, I’m very happy with it. Partially because you look at this combo and go, “Wow, IT is happening here, not just in LA or New York.” The U of M has a great band festival every year, but we still need more combo work at early ages. In general though, the situation is pretty healthy. Teachers participate here—they go to concerts, even if not as players, and they have active communication. I give teachers a lot of credit. IAJE [International Association of Jazz Educators] in Minnesota is getting new wings, sponsoring events and running some ensembles. Music teachers have no idea how much power they have! If they don’t get out and do this [perform] themselves, they don’t know! High school band directors really can’t perform as much as they would like; they have so much to do. I really don’t blame them. That’s why we have places like MacPhail— to assist in the student’s musical education. How did you get involved in jazz education? It was through my work at MacPhail. It initially had to do with trumpet, not jazz. When I auditioned at the school, I didn’t even know what MacPhail was! I was in my first semester of doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota and I thought I was auditioning for just another teaching gig. In Texas [while studying at the University of North Texas], I worked at high schools teaching lessons. All high schools there offered private lessons. So I thought I would teach here to earn money, and heard about this opening for a trumpet teacher at MacPhail, and auditioned. Then in the lobby I saw the brochures, and I went, “Uh Oh, what is this place??” When I was invited to join the faculty, I realized it was a music school! Then it turned out that my family was aware of MacPhail—they were from Minnesota and my grandma told me that she used to take lessons at MacPhail. She was thrilled I was working there. But back then, there was no jazz program at MacPhail. I started the jazz program four or five years ago. I was teaching community partnership classes for kids in composition and theory. I had classes filled with violinists —it paid well. Then I realized a lot of other musicians could do this, but no one else has the energy to build a jazz program. So I dove in head first and began building the jazz program. I’m very fortunate to be at MacPhail. There were 16 jazz faculty when I started, but no program. Now we have 24 jazz faculty, which is more than most University jazz departments, and a fully functioning program. I remember “getting it” about six years ago—the mission of MacPhail clicked. A kid came in –lots of issues at home and school, a problem kid. I got it. This is why MacPhail is here; and it has nothing to do with music, it has to do with life. This has to do with my hands-off approach—you want them to love the music, to grow as a person. It has nothing really to do with scales! I believe in MacPahil and I believe in the Twin Cities—I am continually pushing for what I need at MacPhail. The sixth floor of the new building will have a glass rehearsal space—it’s the jazz rehearsal hall! This center is needed in the Cities; the program has long-term growth, and the administration at MacPhail is very supportive. How does your work as an educator impact your work as a composer and performer? Or vice versa? I don’t think teaching impacts performing. Performing and teaching are totally different careers—you have to be a musician, but that is different than being a performer. The skill sets are similar. In both you need charisma! However, my performing does impact my teaching—I know the real world. For example, I have my students introduce their own songs; I don’t get on stage like the emcee. Personally, I have to separate the two hats so that I am not teaching on the bandstand. Performers should share their music with people. You don’t want to be accidentally condescending to the audience by teaching. What motivated you to pursue a doctorate? And why do you want to keep that below the radar screen? Why I started it is different than why I finished it. It was the next logical step in my progression. There were three trumpet teachers here when I came to the U of M. They worked well with each other and it created a hospitable trumpet environment. It seemed important to receive a doctorate from a professor with a doctorate – David Baldwin. And Minneapolis was a “music town.” Why did I finish it? I had too much time and energy invested into the program. I had to do it; I don’t like leaving things unfinished. The title “Doctor” is not for me, however. It reinforces the ivory tower, not the real world; but a dated community of music scholars—with exceptions, of course. I’m glad it’s done, it was a lot of work, but it doesn’t directly affect my philosophy. The studies themselves mean something, not the title. I love the Baroque trumpet. Grades mean nothing to me. Fortunately, there are no grades at MacPhail. The students know if they do well and that allows for true learning. |